International Women's Day or Восьмое марта

Tomorrow is International Women's Day.  In much of the world it is observed as a political statement regarding the rights of women.  The Soviets were much too clever for that and turned it in to a celebration of old-fashioned womanhood.  Vosmoe Marta (Eighth of March) is second only to New Year's Eve as a holiday.

The upstairs managed to stay clean overnight and we finished the downstairs this morning.  The other half of the Christmas turkey is out thawing and the family will come for dinner tomorrow afternoon.  We were in town today for supplies, including flowers for all the women, even Dasha.

So, females young and old of the human race, if you are battling the patriarchy or basking in it, I wish you a great day and all success.

Fake News, Russian Style

Russia is currently the world's expert and leader in fake news of all kinds.  Especially since the Maidan Revolution of Dignity in early 2014, and subsequent Russian illegal occupation of Crimea and Russian aggression in Donbas, Ukraine has been the subject of a deluge of disinformation and outright faked news.  

Early examples of these concern misinformation and manufactured videos regarding the fire in Odessa and the shooting down of MH17, and the totally manufactured 'crucifixion of a three-year-old boy' and 'artillery death of a 10 year old girl". 

I subscribe to the weekly Disinformation Review, which comes every Thursday from East Stratcom Task Force with key examples and reviews of pro-Kremlin lies and disinformation of the week. The review focuses on key messages carried in international media which have been identified as providing a partial, distorted or false view or interpretation and/or spreading key pro-Kremlin messaging. It also carries a link to a complete compilation of all cases reported by their network.  Here are some of the top stories from the past few weeks.  If you click on each link, it takes about 2 minutes to read the entire article.

To sign up for this newsletter, please click here: http://eepurl.com/bN1ub5

Good Russia

Russia is good, the West is evil. So, on Russian state TV, we were told by the Deputy Chairman of the State Duma that Russia respects international law, that it is friendly towards its neighbours, and that it is those neighbours who are the aggressive ones, not Russia. To be fair, it was said in the same show that Russia might have to strike Europe pre-emptively if NATO keep putting troops into the Baltic countries. But no mention was made of Russia violating international law through its illegal actions in Ukraine, annexing Crimea among other things.

In the same show, it was stated that Donbass is part of Russia and that it is being bombed by European troops on a daily basis. Of course, no evidence was presented for these European troops – there are none.

The Evil West

One of the common techniques of the disinformation campaign is to use outright falsifications. And many examples of the technique presented themselves this week. So we saw for example a Bulgarian story claiming that EU Commissioner Johannes Hahn stated that Bulgaria will cease to exist as a nation within 40 years (http://bit.ly/2lyZgEu) – he said no such thing. We saw a Czech outlet saying Commission President Juncker thinks the EU will fall apart during the Brexit negotiations (http://bit.ly/2lyT4fP) - something he has not stated. And we saw Europe and the West accused on Russian state TV of wanting to destroy both Russia and Ukraine (http://bit.ly/2m3uPaK), of starting the Maidan protests in 2014 (http://bit.ly/2mhtkS5), and of aiming to loot Ukraine (http://bit.ly/2l3eYEI) - even of peoples organs. Again, needless to say, all untrue.

Another continuing trend this week was the depiction of refugees and migrants as dangerous. A Czech outlet reported that migrants had sexually harassed people in Frankfurt on New Year's Eve (http://bit.ly/2m3KCD6) - information that was based on false testimonies and subsequently deleted from the original report but that is still spreading. A cooperation agreement between the Czech, Romanian and German armies was explained as an effort by Germany to protect itself against migrants by another Czech outlet (http://bit.ly/2kDZNFM).

Also the Swedish city of Malmö was depicted in a very negative way on Russian state TV (http://bit.ly/2lAw5l3) misrepresenting unemployment numbers as at 63% (that is actually the employment figures of the city) and murder rates over the last year exaggerated up from 12 to 50. The piece also covered the old disinformation story of no-go zones in Sweden (http://bzfd.it/2m8uqQU).

Fabricated moral collapse

We learned from Russian state TV that Brussels is a dangerous place to live and that thousands - yes, literally thousands - of women are sexually assaulted on the streets on a daily basis http://bit.ly/2kKFx1O.

Repeating already debunked disinformation, we read again that thousands of tanks are flowing into Europe to threaten Russia http://bit.ly/2juL2zW; and that the EU's moral collapse continues, this week with the banning of baptism http://bit.ly/2jvytnU.

Another old and unfounded claim was repeated, namely that without Russian control of the country, Ukraine will embrace Nazism and fascism http://bit.ly/2kN9aCZ. There are no facts to support those claims. In fact, the human rights situation in the country was better before the Russian forces entered Ukrainian territory uninvited http://bit.ly/1RolEeE. Russian state TV also repeated the usual disinformation that a coup took place in Ukraine in 2014 http://bit.ly/2kbMRDO. In support of the facts on the ground, we recall the statements from the OSCE that the elections were conducted in a democratic manner http://bit.ly/2eWWBAV. 

 

Kremlin TV versusUkraine: Open calls for violence

The amount of hate-speech on Russian state TV debates has significantly risen. Almost every mention of Ukraine we see (and there were a lot of them in the last days) is accompanied by the adjective “nazi” or the noun “coup” - once again ignoring the reality that the Revolution of Dignity was no coup, and that Ukraine does not have nazi parties in the Parliament. In one show, there were open calls for a violent purge of the Ukrainian authorities (http://bit.ly/2lIEZd4; you will find the precise timecodes for the critical quotes in the table).

We saw again the myth that we debunked last week, that Ukraine is provoking the violence in Donbass (http://bit.ly/2lApN5g), and doing it just to get the attention of the new US President’s administration (http://bit.ly/2lHk0aB), or to impose martial law and abolish freedom of speech (http://bit.ly/2kD2Xpl). We saw absurd distortions of President Poroshenko’s interview, claiming that the head of the Ukrainian state has called for the lifting of sanctions against Russia (http://bit.ly/2kZ5k6X). We also saw inventions that the Ukrainian army is ready to join the pro-Russian “separatists” (http://bit.ly/2kZwgDn).

Ukraine revisited

There was plenty of disinformation about Ukraine again during the last week. One "documentary" about Eastern Ukraine claimed that the Russian presence in the area was fabricated by the Western media. Russian state TV show Vremya Pokazhet focused on the relationship between Russia and Ukraine, and claimed that Russia had not seized Ukrainian territory, that Russia is not fighting in Ukraine and that Russia is in fact not present in Ukraine at all (http://bit.ly/2js6I3k). Of course, these claims have all been refuted before - even by President Putin himself (http://bit.ly/1kC94ch).

In another TV show, it was explained that Russia did indeed annex Crimea, but only to save the peninsula from impending destruction (http://bit.ly/2jh7cXG). The same disinformation was aired by Czech pro-Kremlin outlet Protiproud, which re-used the unsubstantiated allegations around genocide of Russian speakers (http://bit.ly/2iDpbsQ).

Avdiivka

Avdiivka is on territory that should be under the full control of the Ukrainian army, according to the line of conflict stipulated in the Minsk Agreements. On the morning Sunday 29 January, the Ukrainian army reported that Russian-backed militants had begun shelling their positions there. The OSCE special monitoring mission positioned in the city flagged up hundreds of ceasefire violations in both directions of the front. Journalists reported that the shelling came from Russian-backed "separatists" (here, here, and here).
 
But Russian state media immediately started denying any Russian role in the newest escalation. During the talk show "Vremya pokazhet", we heard that there are no Russian troops on the ground - not only around Avdiivka, but also in the whole territory of Ukraine (http://bit.ly/2leYlGS). Later in the same show it was claimed that a "secret plan" of the Ukrainian government is being realized, aimed at ethnic cleansing of Donbas. The next day, we heard in the same show that actually it is European humanists and their friends from the US who are responsible for the deaths in Avdiivka (http://bit.ly/2jSO1qY) – not those doing the shelling.
 
Another show, "Mesto vstrechi", blamed Kyiv for the humanitarian catastrophe in Avdiivka (http://bit.ly/2jT5kba).  One of the speakers accused President Poroshenko of provoking the conflict in order to divert the attention of Europeans away from the "fact" that he is stealing the gas flowing from Russia to Europe. Sergei Zheleznyak, Kremlin-loyal MP of the Duma, stated in "Pervaya studia" that Poroshenko provoked the hostilities in order to receive financial help from the West, as he had lost a huge investment in backing Hillary Clinton (http://bit.ly/2kyOFah). Lenta.ru suggested that Ukraine provoked the fighting to test the loyalty of the new American administration (http://bit.ly/2lfiR9t).
 
President Putin has also made multiple accusations: that Ukraine provoked the renewed violence in the east of the country in order to pretend to be a victim and receive money from the West; to establish a dialogue with the new US administration (after Ukraine supported the losing candidate); because the government needs to regain the people's support; and because Ukraine is not ready to implement the Minsk agreements.

Thank God for (Un?)Answered Prayers

Funny how news articles reminded me of this old story.

Mabel's Bar and Bordello (referred to locally as Mabel's Bed and Breakfast) was one of the busiest establishments in town.  So much so that Mabel decided to double the size of her building and hire more, uh, staff.

The church across the street which had endured the embarrassment of having Mabel's as a neighbour was horrified.  They called a week of prayer and fasting as construction progressed, asking God to destroy Mabel's den of iniquity.

As events transpired, lightening struck Mabel's, just as the addition was almost complete.  Everything burned to the ground.  Not even the basement was saved (sorry, no pun intended). No one was injured as the girls and their clients, much to the amusement of some and shame of others were able to escape the flames unharmed.

The church had a Service of Celebration, thanking God for answering their prayers.  There was a great deal of rejoicing until Mabel sued the church for damages.

Her argument was that they prayed, God answered, and the church had confirmed it.  Therefore the fire was their fault and they should pay.  The church's defense was that lightening was a natural occurrence and neither God nor their prayers had anything to do with it.

The judge admitted it was the strangest case he had ever dealt with.  Here was a Madame who firmly believed God answered prayer and a church claiming it was all nonsense.

Remembering the Farm: How I met your mother Part III

I seem to be on a roll so will just keep going.

We wanted a house to rent when we moved from North Battleford to Saskatoon for me to go back to U of S. Hospitality was a tradition in both families.  There were a lot of kids in University that we knew well and wanted a place they could come to escape the pressures of class.  Finding something we could afford was another issue.  We had people looking.

WE "lucked out".  A colleague of friends of ours in the autobody business had bought a small house next door to where they lived and was looking for renters.  Small was the operable word; Story and a half, 16' x 24' with a front and back porch. Kitchen and living room down and two bedrooms (no closets) up. The bathroom was drop your drawers and back in small.

It had belonged to a slumlord and looked it.  When we saw it, professional cleaners had been through it twice.  Your mother cried all night after we saw it but we knew it was right.  The landlord offered us 6 months free rent and guaranteed us possession for 24 months if we would make it habitable and sale-able.  We had a blank check for materials (within limits).

Ella and her mom went to work while she looked for a job. The previous renters had two large dogs which they kept in the front veranda and it was rank.  Kettles of boiling water made it livable except on the hottest of days.  They painted, wallpapered and mactac'd.  The basement and back yard were full of junk.  We borrowed the landlord's van and hauled 21 loads to the dump.  I painted the basement; we planted grass in the yard and straightened the back fence then painted it. We painted the house trim.  The landlord gave us two more months free rent.

Wedding gift money was for a Queen sized bed.  Being newly weds we worried only about the bed. However, the stairwell would only take a 48" bed so we slept on that for two years. We were smaller then.  We had no stove or fridge. Never thought about that.  Your mom's brother-in-law had been going to SIAST and just happened to be finished his courses and sold us cheap his avocado green stove and fridge.

About one month into renos the house was livable and your mother got work as the Campus Parking Secretary, so we renovated on weekends only.  One of her jobs was assigning parking spaces. Universities hate cars.  Parking lots especially for students were so far away from the main campus, it needed LRT connections. Professors and staff got closer parking but not always to their liking. One prof tried to pull rank on her and another tried to bribe her.  You can imagine how that ended.

The Green Meanies (campus police) also reported to her.  I dropped her off and then went to Animal Science Building, parking always where I was not allowed.  Campus Police had strict orders from your mother to find our car and tow it away.  She would deal with me after. How hard they looked, I don't know, but they never ticketed or towed me in two years.

The Parking Office finally got too busy even for your mother so she hired a woman she had worked with years back as assistant.  They were two of a kind.  There was no need to communicate between them, they just knew and did. When they left after two years, the university hired four people to replace them.

We would drive out to the farm on weekends sometimes and your Grandparents L would come down from North Battleford for church on Sunday and to the farm for dinner.  It was at one of these meals your Grandma L announced that one should never kick a gift horse in the teeth.  This nearly finished my mother.

The first year at Christmas, we went to the farm. I had digestibility trials underway and had to feed my steers in the morning and collect their manure before we could leave.  (Digestibility being what goes in minus what comes out).  Your mother came to help so we could get finished faster.  She had more towels wrapped around her luxurious long dark hair that the Ayatollah but that faint aroma seemed to cling.  My mother's sisters and their husbands pretended not to notice.

Your mother wore a clingy backless black dress she bought at Army and Navy (aka Antoine's) for $25.  She saw the exact dress for many times that amount in the window of THE most expensive women's shop in town. Was she ever proud of herself.

The second Christmas, your mother was four months pregnant with Bronwyn.  Dad and I spent Christmas morning hammering grain for the livestock (don't ask, please) and we didn't get in for dinner or gift opening until 4:00 pm.  The day after Christmas we butchered chickens.  Dad had bought about 50 from a neighbour, where they were killed and plucked.  They were then brought home to clean and package.  Your mother, four months pregnant remember, had never cleaned chickens but she was game and helped my mother.  That night she threw up for hours.  We did not go back to the farm for Christmas for several years.  It almost ended our marriage.

Remembering the Farm: How I met your mother Part II

There are a few things I could have added to yesterday's post but they were extraneous to the main story so here they are today.

Bay Boys were not well paid.  HBC, over the centuries, did most of their recruiting in Scotland.  By mid 20th century, recruiting focused on Scotland, Newfoundland and Saskatchewan, which might give you an idea of their respective economies.

I had asked your mother to marry me in July but she said it was not official until she got an engagement ring.  She finally got her ring in October. The only asset I had was a 66 Dodge something with a slant 6 engine and a holed gas tank sitting in the farm yard.  The Ag Rep in Wilkie bought it for, I think, $250.  I bought a money order for that amount and sent it to Birks Jewelers  in Edmonton with a letter explaining that it was all the money I had and what could they do in way of a solitaire engagement ring and a plain wedding band. In due time I got a box in the mail with a lovely set of rings.  The diamond was twice as big as I expected.  I am sure that someone at Birks sent me far far more than I paid for.

When I came out of the North, I had no money.  The nurses had arranged a medivac and I got a free ride out by accompanying this lady on her way to the hospital in Edmonton and looking after her on the plane. I borrowed $400 from your mother to cover wedding expenses - tux rentals for my brothers and I, new shoes, etc.  I didn't marry your mother FOR her money but I did marry her WITH her money.

I had a job working calving out 750 heifers at a ranch south of Battleford about half way to Wilkie.  My shift was noon to midnight.  The day before the wedding I worked a double shift to get an extra day off.  At the wedding rehearsal, I was sick with flu symptoms: chills and  head ache. I wore my knee length arctic parka to keep warm.  My one brother showed up in a green velvet smoking jacket and my other brother, who drove in from Hudson Bay where he was doing a practicum for his Conservation Officer Diploma, came in coveralls with a hunting knife strapped around his middle.

The reason your mother broke up with my friend was that he was "too nice, too easy going".  Which was true. He was and is a wonderful human being I am proud to have as a friend. With your mother's, uh, 'strong' character she knew she would walk all over him and make his life miserable.  (This apparently was not an issue for her as far as I was concerned). Not that it did my friend any good.  He married a woman of, uh, 'strong' character, anyhow.  Whether she walked all over him and made his life miserable is up to him to say. He seems to have thrived.

We did rewrite the wedding vows. Took the "obey" thing right out of hers.  I thought I should add it to mine but she said I couldn't. We got married on a Sunday.  I said there was no point wrecking an entire weekend.  Not appreciated.

We couldn't afford to go anywhere on our honeymoon except to bed, which was fine by me.  We drove into Saskatoon to the long since torn down Pioneer Motel on 22nd street W and rented a room for three nights.  We got ready for bed and my nose started to pour blood rather profusely, which was happening regularly at that time.  I am in the bathroom bleeding into the sink and your mother is lying in bed suffocated with laughter making unprintable remarks about wedding nights.

For all that we had known each other for 17 odd years before we got married, we had never been on a real date.  So on our honeymoon we went for dinner and a movie.  The movie was "The Way We Were" with Barbara Streisand and Robert Redford. It was boring so I went to sleep.  When it was over we went back to our cheap motel room.  I told everyone that we slept together after our first date which totally mortified all the old ladies.

In case you are wondering what became of the letters we wrote each other over the months and years were were courting, you needn't look for them.  When we moved from Cumberland House to Kindersley in 1979, we took the Labatts Blue two-four box full of them and in a small ceremony at our burning barrel, consigned them all to ashes. There was no way we wanted you to ever see them.  Unlike emails which once committed to the ethernet remain forever, real letters can be controlled. Sorry.

Remembering the Farm: How I met your mother

The last Sunday in May 1956 was warm and sunny with the lilacs starting to bloom. Your mother, 7 in March, drove with her parents from Viscount to our little church in Cavell, where her father ministered that day.  She was the cutest girl I had ever seen, in my 8 years going on 9 in September. I fell for her like Charlie Brown for the Little Red-Haired Girl.  With roughly the same result.  The family went for dinner across the street to my Aunt and Uncle's and she never came with her parents to Cavell again.

The family moved from Viscount to North Battleford in 1960.  I would see her once in a while at Easter and at the eight days of church meetings held the first week of July every year.  (They were dubbed "Camp Meetings" from the by-gone days of evangelists coming to an area, setting up a huge circus tent and people coming from miles around, camping out, while they attended services).  Most people went to North Battleford for the entire week, except my folks who were pretty hit and miss when I was in my teens.

By the time I got there, all the cool kids, of which your mother was one, had already formed cliques.  So I hung out with other loners and outsiders, which was good.  We did not get along.  Your mother considered me a hayseed with no social skills, which was correct.  I considered her more than a little stuck-up, which years later I was to learn was merely a cover for shyness. I still thought she was very cute.

University came and went, along with other girlfriends.  I moved to Ontario.  Then in 1971, I moved back to the farm. There were a number of young people my age at North Battleford so I would drive the hour to visit, skate, play ball or what ever.  I saw your mother more frequently then.  She had gone from cute to beautiful but was dating a friend of mine.  THE RULES are that you cannot even approach the girlfriend of a friend.

So that September I hatched a nefarious plan.  We would host a wiener roast in our pasture and invite the young people from several of the Churches around such Rosetown, Saskatoon, North Battleford.  I wrote to your mother to organize the kids from North Battleford (long distance phone calls were prohibitively expensive, stamps were cheap). Foot in the door. We continued to write periodically.  Her friend worked for my dad that winter and she would come down to see him occasionally.

Things were not going well between your grandfather and I.  The French Foreign Legion having been disbanded, the only choice left was the Canadian Arctic.  Company of Adventurers trading into Hudson's Bay aka HBC or Here Before Christ were hiring "Bay Boys" on a regular basis.  My girlfriend at the time, a friend of your mother's from Edmonton, was working temp at the Northern Stores HQ in Edmonton and got me an interview. I was on my way to Inuvik.

So I was writing boy-friend letters to the girl in Edmonton and friend letters to your mother. I was careful to get them in the right envelopes, unlike your father's Uncle Joe, (which is not just another blog post but an entire book should someone have nerve enough to write it). 

The two girls accompanied your mother's aunt and uncle on a trip through the western states as far as Texas. They crossed into Mexico for a day, either at Nuevo Laredo or Ciudad Juarez, I forget which. My girl friend's following letter was filled with all the exciting sights and sounds of Mexico.  Your mother's with the contrast between the terrible poverty on one side of the road and the huge wealthy mansions on the other.  I knew then I was writing the wrong letters to the wrong girl.  She broke up with my friend the spring of 1973 and I immediately wrote her a long letter.  It was more de Neuvillette than de Bergerac but it did the trick and was apparently not unexpected.

I flew out for a month's holidays in July.  Your mother met me at the Edmonton airport and we were insufferable inseparable while I was home.  She came out to the farm with me.  We went for a walk up the north lane and she parked on a big rock and said "Well, are you going to ask me?" So I did.  Then I went back up north to Cambridge Bay. More letters and a monthly phone call at $70.

She flew up at Christmas 1973 to visit and see how I lived.  One of the nurses had gone home from Christmas so she could stay at the Nursing Station.  Normally a PWA 727 made the direct flight from Edmonton to Cambridge but she ended up on a Lockheed Electra going via Coppermine. It was storming very hard when they flew over Cambridge Bay and visibility was nil.  The pilot circled three times and would have had to go back but a light appeared in a break in the clouds and he pulled it into a steep dive and set it down.

She quickly sized up the situation and made an offer I could not refuse.  We would get married in April 1974, I would go back to University and she would work to put me through for my MSc.  Then she would stay home and raise a family.  So we did and I did and she did.

DNA, like diarrhea, runs in your genes

My computer has been down for a few days.  WiFi wouldn't connect.  Took it into the shop and said the WiFi wouldn't connect, though the TP-Link adapter had worked for a month.  Went in today to check.  He said the computer Wi-Fi didn't work and he couldn't fix it. I had told him that when I went in. Oh, well.  In despair, I brought it home, fired it up and the TP-Link worked.  And is still working.

This was the blog post I was working on when the WiFi disconnected, so I will pick up where I left off.

Where people came from, how they got there and how they got to where they are now has always fascinated me. My theory was that everyone came out of the Asian Steppes because there was nothing to do but fight and flirt, and in the winter it was too clod to fight. Fortunately my brother Stan is very interested in where languages came from and how they got to today's polyglot.  Languages and people tend to move together so we both read many of the same books.

These are the books my brother recommends on the movement of peoples out of Africa (linked to Goodreads.  I have read four of them. He says there are no recent books that he could find which surprised him.  Given the advances in the past decade there should have been some.  Stay tuned.

The development of DNA analysis was a huge breakthrough in understanding the origins and movement of people.  Up to that point it was all based on archaeological evidence only.  Combining archaeological, genetic, and linguistic findings provides a more complete picture but refutes many commonly held assumptions.

1.      The Journey of Man: A Genetic Odyssey  -  Spencer Wells (2002)
2.      Mapping Human History: Genes, Race, and Our Common Origins – Steve Olson (2002)
3.      Before the Dawn: Recovering the Lost History of Our Ancestors  – Nicholas Wade (2006
4.      The Seven Daughters of Eve: The Science That Reveals Our Genetic Ancestry  – Bryan Sykes (2001) 
5.      Saxons, Vikings, and Celts: The Genetic Roots of Britain and Ireland – Bryan Sykes (2006)
6.      Out of Eden, the peopling of the world – Stephen Oppenheimer (2004). 


DNA analysis is now cheap enough that people can use it to satisfy their own curiosity - where did their ancestors come from, who are they related to, etc. This link is a great primer for people who are just learning about genetics. From DNA to Genetic Genealogy - Genetics 101 for total beginners. This link has highly detailed information. Genetic genealogy

This article in my email jarred me into finally begun digging information on DNA for family tree: Match making: DNA testing, sometimes a gimmick, can also be a godsend for genealogists.

What I am most interested in is NOT finding more relatives but rather the countries where my ancestors may have originated many generations ago (not “Europe” but narrowed down much more than that) and  mtDNA and Y chromosome analysis can go a long way back.

The Irish Hingstons can (likely) trace their antecedents to the son of James Hingston, organist to Charles I and Oliver Cromwell.  He was apparently given land in County Cork in the mid-1650s as part of Cromwell's Irish settlement program.  There are serious genealogists working on this so I will not worry too much about it.  

However, my maternal grandmother's family, Bielby, originated in Yorkshire.  Their name comes from the name of a village which derived from Old English for White Farm.  The Russian word for white is belyy, as in Belarus (White Russia). Scandinavians also known as Varangians traded up and down the river systems from the Baltic to the Black Sea.  Scandanavians also raided, traded and settles in Yorkshire.  Some could have been the same people.  So, could I perchance have Varangian blood lines in my background? That would interest me.

Finding relatives may be important to people whose knowledge of their ancestry is limited.  Millions of people were displaced during and after WWII, for example.  Birth and death records tended to be kept in churches in Europe, years ago and many of those records have been destroyed. 

I found three commercial laboratories doing DNA analysis for genealogical purposes though there are likely more out there. 
Extending Family Trees with DNA Testing This guy wants to sell you stuff, sort of a consultant but the website has useful information. He recommends these three DNA testing companies for Genealogical DNA tests; he says do all three as they each have different data pools.

• https://www.ancestry.com/dna/
• https://www.23andme.com/en-int/ancestry/
• https://www.familytreedna.com/products/family-finder

One of these day, I might just do that.