Artemis 2 eclipse

 

Source: NASA. Artemis 2. 6 Apr 2026.

A historic photo from NASA's Artemis 2 mission, taken as the crew passed behind the dark side of the Moon. There are some incredible photos on the NASA website from the mission and the lunar flyby.

The Huguenots of Spitalfields

 

Photo by Patrick Jones. Spitalfields, London. 6 Dec 2025.

Back in December I had a stopover in London, and took the opportunity to visit historic Spitalfields Market. My Oyler side of the tree has a long connection to the market. Another historic marker is on the Huguenots of Spitalfields, which can be seen in my photo above. There are some great resources on the Huguenots of Spitalfields website if you're descended from these families. 

Looking back a year ago

So far things are slow, there's no way around it. When I look back to this time last year, I was in a similar position, trying a new tool (Ancestry's Networks) with the Irish in LaSalle population who may be connected to my 3rd-great-grandmother Bridget.

I'm not really any further now, but am trying a new tool, where I am making a bit more progress. I am running into a known barrier where I need more testers in places other than on Ancestry so I can continue with chromosome mapping. Let's see if testing on 23andme generates some new results. I may have those by the end of April.

DNA Day Sales

FamilyTreeDNA is currently running several sales ahead of DNA Day through the end of April. Other than RootsTech deals, this tends to be their largest sale of the season. If you're interested in the mtDNA test, and you should be if interested in learning more about the maternal line, the FamilyFinder + mtDNA bundle saves $70. Other bundles paired with YDNA tests save even more. 

Waiting

A running list of things I'm awaiting right now:

• Sophia's mtDNA results, descending from Dorothea Sophia Gagelmann. Due any day now...
• mtDNA results for cousin Joe (maybe May?)
• Big Y results for cousin Garry (maybe June/July)
• the mail for a possible package from the LaSalle church archives (any day now)
• 23andme results for me (sent today), now that I'm fishing in all the DNA ponds (maybe at the end of the month?)

These are just what I'm actively waiting on, I'm not including "wish list" items (Big Y match to myself).