It'a A(nother) Boy

Cruz Joaquin Gonzalez (probably nicknamed CJ), our beautiful 5th great-grandson (of 5) was born healthy and strong on Thursday, October 4, 2018 to Jaeson and Tylre Christensen Gonzalez.  His grandma Kris Sappington Schnabel and his big brother Guillermo Adam Gonzalez (nicknamed Memo) waited at home for the arrival of this 9 lb. 2 oz. little man.  After Tylre labored nearly two days to bring her second son into the world, she reluctantly submitted to a C-section.

She and I had texted back and forth about a year ago with her starting the conversation, "Grandma, I want another baby, but I'm worried I won't love another child as much as I love Memo."  I assured her the ability to love a second, third or fourth child is one of the sweet mysteries of life.

Today, I asked "what's the verdict? Do you love Baby #2?  Remember our discussion about whether you can love a second child as much as the first?"  She responded, "I do remember and I love him more than words can describe!"  

Welcome to the world, CJ!

My DNA ... Not Many Surprises Here

After much urging from some of my kids, I spit in a tube but the results of this simple DNA test are no big surprise since I have been tracing my roots for much of my adult life and know wherewith I descend.  The 59% "England, Wales and Northwestern Europe" comes from my mother's side (she was a Bradford, after all) and my paternal grandpa (Harry Dexter Henion) who was of Dutch ancestry.  The 20% is definitely my paternal grandmother's line (Else Marie Werner Henion), though I'm not sure where the Irish, Scot, Swedish and "other" come from ... probably some of the wives who are, to date, untraced.  Looks like there is still plenty of work to be done ... in the millennium to come!

But, I'm pretty sure I'll get a lot of help from my youngest son Michael who has the genealogy bug
in a very big way, spending - by his estimation - at least an hour a day searching Ancestry.com and has found hundreds of names, photos and source documents.  Thanks, dear son!

The truth is ... my family (except for the Werner line) has been in this country for more than 400 years so I'm always a little bit surprised I don't have any Native American or African in my DNA (although I have a picture which I am sure proves I am a whole lot of Guyanese).