October 16, 2007 by SUM.

Besides writing a book about numerological patterns and the recognition and relevance thereof, I’m also interested in genealogical DNA research. We observe patterns in any kind of areas and important clues can be deduced from these data.

I decided to start with my genealogical DNA research in July 2007. Therefore I had my mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) analyzed at Family Tree DNA.

Mitochondria are present in all human cells, contain their own DNA, and are passed on only through females to their offspring (male and female). The mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) has distinct properties, therefore making it a great tool for genealogical and anthropological study. Mutations within this DNA are studied and compared against the mtDNA of others. The results are catalogued and organized so that an ancient migration pattern can be constructed.

Different mutation patterns are assigned to various genetic population groups (haplogroups). The haplogroup identifies your deep ancestral ethnic and geographical origins on your maternal line and can help determine whether you share a common ancestor within this migration pattern. But the haplogroups don’t tell you whether you are more closely or more distantly related. If you want to find this out, you have to employ other conventional genealogical techniques.

I found out that I belong to the haplogroup X. This group is actually quite interesting because of its migration pattern. I read that the haplogroup X is an archaic gene and has not been found in most of the African continent. I believe the scientists ponder about why this archaic gene is still found in modern humans. The overall haplogroup X accounts for about 2% of the population of Europe, the Near East and North Africa. In addition, the haplogroup X is also one of the five haplogroups found in the indigenous peoples of the Americas and accounts for about 3% for the total current indigenous population of the Americas.

When your mtDNA is analyzed by Family Tree DNA, you will be informed of mtDNA matches, but only, if you signed a release form. Afterwards you can contact people in their database and vice versa.

Posted in Saxony-Anhalt, Ancestors, St. Pankratius, Travel, Numerical patterns | No Comments »

July 19, 2007 by SUM.

A person, I had met when I worked at Microsoft, awakened my curiosity for genealogy. He worked as a translator for a translation company in Germany, and his company worked on the translation and localization products of Microsoft software.

Since I was working on translation projects, I met him on one of my visits with Microsoft translation vendors. After he had told me about his family tree search, I was interested in finding out more about my ancestors, too. After I came back from my visit from Germany, I wrote him an e-mail and asked him whether he could give me a reference for a professional genealogist. Unfortunately, I never received a reply.

After not knowing who I could retain for doing genealogy work in Germany, I forgot about this matter for quite some time. But the thought knowing more about my ancestors never left my mind.

Last year I decided to start my own my family search site. A couple years ago my aunt Elisabeth had given me a lot of information to my mother’s family. Unfortunately, as you can see on my family search site, I have hardly any information about my father’s ancestors.

Now, besides working on my book, I’m also working on my family tree. But that is a pretty time-consuming and expensive undertaking. Nevertheless, I’ll keep working on that, too.

Posted in Saxony-Anhalt, Ancestors, St. Pankratius, Travel | No Comments »

July 2, 2007 by SUM.

If you ever visit Washington State, take also the time to tour Northeast Washington, which looks totally different than the Pacific side. Northeast Washington’s terrain was created by cataclysmic Ice Age Floods and left a deeply scarred plateau with hundreds of small lakes, flat top mountains, and canyons known as “coulees” (ravines and ancient basins of waterfalls, some still holding water).

Last week I took a few days off and toured this area with Kari. Though I had visited the northeastern part of Washington once before with George on a weekend sightseeing tour in September 1997, I always wanted to tour this area again because of its unique awe-inspiring landscape. It not only exists of long stretches of uninhabited majestic table mountains as well as small and large lakes, but also the famed massive Grand Coulee Dam, which you can tour. Additionally, on weekend evenings a laser show is hosted along the dam telling the story of the land, its people, and the creation of the dam.

Like last time we were on the road again for 2 1/2 days. From I-5 we took Hwy 20 East, stayed overnight in Winthrop, where we also visited the Shafer Museum that houses several historic buildings with many authentic displays dating back to the late 1800’s. Winthrop is located in the Methow Valley, which is Washington’s equivalent of the Old West. As you drive up the valley, you’ll pass fields of baled hay, big old weathered barns, horses and cattle. The sign below is located in the town’s center and displays past and present cattle brands.

We continued our trip on Hwy 20 and 155 to Coulee Dam, where we stayed overnight and watched the laser show at the dam in the evening. The next day we drove South on Highway 155, 17, 28 and 283 to Vantage on I-90, where the Gingko Petrified Forest and an interpretive service center is. Along the way we stopped at the humongous Dry Falls with its awe-inspiring landscape and view and Soap Lake.

It was a great sightseeing trip and pictures of this tour and some additional tourist information are posted under the page Out & About, too.

Posted in Grand Coulee Dam, Dry Falls, Ginkgo Petrified Forest, Winthrop, Northeast Washington, Pacific Northwest, North Cascades, Travel | No Comments »

June 9, 2007 by SUM.

In my previous post ‘Sponsoring a child’ I chose a picture of a door that belongs to the convent and church St. Pankratius of the Augustinian order in Hamersleben in Saxony-Anhalt County. St. Pankratius is now under renovation and will be finished in 2008. It belongs to the most significant Romanic facilities. Construction started about 1111 and the church was finished circa 1141.

I chose this door because my great-grandfather lived in Hamersleben, and my grandmother belonged to a religious order before she married in her late thirties my grandfather who was then in his fifties. At the moment my information about my grandmother is very scanty, but I know that she was a deaconess before she married my grandfather in December 1918. After my grandmother had married my grandfather, she worked as a district nurse in Warsleben/Ausleben.

Last year in fall, I toured this area for a couple days. Though I don’t know of any living relatives in this area at this moment, I love to visit this area because of my childhood memories. In the fifties I visited a few times with my father his mother, while she was still living in Warsleben, a town that is nearby Hamersleben.

I found Hamersleben quite intriguing. Right next to each other are two separate churches. One belongs to the Protestant and the other to the Catholic religion. Since St. Pankratius is under renovation I couldn’t go inside the former convent. I just walked around that place and took some photos. But I’m looking forward to my next visit.

Posted in Saxony-Anhalt, Ancestors, St. Pankratius, Travel | No Comments »

May 11, 2007 by SUM.

You may have already read my post ‘Symbols and numbers’. There I outlined some of the connecting links of my numerological profile showing up in the number Pi. I just read the Washington State history on the web site historylink.org and I noticed quite a few data and dates that play a prominent role in my life, too. I’m listing the data and dates so that you can see for yourself. You may want to investigate, too, where you can notice a correlation with your own data and dates to the residence of your place.

In some cases I’ll reduce the numbers or dates to a single-digit number.

- Washington State is one of the 48 continuous United States.

Washington State is the first and only state that I ever have been a resident of in the United States. The number 48 can be reduced to a single-digit number three (4+8=12 and 1+2=3), which is my invigoration number derived from my birthday 21 (2+1=3).

- Washington State occupies 66,582 square miles.

When adding all these number together (6+6+5+8+2=27), I arrive at the number of the day when I immigrated into the United States.

- Washington State borders on the east at the Idaho border at 117 degrees longitude.

My life lesson number is 11 and destiny number is 7. Adding these numbers together (11+7=18 and 1+8=9) I arrive at my master number nine.

- Washington State borders Canada on the north along the 49th parallel.

My destiny number squared is number 49.

- Washington State borders Oregon on the south along the Columbia River along the 46th parallel.

The numerical equivalent of my first name is number 46 (U=21, T=20, E=5 and 21+20+5=46).

- 27 settlers petitioned on August 29, 1851 Congress for a separate “Columbia Territory” (named later “Washington”) covering the area between the Columbia River and 49th parallel.

I immigrated on day 27 the United States, and my grandfather was born on August 29, 1889.

- Congress approved the new territory, renamed Washington, on February 10, 1853.

When adding all the numbers of this date (2+10+1+8+5+3=29 and 2+9=11 and 1+1=2), I arrive at my life lesson number, which fluctuates between 11 and/or 2.

- Washington was admitted to the Union in 1889.

My grandfather was born in the year 1889.

- The square dance (or quadrille) was named the official state dance on April 17, 1979.

I married in 1979. When adding all the numbers from this date (4+1+7+1+9+7+9=38 and 3+8=11 and 1+1=2), I arrive again at my life lesson number 11 and/or 2.

There are still some other dates on the historylink.org that play a role in my life, but that should do for right now.

I just want to mention here that my destiny number seven plays predominantly a role in my life, and Seattle consists of seven letters. The numerical equivalent of the name ‘Seattle’ is number one, which is also the numerical equivalent of my first and last name.

Posted in Pacific Northwest, Travel, Symbolism, Numerical patterns | No Comments »

May 10, 2007 by SUM.

I just read on another site about the history of the Cape Flattery trail. Now it’s a very pleasant trail, but that hasn’t always been so. Jeff Logan writes on his site that the sightseers from all over the world hiked before the renovation “through a muddy, poorly maintained trail - and risked plunging off dangerous cliffs to see one of the most breathtaking views on the Pacific Coast.”

I’m glad that I walked the trail after its renovation.

But some other work is imminent there, too. Work is actually already going on at the access road to Cape Flattery. At the moment the access road is paved quite frequently with potholes. And at times the road is covered with potholes from the furthest right to the furthest left for a length of 20-30 feet or more along the road. And you just cannot avoid these holes by driving around them.

While driving on this road I asked myself several times whether I should turn around because the road was in such bad shape, but I kept on driving because each time after having passed such a pothole stretch I thought that this must have been the last one.

Though the access road is at the moment quite challenging, I’m glad that I visited this place with its most breathtaking views on the Pacific Coast.

Posted in Olympic Peninsula, Pacific Northwest, Makah Reservation, Travel | No Comments »

May 8, 2007 by SUM.

Last week I took a few days off and toured the Olympic Peninsula with Kari who is originally from Norway. A couple years ago I met Kari at the Seattle Astronomy Club of which her husband is a member.

We both like to travel and she accepted my proposal to explore together the unique countryside of Washington State. Though I have been living here for almost 19 years, I actually haven’t seen many places in this state. Therefore I thought that it is time to get out and explore more of this great place, which offers anything from rain forest to the desert.

Our trip lasted only 2 1/2 days, but we drove around the Peninsula, stayed overnight in two motels, in Port Townsend and Forks, and visited some splendid places including Cape Flattery, which is the furthest northwest point of the contiguous United States. Pictures of this tour and some additional tourist information are posted under the page Out & About.

Posted in Olympic Peninsula, Pacific Northwest, Makah Reservation, Travel | No Comments »

April 30, 2007 by SUM.

While I was still working at Microsoft one day I was reminded of an event that had taken place in 1971. This event was recalled because one of my Microsoft managers made a very unusual remark at an evening get-together at our yearly Summit meeting in 1999.

In that year we had our meeting in Kinnitty Castle, Ireland and one of our managers made an unusual suggestion for introducing ourselves to the group. I considered one of her suggestions inappropriate and nobody followed her suggestion either. Due to the inappropriateness of her suggestion I’ll not repeat here what she had said on that evening. But afterwards her remark made me contemplate about an event that had occurred so many years ago.

While I lived in Germany I visited with two other girls from my hometown Munich. I was almost 18 years old. We camped on a farmer’s land outside of a small town called Fürstenfeldbruck, which lies in the proximity of Munich. After my friend’s future father-in-law, who had driven us to this place, dropped us off at this farmer’s place, we were on our own and without transportation. Therefore we rented scooters to be more mobile.

With the scooter I was able to explore that area and one day I actually picked up a hitchhiker. He spoke only English, and he was a little bit younger than I was. On the day I picked him up, the heaven had opened its floodgates. We barely could communicate with each other because I didn’t speak English. The foreign languages I was learning in school were Latin and French.

I know I talked a lot in German, whereas he was more the quiet one. At the time I thought that he understood me, but that may have been a misunderstanding. We only met for a few hours, but this event belongs, too, to the not so common experiences. It actually took more than a couple months to recollect this specific event and surrounding circumstances.

Without going further into the details of our interaction that day, I like to mention here that I believe that he was an American who was just visiting Germany, maybe as an exchange student at that time.

Since I started to contemplate about this and other events in my life, I was wondering whether I actually had come to the place in the States where he was living. We all know that the Universe plays its melody in intricate ways.

So, here I am, and I would like to know whom I’ve met in Fürstenfeldbruck by Munich in 1971. Who visited Germany in July/August 1971 and was about 16 years old? In one of my books I read that ‘nothing is by chance, everything happens because it has to.’

As the Universe plays its melody, which at times we don’t comprehend to its fullest extent, we can only go along and evolve with time.

Posted in Travel, General | No Comments »