Enjoy your friends and family, throw a log on the fire, and celebrate all who travel through this life together for we are all related.  Best wishes for a safe, healthy, and happy holiday season! -- Marie Rundquist

Past President of the Acadian Memorial, Marty Guidry, related some sad news about our late, Acadian cousin Paul Lewis LeBlanc whose last home was in Ascension Parish, Louisiana:

"Unfortunately, today I learned that Paul LeBlanc passed away on August 24, 2022.  He had been in a full-care nursing home for over a year and died from complications of several health issues that he had during the past year."

Paul Lewis LeBlanc, as many may recall, was keenly interested in the use of DNA to verify genealogical lines and, ever since I've known him (which was from about 2006 on), Paul was always happy to share his knowledge and research.

Paul participated in and led a number of popular mail-lists and groups about genealogical subjects as well and I had the opportunity to meet him, face-to-face, when he attended one of my presentations in Louisiana.

With Paul's permission, I had published an article about his surname line, which he had traced, and documented, from himself, to his father, and then to his father, and his father -- all the way back to Daniel LeBlanc of Acadia (b. ca 1626). He did this in conjunction with his Big Y DNA test results he had received in October of 2020.  

He was pleased to discover that he could prove his line genealogically and also through his Y DNA test results, which matched those of other men who shared his same patrilineal ancestor, Daniel LeBlanc, b. ca1626.

Needless to say, I was very delighted (and somewhat relieved) to report that Paul LeBlanc's Y chromosome DNA matched with the Y chromosome DNA results, and the Y DNA haplogroup, established for other LeBlanc men who descended from Daniel LeBlanc.  When you are dealing with a genealogist whose Y chromosome DNA is so tightly intertwined with his esteemed Acadian surname lineage, and so, his very soul, as was Paul's, waiting for a Y DNA test result to come in can be an anxious affair!

Sometimes, we have a brief opportunity to hear a story and we have to take it down, and publish it, while it's there in front of us. This is precisely what happened with Paul.  

Paul gave me one shot to send his Y chromosome DNA sample off to Family Tree DNA for the Advanced Big Y 700 DNA test (done!) and then one more, very brief opportunity to publish some notes about his family history (and we did that too!).

As we called for contributions from the Acadian genealogy community so that we could fund Paul's Big Y 700 DNA test, and later worked together to document his line, I felt like I was led by a guiding hand -- and Paul's insistent urging.  Looking back, I believe Paul knew that time was of the essence.

And so, we have the following article that resulted from these efforts (You are welcome to share the article as I had permission from Paul to do the same):

https://dna-genealogy-history.com/travel-by-ancestry/travel-by-ancestry-to-the-big-y-dna-signature-r-ft55255-for-the-lineage-of-acadian-ancestor-daniel-leblanc-b-ca-1626

Since the article was published, we have gained over 2050 members in the Acadian Amerindian Ancestry DNA project (the image in the article is old), and we have extensive updates to the Y DNA "tree." While the work continues with more Big Y 700 DNA kits ordered for our project members just this week, the genealogy that comprises Paul LeBlanc's story, as written, remains constant, and this post is going to be one of the places where Paul Lewis LeBlanc is honored and remembered, and I do so tonight.

May you rest in peace, Paul Lewis LeBlanc, b. 1946, d. 2022.

From your cousin in Acadian Genealogy,

--Marie Asse'lia Rundquist

Just tried a natural language search / query using this new "ChatGPT" AI tool: https://openai.com/blog/chatgpt/

I asked the ChatGPT the following question using plain English, "What is genetic genealogy?"

Here is the answer the ChatGPT tool returned:

"Genetic genealogy is the use of DNA testing in combination with traditional genealogical methods to determine an individual's ancestry. This can be done by analyzing an individual's DNA to find genetic markers that can be matched with other individuals who have taken a DNA test, allowing people to trace their ancestry and build a family tree. Genetic genealogy can provide information about a person's ancestry that may not be available through traditional genealogical records, and can help people connect with distant relatives they may not have known they had."

(Me) Well! Isn't THIS disruptive!

But wait! There's more!

The tool also had answers to similar questions about mitochondrial #dna, Y chromosome dna, autosomal dna, and genetic mutations. (Could not provide info about heteroplasmy -- yet!). I will be back to try other topics!

Updated 12/6/2022 4:27 PM: An answer to my previously unanswered question was returned by ChatGPT: "Heteroplasmy is the presence of two or more different types of mitochondria in a single cell. Mitochondria are organelles found in the cells of most eukaryotic organisms. They are known as the "powerhouses" of the cell because they produce energy in the form of ATP, which is used by the cell to carry out various functions. Heteroplasmy can occur when an individual inherits different types of mitochondria from their parents, or when mutations occur in the mitochondria within a single cell. This can lead to a range of potential health effects, depending on the specific types of mitochondria present and the proportion of each type in the cell."

Not being able to resist, I tried one more query.  I asked,

"Explain how epigenetics are influenced by the environment."

ChatGPT gave the following answer: "Epigenetics is the study of how the environment can affect the expression of genes, without changing the underlying DNA sequence. This means that epigenetic changes can influence the way that cells in the body read and interpret the genetic code. These changes can be influenced by a wide range of environmental factors, including diet, stress, exposure to toxins, and other external stimuli. For example, certain diets have been shown to affect the expression of certain genes in a way that can increase the risk of certain diseases, while chronic stress has been linked to changes in the epigenetic marks on certain genes that can lead to health problems. Overall, epigenetics helps to explain how the environment can play a role in shaping our health and well-being."

Finding: ChatGPT has POTENTIAL!

Click here to try it: https://openai.com/blog/chatgpt/