bumann – jen's ancestors

Sylvester Bumann is my deceased father-in-law. He passed away at the relatively young age of 29 in 1958. Because he was in the Air Force for 4 years he was eligible for a military headstone. Here is the application that was filled out to acquire one:

For those trying to find information on a relative’s military background, a document like this is an excellent resource. It gives his exact dates of service, his branch, company, regiment, etc. along with other vital information.

As I knew nothing about what an ‘Installation Squadron’ was I looked online and this was the best information I could find:

Engineering and Installations’s roots can be traced as far back as 1901 when the Army Signal Corps sent Lt. Billy Mitchell to string 1400 miles of telegraph cable across Alaska. In 1938, the Army Airways Communication System (AACS) was organized and was assigned directly under the Army Air Forces in 1943, which became part of the new US Air Force upon its creation in 1947. The USAF distributed the personnel and functions into five Installation and Maintenance Squadrons. Throughout the 1950s, the USAF was in its infancy and much of its infrastructure was still being converted from WWII era Army Air Corps Flying Fields into Air Force Bases.

So I believe that Sylvester was helping to modernize the Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada at the time of his service, as that is where the 3595th was stationed at that time. His background and knowledge of electronics is what put him there.

So to the Bumann Clan, enjoy!

This week FamilyTreeDNA announced their new ‘myOrigins’ which is, according to their website, the new version of their DNA Population Finder. This is the test that gives you your ethnic makeup. If you had the FamilyFinder test done previously, then you will automatically see the new results. Apparently they have updated their database, so the percentages and breakdowns of one’s results, in some cases, will have changed slightly.

I have already seen one change, the 5% JOHN result that had Palestinian/Jewish/Bedouin is no longer there. But now I see Spanish/Italian/Greek in the mix instead, which is also seen with William Shepard’s results. Interestingly Bill has a slight bit of Middle Eastern showing up now, and no Germanic whatsoever. I highly suggest you click on the images to see them larger.

Vic’s results show very little of his German ancestry, but lots of his mother’s Norwegian and, possibly, George Hamm’s unknown father’s Northern Mediterranean heritage, (which probably showed up as the Jewish background before the update). There is also a bit of the JOHN’s Trans-Ural Plains.

Bill has mostly English/Irish/Scottish with good percentage of Northern Mediterranean thrown in, and that smudge of Middle Eastern, maybe the latter two came from the Roman empire’s invasion of the British Isles.

For myself, it looks like I got mostly the German DNA with about equal amounts Irish/English/Scottish and Norwegian. The surprise for me is seeing the Finnish added in the mix with our Norwegian, although I am not sure why I should be surprised.

Now for those Bumann relatives. No surprise here, with a guy who is half German and half Polish, these results were pretty well expected.

I didn’t put Robert Cain’s results on here because he is only related to us on one side of his family, the Cain side, so I don’t know what part of the results would be from his mother and what part his father.

Personally I find the new way of presenting the data very organic and more comprehensive, also colorful. And as purple is my favorite color, I am glad to see lots of it on the maps, even if it’s not on mine.

The study of the origins of the human race has always been of interest to me. As far back as high school I was most interested in those classes that taught DNA and Anthropology. Reading about the breakthroughs in science, that are helping us understand where we come from, has been a fascinating journey these last few years. And it seems that more and more of these breakthroughs are coming out everyday. I am glad that I am able to participate in the ride and I thank those of you who have joined me by donating your spit.

Science Rocks!