DNA tests have found some living relatives for me. But did they get my nationality right?  

Ancestry, 23andMe and MyHeritage all say I have zero Native American. Mom said I’m one-eighth Cherokee. Should I believe them or Mom? I’m thinking: “Dear departed great-grandfather, I wish I could talk to you and your tribe. Are you my step-great-grandfather or a full-blooded Indian relative?” 

A blogger at ReviewGeek says he knows for a fact he’s eight percent Romanian, thanks to his great-grandfather. But his DNA results show no Romanian. Why? The Romanian samples at 23andMe aren’t large enough, he says. Maybe that’s why my results show no Indian.  

There are over 12 million users at 23andMe. Ancestry.com has over 15 million. MyHeritage boasts more than 99 million. MyHeritage found some intriguing facts about my aunts and uncles, such as where they died and who their previous spouses were. It has many more services than the others. For example, MyHeritage can automatically animate photos. They made a young picture of my dad come alive.  

The price at MyHeritage ranges from free to $299 a year after the lower-priced first year. But as soon as I said I wouldn’t renew, they cut the top-tier price to $179. This gives me access to 16.8 billion historical records and a bunch of extra services. For example, I can add entire branches to my family tree in one click. Their online tool automatically turned my tree into a giant poster with thumbnail photos of my closest relatives. A local copier center printed it out for me. It was nine feet long and three feet high. What a birthday gift! My sister was wowed.

MyHeritage also works with “heirloom detectives,” people who find old letters and stuff. That’s how they discovered Ilse Loewenberg, a woman who was separated from her family during the Holocaust. Ilse jumped out of a moving train to escape Auschwitz. Though she made it to Berlin, she was imprisoned there. When she got out, she discovered that her husband, mother, father and two of her sisters were dead. So she moved to New York, remarried and was reunited with her sister Carla.

An heirloom detective named Chelsea Brown found Ilse’s 1945 letter to Carla in a New York flea market.  Although neither Ilse nor Carla had children, Brown tracked down Carla’s brother-in-law’s granddaughter Jill, using MyHeritage. 

“My whole family is truly in awe of all you have done for us,” Jill wrote to Brown. “Almost everyone’s first reaction of ‘Is this a scam?’ quickly transformed into bewilderment at your selfless dedication to reuniting heirlooms with families. We all loved our great-aunt Ilse and are thrilled beyond words to read her thoughts in her own handwriting after she emerged from the depths of the European inferno.”  Brown, the heirloom detective, is now working on a baby journal from 1908. 

3G Networks in Cars Will Shut Down

A friend of mine just gave away her 10 year-old BMW. Now she won’t have to worry about the upcoming 3G shutdown.    

Cars on the 3G network won’t be able to use traffic and location data, smartphone apps, voice assistants and concierge services at year’s end. Even some 2021 cars are affected. I saw a list in Popular Science’s article “How the 3G Shutdown in 2022 Could Screw Your Car.”  It includes various models from nearly all the car companies you’ve heard of. Some, such as General Motors and Honda, are offering a software update. Others, such as Volkswagen, Tesla, Volvo and Ford, are requiring a hardware upgrade.

What about medical devices, tablets, smartwatches and security products that use 3G? To find out if yours are in trouble, look up your device with the term “3G.”  For example, searching on “Kindle 3G,” I found out that the first and second generation Kindles from 2007 and 2009 stopped connecting wirelessly in December 2021. 

Prime Alternatives   

I love Amazon Prime. But is it worth $139 a year?  It’s going up from $119, beginning March 25.

For me, the answer is yes. I love their two-day delivery, free music and free movies, and there’s much more than that. If you search on the phrase “Amazon Prime Benefits,” you’ll find links to free ebooks, magazines, comics, original stories, and audio books. That’s where I learned about free shipping on “ShopBop,” which sells women’s clothes. Too bad it’s so expensive. I saw jeans with major holes in them for $198. They were listed under “most favorited.” 

Here are some Amazon rivals worth considering.

• Walmart+ is $41 cheaper than Amazon Prime. It costs $98 a year and offers free delivery on everything, as well as early access to sales and special events. 
• Target’s free “Circle” membership  gives you one percent back on purchases, five percent back on your birthday, and lots of deals. With their credit card, you get five percent back on Target purchases, which is similar to the Amazon credit card’s five percent back on Amazon and Whole Foods purchases. You also get 60 days to return stuff. I just got a free $15 gift card for spending $40 or more at Target four times in a row. 
• Instacart now delivers more than groceries. There’s a “dollar store” category, as well as “retail,” “pharmacy,” “gifts,” and more. On a  $49 grocery delivery I tried out, the service fee was $3 and the suggested tip was around $2.
• Hulu.com has a $7 a month basic video service if you can stand the commercials. 

Filed under: apps, shopping