Question of the Week: Do you have Jewish roots? [closed]

Question

Do you have any Jewish ancestors? Answer below.

You might consider joining the Jewish Roots project to help identify and honor your Jewish ancestors.

We also have a Holocaust Project that is working to memorialize and remember victims of the Holocaust. These ancestors are difficult to research and document. If you have information that will help this project, please let them know!

Comments

There is one very important point that we should all learn no matter what culture we come from.   

Jerusalem has always been where the people of Israel lived and not just where it is recognized today.

It is a spiritual name IAH (the Moon God of the Fertile Crescent, aka Yah, Lah and Ea) + RE (The Sun God whence Ancients believed all energy and life came from) + KA (the Holy Spirit).

During the 3rd Dynasty of Egypt and especially during the reign of DJOSER who was 'Joshua the Bethshemite' of 1 Samuel 6:18, Israel was Lower Egypt and the Sacred Capital was Bethshemesh which we know from Jeremiah was also known by the Greek name of Heliopolis.  To the Israel Egyptians it was IWNW  - and this translates as 'Of the IU's'.      IU was an abbreviation written in hieroglyphs as two Water Reeds, i.e. YY.   Repetition of a letter or word in Egyptian made it plural and the plural letter was 'W', so YY was known as YW or IU which according to Gerald Massey (1907) was the origin of the name 'Jew'.   This is confirmed by Irish legends which use the IU prefix written as 'IU' in the names of Abel and Cain who were 14th/15th Dynasty Kings of Egypt.

     Later on in the 18th Dynasty during the reigns of the Kings David and Solomon of Egypt - Dhwt and Ymn Htp(Salim Amen or Salomon in Hebrew of that time) - Jerusalem was spiritually where Luxor and Karnak stand today.    This is evidenced by masses of strong proof which I can show to anyone interested in learning true facts.

     During the travels of Herodotus in the 5th century BCE, he left Egypt and made his way through Cadytis - believed to be Gaza and then to the north.    Herodotus was intensely drawn to learn about other religions and how they and their temples compared to his, the Hellenic Gods.   Had Jerusalem been where it is today he would most definitely have gone there and written about it - but there is not mention of it whatsoever.

     The New Jerusalem and Temple Dead Sea Scrolls could only describe the lay out of a city at Amarna - the new City of Akhenaten who was Moses and it is clear then that he wanted it to be the New Jerusalem to replace Luxor where the Hebrew priests of Amen held sway led by the Prophet/King Ahijah (1 Kings 11) aka Aye.

     So why are they fighting over Jerusalem today?   When you know the real history it just doesn't make sense.

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Thank you for your reply Roberta.  The real truth is so fascinating when unraveled.    But do be careful about TV documentaries.   I've just watched the first episode about the treasures of Tutankhamen and it is full of very misleading and wrongful information.    They can't even pronounce his name correctly even though I have pointed out the error to Chris Naughton in the past.   He keeps saying 'Ahmoon' for Amen, a word which has lasted the millennia and was spelled in Greek in Antiquity as 'AmEn'.   The worst of it is that TWT is DWD in Hebrew and it was DAVID in English.  They must know this but still try to hide the truth about the 18th Dynasty Hebrew Kings of Egypt - several Davids and 4 Solomon's.    Even the name 'Hebrew' appears in the names of many Egyptian Kings as 'Heprew'.    We also know from the Kebra Nagast, the Ethiopian Bible that Ymn Twt Ankh - Tutankhamen - was also called DAVID.     His throne name was Re (or RA) HEPREW Neb - God of All Creations.

Another deceit is that the Merneptah Stele has the first mention of Israel in any ancient carving.   it doesn't.   The main enemy of Egypt at that time was Assyria and the glyphs read YYSRYAR.   These are followed by a determinative glyph - a Throw stick which indicates Enemy.  Since Egypt still ruled the Canaan territory during and after the reign of Merneptah we can easily spot another lie.

     Another point to remember is that the 18th Dynasty Kings David and Solomon have had their ydna checked and it is R1b1a2 - the dominant ydna of all British Males.

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Roberta --

In response to your comments re: names ...

I don't think we have indicated that nothing can be done to accommodate the name situations that you encounter with the Jewish Roots projects, etc.

There are several projects on WikiTree that have had to deal with patronymics and lack of a last name. They've found ways to use the existing fields on profiles in different ways.

A couple of those projects:

• Sweden
• First Peoples (esp. Native Americans)

Since we are a free website with limited technical resources, restructuring our database to accommodate different name structures and alphabets for different countries and cultures is just not something we can do at this time. 

 

I suggest getting in touch with the leaders of the Sweden and Native American projects to see if they can help you come up with a way to address the naming struggles. 

 

You can also ask the community for help by starting a G2G post to discuss options. 

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Thanks, Julie, some of us will find your comments very useful.

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Well I thought I did but all I have are relatives with Jewish names, my early Missionary families managed to convert them to the new religions and then obviously bred the DNA out. We got the brains and not the ethnicity.

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No its the luck of the draw depending on who tested my husband has thousands from his mothers side that come up Jewish your family may be from an area that are not interested in family history yet.

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Thanks, Heather!!

 How would I start this search? What did your husband do? I 'll follow his trail or any person who thinks "I've got it!"  ( The "I" is the speaker.)

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He handed the problem over to me as the number of matches were so overwhelming he just put it in the too hard basket.

If you go to myname Heather Douglas and account and send me a private email I will try and help you.

Have a great day you deserve it.

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Thanks, Heather!!

 How would I start this search? What did your husband do? I 'll follow his trail or any other person who thinks "I've got it!"

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I recently wrote an article on the origin of the Jews and where the name IU came from.    It is to be published in Ancient Origins on the 25th May, so I understand.   As Gerald Massey wrote in his great work, 'Ancient Egypt - Light of the World', published 1907, the Jews are not one race but united through a common belief and that belief goes back tens of thousands of years and to every corner of this planet, including Oceania.   They all revered the same god that had very similar names, from Iah and Yah  (Weh is the plural in Egyptian thus 'Yah Weh' for the moon was seen by some to have multiple aspects from Crescent to Full, Iahu, Iao, IO (by the Maori who helped build the Pyramids and can still be seen in Egypt today as the dwarf god 'BES'.  Then there was the Sumerian EA and that name turns up in the Legend of HAR (Horus) at Edfu in Upper Egypt.  Har was IUchar in Irish legend, and familiarly known as HRY.   One aspect of the One God in Egypt as as a Potter, and so named PTAH.    There are also connections in Ancient Egypt with Australia as can be seen by the Two Dog Palette in the Ashmolean museum in Oxford - a Kangaroo playing a didgeridoo with a Joey in its pouch, plus boomerangs in other carvings.   And, now the strange Chest symbols found at Gobekli Tepi, 12, 000 years old match those on an Austrfalian Medicine Man.

My next article if accepted will be on the City of the Jews which was the capital of Israel when it was Egypt, IWNW - IW= IU=Jew.  N is the genitive case and W the plural thus 'Of the Jews' and this was called ON in the Bible as well as Heliopolis and Bethshemesh - refer 1 Samuel 6:18.   Joshua the Bethshemite could only be a King of Egypt - therefore 3rd Dynasty DJOSER.   (Joshua son of Nnu/Noah who with Aye, the prophet Ahija, can only have been Djoser HEPREW Setepenre aka Horemheb Mery Ymn ...Miriam)

I have also just finished work on another article on the Ark which was the Benben or capstone of Mount Sinai alias the Great Pyramid.  It had many names such as The Winged Disk, an emblem found all over Assyria and Egypt, and the Celestial Chamber of God.   The Egyptians also called it M'AKKA - hence its resting place today in Mecca.

One can learn the history of the Ashkenazi from Milorad Palic's book, The Dictionary of the Khazars.   But the interested student should also study everything on the Sephardic IU's of Egypt, and Spain.

Malcolm

Answer 1

Apparently I don't have Jewish blood, which is a surprise. I took two DNA tests from different companies, and both say no Jewish roots.  Family lore on my mother's side has been for generations that the name Sabra, passed down every other generation since the 1630/40s, came from an indentured servant who was a Jew. She came on one of the ships within 10 or so years after Mayflower. Sabra IS a Jewish name - so what's the deal? A convert to Judaism, maybe? Adopted? Haven't researched that out yet, and don't know if we can. BTW, both DNA tests said 100% European (how boring), half of that Irish, Scottish, Welch, English.

Comments

You weren't really looking for advice, but:  Love who you are, Elinor. And study the things that interest you, including all things Jewish. Sabra was likely at one time a woman's married name--or could be, starting your Sabra generations, and she could have been an indirect descendant too. Think wide, think universal. It's appealing.

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Thank you! Looking for Sabra as a surname is a great idea. I'll try going down that road.

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Elinor--We all need your OPTIMISM many times in life!  Please keep encouraging us!!

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Elinor, please let me/us know your finding about your surname and its source. We all learn that way! --And we're here to learn.

Answer 2

Yes my DNA proved that and as an adoptee finding all this crazy birth family stuff is awesome. My birth father's mother my grandmother said that she was pregnant with him when she married her husband. It was this big old secret thing. I'm so proud because my son just married a wonderful Jewish girl so we can share some of that heritage.

Comments

That "big old secret thing" was different but the same. I was "maybe" "a little bit" Jewish.  So Enjoy, Enjoy, and since food and music are such large parts of Jewish culture, find them. (and you can ck out the Jewish Roots Project where we list some of the sources and books.) Have fun!!!

Answer 3

None of my close ancestors that I know of, are Jewish. However, since my mother was adopted and I don't know who her biological parents were, the possibility exists in that area.

Comments

Please try FTDNA.COM  for an autosomal test for your mom if she is still living and for you if not.

Please too remember that genealogy is actually difficult to do correctly and your presently known ancestors could have mistakes in them, leading to . . . well, you know--more mistakes in heritage.

Let me or Robert Hvitfeldt know about your successes or lack of them.

Answer 4

my great grandmother was jewish.she came to the usa in the early 1900's.

Answer 5

A very good question. My mother always wondered if we were part Jewish, way back somewhere in the Steiner or Weinbrenner families. They were Protestant back past 1700. Someday, I hope to be able to have my DNA analyzed to find out.

Comments

Alison, please try ftdna now--they'd reduced FF test to $59.00 at least a week ago.

Answer 6

Anyone have any ideas without a trip to Russia/Poland/Lithuania on how to get information on ancestors? I have the grandparentsTzvi (Hersl) Rosenbaum and his wife, a Katz, but have had little luck getting back to the great grandparents. Hitler had a field day with the family, and very few got out. It doesn't help that I don't read any of the relevant languages.

Comments

Try http://www.jewishgen.org.  You have to be a member to use their database, but it's free ... although they will send you frequent email asking for contributions.

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One thing you may need to know is what the name of the town in Poland is today after being changed from German.  For example Striegau has become Strzgom.  This page lists the changes - http://www.kartenmeister.com/preview/databaseuwe.asp

I have found quite a bit on the net - including some registers in Poland, so you may have some luck.     My wife Ilse was evacuated from Berlin to live with her Gran in Striegau.   Her family like many other Germans were made to search ancestry to see if they had any Jewish roots.  When they found some, they just told the authorities that they couldn't find anything else.    Her 3 x gt.grandparents were Feige and Wandel - both Ashkenazi names.

 

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Thanks for that information, Malcolm Hutton, the url. That's useful. Old Poland, old Russia, and Lithuania are common place names for Jews, of course. Maps also help!

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Thanks, Gaile! I had trouble signing in, but that was before Wikitree. I have to take up that challenge again but first I must get my Balkan tree ( all Jewish known by name and vitals RELATIVES and ANCESTORS into Wikitree.

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I had my testing done by Ancestry.com & was able to pull that information here. My biological father (who was supposed to be my step father) is Jewish. My test results show I am 51% Ashkenazi Jewish & I have no clue what that means. My grandfather Abraham J. Breier does not spell his last name the same as his other relatives, including his sons. The variations are killing me on finding information: Brajer, Brier, Braier. My father was William Brier & yet one or two of his brothers used Breier until they died and used Brier. I traced my grandfather to Stanislawow Galicia, Ukraine - where he was born. His father was Shumuel, Schmuel, Shumuel, or Samuel in English. They spoke Yiddish, not Hebrew. Apparently they are very orthodox Jews. The few cousins I found ignored me when I couldn't answer a question I didn't even understand. At 68, this task seems impossible & I have no idea where to continue my search.

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Maybe there are some other cousins who are not weenies like the ones you tried. Sometimes the ultraorthodox can be very insular, and they use terms that the rest of us do not know. If you remember the question that they posed, I can likely help you with it.Being half Ashkenazi, there are some genetic conditions your kids might want to be aware of, like Tay Sachs and gaucher that tend to run in the ashkenazi community.

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Thank you for replying! They asked if I knew if my father was Sephardic. Since I only know Ashkenazi from my research I hadn’t a clue. Yes, I will call it for what it is, rude! I have been outcast by all family at this point & I am tired of people saying it doesn’t matter! I thought, wrongly, I would be welcomed with open arms. A researcher on the Jewishgen.com site emailed that we were related, threw out some names, then commented that relatives can be weird. When I replied asking what town we were from in the Ukraine she sent a one word response of Galicia which I knew and was strange because: 1) that was the area I was in that said click on this researcher to get more help, and 2) she is a relative! Anyone else think that’s strange? I even went to wiki trees sister site to download my DNA to use as the second comparable source on wiki & never could figure it out! I am just about ready to lose it! Maybe this isn’t my forte. Masters degree & I can’t do all this on my own

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Why would they ask if your father was sephardic when, being from the Ukraine, and based on your DNA, he's ashkenazik? I've been asked some odd questions by the ultras, though. Every group of people has their problems. I've gotten nowhere with DNA because the closest I ever find is probable 3rd and 4th cousins, and I've not been able to find the links to them. I find it odd.

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It is pretty obvious from your DNA results that your father was Ashkenazi, as expected. Ashkenazis have been breeding within a very insular group for many hundreds of years, therefore their DNA is quite distinctive from that of their neighbors. Sephardic Jews also often get some Ashkenazi results, but they also have Western Asian and North African in their DNA results (an example: https://imgur.com/a/93KTgeG)

I'm sorry your cousins have been unhelpful, Susan. Unfortunately, some people are into genealogy purely for their own self-benefit, and have no interest, time, or consideration for their cousins. We will all encounter such selfish people in our genealogical journeys, we can just hope not to become such a person ourselves. 

I suspect part of your difficulty in your research is that your ancestors came from what was then the Russian Empire, so their names and records were in a different language -- Hebrew and/or Yiddish and/or Russian and/or Ukrainian. This is likely why you find so many different spellings of those surnames.

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Very odd! He maybe was testing me, really I don’t know myself! Just sad strangers like you are more interested then blood relatives. My older brother was kinda funny when we got the results & said, “I think you should get closer to your Jewish roots.” Where I live now there isn’t even a Temple!

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Yes, I wondered where that percentage came from - it makes sense. The different spellings are a nightmare. The next major issue is his wife, my paternal grandmother, who was born in Russia & every record of her last name spelling is different. If I had only been given this knowledge before everyone passed, did no one think it was important? I’ll answer that - nope. They spoke Yiddish & I only know a few words that I can’t even spell right. Here’s my very sad story: My dad told me that I was his real daughter after the divorce from my mother! I asked 30+ years for a DNA test, nope! When I was 48 I asked him if he was going to tell his other daughter (1year older) & he said she’d figure it out at his funeral! Argument ensued & I flew from California to Massachusetts & knocked on her door - mind you I look exactly like him. She was chilly, said she’d believe it when he told her! I then emailed him a picture of us together. I got a call when I got home & he disowned me.

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Many temples right now are doing virtual events because of COVID, so you may be able to link up with one more remote.

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While my situation is not identical to yours, Susan, I too have faced resentment and disinterest from my blood relatives. Actually, the most friendly and helpful people I've encountered in my genealogy research have been my more distant cousins! I have accepted it has nothing to do with me. These close relations of mine don't even know me; so they are not rejecting me, they are rejecting a reality they don't want to face, and which ultimately isn't theirs to choose.

Genealogical research in Russia and Ukraine poses certain challenges. I'm not going to lie to you, it will probably be harder, more frustrating, and more expensive to research your ancestry on that side than, say, your ancestors who lived in Western Europe or the Americas. The easiest but most pricey option would be to hire a genealogist in Russia and Ukraine who can do the research for you in the State Archives.

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Susan, I am outraged for you about your father's backward and IRRELEVANT response to your having had a DNA test and visiting your sister (and, implied) talking about your  relationships to each other. If you know the relevant places where your family members were born, purchase each person's birth certificate, based only on the facts you already know, to see who is listed and where each was born. That will start some thinking on the basis of family facts! and it will possibly open new directions for your thinking. 

Your father's behavior is. . . well, no comment. But certainly don't let it bother you at all. 

PS: I now am thinking about my father's place of birth (in Germany by his report), and while he knew very little, I'll bet I can now find out something about his family lines.

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That’s not monetarily doable for me anymore! I will have to let this be OK or I will let my feelings get in the way. If none of those younger generations help me there’s not too much I can do. I got a Gedmatch ID # finally & now just have to figure out GEDCOM & how to get both over here. I worked 3 hours on how to write source information & gave up!

Thank you all!!

Answer 7

I have a small percentage of Ashkenazi or Sephardic Jewish ethnicity   in my DNA results.  That did not surprise me since my great grandfather, Sigmund "Ed" Baude was  from Germany.  We do not know where in Germany though; some family researchers say it is Fersle.  However I have not been able to find such a place ever existed in Germany or Poland or any other place for that fact.

Ed Baude was a complete mystery to his   two sons with my grandma, Nellie Mae Hooper.  He married Grandma Nellie on May 10, 1890 in Paris, Logan, Arkansas, but went by Ed in the 1910 census of Winfrey, Crawford, AK.  These are the only times he appears in US records.  There may be records of him in Germany records.  I did locate a German birth certificate from 1879 but am not certain about that as I do not read German.  There may be other German records of Sigmund or Ed Baude in Germany but I need to locate someone who understands German to collaborate with. The family story is when WWI was ongoing between 1917 and 1918, there was a nationwide draft registration.  Ed Baude did not want to be drafted so he returned to Germany.  I did locate an Eduard Baude as a survivor if Bergen Belsen Concentration Camp after WWII.  The date of birth was correct.  I did not save that record and have been unable to locate it subsequently.    Several years ago, I connected with a Chris Baude in Germany who told me that Baude is a rather unusual name in Germany (it means a small house-hut).  However, he had not heard of any ancestors returning from the US after immigrating or being born there.  There are various records in the US that might possibly be Ed Baude including passport applications, ship manifests and even census records.  However the spelling of the name is Baude or Band (the spelling is Band in the marriage record).  One Edward Bode lived in Hartford Connecticut.  But if this is my Ed Baude, the story about him returning to Germany is inaccurate.  I doubt that this is him.  At any rate, I hope that I will encounter someone who can read German who will assist me in searching for my great grandfather further in an attempt to determine what happened to him.

Answer 8

I know my grandfather was jewish, so the result of my DNA 26% Asckernazisch was no big surprise. They came from the Neumark and most of the papers dont exist anymore. I just found my great-grandfather and his wife but came no further.

Answer 9

Jewish roots? Ashkenazi showed up in my and my mom's DNA which was a surprise to my family. As far as we knew, no one was Jewish, but it shows that there will be surprises that will pop up along the way while tracing your family's footprints. Just need to find out where on my maternal side is the Jewish connection.

Comments

SusREd31:  thanks and that's part of the reason that even if it's a smalll %, it's important genealogically.

Answer 10

I was adopted so was surprised when my DNA showed 6.6% Ashkenazi Jewish ancestry. I started looking for Jewish sounding names and in my father's line and there is a Anderson Markham whose mother's name was Sarah Franks (1799-1852). I thought this might be promising because of the Diary of Ann Frank, so pursued that line. As it turned out, the father of her grandfather, Michael Franks Sr (1725-1793) was Rabbi Jacob (Yaakov) Franks (1688-1769) and his mother was Buelah Abigail Levy (1696-1756) the daughter of Rabbi Moshe Rafa'el Ben Levy (1665-1728).

Following the line of Rabbi Franks, I have the lineage traced back through his mother's side to Joest Muesken Halevie (1499-1596) born in Prague and died in the Netherlands. however the line traces through Italy as he is the grandfather of Yosef (Levy the Hebrew) Haivri de Torres (1575-?).

Following the line of Rabbi Levy, i have it traced back to ? Halevi (1430-?) who is the father of Meir Halevi (1465-1518) who was born in Safi, Morocco and died in the Jaroslaw, Ukraine.

I am still "fleshing" this all out, so this may not be absolutely correct yet at this point, as I still have records to check.

Comments

Amazing and sounds illustrious too!

Answer 11

I definitely do on my Mother's side in Romania, Poland, and Belarus, and possibly Austria. I just took a test with 23andMe (which is still currently in the DNA extraction phase), and hopefully it'll have a decent amount of Ashkenazi heritage.

When my paternal Grandmother took her test with AncestryDNA, even though she's mostly Italian, it showed her as 5% Jewish.

Answer 12

yes I am Jewish on both sides

Comments

Please tell us more, if you wish to.

Answer 13

I am have been tested as 97% Ashkenazi Jewish. I am searching for the ancestors of my grandfathers. My paternal grandfather is Louis Levy. He was born about 1873 in the Belarus. His father is Yeichel/Jacob Levy.  My maternal grandfather is Izak/Isaac Feigenbaum. He was born in 1865 in Galicia (Austria). His father is Benjamin Feigenbaum.

Comments

Try searching here on WT for "Levy" --many seem to have this surname in their lists, not, however, indicating a direct relationship to you. --This is only a first step, and not a substantive suggestion.  I assume you've already tried Jewishgen --right?

Answer 14

Yes, I do have Jewish roots down my mother's line ( I was able to only do Mtdna).  The difficulty is that I found this out through my National Geographic Genome DNA results.  Since I don't have any known ancestors (at this point) who listed themselves on any vital record as Jewish.  There are however, a lot of names that I've found that could have had some Jewish history and probably some I don't know about!

Answer 15

Yes, I started [the https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Space:Jacobus_Name_Study Jacobus Name Study] I have also researched the Jewish Ashkenazi Salomon and am starting on Maschke

Answer 16

Very few Jewish ancestors I am afraid just a lot of Jewish names as my missionary ancestors seemed to always be on the bandwagon for any new religion that developed and kept converting their Jewish brethren or turning them into ministers to convert others for the common good.

Comments

Heather Douglas, this is a different kind of indicator for all of us about the "popular" attitude about Jews that we were a scourge. How bigoted mankind became and often still is. The differences between the mainstream and "Other" religions were "carefully taught" over centuries, repeatedly from pulpits and in the streets, neighborhoods and even schools. I came to my Jewish knowledge through an autosomal DNA test at ftdna.com. 

Patty Almond:       When you have a chance to test again or to transfer your results to it, please use that site. You know, don't you, that an autosomal DNA test (also preferably at ftdna.com, in my experience) will tell you about your father's genes, especially if you have no brothers with the same father.

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Unfortunatly there will always be racial discrimination, because of people listening to false information from others and not doing their own research now. In the past when people didn't understand the cause of their misfortunate it was easy to blame a group of people that were not part of their clan or their own foolishness for it.

My only known Jewish direct ancestor was Mary Goldsmith born in 1598 died 1660 in Wigton Cumberland England, thats a long time ago and I imagine very little of her DNA would be present in my makeup now. I have had the autosominaltest at FTDNA and so has my brother in 2015 whom it showed as having 13 1/2% Jewish DNA and then they altered their alogrithms and overnight it all disapeared. As country of origin depends on the amount of people testing with you and the markers you match and have in common with them your DNA can do a quick trip across the world without you even leaving the comfort of your computer chair.

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Your Mary did live long ago, and I wonder how she rooted out the Goldsmith name, except as a translation of a paternal relative or spouse. That your brother's "Jewish DNA" was "disappeared" is similar to my own. My 31% was reduced to 21% one overnight about a year ago. I haven't phoned them about this or any other significant problem since then. Then there's your last sentence:   "Country of origin" depends on the location of your mother at your and your brother's birth places when you two were born. The amount of people tested; can be expanded by transferring your reports to differing, reliable companies. Any of these will have the possibility of matching gene markers that your known ancestors do have. After that, your last sentence, well, I'm having trouble understanding it. 

A DNA ASSISTANT in W-Tree:  If you pull down FIND on top right of your profile page, you'll find PROJECTS and therein Jewish Roots Project. In it you'll find our truth-man to explain Jewish DNA. Please ask him first, and let me know how he understands your last sentence.  And, while there, why not join Jewish Roots Project so you'll get notices of all our correspondences. (Sorry I couldn't remember his name, and haven't checked it yet. Shame on me. Really.)

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Well Mary's Parents owned a shipping line that regulary ran a service from Europe to England of course I dont know how she met my paternal ancestor a young man of English, Scottish descent whose family at one time were Border Raiders. One imagines some highly romantic encounter but as his family had lived on a farm in the area for 1000 years it was probably something more mundane like collecting a parcel from the ship for his father and as the male descendents of that family are quite handsome, blonde with a twinkle in their very blue eyes it might have been boy meets girl and immediatly falls in love. Or opposites attract as I cant imagine a young lady in her position wanting to marry a farmer and I have not been able to find any marriage contract for them. Also as they were married near the end of July and the baby was christened 14th of November 1619 it was probably a shotgun marriage anyway. As my grandmother use to say the first baby can come at any time but all the rest take 9/10 months

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I hope, Heather, your description, so full it is of marvelous images, is nestled on Mary's and Mr. X's profile page as part of their biographies. I find that having only vitals listed (as we must when there's almost no writing about our  farther ancestors) is a pale to washed out representation of them in their lives. Genealogy is of significant interest to me  only when it can infer a person in their habitat and their times. These are centuries of human beings we are researching, which really means "searching for." Someone else searched and then we re-searched to find those vitals. But to infer from any and all details is a factor of caring and imagining them in all their HUMAN aspects. (And no one is thinking by doing that of writing novels about them.)

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Lots of people in my tree always wanting to make the world a better place, it would be so nice to know who the women were who helped them with this endeavour and supported them in the journey they had through life.

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Yes, and is it only the men who have humanitarian acts on their to-do lists? In my experience these days, it's the women. Are they ancestors or relatives, and if the former, how did you find out about that characteristic? I'd like to search my own for it.

Answer 17

No, I have none.

Answer 18

My 3 x Gt. Grandmother Sarah Noah Da Costa was Jewish, but born in Mile End, London. She was one of five children of Solomon and Leah.  I can trace Solomon's family through Bevis Marks, but have not been able to find Leah's LNAB even though she is recorded as mother of the children. I was able to get the Bevis Marks records checked through a discussion on Jewish Gen, I got confirmation of all the children, but still no name for Leah.  Any ideas as to where to look would be welcome.