Basics of Jewish American Genealogy

Live Broadcast: January 19, 2023
Presented by Rhonda R. McClure
Today there are an estimated 7.6 million Jewish Americans living in the country, the majority of whom descend from diaspora Jewish populations from Central and Eastern Europe. Learning how to trace your Jewish ancestry is not without its challenges: changing surnames, locating your ancestor's home village or shtetl, and access to overseas records are just the tip of the iceberg. This webinar will discuss the historical context of your ancestor's arrival in the United States, review American records that can be helpful in your research, and provide basic strategies for uncovering your ancestor's exact origins in the old country.
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[@cherdanland]

Thank you!! Invaluable resource to dive into. Recently discovered i am of part Ashkenazi Jewish of Russian-Polish ancestry through my mother, which has been startling as a biracial, mixed mostly Portuguese-American of Açorean descent and Native Hawaiian ancestry born and raised in Hawai'i. I have always known I had Jewish blood, instinctively after reading the book The Hiding Place by Cori ten Boom and Number the Stars by Lois Lowry as a child in my Hawaiian Baptist private school, and especially after seeing Schindler's List.

[@Historian212]

You don’t have “Jewish blood.” There’s no such thing. Ethnicity is not carried in the blood. DNA does not equal ethnicity. Likewise, there’s no such thing as Irish blood, Ibo blood, Chinese blood, etc.
It may be “just an expression,” but it plays into a racist conception of ethnicity, which is socio-cultural, not biological, despite what certain DNA companies’ labels might lead people to believe.
It’s nice that you feel sympathetic toward Jews who have suffered. That has nothing to do with your chromosomes. It just means you’re a kind person. Which is no small thing, but it doesn’t have anything to do with your blood.

[@Historian212]

Do adult learners really need to be told how to read a simple chart? If so, I have to wonder whether their efforts to do genealogy can succeed. No disrespect, just saying.