DNA: The Future of Jewish Genealogy

Schelly Talalay Dardashti's great-grandparentsPic: Schelly Talalay Dardashti's great-grandparents

Today, Jewish genealogy is more popular than ever thanks to a plethora of online genealogy resources available to Jews anywhere in the world. In the final chapter of a three-part interview, Shalom Life speaks to Schelly Talalay Dardashti, noted Jewish genealogist, journalist and award-winning blogger (tracingthetribe.blogspot.com), about her blog, other great Jewish genealogy websites, Jewish genealogy’s ongoing popularity in Israel and using DNA to trace your ancestry.

There are Jewish genealogy sites that are very useful. Which ones are good to start with?

JewishGen.org www.jewishgen.orgis the place to start with its resources organized by country and searchable databases, as well as Special Interest Groups (SIGs) for specific topics and geographical locations, such as Gesher Galicia. (Gesher Galicia has superb resources for those whose ancestors came from Galicia, which was in Austro-Hungary, then Poland, now Ukraine.) JewishGen’s Sephardic resources are “thin,”so go to Jeff Malka’s SephardicGen.com www.sephardicgen.comsite. If Polish research is important, go to Jewish Records Indexing-Poland, www.jri-pl.orgfounded by Montrealer Stanley Diamond. Holocaust research via Pages of Testimony and other documents can be very successful at Yad Vashem.

Your blog is a great resource. What are other resources that you recommend for researching your Jewish roots?

As a journalist, I make sure that Tracing the Tribe covers every possible aspect of Jewish genealogy, including additional items that, while not specifically Jewish, may inspire other researchers to recreate a project or develop it for Jewish genealogy. I cover everything: films, food, books, social sciences, country resources and anything that can be tagged as Jewish genealogy in some aspect. It is unique. Clues to our families’ stories may come from anywhere, so casting a wide net for all possible resources is the way to go.

You’re very involved with genealogy. Why do you think, especially in the Jewish community, it is so popular?

Everyone has ancestors. Everyone is curious about their history at some point. What makes it more imperative for Jews is the aftermath of the Holocaust. Every victim had a name, as Yad Vashem says. By remembering our ancestors, including those who were Holocaust victims as well as those we have lost through the Inquisition and similar events, we feel a connection to them. By remembering their names, they are alive once again. Did you know that Rabbi Stephen Leon of El Paso, Texas, submitted a unanimously approved resolution to the most recent Conservative Rabbinical Conference on recognizing a day for remembering the victims of the Inquisition? Some estimates are that there are 20-25 million descendants of those families forcibly converted several times and in several countries. Some major dates were Spain, 1391 and 1492 in Portugal, 1497 in Sicily, 1493. Some went underground, some remember who they were, some are shocked when they learn their history.

Is genealogy as popular in Israel as it is in the Diaspora? More popular?

The Israel Genealogical Society was established in 1983. The Jewish Family Research Association (JFRA) – which catered to the English-speaking community – was established in 1999. As of January 2010, the two have merged. Between the two groups, there are some 10 branches in diverse geographical areas providing monthly programming, conferences and online databases at http://www.isragen.org.il . Every 10 years, the annual IAJGS conference is held in Israel, the next will be in 2014.

A Jewish Genealogy Primer

Jewish Genealogy Comes of Age

Cracking Crimes With a New DNA Technique

According to Medical Geneticist, Jews are an Actual...