Genealogy Report - Essay Example

Genealogy Report Genealogy Report My parents made me understand that I was a Jew, despite being born and raised in a cosmopolitan region of Bronx, New York. Interaction, in school and other social places, with my peers in the neighborhood made could not allow me to pursue my Jewish way of life and other traditional requirements of any Jewish boy. Therefore, as I discovered during my late teenage, there were other Jewish friends and acquaintances who we maintained lose contact, went to same schools, and worshipped on Saturday. Most of these, rather awkward, activities did not have specific importance to my life. However, as I approached adulthood, I began developing interest in why most of the things my parents insisted on were not common with other young men in the neighborhood, and the reasons why some of my classmates in campus told me that I was ‘Jew’. Such utterances made me develop an interest in tracing my family lineage, research my ancestors and no my family tree. After an episode of ‘Who Do You Think You Are’, a television show sponsored by Ancestry.com, I was intrigued to discover that individuals with a DNA segments similar to mine are identified as Ashkenazi Jews’. To be specific, according to the results, I noted that a combination on the DNA’s 7th chromosome appeared to have a notable number of the matches with the identified Ashkenazi ancestry. After an analysis of the datasheet of the Ancestry.com, I noted on the seventh chromosome, the positions occupied between 51.5 million and 146.7 million, there were more than 50 DNA matches with individuals who have initially identified themselves as either Ashkenazi Jews or partial Jews. Such DNA matches were also seen to be tiny and dense on the particular strand, but I did not still believe that I could be having complete Jewish ancestry. After further investigations, I discovered that my maternal lineage had no connections with the Ashkenazi Jewish ancestry, even after subjecting her to the Ancestry.com. Since my parents divorced, I have had no opportunity to see my father, but could find his brother to confirm any form of Ashkenazi Jewish ancestry. My paternal uncle tested, and after his results were released, there was evidence on the seventh chromosome that confirmed that he had Ashkenazi ancestry. Actually, there were more connections in his chromosomes, which proved that he had more Ashkenazi ancestry chromosome matches than I had. Notably, although my Ashkenazi ancestry is not close, there are indications that can trace my ancestry to the Jewish community. To arrive at this, I have considered an approach in ensuring that I research my family tree and ensure that other people follow up on their Ashkenazi Jewish ancestry. This approach’s objective is to function through connecting the past issues to the past, although it is important to note that some of these steps should be repeated towards ensuring that the research is more comprehensive. Some of the sources I applied in my ancestry research are provide online; for free, free signup, and other resources requiring subscription fees. I decided to track my ancestors and their siblings. The identity of the siblings was important in location and verification of other ancestral records. Actually, I found it very imperative to trace the descendants of my Jewish ancestor. I got more compelling results, and I ended up locating more people in the lineage I never knew were on the ancestry. I traced a single branch of my family ancestry for some time, and I managed to trace the generation back to the fourth-great-grandfather to Hungary in the late 18th century. Furthermore, I managed to locate more than 700 persons in the family tree. First, I managed to find most members of my family, both maternal and paternal, to find their DNA sequences and connect to the Ashkenazi Jews. To be specific, according to the results, I noted that a combination on the DNA’s 7th chromosome appeared to have a notable number of the matches with the identified Ashkenazi ancestry. I noticed that most of my family members had ideas on the lineage and played a major role in identifying the members of the lineage. It was easy to identify documents confirming the facts that the members of the family knew and developing on these factors instead of starting from an unknown point. During the course of this research, I communicated to most of the family members, and I found that most of the findings of my research refreshed their memories and what they already knew about our generation. I analyzed marriage indices in New York for my paternal and maternal grandparents and realized two options. I inquired about my grandparents’ marriage anniversary and how they celebrated this anniversary, according to Jewish traditions. I also used the Social Security Death Index to follow the family tree. This source is widely available for free online, but concerns cases of identity theft, which have made it difficult to use this source in following the family lineage. The SSDI offers useful information concerning persons who have died in the US after the year 1970, and a number of people who died before that year. If the deceased had a United States social security number, there is a higher possibility that their names are in the SSDI. The SSDI provides the dates of birth and death, the last recorded document, and their residence at about the time their obtained their social security number. After the identification of the social security number, or with the data in the SSDI, I retrieved the initial SS5 form that was used in applying the social security number. The form offers information about the wealth of the person; the place of birth, the name of the place of birth, the names of their parents, and the occupation and physical address during the time of the application of the social security number. Most of this information was availed to me in the SSDI website during my initial genealogical research. However, the costs of obtaining this information have become more expensive, and some information is not useful. Another important source of my research is the census records. In the United States, censuses have been conducted after every decade since 1790. Census records since 1790 and 1930 are provided on the United States’ census site. From 1850, all household members are identified, and from 1880, they indicate the connection of each household member to the household heads. Most census data are provided for free on FamilySearch, LDS, and other payable sites such as Ancestry.com, which offers a comprehensive information and census information. There were high chances that I was to obtain information about an individual from the family who lived in the United States before and after 1930. This was only possible through locating them in the census data – this is through identifying their date of birth – and find their parents, siblings, and other people from the Jewish lineage. In fact, the identified information was only useful through the accuracy of the knowledge of the person used in the interview and the ability to communicate such information to the census officers. Another factor that came up during my research of the census database, I noted that names change over time. I had to employ some creativity during the name search on the census data sites. It assists to trace the names and bio data of the people in the household and their connection with the ancestors. I believe that my ancestors lived in New York City. Just like many other Jewish ancestors, according to the Italian Genealogical Group, there incredible databases that record births, marriages, and deaths in New York City. There are no actual records, but there are exact dates that offer insights on the person’s bio data. The marriage indices are also important in identifying the maiden name of the bride and the groom. This index is also important in providing me with the numbers of marriage certificates, which allowed me to see the copies of the rea certificates, obtainable from the New York Municipal Archives. This cost about $15 on every certificate ordered. The marriage records contained the parents’ names for both the groom and the bride. These names were important in identifying the ancestors who arrived early in New York City. The death certificates also recorded the names of parents, although this contained only two names of parents, and the reliability of this information also relies on the informants’ knowledge and memory. The birth records at the registry are only important in the identification of the mothers’ surnames. I also identified important information in death, marriage, and birth notifications in the obituaries in the newspapers. In addition to the specifications of the dates of death, marriage, and births, the obituaries were also important in my research in ensuring that I obtained the names of other relatives of the deceased. The parents are mentioned widely in the birth and marriage records in the newspapers. The ages of the decedents are also mentioned in the death notifications, which approximate the persons’ dates of birth. Since I believe my ancestors lived in New York City, which had a considerable Jewish community, the notices were included in the local dailies. In the New York Times, where I searched for information on its archives dating back to the 1850s, my search strategy for the search is designed to last for thirty days, but I still managed to bookmark by the searches obtained from the archives. Ancestry.com contains death, marriage, and birth column on the obituaries on the New York Times and other daily or periodical publications are included on the respective newspaper websites. The other proper news sources that helped in understanding the lineage of the Jewish and tracking my family tree are the NewspaperARCHIVE and GenealogyBank, which contain perfect collections of the newspapers in the city, but can only be accessed through paying some fees. Other sources that I used in my research are the naturalization and immigration data. From as early 1900, there are immigration records do not provide proper information, but the latest ones did offer a lot of useful information on my Jewish ancestry. After searching Ellis Island, which offers a free searching tool to synchronize their records, I noticed that not all immigrants came to America through Ellis Island. It was established in 1892; therefore in case my ancestors came to America, I thought it would be important to look at other websites. It is evident that early immigrants into New York City migrated through Castle Garden that offers free search engine. The other early Jewish immigrants came into New York through Baltimore, Philadelphia, and other areas having no conclusive search engines that can be critical in my research. Such records are available through the Ancestry.com website. The naturalization records dating back to 1900 or years before have not important information. However, latest information in naturalization is important in identifying the countries of origin of early immigrants, but is difficult to locate. Other types of naturalization records offer simplistic information of the country of origin/birth without factoring on other significant factors such as border issues and the separation of countries. Such records should be properly organized to include the actual place of birth, town and hospital. I later discovered that my naturalization records can be traced through searching the Fold3 and Ancestry sites. According to JewishGen, there are various and comprehensive data to research on my ancestry through evaluating the lineage of Jews, both in the United States and abroad. The organization of the sites information and the ease of navigation are crucial in ensuring that I obtain my family tree data. This also assisted in understanding and tracing back the family lineage from overseas, before the immigrants arrived in New York City and the members of the ancestry who did not migrate into the United States. My Ashkenazi Jews lineage was discovered to have more descendants in the United States and Israel. Most of the persons, whose lineage I investigated, showed that they had same, if not close, DNA chromosomes, which showed a close connection with the Ashkenazi Jews, both in the US and abroad. After further investigations, I discovered that my maternal lineage had no connections with the Ashkenazi Jewish ancestry, even after subjecting her to the Ancestry.com. Since my parents divorced, I have had no opportunity to see my father, but could find his brother to confirm any form of Ashkenazi Jewish ancestry. Therefore, through investigating on online sites and tracing my DNA sequences, I noticed that I had an ancestry lineage from the Ashkenazi Jews. As discussed before, I discovered that my maternal lineage had no connections with the Ashkenazi Jewish ancestry, even after subjecting her to the Ancestry.com. Since my parents divorced, I have had no opportunity to see my father, but could find his brother to confirm any form of Ashkenazi Jewish ancestry. According to the results I obtained from my DNA strands, I noted that a combination on the DNA’s 7th chromosome appeared to have a notable number of the matches with the identified Ashkenazi ancestry. I followed steps from immigration, naturalization, database search, death and birth records, and other sites to search for my family tree. Primary Sources JewishGen. www.jewishgen.org Italian Genealogy Group. www.italiangen.org Ancestry. From www.ancestry.com Fold3. www.fold3.com The New York Times Read More