Finding Cousins
When doing Genealogy, you often run across folks who reach out to you because they have a DNA match, because of a shared family name, or there is an ancestral town in common.
When this new "cousin" reaches out to me, I enjoy trying to find a shared ancestor and/or help them along their research journey. I welcome the opportunity to explore a branch of my family that has laid dormant for a few months or years.
Some of my latest research has been the following:
- A "cousin" in Florida found that he had an ancestor married in to my OKS family from Lutzk and Kremenets Ukraine ... but we also had a DBA match. So we tried to explore how maybe those married ancestors might also have had shared ancestors.
- A "cousin" in New York has a DNA match, but the only surname that matched was KHAZAN, however our DNA matched on my fathers side of the family and KHAZAN is on my mother's side. We also found that he had some BASS relatives on his family tree, so that was where we continued to explore.
- At a recent JGSGW meeting, a "new attendee" who I also new through my Temple introduced herself to the group and listed off her family names. When she sat down, I said I had BASS ancestors as well. She started listing off some BASS ancestors whose names sounded familiar. Unfortunately, none seemed to match. We then checked our DNA and discovered that we were 3rd cousins, so the search continues.
- I mentioned in my annual letter that I had reached out to possible GALON family members in Israel. I still have not gotten a response from my letter I sent. However, I decided to reach out to all the people named GALON in Israel that are on Linkedin. I got a response back from one individula who was the grandson of Arye GALON who contributed to the Kremenets Yitzor Book. But, he's ignored my followup questions. I'll keep trying!
I'm Teaching a Class:
I agreed to co-teach three - 90 minute classes on Genealogy at my Temple this summer. In doing the research for my class I've been looking back on my notes from classes I'd attended and am exploring topics to cover in m class. As part of my Introduction, I looked at sharing why I do genealogy and what I get out of this exploration. Here are my first few bullet points:
Why do Genealogy?
When this new "cousin" reaches out to me, I enjoy trying to find a shared ancestor and/or help them along their research journey. I welcome the opportunity to explore a branch of my family that has laid dormant for a few months or years.
Some of my latest research has been the following:
- A "cousin" in Florida found that he had an ancestor married in to my OKS family from Lutzk and Kremenets Ukraine ... but we also had a DBA match. So we tried to explore how maybe those married ancestors might also have had shared ancestors.
- A "cousin" in New York has a DNA match, but the only surname that matched was KHAZAN, however our DNA matched on my fathers side of the family and KHAZAN is on my mother's side. We also found that he had some BASS relatives on his family tree, so that was where we continued to explore.
- At a recent JGSGW meeting, a "new attendee" who I also new through my Temple introduced herself to the group and listed off her family names. When she sat down, I said I had BASS ancestors as well. She started listing off some BASS ancestors whose names sounded familiar. Unfortunately, none seemed to match. We then checked our DNA and discovered that we were 3rd cousins, so the search continues.
- I mentioned in my annual letter that I had reached out to possible GALON family members in Israel. I still have not gotten a response from my letter I sent. However, I decided to reach out to all the people named GALON in Israel that are on Linkedin. I got a response back from one individula who was the grandson of Arye GALON who contributed to the Kremenets Yitzor Book. But, he's ignored my followup questions. I'll keep trying!
I'm Teaching a Class:
I agreed to co-teach three - 90 minute classes on Genealogy at my Temple this summer. In doing the research for my class I've been looking back on my notes from classes I'd attended and am exploring topics to cover in m class. As part of my Introduction, I looked at sharing why I do genealogy and what I get out of this exploration. Here are my first few bullet points:
- Member of Temple Beth Ami since 2016
- Doing Genealogy for over 15 years
- Earliest Confirmed Ancestor born about 1725
- When I started, I knew 14 ancestors, now I know of 89!
- I knew 4 generations, now 8 for many and one ancestor at 9.
Why do Genealogy?
- It’s fun, I meet new people, and it helps me understand who I am!
It surprised me to realize that I have over 3700 people in my tree. Of course some of these people are related my marriage that are in my tree for research purposes. Even more surprising was the fact that now I know of 89 of my direct ancestors going back 9 generations. When I started this journey I only knew who my Parents, Grandparents, and Great-Grandparents were. I'm truly floored!
I also, in doing work in the Kremenets District Research Group (KDRG) have purchased some tools to help me manage some data locally. These tools also allow me to print a full pedigree tree, and publish some of my research.
Here is a link to research just my direct ancestors:
Here is my pedigree so far:
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