Clay in My Boots: A Romp Through My Genealogical Past

While my SNYDER Big Y-DNA test didn't provide many matches, I was able to contact the family of Joseph Nudelman, who is listed as an Earliest Known Ancestor. Our Y-DNA lines separated over 1,000 years ago, so he is a very distant relative. Here is his story: Joseph Nudelman's life story is a testament to the resilience and ambition of Jewish immigrants in the late 19th century. Born in a small village near Odessa, Russia in 1844, Joseph received a traditional Jewish education, becoming fluent in Yiddish and Russian.  After apprenticing as a carpenter, he became a wine and grain merchant in Romania due to pogroms in Russia.  Driven by the ideals of the Am Olam movement, which sought to establish Jewish agricultural settlements, Joseph, with financial backing from Baron de Hirsch, led a group of 25 families to America in 1881.  He was delayed due to his wife’s illness but followed in 1882 with more settlers. The journey wasn't easy.  The initial group gathered in Denv...

Happy New Year Family, Probably the most exciting Genealogical find of this past year, was finally finding Jacob Gouline’s family records in Jewish Gen. I do not believe this data was there until recently. Perhaps it was released along with other archival records because of the War in Ukraine. Find this Record in JewishGen This Revision List record shows Jacob on line 5 as an 8-year-old. The given names of his family confirm that this is their record. His mother, Yenta Blyuma is the same as his first born Jeanne Highstein’s Hebrew name. His older sisters were Ita (same as daughter Ida Glass) and Malka (same as Marcella Witriol). His Grandfather was Volf (same as Willy Gouline). The family is from Lutzk which is where I began searching for them. I even went to the Archives there when Carol and I were in Ukraine in 2018. This family record has expanded the Gouline family another 3 generations by confirming his father Moyshe Gersh, adding Yenat Blyuma his mother, adding Volf, his...