How far can you trace back

Just One

Mon, Dec 21 2020, 9:20 pm

amother [ Babyblue ] wrote:

We have family trees going very far back. It actually came up a couple years ago, one of my cousins was about to get engaged. they wanted to make sure that my grandfather was not a mamzar or anything funny, since he comes from a very interesting country. I'm not going to see what country since it will out me. There are only two from Jews from that country alive today. My grandfather was able to pull out a family tree he has, that went all the way up.

I'm guessing China..... You don't havta answer

amother

Lime

Mon, Dec 21 2020, 9:29 pm

amother [ Yellow ] wrote:

Maybe one day I will go back to those countries and stand outside the castles and let Grandpa know his worst nightmares are true.... the Jews are here and they’ve got your genes!!!

Wow. He must have done SOMETHING good to deserve that.

Surrendered

Mon, Dec 21 2020, 9:43 pm

Lady A, sweet bee and Yellow- I really admire your courage to go against the tide and find the truth. I'd love to hear your stories, you must be very special people. Must've been an interesting journey... what inspired you to become Jewish or Frum???

Last edited by Surrendered on Mon, Dec 21 2020, 9:48 pm; edited 1 time in total

ynms

Mon, Dec 21 2020, 9:46 pm

SixOfWands wrote:

My mother's father was a Kohen, and my father is a Levi. So I guess my family goes a ways back.

Ditto. And now married to a Kohen Smile

amother

Natural

Mon, Dec 21 2020, 9:46 pm

My family has written down how we trace back to Adam Harishon, Dovid Hamelech and some really prominent rabbis from generations past. I'm not really into these things, but my brother was when he was a bochur, so he got in touch with relatives that had different parts of our family tree and compiled a list.

amother

Yellow

Mon, Dec 21 2020, 9:53 pm

Surrendered wrote:

It’s not so interesting. My father was Jewish and I grew up just secular in an evangelical area in the Deep South. I moved to New York because growing up I was always “the jew” and people including teachers would always tel me they were praying for me etc. I went to a big university in the north and joined Jewish clubs to meet other Jews and found it I wasn’t Jewish at all. I look very Jewish and have a Jewish sounding name and half my family is typical New York secular Jews. I spent a while doing some soul searching and here we are ... 10 years later Bh . most people just think I’m a BT.

amother

Black

Mon, Dec 21 2020, 10:04 pm

I've always been so interested in this type of thing but haven't been able to unearth much. My parents just took DNA tests to see if they can find any relatives on Ancestry.com.
We're Russian jews as far back as I can find, possibly some German mixed into there too.

amother

Goldenrod

Mon, Dec 21 2020, 10:20 pm

chocolatecake wrote:

Hello cousin, I am a direct descendent of the GRA. It is traced back through my fathers mother. My fathers fathers family are Litvaks traced back to Lithuanian/Russian towns. My mothers father is a Litvak as well traced back to Litvish towns in Russia/Lithuania. My grandmothers parents from my mothers side came from Satmar before the war. They did not keep the chassidish dress and customs when they came to America.

Me too!

Also a descendant of the baal hatanya.
I have nephews who are also descendants of the baal shem tov

amother

Violet

Mon, Dec 21 2020, 11:12 pm

My mother's familys lineage is all on geni.com so it's fun to trace it that way.

I know that we come from the Yismach Moshe. Anyone else?

amother

Lime

Mon, Dec 21 2020, 11:20 pm

Just One wrote:

I'm glad to tell you every one of us is part of you're family

OMG I was joking!
I don’t own her candle sticks and if I did I wouldn’t tell anyone Laugh

Just One

Mon, Dec 21 2020, 11:24 pm

amother [ Lime ] wrote:

OMG I was joking!
I don’t own her candle sticks and if I did I wouldn’t tell anyone Laugh

And I'm joking back sister!

amother

Seashell

Tue, Dec 22 2020, 1:07 am

Chayalle wrote:

My father was born in Satu Mare.
He is a direct descendent of the Taz, ben achar ben.

My mother A"H was a descendent of the Shlah HaKadosh, and the Shlah apparently could trace his lineage to David Hamelech.
On my paternal grandfather's side, my great-great-great grandfather was a Chassidish Rebbe known as R' Hershele Lisker. He was the Rebbe of the more famous R' Shayala Kerestirer.
My maternal grandmother was descendent of a famous Rav in Czekoslovaki area known as the Mareh Yecheskal. He was the Rebbe of Dhez.

My grandmother A"H was very into all this stuff, so I heard alot of family stories from her as a child. I find history fascinating.

We might be related. On my Father's side we are direct descendants of the Shlah as well. My Grandmother's grandparents came the the US in 1883.

amother

Slateblue

Tue, Dec 22 2020, 5:06 am

On one side I am descended from vikings, celts and just plain english. The other side I am from yekke and chassidim. I have a couple of ancestors who kept family trees going back to 1600 or so. No one particulary special as in Rebbeim, but some prominent business people in their day.

One of my relatives has managed to trace back to Dovid Hamelech using this. Lots of Babylonian Gaonim in there.

Also, straight male line from Levi.

I did a DNA test and 50% was European Jewish, so probably no sefardi heritage there. Now I keep getting notifications that so and so is my 4th cousin. I have a lot of 4th cousins!

amother

Aubergine

Tue, Dec 22 2020, 5:19 am

So my parent's are BT's but my grandparents parents (from all sides) were the ones to go off the derech. My grandparents remember going to their grandparents for the Seder and stuff and they were all frum.

I'm descended from many different types of chassidut. My mom's mom's side has a detailed family tree going back to the 1600's that's hundreds of pages long detailing all descendants from then on. We have a relative who runs and updates it with birth dates, death dates, marriage dates, where people were born and died, etc.

From my father's father side he can't remember much as his father died when he was young and his father never spoke about his family. His last name (my maiden name as well) is Schreiber. In addition I know some family first names from his family it's likely they are descendants of the Chattam Sofer because the same first names are in the Chattam Sofer's family as well.

amother

Lime

Tue, Dec 22 2020, 6:23 am

None of the Chasam Sofer’s grandchildren went off the derech. They all remained frum.
It’s a known fun fact attributed to his mesirus nefesh in fighting the haskala.
(That’s also why there are so many of them bli ayin hara)

Chickensoupprof

Tue, Dec 22 2020, 6:28 am

For my dads side (not Jewish) Dutch, and never moved more then 30km out of the village. We can trace back till somewhere in the end of 1700. For my moms side, we can trace back for my grandfather (not Jewish) to somewhere in the Dutch province of Friesland also I guess somewhere in the 1700. Then my moms mother the only Jewish side... We know that her family was really really poor got assimilated in the early 1900 but married Jewish... They had professions like 'orange carrier' in the harbor of Amsterdam, we can trace back somewhere in Frankfurt. Sorry I don't have good yichus... hahaha It's kinda of a miracle that I became frum.