Stories written by life...
Jewish origins discovered
The suspicion that somewhere, somehow we had Jewish ancestors has wandered around my family for years. This didn't really interest me for a long time. But one day a previously unknown half-sister, who was partly Jewish, popped out of the woodwork. That interested me and I gave it some more thought. Then all of a sudden I found out that 'Grandpa' – who until then I believed was – was not my biological grandfather. My interest was now fully aroused. Added to that was the fact tha...
more about this storyiGENEA gives you the opportunity to be part of the history
A few years ago, I read an article about the Anglo-Saxons and their migration to England in the P.M. When the Anglo-Saxons had taken over most of the island, they displaced the Celts originally there by deliberately mixing with their women. It is possible to establish this today based on a scientific study of the genetic make-up of the English. Historical data corroborate these findings. I have long since wanted to participate in a study similar to that of those subjects, but there was still...
more about this storyI was amazed to learn about my Russian roots
How a simple genetic test in 2012 told me that I am closely related with the royal family of Russia! The story is intriguing and started when I was born 60 years ago. A story that has always haunted me and that took me to all the inaccessible archives containing records of adoption from Paris. I was repeatedly confronted with French law, which protects the secret surrounding my roots. I knew from an early age that I'm adopted and began to search for my biological mother when I was an a...
more about this storyTraced back to the Seventeenth Century
As an avocational geneaologist, I've been trying for 12 years to find traces of my ancestors. I was only successful to any real degree in getting as far back as the Eighteenth Century. My ancestors came from East Prussia. In the beginning of the Eighteenth Century, East Prussia was largely re-populated by immigrants from all over Europe in the wake of the Thrid Nordic War and the Great Plague. That's a real problem for most genealogists. If one can't find some clue to an immigran...
more about this storyGeorge Wood ... Smuggler
1784 Dec 30 - Hastings fisherman George Wood (my 4th g/g) was shot dead by a soldier while trying to escape on his boat from revenue officers. The soldier was convicted of murder, but then pardoned and freed (from Hastings Chronicle http://hastingschronicle.net/1700-1799.html). scroll down to 1784. He was buried January 3rd at St Clements Hastings. He was most probably a smuggler. Not recorded in Hastings files but I do have newspaper clippings supporting the incident. Joe
more about this storyDutch Corsairs off the coast of the Pacific Ocean
1623. The Low Countries (Netherlands) were at war whit Spain. Maurice of Nassau Prince of Orange, send toward the coast of peaceful ocean, Dutch corsairs, to attack the Spaniards in the New kingdom of Granada. In one of those ships was my ancestor, he survived the Spanish defense, and the corsair escaped to the jungle of tropical forest, at the present time Ecuador. Since that day until the year 1984 all of their descendants, lived barefoot, in the jungle, they only knew how to write their name...
more about this storyLong Migrations of our Ancestors
While I was rummaging through the internet researching my ancestors, I happened on a geographic DNA project run by the Mennonites. Since my direct paternal ancestors were members of the Mennonite church, I was immediately interested in their results. The members of this group mostly marry within the group, and so many family names can be traced directly back to the time of the Reformation. I was especially interested in our family name “Penner,” which had been changed from “Fröhlich.” A...
more about this storyT.S. Gohaidan: A Letter of Introduction
May 5, 2013 Hello, My name is Tarik Sammy Gohaidan: I didn't know my father, past the age of 3. He was married to my mother, Carol Ann Trapp. They met at Western Oregon State College, 1968 or there about. My father’s name is: Dr. Mohammed sultan soliman Gohaidan. My mother’s family tree is made up of American colonials that themselves descend from landed gentry of England. Every family and marria...
more about this storyMy family origin
I knew that my family had migrated from France to England and then England to the USA. With the European Countries so close geographically, I didn't believe I could only consider the Countries of origin only going back a couple of generations. I am curious to know more about my DNA cousins and their stories.
more about this story"We Live As Long As We Are Remembered"
I first got interested in Genealogy when I visited my Great Aunts' in Montana at the age of 19, I was in the first trimester with my son. They began talking about how all the family came from Germany. This sparked my interest as I wanted to locate the family still living there. They talked about the family who came over, Jakob Herold and his wife, Caroline nee Beierle (my great grandparents) and the hardships they endured on the boat ride over. They rode in the steerage deck and endured a lo...
more about this storyPredominantly Germanic-Celtic ancestors
I first came into contact with genealogical research when I got my hands on my grandfather's so-called Ahnenpaß (proof of ancestry) from the Third Reich. Despite being critical of the system, both my grandfathers were civil servants and therefore, required to prove their so-called Aryan ancestry. This legacy was an absolute treasure trove of information, which I continuously devel-oped due to my curiosity. For a private individual, I now have one of the best researched family trees imaginab...
more about this storyPreviously unknown distant relative found
I intensively researched the family history of my ancestors for 10 years. However, documentation research did not take me back any further than 5 generations. After a friend told me about DNA genealogy, I had a Y-Chromosome test conducted for EUR 120.00 and found Scottish relatives previously unknown to me via the iGENEA database. Within a month I found out that my original Scottish name was Morison, a derivative of the Clan name Morrison. The ancestral line of the Morrison Clan can be trace...
more about this storyThe DNA test has shown my mother's Mizrahi roots
My grandfather on my father's side is from Hungary. For generations, it was uncertain whether the family has Sephardic or Ashkenazi roots. It was important to us to know this because the different origins also mean different ceremonies in the synagogue. My iGENEA test has now shown that my paternal ancestors were Ashkenazi. My entire family is excited about what we are able to learn nowadays from my saliva sample. My family on my mother's side are Jews from Iraq. The DNA test has sho...
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