Jewish Genetic Genealogy Presentation July 25

Monday, July 25

Jewish Genetic Genealogy – A Study in Endogamy   (FxGS Education Class/Meeting)

7:00 pm

Jewish Community Center of Northern Virginia, 8900 Little River Turnpike, Fairfax, VA

Sponsored by the Fairfax Genealogical Society and the Jewish Community Center of Northern Virginia.

Register Online: Go to the Jewish Community Center of Northern Virginia events page (http://www.jccnv.org/events/), click on Register Online on the upper right corner of the events page. Then enter the key word genetic genealogy and press search.

Choose register online. New users must create an account to register for the event. Follow the instructions to create a new account by selecting “No, I am a new user.” When you get to the checkout, FxGS members should enter the promo code FXGS to obtain the discounted rate. 

Cost: $8/$5 members/$10 at the door

Presenter: Israel Pickholtz

Lecture Description: DNA results are especially complicated for Jews, who have largely "married within the tribe" for hundreds of years—a practice known as endogamy. This phenomenon, with variations, occurs in other populations including early American colonial. In this presentation, Israel Pickholtz will tackle this challenge head on. Since every family is different, rather than taking a "how-to" approach, he will demonstrate how he dealt with endogamy in his family and identify general lessons that apply to all DNA research. His goal is to inspire listeners and readers to say, "I can do this!" Following the talk, copies of his book, ENDOGAMY: One Family, One People, will be available for purchase and signing.

Israel is a Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania-born genealogist who has been living in Israel since 1973. His personal research includes single-surname research in Galicia (formerly Austria, now Ukraine) as well as families from Slovakia, Poland, Belarus, Hungary and later in the US, UK and Israel. From there he developed skills relating to more general Jewish genealogy, including Holocaust research.

Israel has participated in grave translation projects, searches for missing relatives and Holocaust-era insurance claims, as well as traditional genealogy research using European, American and Israeli sources. His most frequent assignments from Israeli sources involve locating and photographing graves, locating living people, Mandatory Citizenship records, records for Galician residents in the 1920s and 1930s, inheritance matters and Holocaust research.

Registration Reminder for the July 25th genetic genealogy presentation.

While this presentation is focused on Jewish genetic genealogy, the practice of inter-family marriages is one that was not uncommon in many early American families and to an extent still occurs in many smaller rural communities. This presentation focus on the challenges faced in examining the genetic relationships of descendants from endogamous communities.