This past week has been quite the adreneline rush! After months and months of planning and anticipation, we launched the DNA Reunion Project at the Center for Jewish History on Giving Tuesday! Within hours, the Associated Press had published an article about the project, and news spread internationally at a level I could have never imagined, with hits on ABC News, Fox News, AOL, Yahoo, major newspaper publications...simply everywhere. Several news outlets have also reached out to us, and so far, I've shared the project with my hometown news station and Russian Television International (my fir ..read more

I am very pleased, excited, and humbled to share what has now been in the works for several months. You may recall that my collegue, Jennifer Mendelsohn, and I were featured in a Times of Israel article after we identified the biological father of Jackie Young, a Holocaust survivor, who spent his earliest years in the Terezin (Theresienstadt). Jennifer and I have worked collaboratively for a few years now, since she invited me to join her as admin for the Jewish DNA for Genetic Genealogy and Family Research group on Facebook. Almost a year ago, I reached out to Jennifer about an idea to get co ..read more

I've been pretty quiet on the blog this summer, but I promise I have a good reason! This past week during the 42nd IAJGS International Conference on Jewish Genealogy where I presented live and pre-recorded three talks (all which kept me pretty busy this summer!), the Times of Israel released a story that discusses one of the most meaningful cases in my career. You can read it here: https://www.timesofisrael.com/uk-man-who-survived-concentration-camp-as-baby-finally-learns-his-familys-identity/ My partner and fellow genetic genealogist, Jennifer Mendelsohn, and I independently read a Times of ..read more

With the advent of the new Kardashians show on Hulu appropriately just named The Kardashians, I've found myself broadening my genealogical research into the reality and celebrity realm. Every Thursday, I've been posting something on Instagram about the Kardashians' family history, such as Khloe's daughter, True Thompson, having a family name or that the Kardashians could have easily been the Kardaschoffs. Because I (and others) are also interested in others on the show and Kardashian-adjacent, I've also posted about Travis Barker's maternal grandfather and ancestors along that line being found ..read more

I've received several requests for Real Housewife of Potomac (#RHOP) Karen Huger's family tree, but when I saw the trailer for Karen's Grande Dame Reunion, I knew I had to dive in, and I wish I had sooner! With Wooden Farm in existence since 1887, there's a lot of history there. Unfortunately, many of the records for Surry County, Virginia, aren't readily available online; I would need to visit a Family History Center to access things like land records for the area, which I hope to do in the future. However, when I watched the trailer and Aunt Val whipped out the family tree and exclaimed, "G ..read more

I've wavered back and forth on whether to designate a blog post to when Real Housewives of Orange County (#RHOC) Noella's father, weatherman Christopher Nance, passed away beyond a couple Instagram posts (see here and here). However, after another night of watching arguments on the internet over this detail, I feel compelled to write it here, in hopes that when people search for the correct answer, the Internet will source this post. Christopher Brian Nance, former weatherman and father of Real Housewife of Orange County Noella Bergener, died on September 22, 2022 in Hawaii. How can I be certa ..read more

Disclaimer: The Genealogical Publishing Company (Genealogical.com) has been sending me a lot of goodies in the form of complimentary copies of some of their materials, so that I might review them. To be clear, this doesn't prevent me from giving my honest and uninfluenced opinion, and I will do just that. No worries. Like many, I've been struggling with current events in Ukraine. Besides the most important, the human side of things in which I fear for the safety of Ukrainians, as a genealogist, I also feel compelled to discuss the effects this war has on genealogical records. Reclaim the Recor ..read more

I know that I'm not the only one who has been deeply invested in how Real Housewives of Salt Lake City's Whitney Rose is related to castmate Heather Gay (and friend Angie Harrington). As I outlined in a previous post, Whitney and Heather are third cousins related through their shared 2nd great-grandparents, William Edward Robinson (1866-1919) and Jane Chipman (1872-1942). A major perk to blogging and microblogging about family history is so-called "cousin bait." Unknown family members may find your research through a Google search, something that has definitely happened to me in my own famil ..read more

We talk a lot about Whitney Rose and Heather Gay's Mormon pioneer ancestors (or at least I talk a lot about them!), but they aren't the only ones with pioneer ancestry in their family history among the Real Housewives of Salt Lake City cast. Meredith Marks was born Meredith Rosenberg on 15 December 1971, presumably in the Chicago area. Her father, Gary, passed away last year (and his memorial was a major talking point in a recent episode). Going back further into Meredith's patrilineal line, I landed on her 2nd great-grandfather, Aaron Rosenberg (c.1852 - 1921) as the earliest immigrant. His ..read more

The other night, I started thinking about how I wanted to honor my family members for International Holocaust Remembrance Day. Before I started researching my family, I had no names of relatives who perished in the Holocaust. I didn't even know I had any. Now, I know too many who were murdered by the Nazis and their associates. Among my favorite trophies as a genealogist are photographs, especially photographs of Holocaust victims, so that their memories can live on. I have a running list of ancestral photos I would like to locate, but at the very top have been those in my great-grandfather's ..read more