TITLE: Tracing the Tribe with DNA

SESSION: F320

TIME & DATE: Friday, 04 May 2018, 2:30 pm

This session will present the challenges of DNA within an endogamous community and the fascinating (and surprising) discoveries gleaned from numerous DNA projects focused on Jewish ancestry.

Some points presented are the differences among Ashkenazi, Sephardic, and Mizrahi Jews. Where do each come from and where did they go? What are the historical numbers for each group, and the reasons for such changes. What are the challenges of Jewish research? This session will benefit anyone who has known Jewish ancestry or those who have just discovered Jewish ancestry after seeing DNA results. Attendees will learn more about how Jewish history over many centuries has impacted today’s identities, as well as how genetic genealogists are exploring the similarities and differences of each community, and how many DNA projects are proving answers today!

Schelly is also speaking on Jewish Genealogy for Non-Jews: History, Migration and DNA (Friday, 4 May, 2.30pm) and The Other Side of Jewish Genealogy: Sephardic Research (Saturday, 5 May, 4pm). She welcomes meeting individually at NGS with those who have questions. She will be based at the MyHeritage booth, so please find her there.

ABOUT: Genealogist and journalist Schelly Talalay Dardashti is the US Genealogy Advisor for MyHeritage. She has tracked her Jewish families (Ashkenazi, Sephardic and Mizrahi) for 30 years and created the popular Facebook group, “Tracing the Tribe – Jewish Genealogy on Facebook” with  20,000+ global members.