So I have gotten my results and my mind is blown. I have no idea how or where to start. My whole reason for doing this is this:
My father was a holocaust survivor from Berlin Germany. He came to the United States as a child. He was an orphan and had lost his entire family. He never spoke of his past. He died very young, and any information on his family died with him. For a long time now I have been on a very intense but rather fruitless search for any living relative of my father no matter how remote.
I have been doing my mother's family tree on ancestry as well, so I have found some information on that side, and I knew I had some cousins and I figured I would come up with some new ones from doing the Family Finder thing.
Fast forward to now. So I wasn't sure what I would find. I am female so can't do the Ydna thing. I got my matches, and I have just over 6000 matches. I know that since it is Autosomal DNA there is no way to tell if these matches are from my mother or father. And since not everyone gives their ancestral heritage, I wouldn't know where to start looking for my relatives.
I don't pretend to understand my findings, shared cM's, etc. So I know this is a lot to say here. (Will someone even read this?) My questions are:
1. How do I go about figuring out who might be able to fill in my family tree? Who do I contact? Who do you contact - meaning anyone who may or may not be reading this long drawn out post? I don't recognize anyone in my matches, but I certainly see a great deal of Lithuania, Belarus, etc and I know my mother's family is from those areas.
2. Do I have any chance of finding a relative of my father? Do I just look for people with German ancestry?
My origins - 100% Ashkenazi Jew and all my DNA is 100% Jewish Diaspora. Perhaps my heritage just makes it that much more difficult to find family.
If you have take the time to read this....THANK YOU
My father was a holocaust survivor from Berlin Germany. He came to the United States as a child. He was an orphan and had lost his entire family. He never spoke of his past. He died very young, and any information on his family died with him. For a long time now I have been on a very intense but rather fruitless search for any living relative of my father no matter how remote.
I have been doing my mother's family tree on ancestry as well, so I have found some information on that side, and I knew I had some cousins and I figured I would come up with some new ones from doing the Family Finder thing.
Fast forward to now. So I wasn't sure what I would find. I am female so can't do the Ydna thing. I got my matches, and I have just over 6000 matches. I know that since it is Autosomal DNA there is no way to tell if these matches are from my mother or father. And since not everyone gives their ancestral heritage, I wouldn't know where to start looking for my relatives.
I don't pretend to understand my findings, shared cM's, etc. So I know this is a lot to say here. (Will someone even read this?) My questions are:
1. How do I go about figuring out who might be able to fill in my family tree? Who do I contact? Who do you contact - meaning anyone who may or may not be reading this long drawn out post? I don't recognize anyone in my matches, but I certainly see a great deal of Lithuania, Belarus, etc and I know my mother's family is from those areas.
2. Do I have any chance of finding a relative of my father? Do I just look for people with German ancestry?
My origins - 100% Ashkenazi Jew and all my DNA is 100% Jewish Diaspora. Perhaps my heritage just makes it that much more difficult to find family.
If you have take the time to read this....THANK YOU
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