Ancestral roots

Found myself looking at my sur name origin. It is traceable back to a ancient Jewish community in Belarus in the suburbs of Pinsk. Never thought I was Jewish. That area is known for massacres and many forced migrations.

I don't have a religion. Never brought up as Jewish nor any of my grand parents. Last church I went to with my mother was Presbyterian. This is a real curiosity for me I'll be pursuing further.

Hi OregonGuy!

I've done my family tree and I found lots of surprises. It's very fun and very addictive...

I never knew we had German/Dutch in our family until I did ours. My family on both sides are mostly Irish/Scottish/English but a lot of other nationalities showed up also.

With Jewish ancestry it's always a good idea to look for name changes in the tree. My son-in-law is Jewish and when his family left Russia they changed their family name in a very significant way. Also many Jewish immigrants to the U.S. basically took their Jewish names and "Americanized" them...

If you need any help, I'd be happy to point you to some free websites that I use. Ancestry.com is the best but it's pricey, but lots of free sites are good also if you have the basic info.

God Bless!
Grits

Hi Grits!

Pretty surprising stuff, my dad befriended someone who survived the Polish ghetto in WWII, the friend told my dad he was probably of Jewish descent, he didn't believe it.

Here are a few of the free sites I use on a regular basis:

I use the family tree search here a LOT!

http://wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/

I use this one a lot also:

http://www.findagrave.com/index.html

Another one of my favorites:

http://genforum.genealogy.com/

and then there is the Mormon site which I have found to be inaccurate sometimes, but still a good starting point:

https://familysearch.org/search?PAGE=ancestorsearchresults.asp

If you have the first few generations already, you should be able to find out a lot with these links. Happy Ancestor Hunting!

God Bless!
Grits

thanks Grits