I am toasting myself today, I just found out I am a Jew

[Mari333]

hurray!! and I had no idea.

[leeroysphitz]

1. Mazal tov! n/t

[BurtWorm]

2. With a name like Mari, yet?

I found out I was Russyn at age 45. It's odd to learn you're a member of a tribe you never knew you were a member of. (Let alone that there even was such a tribe, in my case.) Odd but strangely stimulating.

:toast:

[Mari333]

3. heh my whole catholic family is reeling

of course i called them all right away...

[Deep13]

4. L'Chaim!

So when do you get shares of the media and banking industries?
:hi:

That's not a Jewish joke. It is a joke about Jewish jokes.

[Mari333]

5. L'Chaim

My brother just called me , he is still in shock..but laughing uproariously . My mom said "I knew it." shes 82 and said she sort of knew it when she was young. no one ever said anything.
but the dna proves it now. 85% Ashkenazi jewish.
I dont take any of it seriously, but I think its amusing as hell to find this out when Im 57 yrs old.

[Heidi]

6. If you're happy, I'm happy, but there's a lot more to cultural identity than an mtDNA test result.

I'm not tryin' to rain on your parade, but I know from the Dawes Rolls and other reliable sources that I'm Cherokee. However, although I grew up within the territorial boundaries of the Cherokee Nation, I wasn't raised ethnically Cherokee and haven't had to live the challenges that other Cherokees have faced. That's one example. Here's another: My husband is descended from Sephardic Jews, but he was raised Swiss and Italian, and could not honestly claim a Jewish heritage. Having a genetic link does not necessarily make a person one thing or another. :hi:

[Mari333]

7. oh i know

again, I just find it amusing. again, I had no idea. its quite a large genetic link..85% of the dna..and completely unexpected. thats what makes it fun.

[Heidi]

8. If it raises your awareness and piques your curiosity to learn more about a culture you had not

understood or appreciated, then I think it's a lovely thing, and I salute you as you begin your journey to learning even more. :hug:

[Mari333]

10. yes

:hug:
if anything, it will help me understand why they must have turned catholic along the way..because of the pogroms probably...

[truedelphi]

15. How did you go about doing this?

And was it expensive??

Also congratulations on finding out about your genetic heritage.

[arcadian]

9. My wife thinks she is a jew.

Her dad's family is from Slovakia. They are also catholic, she thinks they converted to escape persecution. She always says how she has peasant hands, peasant this, peasant that. She thinks they emigrated from the steppes of Russia.

[Mari333]

12. i kind of had a feeling

my great grandmother is named Gross. and my mother spoke of her hiding her name and making sure people thought she was only german. Your wife could find out thru dna analysis. I did it as a lark. I didnt know I would find out this information..dnatribes.com is where I did the dna analysis..
hugs

[BurtWorm]

16. She may be Rusyn.

My mother's father's family came from Slovakia and settled in Paterson, New Jersey. They called themselves Catholic but it was actually "Byzantine Catholic"--more Russian Orthodox than Roman Catholic. The priests even married! My mother always assumed they were Ukrainian, but just a few years ago, one of our relatives went to the old country to meet the remaining family members and discovered that we were actually Rusyn, or Ruthenian (also called Carpathian-Russian). It's an ethnic group that hugs the Carpathian mountains from Poland down to Yugoslavia. Many Rusyn immigrants for some reason never called themselves Rusyns. They said they were Slovaks or Carpathians, or Ukranians or Russians. But they stuck together and settled in the coal-mining country in Pennsylvania or a few urban centers, like Paterson.

You can often tell if someone is Rusyn if:

They know they're Slavic but can't tell you with certainty whether they're Russian, Ukrainian, Slovakian, etc.

There are a shitload of Andys, Anns, Michaels, Johns, and Marys. Whole families are often given variations of just one of those names, and several generations of males and females share the same first name.

Their families settled in the mountains of Pennsylvania. Or Paterson, NJ. (And a few other centers.

[arcadian]

19. I'll pass that along to her.

Thanks for the info. :hi:

[crimsonblue]

11. I'm 1/16th Cherokee, and maybe more....

My great-great grandfather refused to register with the Dawes Act because he was ashamed of his native american blood, so that side does not count toward my official lineage. Since he did not register for the Dawes Act, it is impossible for me to receive any sort of government education assistance through that line. However, my great grandmother (married the son of gg-grandpa) was 1/2 Cherokee, so I can claim 1/16th. I have no facial resemblence to Cherokee, except for my large, straight nose. I think I', also 1/4 English, 1/16th Scottish, and I think there is some black somewhere in my line dating back more than 300 years. On a side note, one of my ancestors was accused of being a witch at Salem, until her husband bought her out of trouble. I think the neighbor's cow died or something.

[Mari333]

13. dnatribes.com

then you get to find out...its too cool.
alas, no native american for me. but i dont care, i am just tickled pink.
i thought all i would find were some boring old germanic things, but by god i have afghanistan, and iraq tribes on there also..which cracks me up.
hugs

[Heidi]

17. As far as I know, the Cherokee Nation provides no direct assistance to "outlanders,"

ie, enrolled Cherokees living outside the tribal boundaries of the nation. If you live outside the tribal boundaries and are enrolled, essential benefit is the right to vote (and this right is constantly contested by Cherokees living within the nation's boundaries). Please know that Cherokees are the largest federally recognized tribe, often criticized for it's high number of "thin bloods" or "nosebleeds" (pejorative terms used by those of higher BQ) since the nation does not take BQ into consideration for enrollment, and you are not the only unenrolled Cherokee who doesn't "look" Cherokee. There are many, many blond-haired, blue-eyed Cherokees. :hi:

Edited for clarity.

[blueraven95]

14. I hope you are doing it properly, with Manishevitz

:9


I always think it's so cool when we get to find out something like that out about ourselves. It lets us understand who we are and how we got where we are from an historical perspective.

[Tommy_Carcetti]

18. Bless you!

Now, what is it you were saying that you were?

:)

[applegrove]

20. That would be cool. What a story there must be to tell.

[LaurenG]

21. Ooops double post!

[LaurenG]

22. We are all Jews today - in your honor

mozzel tov! :toast:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BFtv5qe5o3c

[graywarrior]

23. My brother found out we were all Jews a few years ago after doing a family tree thing

He called everyone with "Hey, we're Jews!" Some of us thought it was fantastic. Others ran for the hills.


Let me add a congratulations to you!!!!!!!!!!!!!