From ''Genealogical Confusion in Book of Abraham''

[_AmyJo]

Talk about genealogical quagmires! I just ran my DNA with one of those services, 23 and Me. Then I find out I am Ashkenazi Jewish through my mother's side. Which I already knew. Although only 20-40% of Ashkenazi Jews DNA shows up on the tests as having the mitochondrial DNA of our ancestors.

My line of ancestry covers 20% of the Ashkenazi Jewry before the Holocaust. That's the largest single mitochondrial DNA going back to ONE woman who lived app 2000 years ago. She migrated from the Middle East to Europe. The other 20% of Ashkenazi Jewry is the combination of three other Jewish women who migrated around the same time.

If we knew their names, I'd know who my forebear was. No one knows. It's only by virtue of the mitochondrial DNA my Jewish lineage is traceable to ONE woman who lived 2,000 years ago. I come through a direct descent of Jewish mothers from that far back.

I find that effing awesome!

23 and Me explains in its report that for those who have the Ashkenazi DNA we are more likely cousins however many generations because of our common forebears. Of the Ashkenazi Jewry left living today, that's app 1.3 million cousins I share my DNA with. :)

[_Kishkumen]

Very cool, Amy Jo! Thanks for sharing the good news.

[_AmyJo]

Very cool, Amy Jo! Thanks for sharing the good news.

It is fun and exciting to learn where we came from in my opinion.

Although my dad's side is not something to be as ecstatic about. My paternal side goes back to Joseph Smith. It's history preceding the conversion of those ancestors I find more fascinating of those who fought in the Revolutionary War, the War of 1812, and the events of the early American settlers that appeal more to me.

Although I am proud of my Mormon ancestors for their pioneering spirit and perseverance in the face of great adversity. They overcame many hardships to make a life for themselves, mostly at great cost. Many paid with their lives either from persecution or from the trek across the plains to Utah. All for the love of a grifter, a charlatan selling his phony religion. If only they knew then what we know now .... ((((sighs))))

Learning family history is like taking a trip back in time. Like on the Wayback Machine. :)

My favorite saga and one I wouldn't want to have lived through was the Wars of the Roses. Although war is war, that was family fighting against family for the crown. That was one dysfunctional family!

[_Kishkumen]

Although my dad's side is not something to be as ecstatic about. My paternal side goes back to Joseph Smith. It's history preceding the conversion of those ancestors I find more fascinating of those who fought in the Revolutionary War, the War of 1812, and the events of the early American settlers that appeal more to me.

Although I am proud of my Mormon ancestors for their pioneering spirit and perseverance in the face of great adversity. They overcame many hardships to make a life for themselves, mostly at great cost. Many paid with their lives either from persecution or from the trek across the plains to Utah. All for the love of a grifter, a charlatan selling his phony religion. If only they knew then what we know now .... ((((sighs))))

Learning family history is like taking a trip back in time. Like on the Wayback Machine. :)

My favorite saga and one I wouldn't want to have lived through was the Wars of the Roses. Although war is war, that was family fighting against family for the crown. That was one dysfunctional family!

You have a truly interesting heritage, to be sure.

[_AmyJo]

Although my dad's side is not something to be as ecstatic about. My paternal side goes back to Joseph Smith. It's history preceding the conversion of those ancestors I find more fascinating of those who fought in the Revolutionary War, the War of 1812, and the events of the early American settlers that appeal more to me.

Although I am proud of my Mormon ancestors for their pioneering spirit and perseverance in the face of great adversity. They overcame many hardships to make a life for themselves, mostly at great cost. Many paid with their lives either from persecution or from the trek across the plains to Utah. All for the love of a grifter, a charlatan selling his phony religion. If only they knew then what we know now .... ((((sighs))))

Learning family history is like taking a trip back in time. Like on the Wayback Machine. :)

My favorite saga and one I wouldn't want to have lived through was the Wars of the Roses. Although war is war, that was family fighting against family for the crown. That was one dysfunctional family!

You have a truly interesting heritage, to be sure.

Actually Kishkumen, the more you learn about genealogy the more one realizes how closely we're all related. Ex: 80% of Europe can trace their lineage to Charlemagne. There are millions upon millions of descendants from our common ancestors who lived during the Medieval Ages to now.

All of the US presidents (nearly all of them,) are cousins by degrees, through George Washington. A couple others related to George through marriage. Exceptions are Gerald Ford as he was adopted and his biological history is unknown. And to date, Trump. Although on Geni it's shown he and Hilary are distant cousins LOLOLOL.

Another example: I learned studying FamilySearch that through the same ggggrandparents that links me to the Wars of the Roses are G Washington's common ggggrandparents as well. My parents are distant cousins through that same couple who lived during the Wars of the Roses. They had twelve children. Two of their daughters were my dad's and mom's ggggrandparents, respectively. One of their brothers was George Washington's.

No one in my family knew this before I traced it by going back that far on what's available on the Mormon family website. The Jewish history is not there, although my late mom had submitted hundreds of ancestors names from our Jewish family tree during her lifetime. Because Mormons were baptizing deceased Holocaust victims there was a pushback by Jewish agencies to cease and desist that practice. And my Jewish ancestry is not on there except for up to my great great grandparents.

The Protestant/Anglican side goes back centuries. I met a Jewish cousin living in Israel in 2011 online doing genealogy. He introduced me to his family website, which filled in many missing branches of my Jewish history. He passed away this past March. I'm eternally grateful to him for all he did in compiling that history of ancestors. It was a gift of love to his posterity and others like myself who take an interest in preserving it.

Bottom line is we're all related more than we think we are.

I was in SLC last spring (a year ago,) winding up a family history trip. I stopped in at the Family History Center before leaving Utah, and had a question which I was sent to a head research librarian about one branch of my Mormon side.

As we exploring the resources available there, she discovered that she and I are cousins through that very same branch I was researching.

Small world isn't it?

[_DrW]

Kish,

Don't have the background to contribute here - but enjoyed your OP just the same. I've never seen this particular example of Mormon scriptural nonsense referred to before. Thanks for pointing this one out.

AmyJo,

Thanks for sharing your experience with 23 and me. Quite a story. Considering eating kosher now?

[_AmyJo]

AmyJo,

Thanks for sharing your experience with 23 and me. Quite a story. Considering eating kosher now?

I'm not strictly observant Jewish. Because I was raised a Mormon and didn't really start learning about my Hebraic roots until over the past decade it is difficult for me to follow a kosher diet. Some elderly women where I attend worship services have told me though their parents were kosher, they themselves have not been as a conscious choice they made not to abandon their heritage, but to keep things more simplified as American Jews in the Diaspora.

I grew up on a farm in Idaho. My dad raised meat for our family, including pork. I'd be the last one to say I don't care for the occasional piece of ham or bacon. Shellfish is another item I still occasionally will eat - not often but hey I like Shrimp Alfredo, and Lobster Bisque etc.

Nor have I followed the Orthodox Judaism. I prefer Conservative or Reform to Orthodox. My great grandmother and gggrandmother were Reform Jews who lived a century ago and moved to Salt Lake City after great great grandpa passed away in Omaha, NE. They followed a familial tradition of being Reform Jews. But then we're related through marriage to Moses Mendelssohn, who ushered in the Reform Movement in Germany a couple of centuries or more ago (known as the Enlightenment Era.) His family moved in the same circle my German ancestors did.

:)

[_Choyo Chagas]

Considering eating kosher now?

not much of jewish cuisine/restaurant around taureni. there are more hungarian and chinese ones... but we like the jewish ones

I'm not strictly observant Jewish.
:)

would you say a few words about circumcision - in your family?
as far as I know, it is a speshul jewish thing...

[_AmyJo]

Considering eating kosher now?

not much of jewish cuisine/restaurant around taureni. there are more hungarian and chinese ones... but we like the jewish ones

I'm not strictly observant Jewish.
:)

would you say a few words about circumcision - in your family?
as far as I know, it is a speshul jewish thing...

Are you kidding me?

Circumcision is a Mormon thing !

My pediatrician explained to me it is the norm where I lived in Idaho. And yes, he was Mormon. It wasn't a religious observance, but a hygienic one.

[_Choyo Chagas]

I'm not strictly observant Jewish.
:)

would you say a few words about circumcision - in your family?
as far as I know, it is a speshul jewish thing...

Are you kidding me?

no, i am deadly serious - and curious

Circumcision is a Mormon thing !

hmm...

Though secular scholars consider the story to be literary and not historical, circumcision features prominently in the Hebrew Bible. The narrative in Genesis chapter 17 describes the circumcision of Abraham and his relatives and slaves. In the same chapter, Abraham's descendants are commanded to circumcise their sons on the eighth day of life as part of a covenant with God.

In addition to proposing that circumcision was taken up by the Israelites purely as a religious mandate, scholars have suggested that Judaism's patriarchs and their followers adopted circumcision to make penile hygiene easier in hot, sandy climates; as a rite of passage into adulthood; or as a form of blood sacrifice.

My pediatrician explained to me it is the norm where I lived in Idaho. And yes, he was Mormon. It wasn't a religious observance, but a hygienic one.

khm khm again...

The positions of the world's major medical organizations range from considering elective circumcision of babies and children as having no benefit and significant risks to having a modest health benefit that outweighs small risks. No major medical organization recommends either universal circumcision of all males or banning the procedure. Ethical and legal questions regarding informed consent and human rights have been raised over the circumcision of babies and children for non-medical reasons; for these reasons the procedure is controversial.
...
An estimated one-third of males worldwide are circumcised. The procedure is most common in the Muslim world and Israel (where it is near-universal for religious reasons), the United States, and parts of Southeast Asia and Africa. It is relatively rare in Europe, Latin America, parts of Southern Africa, and most of Asia.

please focus on israel, united states and europe !