Jewish Genealogy Society of Maryland
1:30 pm - 3:30 pm
Hadassah meeting room
3723 Old Court Rd (Dumbarton Offices entrance)
Pikesville, MD 21208
Speaker: Israel Pickholtz Title: �Jewish Genetic Genealogy�A Family Study� Date and Time: Sunday, August 16, 2015, 1:30 p.m. Location: Hadassah meeting room, 3723 Old Court Rd (Dumbarton Offices entrance), Pikesville, MD (NOTE NEW LOCATION) Please join the Jewish Genealogy Society on Sunday, August 16, to hear Israel Pickholtz speak on �Jewish Genetic Genealogy�A Family Study,� as discussed in his book One Family, One People. European Jews have always married mainly within the tribe. Five hundred years ago in Europe, whether our numbers were 400 or 400,000, the genetic pool was limited. As a result, members of the tribe today are all related to one another, multiple times. This phenomenon, known as endogamy, makes Jewish genetic genealogy very difficult, and often impossible. There is a similar phenomenon in some other population groups. The speaker is convinced that this brick wall is not as impenetrable as it seems, at least in some circumstances. Using his own family as an example, he has been able to utilize DNA to clarify multiple family relationships. He describes how he did this in the hope that his experience will encourage and inspire other genealogists who are researching their European Jewish families and other endogamous populations to say, �I can do this!� Israel Pickholtz was born in Pittsburgh, PA, and has been living in Israel since 1973. His personal research includes coordination of a large single-surname research endeavor, the Pikholz Project. Israel has participated in grave photographing and translating projects, searches for missing relatives and Holocaust-era insurance claims, as well as traditional genealogical research. Recently, he has taken his family research deep into the field of DNA. He has lectured at International Association of Jewish Genealogical Societies conferences and has served on the Board of the Israel Genealogical Society, as Secretary of Gesher Galicia, and as a Town Leader for Jewish Records Indexing-Poland. He currently serves as Secretary of the Professional Jewish Genealogists Group. The program is free for paid members and $5 for non-members (applied to membership fee when a visitor joins JGSMD) after their first meeting. Refreshments will be available. Please check our web site at www.jgsmd.org for late updates and for the time, location, and program of future meetings.