26 | DECEMBER 2 • 2021

JEWS IN THE DIGITAL AGE

S

everal years ago, I was
contacted by a repre-
sentative at ancestry.
com who offered me the
opportunity to submit my
DNA using a saliva collec-
tion kit. I figured I would
be able to get the results and
then complete
my family tree
going back
many genera-
tions. I set up
an ancestry.
com account
and started to
add relatives
to my family
tree. When I received the
DNA test results back, they
did not yield any surprises
(99% Ashkenazi Jewish), and,
unfortunately, there were
not any matches of my close
relatives or ancestors. This
is because there were not
enough people paying for and
submitting the saliva DNA to
the website.
Fast forward to this past
summer when I received an
email alert from ancestry.
com. I had actually forgot-
ten I ever set this account
up. The alert told me that
my first cousin was a DNA
match and was likely my first
or second cousin. This was
not earth-shattering news to
me since I already knew my
first cousin was related to me,
and I also knew how she was
related. However, this piqued
my interest yet again in my
genealogy.
I returned to the web-

site, and sure enough, more
DNA matches showed up for
potential cousins. I began
looking through other family
trees that distant cousins had
set up as well as 100-year-old
documents that gave me hints
about my long-lost relatives.
I immediately got lost in
the genealogy black hole,
spending hours researching
my family tree and sharing
my findings with my fami-
ly members. I was amazed
to see photographs of my
great-great-grandparents. I
located photographs of my
ancestors’ grave monuments,
which provided details
including their Hebrew
names, when they were born
and when they died.
I discovered an ancestry.
com account belonging to
my mother’s first cousin,

who had already spent a lot
of time adding relatives’ vital
information and photographs
to his family tree. In his col-
lection, I was amazed to see
photos of my grandparents
(his aunt and uncle) I had
never seen before. I started
connecting the genealogy
dots that led me to extend my
family tree back several gen-
erations, and I was able to do
this for my wife’s family tree
as well.
While monthly or annual
membership to ancestry.
com (or to other genealo-
gy websites) can be quite
costly, I learned that many
local libraries offer compli-
mentary access to ancestry.
com and other online gene-
alogy resources. I was able to
take advantage of the access
provided by the Farmington

Hills Library, which gives
library members full access
to the ancestry.com website
by logging into the library
website.
In addition to the Ancestry
website, I also have used
both familysearch.com and
myheritage.com to look up
birth and death records and
other helpful documents,
like immigration records
and high school yearbooks.
The only time I spent money
on this hobby was when
I ordered a copy of my
great-grandparents’ New York
City marriage license.
One resource very helpful
to me in doing this genealog-
ical research is the website
findagrave.com. In a few
instances, I was able to iden-
tify a cemetery in which a
relative was buried, but no
other information about that
relative or a photograph of
the monument was available.
I simply clicked a button
on the website that reads
“Request a Photograph” and
within one day I was notified
by email that photographs of
my ancestors’ grave monu-
ments had been updated to
the website.
Being able to use genetic
ancestry testing together with
historical documentation
has been an exciting and
very interesting way for me
to delve into my genealogy.
Had I not submitted that
saliva DNA sample several
years ago and created an
online account at ancestry.

Genetic Genealogy for
the Digital Age

Rabbi Jason
Miller
Contributing
Writer

The grave of Sarah Wiener.