Genealogy & the Power of Vaccines

I live in Baltimore, one of the places where measles (considered eradicated from the United States) has hit.  While the majority of the people I know are vaccinated and vaccinate their children, there are those who think that measles and the like are innocuous childhood diseases.  As a genealogist, I've seen how many children died before we had vaccinations.  And as an aunt to a niece who ended up in the ICU because of a vaccine-preventable disease, I've seen what the lack of herd immunity is doing.

Jewish Deaths, Volovets District, 1892

Supcoff/Soupcoff - DNA Proof

I've been trying for years to connect the Soupcoff family who ended up in Pittsburgh with my Supkoff family, who also ended up in Pittsburgh.  My grandfather had been told that they were some kind of cousins, but he didn't know how.  I've extensively researched both lines but never found that link, although it did appear that both lines had originally been Zubkis.  Recently, with records that Alex Krakovsky has been putting online, I found references to various Zubkis families.  In September, I wrote about a document I found enumerating a Zubko family in Gaysin in 1850, adjacent to the town of Kuna where my Zubkis family lived.  I was pretty sure that the Gershko who headed this household was the brother of my 4th great grandfather.

Zubka Family, 1850, Gaysin

Upcoming Talks - Boston & Chicago Areas

If you're interested in DNA, I'll be speaking in both Boston (Newton Center) and Chicago (Northbrook) in the next 2 months.

Me speaking in Toronto a few years ago

Now THAT'S a Large Segment

My parents recently took 23AndMe tests (thanks to them for humoring me yet again).  My mom's came back in record time, while my father's is still processing nearly a week after my mother's finished.  Looking at my mother's matches, there was one that looked really interesting:

My mother's shared DNA with Natalie