When Family Stories Are Proven Correct--Backed by DNA

I mentioned several months back that my father's first cousins Berly and Alvin mentioned that Simon Mitchneck, a famous Hollywood voice coach back in the day, was somehow related to us.  I'd researched the four Mitchneck brothers who came to America and discovered that they were from Torchin, in what is now Ukraine.  I found letters from their sister enclosed in Simon's passport applications that spoke about the family's desperate situation in the aftermath of World War I.

Simon Mitchneck's SS5

Cousin Jack's British Military Service

Jack Landor, my grandfather's first cousin, left an incredible paper trail across the world.

He was kidnapped from what was then Poland as a child, lived in then-Palestine (under the British mandate), Turkey, and Italy, was caught as a stowaway on a ship and applied for citizenship of multiple countries, survived a shipwreck, and was deported from the United States before becoming an illegal immigrant by deserting his ship.  And he served in the US Navy near the end of World War II.

In addition to all of that, he was in the British Navy at the beginning of World War II--and I now have some of those records.

Cover of Jack Landor's British Seaman's Identity Card

Incredible DNA Sales!

There are some incredible deals for DNA testing that are ongoing and upcoming.  If you've been thinking of testing, now is the time.  So here are the details and timing:

Winter Talks in CA, VA, AZ & UT

As of now, I'm scheduled to give four talks this winter across the country.  All are DNA/endogamy-related, and they'll be in California, Virginia, Arizona & Utah.  Details are as follows:

i4GG Promotional Poster

When You Don't Match A Cousin

I've written many times about how I always share way more DNA with known relatives than would be expected for given relationships, which isn't a surprise since endogamy is at play.  So when I asked my newly-discovered cousin Anne (who found me via my blog) to take a DNA test, I expected that we should share quite a bit of DNA.  After all, my grandfather was her half second cousin.

Well, Anne's results came in.  We do not appear on one another's match lists on FamilyTreeDNA.  I did a one-to-one comparison on GedMatch, which did show a small shared segment:

My DNA Comparison with Anne

Book Review: "It's All Relative" by AJ Jacobs

I received a copy of AJ Jacob's new genealogy-focused book "It's All Relative: Adventures Up and Down the World’s Family Tree," and I ended up reading it straight through.  (I received this book for free; however, everything I write will be my honest opinion, good or bad.)  This book traces Jacobs' quest to create a World Family Reunion under the premise that everyone is a cousin--and in doing so gives a pretty good overview of many genealogical concepts.

AJ Jacobs' New Book

Israel Tolchinsky's Soviet Military Record

Just three weeks ago, I wrote about the Soviet tribunal of my great-grandfather's half first cousin Israel/Vissarion Tolchinsky--and based on the outcome, I feared for what happened to this branch of the Tolchinsky family.  Thanks to a reader's direction, it turned out that not only did Israel Tolchinsky survive the outcome of this tribunal, but he received a medal for his military service in WWII.  And that post led Dmitry Pruss to point out that since Israel had been an officer in the Soviet military, he would have had an officer file--and he helped me to obtain it.

From Israel Tolchinsky's Soviet Officer File