How do I confirm data in my ftdna.com test that my father and his parents share DNA with me and my sons?

Question

My deceased paternal grandfather wasn't listed on my deceased father's birth record. I am searching for connections believed to be through these two men to my DNA relatives, the now deceased brother/sister pair of Betty Berman and Samuel Philip Berman. That connection seems confirmed by ftdna and seems accurate. But Betty and Sam can't be shown in my tree yet because of lack of records linking me and them. I believe a DNA genealogical process exists through downloading a gedcom file. The Bermans who are Ashkenazi Jews are likely 3rd or 4th cousins to me. I have no known living, male, paternal relatives. I have no clean/vetted genealogical line to the Bermans. What can be done. (My tree is not listed below but is at Berg-1880. )

Comments

in 2017 and 2018 and beyond:  My families' tree is called HILSE-40. I've tried to stick to direct-line ancestors in it. I do not have siblings.  NOTE A CHANGE: In topmost information, the tree name Berg-1880 is now CHANGED to HILSE-40.

Answer 1

Congratulations on your progress, Roberta!

Have you sketched out a hypothetical family tree (or, rather, a couple of alternative trees) for your relationship to Betty and Samuel Berman, showing the names of their known ancestors (if any) and including slots for the unknown ancestors/relatives in between? A visual depiction of what you know, plus what you don't know and what you can reasonably guess, would be helpful here. Plenty of "Unknown" profiles have been created for parents of people who are known to be siblings, but whose names and biographies are unknown (so that is an option here), but I'm having trouble figuring how many "Unknowns" sit between your Unknown grandfather and the Bermans.

Comments

Ellen, I'm very grateful for your applying your mind and knowledge to this deep problem that is mine (but others must have similar ones). I'm imagining that the blank (unknown) places between my unknown gf could be as many as 3 generations, and quite possibly my father's connection could be found to be a sibling of a direct-line known Berman (Lithuania/Old Poland/Leningrad and perhaps therefore not in a direct line ffrom my father except at his unknown father's point of entry. (Is this correct logic???)

So if you agree, then I construct a Berman-Berg tree with my known gm Anna Elizabeth Berg and her son (my father) Rudof Berg Hilse as the baseline, the first generation male from my father is Unknown Unknown with any surname possible, but a Germany (residence or birth) and his father is the same. It can go back only 3(?) generations, not much before it turns Berman. (Cousin Karen Berman Kirshner seemed not to want it to be one of her known relatives, but that is not a choice it seems to me. Am I wrong? 

If you agree, I'll start this tree in the coming week, though busy.  I welcome anyone's input about this matter, and certainly all Bermans with a historical family in either Karlsruhe or Frankfurt in Baden, Wu(umlaut-u)rttemberg, or Baden-Wuerttemberg in 1906, the year my father was conceived. --And more historical than that, Mr Unknown Unknown's relatives between the early 1800s and the 1940s. Betty and Sam's father located their family in The Bronx and some later members lived in Harlem too. (I am using my faulty memory here, but I believe this is accurate.)

WILL a knowledgeable member of the JEWISH project please comment on this as well?

---

https://familysearch.org/wiki/en/German_Jewish_Records

Perhaps this will help find documentation that will lead to a link. I am not a member of the project but my daughter and I found Jewish DNA (haplogroup) in our results. Unfortunately it is on our mtDNA test so it could have entered our line at any point in the last several thousand years. It is a mystery.

---

Michele, thank you your note above led me to find a couple of places I haven't used before. While I have dna information about my father's father, His name, age in 1906-7, town of residence or birth, and date/place of death have been nowhere visible to me. But there's a web site where written records where these MIGHT be found (see the url below) because information about Jews' existence was legislated as necessary in pre-Holocaust years. 

Inside Familysearch: https://familysearch.org/wiki/en/German_Jewish_Records#Baden.2C_Wuerttemberg.2C_and_Hohenzollern (Baden seems to be the right area & era (but is it? the town of my father's birth is Frankfurt, but his conception could very well be Karlsruhe; and furthermore : Leo Baeck Institute

"The Leo Baeck Institute in New York has a collection of 50,000 German Jewish records, primarily from Baden, Berlin, Schleswig-Holstein, Westpreußen, and Württemberg. These include circumcision, marriage, death, and memorial records. The following work describes the collection:

Grubel, Fred, et al. Catalog of the Archival Collections [of the Leo Baeck Institute]. Tübingen, Germany: J. C. B. Mohr, 1990. (FHL book 974.71 A3gf.)

Much good information can be found at: www.lbi.org , web site of the Leo Baeck Institute."

Wikitree's JEWISH ROOTS and GERMAN ROOTS projects may be interested too.

---

Ellen Smith--hello and short statements and a question.

1.I have a tree dedicated to things you mention about my Jewish family members and I made a gedcom of it. None of the 14 or so possible people to check for already being part of Wikitree are known members. They are verified DNA relatives from a 3rd cousin's tree on anc.com.

2. I too don't know how many steps there are between these families and my Unknown GF. Two or three probably. we can't know. I think I must start another tree, but how? Do I just add two or three generations and then arbitrarily place the Jewish members there going back from My Unknown GF?

3. OR How do I start a separate tree when I have another family tree of direct line relatives (Hilse-40), and have used it here for several years. I do not see any way to connect Unknown GF to anyone.  But there must be a way to connect unconnected trees?

---

Roberta, on #3, there's no problem adding unconnected profiles, just use the New Person on the Add menu.  Then you can connect others to that one.  But you don't want to make connections you aren't sure of, that you don't have any evidence for.  While of course we would like to connect everyone, it's often not possible, and we don't want to create false connections.

What you could do once the profiles are created, is to add a Research Note to the profiles of both persons you believe might be connected, explaining why you believe there's a connection, thereby drawing attention to that profile.  Someone else who is interested or knowledgeable about that person may see it and have information for you that might help.  If you've exhausted all search possibilities, then there's nothing left to do but wait, for someone else related to one of them to show up here, or a new related DNA match to appear, or ...

---

Rob, thanks and I'll try this today.

---

Ellen Smith, thanks for your comment above. I have an entire tree for the Berman families (not just a sketch) and Rob Jacobson has just told me how to put them into my normal tree (Hilse-40). This is one of those seemingly insurmountable new problems that come with the complexities of families and their lines. My usual "thing" is to rise to the occasion and now I may be able to do that with your and Rob's notes about it all.  I truly thank you both, trying my luck and my skills thus far (which daily seem to be "not enough").

Answer 2

DNA FAQ https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/DNA_FAQ

Comments

David, Yes, I know the enormous data of that link exists, but the link you've pointed to would take me a year to know well enough to use it. Do you have a few specific items in mind? (Sorry to be appearing dopey, but I'm so overloaded at 77,I must ask.) If you haven't the time, I'll get to it eventually.

---

David Selman, hello--I have only today and tomorrow to make entries based on my GEDCOM for my Jewish family members. Please see my notes to Ellen Smith on today's date, directly above your bolded Wikitree DNA FAQ. My situation is more clearly written there, I believe. If you can tel me anything I must try to use it.  [He didn't want to go further, thinkingthe words about it online would be useful.]