Goldfoot Genealogy

Nadene Goldfoot                                   

RASHI, famous biblical and Talmudic commentator whose thoughts are in our prayer books b: 1040 in Troyes, France, d: 1105 France Studied in the Rhineland  Rabbi Solomon Yitzhaki (ben Isaac) =RASHI

   
   I woke up with an idea brewing in my head.  It finally bubbled up and I knew what to search.  When I had spoken with my 3rd cousin, Stanley Goldfoot, many years ago in Jerusalem, he had mentioned that he thought the Goldfoot line was related to the Gaon of Vilna, a Lithuanian Rabbi of great esteem of the Mitnaggedim branch of Jewish thought.  Goldfoot or the original name of Goldfus is not listed as a descendant of the Gaon in Chaim Freedman's book, ELIYAHU'S BRANCHES, the bible of genealogy for the Gaon.  I surmised at the time that Stanley's connection must have been from his mother's side.  She was a Tavriger.  I promptly put aside the thought that we might be connected.
                                                                       

Rabbi Samson Wertheimer b: 1658 Worms, Germany; d: 1724 Vienna, Austria Nephew of Samuel Oppenheimer

We already belong to Halpern and Branches, a DNA group of people  on Family Tree DNA that have found out their connection to Rabbi Samson Wertheimer who led to RASHI who also led to King David.  I wondered today if it were possible to have roots with both of these famous rabbis.

Another route to RASHI, I was told, was through the surname, Rubenstein.  I'm not sure which one is the common ancestor.  Rabbi Wertheimer was one route the group had discovered and another was Rubenstein.

There was a Rabbi Isaac Rubinstein b: 1880-d: 1945.  In 1906 he was appointed as the rabbi in Vilna by the government.  In 1920 he was made Minister of Jewish Affairs in the Lithuanian government.  Vilna, a center of Jewish learning in Lithuania, was annexed to Poland in 1922.  Rubinstein was elected to the Polish Senate where he fought for Jewish rights. until the Nazis came.  He became joint chief rabbi of Vilna in 1928.  Then Soviet Russia annexed Lithuania in 1940.  Rubinstein left the country then for New  York and taught at the Rabbi Isaac ElhananYeshivah. 
                                                                             
My family tree has an extensive history of Stanley's family who left Lithuania at about the same time my grandfather, Nathan Abraham Goldfus did.  Stanley's mother's history of Tavriger is found only in Ireland, where Stanley's parents and my grandfather also lived after leaving Lithuania;  mine being a very short period there.  A Tavriger was married to a Reubenstein, not a Rubenstein.  That spelling doesn't come up much anymore if ever.
                                                                             
I checked my matches on Family Tree DNA and lo and behold, I had 8 matches of Rubenstein; 2 males and 6 females of which all were 5th cousins except for a male and female 4th cousins.   Then I found that I matched 5 Rubinsteins of which 4 were 4th cousins and one was a 5th.            They probably gave us more paths to RASHI.  However, my 1st cousin, daughter of my father's sister, had 13 Rubenstein matches; seven 4th cousins and five 5th cousins.   She also matched 15 Rubinsteins.                                               

The Gaon of Vilna b: 1720 in Lithuania d: 1797 in Vilna, Lithuania Claimed descent from King David

  One of her Rubenstein 5th cousins bore this exciting information:  that she was a descendant of the Gaon of Vilna. She also had Katzenellenbogen on her tree.   

Katzenellenbogen  is an important surname and is found in the book by Dan Rottenberg, FINDING OUR FATHERS-a guide to Jewish Genealogy.  In this book on page 11 is chart B with RASHI's traditional ancestors.  On page 12 is chart C with Rashi and his Descendants.  On page 13 is chart D of the Luria family showing an unbroken line almost back to RASHI.  On page 14 is the last chart of E, showing how he families Rashi, Treves, Luria, Minz, Katzenellenbogen, WAhl, Drucker, Horowitz, Isserles and even Karl Marx are all related to each other.  

The relationship to the Gaon of Vilna also includes: Claire Oppenheim and Nora Oppenheimer. Also, there are 4 Rubensteins listed in Freedman's book that connect to the Gaon.   

  Rabbinical families tended to intermarry if they were within distance and in the same generations.  With traveling in today's world, we are brought together and have wonderful ancestry to mix with each other.  While not from rabbinical families, my aunt and her husband married, not ever knowing that they were distantly related. He just managed to get out of Germany in 1939 and our family had left Germany possibly by the 1500's when we could have entered Lithuania.   This was discovered through a tool on GedMatch through her daughter's DNA.  I wonder if I"ll match someone related to the Gaon of Vilna.  


                                                                   

David ruled from 1010 BCE to 970 BCE over Israel. He took over from King Saul. That's over 3,000 years ago.  He was Jesse's 8th son and was from the tribe of Judah while King Saul was from the tribe of Benjamin.

Several roads lead to being the descendants of King David.  "Most families claim descent from King David through Rashi. Several families claim descent "ben akhar ben"(father to son) in a direct line, most notably the Dayan, Shealtiel and Charlap/Don Yechia, families*."Hillel, Rabban Gamliel, Rabbi Yehuda Hanasi, Yochanan Hasandler, Rashi, the Rambam and Yosef Karo as well as the more contemporary gedolim like the Baal Shem Tov, the Breslevor Rebbe and the first Lubavicher Rebbe, Shneur Zalman of Liadi, to name but a few have traced their family back to King David.

Wives of David, King of Israel,  

1  [1] King of Israel David b: in 1000 BCE Bethlehem d: in 960 BCE Occupation: King of Israel
.. +Bathsheba b: in Giloh, Judah
*2nd Wife of [1] King of Israel David:
.. +Ahinoam of Jezreel
*3rd Wife of [1] King of Israel David:
.. +Michal the First, Daughter of Saul
*4th Wife of [1] King of Israel David:
.. +Abigail b: in Carmelite
*5th Wife of [1] King of Israel David:
.. +Maachah Fromgeshur
*6th Wife of [1] King of Israel David:
.. +Merab
*7th Wife of [1] King of Israel David:
.. +Haggith
*Partner of [1] King of Israel David:
.. +Abital
*8th Wife of [1] King of Israel David:
.. +Eglah
*9th Wife of [1] King of Israel David:

.. +Maacah


Research:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rashi
The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia
Finding Our Fathers by Dan Rottennberg
Eliyahu's Branches by Chaim Freedman 
http://eliyahusbranches.blogspot.com/2011/02/ancestry-of-gaon-of-vilna-descent-from.html
http://www.davidicdynasty.org/*
Tanakh, the Stone Edition (bible) 

Nadene Goldfoot                                                 

A first cousin overnight reunion.  In this picture is my brother and his wife, a cousin from my father's side, myself, and 3 siblings that are our maternal first cousins with one spouse.  It was taken in July of 2017.   There is one cousin here who tested.  On GedMatch we share 945.5cMs over 37 segments.  The largest segment was 76.3cMs.  This showed we had Estimated number of generations to MRCA = 2.0  (Most recent common ancestor).  2 generations ago went back to our grandparents.

My DNA tests with Family Tree DNA have come up with many 5th cousins.  This means I have cousins that share  one of their 32 gggggrandmothers or gggggrandfathers with me.  That's going back very far, 6 generations.
                                                                     

My father and myself

What is a generation?  25 years is considered a generation.  We had 2 ancestors, our mother and our father for starters.  We receive 50% of our DNA from our mother and 50% from our father.

Our 1st cousins share their grandparents with us.  It used to be that a couple could have easily had 10 children, even more.  Today that doesn't happen very often.  There are a lot of single children without any siblings.  Their parents may have had siblings who had children, so they do have 1st cousins.

GedMatch shows relationship measured by generations.  6 generations ago, we had 64 ancestors.  32 were females and 32 were males.  They were our gggggrandparents.  They were born  about 150 years ago or to the year 1868, being this is 2018.  We received 1.5625% of our DNA from each one.
                                                                       

Going way back, Major Aaron Robinson is in this picture.  He was born in 1768 in Bennington, Vermont.  He could be my 1st cousin 6 X removed, or 6 generations distant (a 5th cousin). This is figured from Family Tree Maker, my software program.  You can find it online today.						..

I've never seen this, but if GedMatch showed that someone was related to us 10 generations ago, they would be our 9th cousins.  By then we would have had 1,024 ancestors.  512 of them would be males and 512 would be females.  They would be our gggggggggrandparents.  They would have been born about 250 years ago or born in 1768.  We would have inherited 0.09765625% of our DNA from each one.

Family Tree DNA will say 5th cousin Remote cousin if the match shows only a certain amount of cMs and a certain amount of segments that equal being a 5th cousin, and even less showing the remote relationship.  They do not go past the 5th cousin remark.  One new 5th cousin I have recently found shares Total CentiMorgans (cM): 86.76281

Nadene Goldfoot 
Edited by Dr. Sandra Oster                                   
                         

Think of our genes (which are a unit of heredity that is transferred from a parent to offspring and is held to determine some characteristic of the offspring.)  sitting on a ladder with 23 pairs of  rungs called chromosomes. One slat on the rung is from your mother, the other from your father.  The first rung, called #1 is the widest rung on the ladder. It has 2,968 genes. There are 890 known diseases related to this chromosome.  Some of these diseases area:  hearing loss, Alzheimer disease, glaucoma and breast cancer.

We have 23 chromosomes that carry our genes.  The chromosomes are like steps on a ladder, with #1 being the widest step that holds the most genes.  The 23rd and last step is called either the X match which means they have a female match in common or a Y match meaning they have a male match in common.  It's the sex gene which determines our own sex.  Females have XX.  Males have XY.  The Y chromosome has the fewest genes; only 231.

All 23 rungs on the ladder which stand for the 23 chromosomes we have carry double amounts in 2 rows.  One row is from our father and the other from our mother.  It's pretty close to being even; 50-50.  Our test from FTDNA has been identifying if a match is from either parent with a little icon of a blue male or red female or purple from both; like the child would have.  Some people cannot be decided on and get no icon by their name/picture.
                                                                             
The genes come to us in little 1cM blocks, like a  single Lego block.  In genetics, a centimorgan  is a measurement for distance.  It is (abbreviated cM) or map unit (m.u.) is a unit for measuring genetic linkage. It is defined as the distance between chromosome positions (also termed loci or markers) for which the expected average number of intervening chromosomal crossovers in a single generation is 0.01. The thing is, they usually come to us stuck together with others, making a longer block called a segment.  The longer the segment, the closer you are to the person you match with them.  1 lego block is 1cM.
                                                         
             The ladder is seen by the scientists as a twisted ladder, the shape of  a double helix.
                                                                   
         
                                               

Myself with two 1st paternal cousins. Only one has tested so far. The test from GedMatch.com shows we are  a 2 generation match. True, we go back to our grandparents to find the common match.  Our parents were siblings; my father with their mothers. Our grandparents had had 5 children with one who had died in infancy.

  Here's my test result with a 1st paternal cousin.
Notice the segments are pretty long, several on one chromosome.  #1 chromosome has 4 segments.
I don't worry about the SNPs (Single Nucleotide Ploymorphisms.)  They are a very slowly mutating location that is used to define haplogroups, another factor of genetics.  That is important in identifying the clans your father or your mother belonged to.
The largest segment is on #9 chromosome. of 52.1cMs. Look below at chromosome #9.  It's a picture of the largest segment being  in this case, a long one of 52.1.  It a length of 52.1 little blocks stuck together.
The smallest segment is on #21 of 7.5cMs.
A segment of 5cMs and more is counted as an important fact.  Some people only get interested in the facts with a segment of 7cMs and more.  .  Smaller segments are not too important, possibly thought of as not as reliable scientifically.

The graph on FTDNA showing #1 chromosome match between my 1st cousin and myself: This black and yellow length is a chromosome with yellow segments on it and is the first chromosome called #1.  When you are on your page in Family Tree DNA's website, you would see this and all the other 22 chromosomes.  I'm showing you this one because the table below shows 4 large segments on #1 chromosome listed separately with the start and end location and how many cMs they have as well as how many SNPs that chromosome has.. 

The Table-below

Chr	Start Location	End Location	Centimorgans (cM)	SNPs
1	3,052,221	25,801,522	44.8	6,612
1	53,581,281	69,237,989	22.1	4,484
1	74,788,735	90,271,128	14.6	3,815
1	149,227,054	163,867,989	21.2	4,088
2	84,202,139	106,046,373	10.3	3,041
2	193,725,959	223,565,798	33.9	6,378
2	223,581,059	233,766,809	14.4	2,341
4	61,566	6,048,415	10.4	1,413
4	139,776,818	173,159,377	34.4	6,286
5	2,711,026	9,426,448	17.1	2,343
5	29,372,002	55,864,542	23.0	4,971
5	153,966,655	180,623,543	45.7	6,994
6	3,653,477	20,272,175	32.2	4,958
6	74,007,746	91,078,586	10.5	3,373
6	126,393,744	137,403,363	11.6	2,349
6	154,838,664	161,802,211	9.6	2,104
7	29,887,885	45,266,280	19.7	3,835
8	6,006,187	12,761,447	11.6	1,917
8	23,060,574	31,234,783	11.9	2,354
8	103,773,672	125,812,954	19.0	4,408
9	81,797,685	123,377,583	52.1	10,912
9	124,006,082	134,328,607	15.2	2,497
10	85,994,218	103,089,567	16.5	4,577
10	128,065,109	135,297,961	18.9	2,714
12	116,636,547	124,168,929	9.3	1,758
14	30,341,495	42,197,431	16.8	2,771
14	89,899,082	106,345,097	34.6	4,453
15	18,331,687	40,097,819	42.3	5,070
16	64,956,434	80,257,464	22.4	4,230
17	12,344	7,964,962	22.0	2,537
18	6,414,209	32,274,392	40.6	6,428
18	71,869,832	74,401,062	8.0	971
19	3,713,698	33,398,855	36.2	5,038
20	57,539,142	62,374,274	16.5	1,588
21	9,849,404	16,035,905	7.5	569
21	16,591,440	35,444,863	32.8	5,231
22	37,722,196	49,528,625	28.0	3,818

Largest segment = 52.1 cM
Total of segments > 7 cM = 837.6 cM
37 matching segments
Estimated number of generations to MRCA = 2.0 MOST RECENT COMMON ANCESTOR


Here's the test with the same cousin and my daughter to see what she inherited .
 How did she match the  #3 chromosome?  I didn't have a match on #3 so how could she inherit it from me?  I thought I pass genes to my daughter.  How did she inherit 7.1cMs on chromosome number 3?  Wouldn't they have come from her father, then?  
She inherited some segments in the same piece that I passed to her, but most had lost some cMs.in the passing to her..  She gained #3's matching chromosome segment that I didn't have, I thought.  
My son did not have a match with my 1st cousin on #3.

Chr	Start Location	End Location	Centimorgans (cM)	SNPs
1	3,025,087	12,086,665	19.3	2,788
1	74,942,731	90,347,366	14.6	3,835
1	149,581,003	163,732,848	20.9	3,965
2	82,974,238	106,005,245	10.8	3,251
2	193,071,967	219,949,518	27.9	5,530
3	36,495	2,749,996	7.1	1,097
4	139,776,818	173,159,377	34.4	6,299
5	29,249,005	36,391,583	11.1	1,897
5	153,879,500	172,829,402	29.0	4,943
6	3,362,642	19,807,420	32.4	4,877
6	126,393,744	137,332,306	11.5	2,347
6	154,838,664	161,802,211	9.6	2,129
8	23,253,923	31,234,783	11.5	2,309
8	117,536,189	125,770,106	11.4	2,082
10	85,614,149	99,641,440	13.5	3,854
10	127,998,547	135,297,961	19.1	2,761
14	89,499,502	106,345,097	35.7	4,560
15	34,667,910	40,092,334	8.1	1,498
16	64,462,524	80,294,248	23.0	4,475
18	6,414,209	9,689,833	13.6	1,233
18	71,869,832	74,397,540	8.0	986
21	9,849,404	16,035,905	7.5	568
21	16,285,114	26,701,936	19.2	2,892

Largest segment = 35.7 cM
Total of segments > 7 cM = 398.8 cM
23 matching segments
Estimated number of generations to MRCA = 2.6

My brother had inherited 2 large segments on chromosome #3 .They aren't the same segments that I had matched with our cousin and are big ones, too. Siblings don't  always match the same segments with other people just because they are siblings.
.

3	3,391,536	44,079,879	56.6	11,481
3	129,663,879	193,357,386	74.4	13,730

                                                                           

                                 Our Goldfoot Family Tree
Notice the unusual names below.  They are how our ancestors were listed in the Lithuanian records.  Every 10 years or so their names appeared in a different spelling of the first letter.  ben means son of, which helped to identify their parents.   
1  Iankel Yankel ben Abram Goldfusb: 1768 in Telsai, Telsiai, Kaunas, Lithuaniad: December 06, 1860 in Telsliai, Telsiai, Kaunas, Lithuania
..+Khana Unknownb: Abt. 1778 in Telsiai, Telsiai, Kaunas, Lithuania
.2  Abram Goldfusb: Abt. 1797 in Telsiai, Telsiai, Kaunas, Lithuania
.....3  Mendel Goldfusb: 1800
.....3  Leyba Abramov Goldfusb: 1819 in Papile, Siauliai, Kaunas, Lithuania
.........+Feyge Ioselevab: 1820
.....3  Ginda Abramovna Goldfusb: Abt. 1820 in Telsiai, Lithuaniad: January 15, 1869 in Telsiai, Lithuania
.....3  Golda Abramovna Goldfusb: 1836 in Telsiai, Lithuaniad: April 12, 1911 in Telsiai, Lithuania
.2  [3] Iosel Josel Symka ben Yankel Goldfusb: 1798 in Telsiai, Telsiai, Kaunas, Lithuania, Russiad: December 19, 1878 in Telsiai, Telsiai, Kaunas, LithuaniaOccupation: 1851 3rd guild merchant;
.....+Rashab: Abt. 1798 in Telsiai, Telsiai, Kaunas, Lithuania, Russiad: Bef. 1876 in Telsiai, Lithuania
.....3  [1] Avrohom Abraham Haim Goldfusb: Abt. 1820 in Telsiai/ Vilna, LithuaniaOccupation: Corn Merchant into Moscow

Our 3rd cousin match goes back to Iankel Yanken ben Abram Goldfus as his gggrandfather.
My 1st cousin and I go back to Iosel Josel Symka ben Yankel Goldfus as our gggrandfather.  Iosel is the son of Iankel.

1, A generation:  about 25 years
2 generations ago;  grandfather-your father's father or your mother's father ...2 grandmothers, 2 grandfathers
3  generations ago;  ggrandfather- your grandfather's father......  4 ggrandmothers, 4 ggrandfathers
4  generations ago;  gggrandfather-your ggrandfather's father  8 gggrandmothers, 8 gggrandfathers
5  generations ago;  ggggrandfather:  the white circle in the chart below, needed to find 4th cousins.  Your gggrandfather's father.  16 ggggrandmothers and 16 ggggrandfathers

                                         Chart to Find 4th Cousins                       
Our 3rd cousin, another Goldfoot, matches like this:
1. Find your circle which is black.  Your father is above YOU in green.  His father is above the green and is red.
2. The red circle is your grandfather.  Your father's brother had a child which is also green and labeled as 1C (first cousin).
3. To find a 2nd cousin, you must go to your grandfather's father which is blue on the chart.
The child of his brother would be the first cousin of your father's brother.
1C in the white circle's child is your 2nd cousin (2C).

 On the above chart one can see how to locate a 1st, 2nd, 3rd and even a 4th cousin.  Therefore, to find our 3rd cousin on our tree, we have to look at our gggrandfather (the orange) who is the father of our ggrandfather and his descendants.  Iosel or Josel Symka ben Yankel Goldfus born 1798 should be our common ancestor.

                                                                Matching my 1st cousin
                           TRIANGULATION-on chromosome 2  
        216,044,195.......................................................................241,324,642  3rd cousin (47.8cMs)
      193,071,967.................................... ...................219,949,518                     my daughter(27.9cMs)
      193,725,959...............................................................223,565,798         Me ( 33.9cMs)           

When you share the same segment with 2 other people, this is called a triangulation.
You use triangulation in seeing who is part of your family.

Chr	Start Location	End Location	Centimorgans (cM)	SNPs
2	28,614,418	34,742,899	8.6	1,844
2	216,044,195	241,324,642	47.8	6,719
5	55,766,345	84,196,459	30.1	6,133
9	134,011,429	140,145,149	19.5	1,893
10	92,947,202	101,347,625	8.7	2,332
11	129,114,448	131,952,204	8.6	1,013
14	42,939,019	57,527,999	14.5	3,564
17	45,683,412	51,515,464	7.1	1,391

Largest segment = 47.8 cM
Total of segments > 7 cM = 144.8 cM
8 matching segments
Estimated number of generations to MRCA = 3.3

Research:  https://www.mrsec.psu.edu/sites/mrsec.psu.edu/files/dna_determines_your_appearance.pd
Book: DNA & Genealogy by Colleen Fitzpatrick & Andrew Yeiser