Number 114: Which Country do your Direct Ancestors come from?

Many Countries!

I know about Lithuania and South Africa on my father’s side. Babylon / Iraq; Israel; Spain; Portugal; France; Italy; Belgium; Germany; Austria; Netherlands, Curacao; Suriname and Brazil are the main one’s on my mother’s!

Seems to me that people in previous Centuries saw themselves more from a specific Town than from a Country.

So many Towns! On my mother’s mother’s side many lived their lives in Northern Netherlands and North West Germany. The border between the two did not appear to be an issue. Most found their way eventually to Amsterdam. But the routes were circuitous!

The Hebrew Bible was first translated into Yiddish by Rabbi Jekuthiel Blitz in 1678, of Wittmund in Germany, between Wilhelmshaven and Aurich – Grandfather 13 Generations removed from Yair & Maya. Salomon Eliazar van Embden, born 1740, Emden, Germany was appointed Opperrabijn (Chief Rabbi) of Hoorn, Netherlands. Many other of our Van Embden / Van Emden ancestors, unsurprisingly, lived in Emden. Ancestors with Surnames: Wortselpujer; Landing; Reens; Blomman and Olman lived in Hoorn.

Aaltjie Mozes Olman nee Van Embden, born Hoorn 5/06/1807, died Purmerend 12/11/1871

Moshe ben Leib Bremer born 1723, Bremen, Germany.

Many ancestors were from Groningen City and the larger Groningen Province, Netherlands: Surnames Van Zand; Levie; Cohen; Heiman; Pot; Visser; Meijer; Nieweg, Van Ronkel; Hessels.

On my mother’s father’s side David Moses Israel Mello born 26/12/1808 moved to Sneek, Netherlands. Other Direct Ancestor Mellos included Joseph Chaim Israel Mello, born 1650, Cantor of Beth Jacob Synagogue, Den Haag; Moses Israel Mello, Merchant and Broker, born Antwerp 1694. His wife, Benvenita Mello ‘nee Texera Tartas, of Amsterdam, born 1700. Their son Joseph Israel Mello married Rachel Israel Mello, born Lopes Jessurun, in Paramaribo Suriname on 27/06/1759.

Impossible to list them all!   Yair and Maya have (mathematically) 4096 direct ancestors at the 13^th generation level. A different 2048 at the 12^th. Our family has done quite some wandering across the generations! All providing multiple rich ancestral memory and experience that, I imagine (?), flows into our collective unconscious and impacts our lives today.