Is it possible that my grandfather was Jewish if...

[LorD NooB]

If he was born in Verbovets village, Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast (Western Ukraine) in 1948. As you know, historically, a lot of Jews lived in those places. What is the probability that my grandfather was from a Jewish family? Or by that time, after the German occupation, all the Jews in those parts were exterminated? Well, if all the same not a Jew, then who, Rusyn, Pole, Romanian? The surname, if anything, is Ukrainian, ending in "uk". The birth certificate states that his father and mother were Ukrainians, but I think this is not an absolute guarantee, because Bandera was also allegedly Ukrainian, but in fact he was a Catholic Jew.

[Flashball]

Do you know your genealogy?

[LorD NooB]

Do you know your genealogy?

I know that my grandfather on my paternal side was from a Cossack family, grandmother is Russian from Southern Russia and my grandfather on my maternal side was from Western Ukraine while grandmother was Komi Zyryan.

[Alenka]

Do a DNA test and you'll know for sure whether or not he was Jewish.

[Roy]

I did not know Bandera was a Jew ...

[Satem]

If he was born in village then the chances are small, most of Jews lived in the cities, but to be sure DNA test is the best option to find out since it can be hard to check archives I guess

[Abriekman]

Ashkenazi Jews very rarely intermixed with Christians. There are chances, but they are not high. You can have some Jewish DNA from him, because there were Frankism movements in Western Ukraine and Eastern Poland regions and many Jews got christianized and mixed with Poles. There was also very very small group of Sephardic Jews in Galicia, who intermix more often, then Ashkenazi. You can not know, unless you take a DNA test

[Figaro]

If you decide to do commercial testing, consider 23andMe. It will give a literal or pretty close-to-literal Ashkenazi percentage, if you have any. Not entirely sure if your country is serviced by it.

[Unknown European]

Is there anything you have found that may suggest your grandfather is Jewish

[LorD NooB]

If he was born in village then the chances are small, most of Jews lived in the cities, but to be sure DNA test is the best option to find out since it can be hard to check archives I guess

But there is a synagogue in that village

[LorD NooB]

I did not know Bandera was a Jew ...

Now you know. Bandera also is a Jewish surname.

[J. Ketch]

Judging by your politics there's a good chance.

[Pine]

If he was born in Verbovets village, Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast (Western Ukraine) in 1948. As you know, historically, a lot of Jews lived in those places. What is the probability that my grandfather was from a Jewish family? Or by that time, after the German occupation, all the Jews in those parts were exterminated? Well, if all the same not a Jew, then who, Rusyn, Pole, Romanian? The surname, if anything, is Ukrainian, ending in "uk". The birth certificate states that his father and mother were Ukrainians, but I think this is not an absolute guarantee, because Bandera was also allegedly Ukrainian, but in fact he was a Catholic Jew.

Reading the last line, I can assure you - he wasn't Jewish.

[Pine]

If he was born in village then the chances are small, most of Jews lived in the cities, but to be sure DNA test is the best option to find out since it can be hard to check archives I guess

Plenty of villages were majority or sometimes fully Jewish. One of my great grandparents was born in a village (shtetl) of 200-500 people - most of them Jews.

[LorD NooB]

Reading the last line, I can assure you - he wasn't Jewish.

Yes, he was, it's proven. Even his surname is of Jewish origin.

[Pulsa Di Noura]

@OP, might be possible. -Uk ending surnames have some of that background ancestry, in some of the cases.


Judging by your politics there's a good chance.

Not really. Not all half jews/part jews are leftists.

[Art23]

Do you wish to be Jewish in order not to be Ukrainian? Living in Russia, you are probably under a very strong pressure to give up Ukrainian identity. Everything Ukrainian is mocked in Russia nowadays.

[LorD NooB]

Do you wish to be Jewish in order not to be Ukrainian? Living in Russia, you are probably under a very strong pressure to give up Ukrainian identity. Everything Ukrainian is mocked in Russia nowadays.

No, vice versa I would be upset if I found out he was a Jew