Genealogist reveals personal information about individuals and, according to kinship, brings them together in family relationships in a given time and location. With a fast technological development and Internet-driven information and tools, the first family tree can be created by anybody. If only he or she is interested in personal details of parents and grandparents, like:
When and where they were born?
Where did they go to school and studies? What exactly is their occupation?
What do they do for the living? What interests and hobbies they had?
What is their ethnic origin? If immigrated, what is their ancestors’ country of origin? Etc.
For great-grandparents and further ancestors, the genealogist intervenes with family and general history. The best stories are told when family history is linked with generalities in the past (find some milestones and characteristics for past generations), and some photos are added.
The first source of information are your parents, grandparents and other older relatives. Ask them about their youth and life, they usually love to talk about these. Collect family photos and be sure, that you recognise people on them by names and origin. Then find a reliable software to create your family tree. Install it on your local computer (for example MyHeritageFamily Tree Builder) and be sure, that you have verified information before publishing your family tree online.
If your first thought is still: “How should I start?”, take some time and learn from masters at FamilySearch. This service is still free, you need to register and search for records.
The more we go, the longer we see. Goriška Brda – the most western Slovenian land.
Autosomal DNA testing for genealogy has become popular and affordable. In some cases, it is a substitute for classic genealogy research in archives and libraries. Luckily, with the matching of specific codes of the autosomal DNA, there is a possibility of finding a cousin when both submit their biological sample for testing and make their results available for consultation. In 2018, the atDNA results for the purpose of ancestry testing can be obtained for less than $100 from some reliable providers (Family Finder test at FamilyTree DNA, MyHeritage DNA, Genographic test at National Geographics, Ancestry DNA, etc.). Testing of atDNA can be upgraded by testing of Y chromosome, X chromosome and mitochondrial DNA at FamilyTreeDNA, to get deep ancestry information for thousands of years ago and more precise affiliation to ancient tribes. Wast legacy kept in each human genome can be revealed. This is a good investment for the future and great opportunity to preserve our eldest relatives, parents, grandparents alive by their biological sample containing DNA information also after they pass away.
A basic question of this project is: Could we collect genetic genealogy results of Slovenians and Americans of Slovenian ancestry into a joint database and set standards for certain origin of Slovenian population? We decided to address this question to people, interested in Slovenian origin and their own pedigree (see the survey).
Before the World War I and during it, many Slovenians left their country for a better life. In the last decades before the WWI, it is estimated that the process involved up to 300,000 people. The emigrant wave was directed mainly to the United States, partly in German parts of Austria, Germany and Egypt, only to a lesser extent to South America (Brazil, Argentina). As emigrant and immigrant statistical records managed the expatriates by country of origin, to which Slovenians belonged in that time (such as Austrians, Hungarians, Italians, etc.) it is very difficult to find people. Many of them travelled by railway through Ljubljana to European ports as Trieste, Rijeka, Genoa and Western European ports, e.g. Cherbourg, Le Havre, Antwerp, Rotterdam, Bremen / Bremerhaven, Hamburg and other ports, e.g. Southampton in England (M. Drnovšek).
Port of Trieste was a starting point of many Slovenian emigrants. In 1910, there were 60,000 Slovenian inhabitants in Trieste and twice as much of Italians. Today Trieste belongs to Italy.
By passing four to six generations since emigration, many contacts between emigrants and their relatives in Slovenia have been lost during the last century. In the era of early 21st Century, we have the last chance to reveal our ancestral origin to founding populations from just a simple saliva or cheek tissue sample. From this sample, a unique DNA pattern can be determined, which can link individual Americans of Slovenian ancestry to their origins in the territory of Slovenian speaking people, before all information is melted in a contemporary mixing of populations and natural dissolving of inherited DNA through generations.
So, in our project ‘Slovenian DNA Pool’ all interested participants from both sides of the Atlantic Ocean are invited to provide their GEDMatch number along with their real names and surnames and e-mail for the collection of Slovenian DNA Pool, as well as to share their DNA and genealogy data. Managers and administrators of the project will carefully consider the data before publishing. If an alias were provided, it would be displayed in place of the real name along with DNA results.
Collected information will be used for research purposes only. Anonymised data could become part of a bigger database, as it is more and more often for crowd-sourced genealogy. Furthermore, each individual can benefit from the database to find their long lost relatives and upgrade genetic ancestry by family tree.
Join our project as a donor of DNA testing results:
Thanks for joining us! Hvala, da ste se nam pridružili 🙂
Good company in a journey makes the way seem shorter. — Izaak Walton
Header photo: a scenery seen from a tower in Gonjače in Goriška Brda. In the opposite side, the Port of Trieste and Port of Koper could be observed in the Nord Adriatic See.
Slovenian DNA Pool 