Discovery of Jewish Ancestors

My experiences with family history research have been quite adventurous this year. I have been able to trace ancestry on my mother’s side as far back as the sixth generation. I started out with the name of my great-grandmother, Beatrice Glasser (1919-1972), and have been blessed to go as far back as two generations.

While I was busy doing my summer research, I discovered that I have some Jewish ancestors who immigrated from Russia to the United States during the second half of the Nineteenth Century.

I had wondered why my third great-grandparents had immigrated from Russia to the United States during the late 1800's. So, I made my inquiry by searching the Internet, and had found that they were among many other Ashkenazi Jews who fled the Russian Empire in order to escape religious persecution.

In addition to this investigation, I learned that Glasser was a spelling variation of Glaser, which happens to be German and Jewish (Ashkenazic), according to Ancestry.com.

The map below is a rendition of the Russian Empire during the 19th Century.

(Image Source: http://www.ulm.edu/innovator/lessons/revolt/pre1917/mapeuro19thc.html)