Speakers: Kelly Moore, Karen Franklin



 


Kelly Moore was raised in Albany, New York. A Catholic child, she was told at an early age that she was adopted. In her mid-twenties, she started the search for her birth parents. A simple FamilyTreeDNA test yielded surprising results – she had many Jewish matches, and one extremely close match to Jon Stedman. Kelly got in touch with Karen Franklin, the contact on FamilyTreeDNA. Jon had died five years earlier, but Karen had uploaded the DNA. Karen was able to provide Jon’s research tracing their German Jewish family history back to mid 18th century. In this lecture, Karen and Kelly will describe the DNA analysis and matching methodology, which would be of interest to all genealogists interested in DNA issues and share the story of Kelly’s reunion with her birth parents.


Kelly Moore has a background in non-clinical healthcare, and currently is on a related career path in Medicaid Managed Care finance. She has a B.A. in Sociology, has a long held interest in genealogy, and is an aspiring search angel. In her path to find her birth parents, Kelly has developed an extensive background in DNA analysis related to adoption.


Karen Spiegel Franklin is director of Family Research at the Leo Baeck Institute in New York City, and is President of the Obermayer German Jewish History Awards. She just completed her tenure as chair of the Memorial Museums Committee of the International Council of Museums (ICOM). She has served as president of IAJGS, co-chair of the Board of Governors of JewishGen.org, and chair of the Council of American Jewish Museums, as well as a former member of the Executive Council of the Jewish Genealogical Society, Inc. Karen is a member of the Advisory Board of the European Shoah Legacy Institute as a member of the Judaica and Jewish Cultural Property Committee.