I had been raised in a Jewish community, where everyone, except me, assumed I was Jewish.

In 2005, a DNA test first revealed Jewish heritage. Soon after, we were stunned to find that my 91-year old father had been adopted as a baby, that his name was not 'Lipton', and that .... well. None of this had been known to my mother.

Of course, Mom's family had some hidden secrets of their own. I knew that her father was a direct descendant of the early Protestant pastor, Johannes Wolf, a close friend of John Calvin. The family has lived in Zurich for more than a millenium. I have since discovered much about the Bohemian, rabbinical roots of my mother's matrilineal line across generations, as well as my father's patrilineal descent from the Hasidic Ukrainian tzaddik, Rebbe Raphael of Bershad.

I learned, as well, that overturning any family narrative destabilizes, before it restabilizes, all involved, including me. My rabbinical ancestors would have driven me away from their shetls. My Reformed ancestors would have drowned or, perhaps, burned me. No amount of therapy helps!

When I began our search, genealogical research was just receiving its digital make-over. Genetic DNA analysis was in its infancy. Thirty years of technological experience, enriched by a broad, classical education, have helped me benefit many others beyond myself.

I find it more challenging to filter, then interpret, relevant data from today's firehouse of accessible records than I did, as a beginner, to extrapolate connections between otherwise random fragments. In some ways, finding missing ancestors today has been eased; in others, made more complex. The joy of helping others reconnect to lost family remains constant.