Kathy Kirkpatrick grew up in Southern California. After studies at the University of California (Santa Barbara), she graduated from Humboldt State University (Arcata, California). She is a past president of the Salt Lake Chapter of the Association of Professional Genealogists.

She wrote Prisoner of War Camps Across America (2012), Sicily (2008), Prisoners of War in Utah During World War II (2004), Italian Prisoners of War in the Continental US on 31 March 1945 (2003-2004), Agrigento, Palermo, and Catania Provinces, Italy (2003), Basic Genealogy (1997), The Descendants of Timothy Meeker (1991), The Descendants of John Robert Kirkpatrick (1986).

See her website at http://www.gentracer.com/

“Proving the Jewish Heritage of a Catholic Sicilian Family” (Fri-121), 8:30-9:45 A.M.

Starting with a client DNA test showing the 12-marker Cohen Modal Haplotype (CMH-12), we found civil records in Palermo back to their start in 1820 showing this family. We then worked back in Catholic Church records to a 1638 marriage in Palermo for this family.  The groom was from another town without earlier records. However, this surname was found earlier in Palermo.

We located adult baptisms (conversions) along with infant baptisms in 1492, the year of the Expulsion of Jews from Sicily, after Inquisition trials since 1487.

These early books are not indexed, so locating a specific family can be quite challenging. Indexed and published Sicilian Court records for 1302-1391 show this surname in Palermo as early as 1362, clearly indicating that this family didn”t change their name with conversion.

Topics: Sephardic research; Palermo, Sicily; Inquisition