Question 1

What is a kit?

Accepted Answer

A kit is one family-history project built from a DNA file or a GEDCOM family tree you upload. We do the research — matching, archival search, and reading of Hebrew and Yiddish names — and return a cited narrative where every factual sentence traces to a real source.

Question 2

Is it free?

Accepted Answer

Your first kit is free. You can claim it, upload a DNA file or tree, and see a fully cited narrative before deciding whether to add more.

Question 3

Which DNA files do you accept?

Accepted Answer

We accept raw DNA exports from AncestryDNA, 23andMe, Family Tree DNA, MyHeritage, Living DNA, and GEDmatch, as well as GEDCOM family trees. If you have a file from another service, upload it and we’ll tell you whether we can read it.

Question 4

How do you find records?

Accepted Answer

We search archival sources such as JewishGen, ship manifests, yizkor books, town archives, and published ancient-DNA datasets (AADR), then match them against your DNA and tree. Yad Vashem is coming, pending an institutional partnership. Every record we use is cited and linked back to its source — if we can’t source a claim, we don’t make it.

Question 5

Is my data safe?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Your data lives under per-tenant isolation, your raw DNA and the details of living relatives never leave our perimeter for third-party AI processing (a PII-egress diode strips identifying data first), and we never sell your data or use it to train AI models. See our Trust & Security page for the full model.

Question 6

What about Holocaust records?

Accepted Answer

Holocaust and Yad Vashem records are held to non-negotiable dignity commitments: never paywalled, never used in advertising, never used to train models, always watermarked and linked to their source archive. We never auto-declare “your relative was a victim” — sensitive findings are surfaced with care and context, never as a shock.

Question 7

Can I delete my data?

Accepted Answer

Yes, at any time. Deletion is real deletion: your raw DNA file, uploads, and personal narrative are removed from active systems and from backups on our standard rotation thereafter. EU/UK users also have full GDPR rights, including erasure and data portability.

Question 8

Do you replace my Ancestry account?

Accepted Answer

No. We’re not a replacement for AncestryDNA or any testing service, and we don’t need you to give up your existing accounts. We work from a DNA file or tree you already have and add cited research and records on top of it.

Questions, answered plainly.

The real questions