About the Team
Dr. Adina Newman, co-founder
Dr. Adina Newman, EdD, the creator of My Family Genie, is a professional genealogist and educator. Her specialties include Jewish genealogy, genetic genealogy, social media, and New England, and she presents on these topics in a variety of venues, from major genealogy conferences to local genealogy societies.
Her findings have received international media attention, including mentions in The Daily Mail, AP News, The Washington Post, Us Weekly, People, The Jerusalem Post, and The Times of Israel, and she has made appearances on several news outlets such as NPR and I24NEWS.
She volunteers as a moderator for a Jewish genetic genealogy Facebook group, on the program committee for her local Jewish genealogical society, and as a Team Leader for the DNA Doe Project. She was also a 2020 recipient of the AncestryProGenealogists scholarship.
Jennifer Mendelsohn, co-founder
Jennifer Mendelsohn’s genealogy journey began in 2013, when she reunited her husband’s grandmother—a Polish Holocaust survivor who had lost her entire immediate family and most of her extended family—with three living first cousins she had never known.
A frequent lecturer, Mendelsohn now serves on the board of the Jewish Genealogy Society of Maryland and is the administrator of Facebook’s Jewish Genetic Genealogy group, with over 13,000 members worldwide. In 2023, she was honored as a Baltimore Magazine “GameChanger” for her efforts helping Holocaust survivors.
Mendelsohn is also known for the innovative use of genealogy as a tool for activism. She created the viral hashtag #resistancegenealogy, which garnered coverage on CNN, The New Yorker, The Washington Post and Yahoo News. Her DNA sleuthing was also featured in the 2019 bestseller Inheritance by Dani Shapiro.
Prior to her work as a genealogist, Jennifer spent many years as a freelance journalist. Her work has appeared in countless publications including People, Slate, The New York Times, The Washington Post, USA Today, The Los Angeles Times, Time, and Tablet.