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Jewish Nobility of Poland-Lithuania & All Rus'

Identifying the SNPs of Polish-Lithuanian Jewish Nobility
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About us

Both male and female lines are welcome to join this project for Polish-Lithuanian Nobility of Jewish Extraction: the collective ethnic group of all noble families from Poland-Lithuania who can trace their ancestry, by conventional or genetic genealogy, back to Jewish ethnic roots.

Usually, such Polish-Lithuanian Jewish Nobility descend from Jews who lived in Poland-Lithuania that converted to Christianity before 1764 under a variety of circumstances and for various reasons (though mainly Sabbateans) being awarded noble status as szlachta by the articles of the 3rd Lithuanian Statute (1588-1840) inheriting their Godparents' Arms & Titles. Although the Polish Sejm limited the material rights of neophytes to the level of a burgher or village estate in 1764, in 1768 neophytes living in the area of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania were excluded from this limit if the family had converted before 1764.

Initially, such families also enjoyed a privileged social status in Russia after the Partitions of Polish-Lithuania from 1772 onward as the rights and privileges of the Polish-Lithuanian nobility were consolidated by Tsarina Catherine II the Great in 1785 in her “Letters of Charter to the Nobility”. Nobles had the exclusive right to own land with serfs, were exempted from compulsory service, from all taxes and duties, had a monopoly on the most profitable industrial production, etc..

Hence all Russian partitioned Polish-Lithuanian nobles also became considered as Russian nobility too. Some of once Poland-Lithuania's Jewish Nobles lived quiet lives as Crypto-Jews. Others completely forgot their Jewish origins, often joining Polish independence movements instead, especially in areas which which had become Prussian or Austrian. Others still, especially in California, utilised the privileged security and identity of being Imperial Nobility to advance Sabbatean ideas around the World as movers and shakers.