Maria Apodaca: A 500-year Personal Journey. Maria will demonstrate her genealogical research, the Converso history of northern New Mexico, traditions and customs preserved in families since 1598, and her personal journey. Her traditional research goes back to Diego Blandin Gonzales, who was born in Coimbra, Portugal and died in Nueva Espana in 1598.. She is co-membership chair for the Society for Crypto-Judaic Studies; and serves on the steering committee for JGS New Mexico. She is also a speaker on New Mexico crypto-Jews/converso for RoadScholars.

Schelly Talalay Dardashti, Jewish-Ethnicity & DNA History Migration, Genetics: Schelly looks at Jewish history and DNA, covering the post-1391 and post-1492 migrations from what is today’s Spain and Portugal to around the Mediterranean, into the Balkans, North Africa, and the New World. DNA project results and genetic medical conditions (including BRCA1) are also addressed. A journalist and genealogist, Schelly Talalay Dardashti is the US Genealogy Advisor for MyHeritage.com. She has traced her family across Eastern Europe, Spain and Iran for 30 years. Schelly was an early proponent of DNA for genealogists and is coadministrator/founder of the IberianAshkenaz DNA Project (investigating Sephardic origins of some Eastern European Ashkenazi families) and the Jewish Persian DNA Project. RSVP by November 3 to [email protected]