The story in my husband's family is that, although his grandfather emigrated to the US from Galicia, the family ended up there, circuitously and many generations earlier, as a result of the expulsion from Spain in late 15th century.  On a recent trip to Morocco, he was stopped a number of times and asked (through our guide) if he was a "Fezi;" we understand that meant that he resembled members of the Jewish community in Fez who had fled Spain hundreds of years earlier.  This all sounds somewhat unlikely to me, and my attempts to research his ancestry in Spain have turned up not a hint of confirmation.  But that could be because I don't know how and where to look.  His family name is DYM; they are kohens, and apparently included generations of rabbis (a family characteristic that ended on making landfall in NYC).  He was told, by his father, that the name itself is an ancient acronym of Hebrew letters...dalet-yud-mem...standing for "judge and defender."   Any ideas on how to proceed, for an enthusiastic but compared to you all, fairly incompetent genealogist?

Thanks, Fran   fayhen@...

Signing your full name to all your messages furthers the spirit of community and mutual assistance that our group depends on.
Full name and place of residence & email address is even better.

I had a quick look through a DYM family on Geni and noticed that one of these is married to a member of the TOLEDANO family - a well known Moroccan Rabbinic family. So maybe your husband has also this family in his blood.
These are probably living people so the profiles are kept private there, but try and contact the profile mangers on the following profile:-
https://www.geni.com/family-tree/index/6000000114415604821
Also, I found the kohanic family on Geni, so you might want to ask if the profile manager on the above link knows if/how his family is connected to the big family.

I also found the following:-
https://www.health.gov.il/Subjects/Genetics/Documents/book_jews.pdf
Look at page 67:-
<<<Molecular genetics and epidemiology: DYM gene (chromosomal locus 18q12-q21.1) In a Moroccan Jewish family six out of 10 sibling were affected. No molecular studies have been reported.>>>
The name of the gene might be that because it was discovered by O. Dym - see page 82, thus no relevance to the family, but the people who asked your husband might have had this information and wanted to find out whether there was a connection.

David Ziants
Ma'aleh Adumim, Israel
Researching: ZIANTS, ZENETSKY (SCHLOSBERG), ZIANTSCHIK, FRIEDMAN,  ISMACH (DAVIDSON, OSMAN) from Narewka, Bialystok, Lomza, Lodz, Bielsk, Warsaw; GEWELBA (GABLE,RAVELLE,GALE), SINGER from Warsaw; REINA from Netherlands; MICHAELS from UK & Western Europe; VIEYRA, JUDA-RODRIGUEZ from UK, Netherlands (as well as all other Dutch Sephardi families).

 

Well,

Surname Dym is listed, mostly in Galicia per JRI-P database, 697 times!
It is also listed in modern Poland 235 times, again, mostly within the ex eastern Galicia borders, for the ethnic (non-Jewish) Polish folks.
Dym translates from Polish as "smoke" and  according to Polish Slavic genealogical site, was used first as a family name in 1471.

Alexander Sharon
JGFF editor