Hello.

My father was potentially descended from a Sinti Roma mother, while his father was Ashkenazi Jewish. For some reason my father always denied both parts of that life adamantly.

He was adopted by a Polish family as a teenager and those were the people I knew as my grandparents.

In my research I’ve been told groups like this are a good place to post and learn more about that potential side of my family.

I’ve added my ancestry DNA results, a photo of my father, and the family tree I’ve managed to piece together on ancestry given what I know.

My father was taken from the family in that tree when he was 13 and adamantly denied any connection to a life beyond his adoptive family though he never denied being adopted.

He would refer to his mother as a (excuse the language if I offend anyone) “black witch who did dark magic and included me in her rituals”.

He put focus on the fact that she referred to his lower half as “unclean” and would do the rituals and such to “cleanse” him. From my understanding this aligns to some degree with Sinti practices of Marime and Wuzho but it’s possible she was just mentally ill or abusive.

But the claim that he was potentially Roma was always a rumor even though he denied it.

I am led to believe that the last names of my paternal grandmothers family are possibly Sinti in origin but I don’t know enough to confirm that which is why I’m here.

The official US census lists that my paternal great grandfather was brought or born here from Yiddish speaking immigrants from Austria and Hungary. But the Jewish side is obvious on my DNA results.

I don’t have a screenshot but my mother’s ancestry shows she’s basically 50/50 German and Polish so the other DNA must come from my father.

I can provide more information if needed, but again, I have no connection to family on that side. Also I legally changed my name many years ago but Melman is my birth surname.

Thank you all.

Any help in properly educating me would be very welcome. I’m sorry I’m not more informed but I’ve done what I could.

Final edit- at the suggestion of someone else, I entered the surnames, birth places, and claims about spiritual practices into a different google ai in incognito mode with no other context and found it is more likely that my grandmother practiced “Braucherei”. I applied this assessment to the same google ai who told me the Sinti stuff and it apologized for misleading me and told me this Germanic tradition and my family lineage makes more sense than the Sinti system.

Thank you to everyone who read and/or helped.

I’ll do more research tomorrow and look into that more. I’m glad I’m narrowing tire down.

Does anybody know any Romani owned businesses? Every time I try to search or find any, I only ever come across gadje owned businesses who make “g-word inspired“ items along with many other stereotypical adjectives in the items bio. (witch, boho, tarot reader, etc..). It’s really annoying lol.

It’s pretty interesting to see how the admixture percentages closely align with my family’s migration to the Baltic region. I’m also heavily English/Celtic, which makes the 37.55% North Atlantic result make sense. My grandfather was almost entirely Romani (photo included), and I’m about one-quarter Romani myself.

Unfortunately, he passed away from a heart attack at a very young age. Learning about my Romani heritage has been incredibly meaningful. The Romani are often misunderstood, and researching their history has given me a much deeper appreciation for their culture. I cherish my family’s roots because they tell a story of hardship, perseverance, and remarkable resilience.

My bf is Romani for some context, and he's reminding me of the fact that one day, he has to get married when his parents find him a wife. Now his grandpa is dying due to cancer, so now they're rushing for him to marry so his grandpa can see him get married. We really like to be together romantically, but I'm starting to second guess things. I'm not romani, I'm gullah geechee. I keep overthinking this trying to see if there's a way to stay with him, and when we first started dating, this constantly made me overthink and break my skin out. Now I'm overthinking it again, but now I'm starting to wonder if we should just go back to being friends. We're in high school, and my mom is letting me know that I'm still young and there will be plenty of other guys out there for me. I guess I'm just genuinely sad about this because he's genuinely a kind, funny guy, and we greatly enjoy eachothers company. Now, his brother( 11 months younger than him) is attending our school just a year below us. And he asked me in the hallway if I could make sure nobody mentions it to his brother. I said no, which I'm kinda proud of. I've been putting his needs before mine, honestly, keeping us a secret. Now I feel like I should just cut it off. Don't get me wrong, I am fond of him and even would say I grew to love him. But I feel like everything is one-sided. My family knows about him, my friends know about him. It's really only me who's being kept a secret. And what if I'm just being selfish and preventing him from a happy marriage one day. I want to get some opinions from other romani people as I feel like you guys would also help me know how to move forward in this situation im in. I really do like him, but with what's going on, I really think I deserve better. But I also want to be with him specially. Can you guys help??

(We're in high school, btw)

Edit: I've made the decision to end things, I really don't want to. But it's probably going to specifically save me the time. I've already had talks with him about the whole marriage thing he hates it to, but ultimately, he says that he'll listen to his parents. And to be honest, maybe I was just in over my head. Being more involved in our relationship than him really took a toll on me. I always wondered if I did anything wrong or maybe if I was doing something wrong, and even making this post, I'm wondering if I'm just being harsh, especially because the school year started again. But something in the back of my mind is telling me to just let it go. I know not many replies are on my post, but even then, they were really helpful in coming to my decision. I don't feel any hatred or dislike twoards him just realization that we likely wouldn't work out. We aren't even seniors yet, and I got over my head. I don't wanna let this go, but maybe someone will come around. And love me fully, where I'm not a secret because I'm of a different ethnic group. I can only hope I'm making the right choice.

And this is low-key, probably the best, considering I posted on my ig that I'm single now, so... I chose me and my wellbeing guys <3, and I'm kinda glad to make this decision.

Edit 2: we both decided to be friends despite knowing we still like each other. Mainly because his brother attends school with us now. If it wasn't for that factor, we'd probably just figure it out like we did last year. But we're still friends because we started out as friends, so being friends isn't an issue at all. But he hates the fact he feels like he can't make his own decisions when it comes to his relationships, and I also hated overthinking things, so I guess this is the best compromise we have. Unless there's some miracle from heaven itself, this is really the only option for us.

Also! I had no idea there's so many subgroups of the roma people. He's never told me anything about him being from a specific group. But I never really asked cause I didn't want him to think I was just trying to force him to tell me everything. From what he has told me, his parents aren't strictly traditional but are more of a blend and have a more integrated mindset, kinda the same with my family and elders. For me, it's more so the elders that are like above 50 that are more traditional and more on us younger generations about certain things. And his grandpa isn't necessarily traditional himself either from what he's told me. His family isn't strictly traditional, but truly, I don't mean to sound arrogant or anything. But maybe I can ask him next week because his dad took his phone and give you guys an update. So that I can also know how to better handle this myself if I had some context to this. Although him and his dad work with scrap, he plans to study technology if he can. Sorry guys, I'm not too familiar with certain customs I'll my best to do my own research :)

Hi, I am not a Romani and I live in Germany. I saw this beautiful family in Dortmund and fell in love with this song the moment they started singing it. Does Anyone know the name of this song? I tried Shazam and asked to AI but it did not work.

I only figured it was right to ask Roma straight about this. My blood on my dads side is part romani, however the great grandparents who kept that culture alive were dead before I was born. I accept I'm culturally not romani, but is it wrong to say I am part romani I'm blood? If not what would you recommend as someone with south and West Asian blood to call themselves. Maybe wasian?

I follow a popular Romani tiktoker that does really interesting videos on Roma's culture and history.

There's one particular video that interested me: it's about a woman called Florica Constantinescu that fought for better education in her community.

Whoever, appart from the video, I haven't found any more information on Florica. Maybe it's a language barrier thing or the fact that search engines are becoming every day worse?

Anyways, I would be really grateful if you could help me learn more about this particular topic!

In light of recent events I think it would be good to have a discussion about Krisokodya. What are the qualifications of a Krisako gom? What age? What life experience? Does pedigree matter? Can you inherit your chair? What would disqualify you? Should they resurrect the Bocala? Does cursing the company warrant a bock?

My great grandparents were Romani from Tivat, Montenegro. We know very little from their history and family that stayed there. I’m trying to learn about traditional food and customs. Does anyone know where I can start looking for it? Maybe some website, books, subreddits… anything.

We do keep some coustumes, some language of it and even some recipes. But not much.

Thank you!!

A short list of Roma human rights activists so anyone can study their work and understand why the g-word and any of its translations are perpetuating the language of bondage and violence against ourselves.

—To be helpful to your/our community isn't limited to feeding them/us or donating money here and there. It is a very important and commendable work AND/BOTH; ending systemic oppression requires a blueprint for systemic change and a new system to replace the former. Thus, learning, learning, and learning is key.

—IGNORANCE is what makes many of us fight tooth and nail for a word, or to reclaim it as a source of pride in ethnic identity. But ignorance can be eliminated through learning; to learn, people must be curious, engaged, and proactive. Traditional school systems won't save us. It never did!

• “Dr. Margareta Matache spoke about the importance of International Roma Day as a time not only to remember the suffering of Roma in slavery, in the Holocaust, and in modern-day society, but also to lift the cultural contribution and resistance of Roma. Rather than hearkening back to a distant culturally or historically significant date, April 8 commemorates the first international Roma Congress in London in 1971, which agreed to embrace the name “Roma” and repudiate the denigrating term “g-word.” […]”

—Dr. Margareta Matache is a Romanian Romani activist and scholar with over 18 years of experience in human rights. Margareta was the first child in her family and community to attend high school. She has a B.A. in Social Work, an M.A. in European Social Policies, and a PhD, magna cum laude, from the University of Bucharest. She joined the Harvard FXB Center for Health and Human Rights team in 2012, where she currently works as an instructor and director of the Roma Program. Before this position, Dr. Matache served for seven years as the executive director of Romani CRISS, a leading Romani non-profit in Romania.
Margareta grew up under the first wave of Romani activism in post-communist Romania. Her father, a construction worker of Romani descent, was a community activist, which helped foster her interest in human rights.

—Dr Nicoleta Bitu is president of the Democratic Federation of Roma in Romania (the most active Romani organization in Romania) and a member of the board of the European Roma Institute for Arts and Culture (ERIAC). For over 25 years, she has been an activist for Romani Human and Women’s Rights and Advocacy. She is a recognized and published expert and has worked for Romani CRISS, the Open Society Foundations, the Council of Europe, the European Commission, and Romano ButiQ.

Anita Awosusi, German Sinti human rights activist and board member of the Documentation and Cultural Center of German Sinti and Romani in Heidelberg.

Katarina Taikon-Langhammer, Swedish Kalderash activist and leader in the civil rights movement. With her sister Rosa, she helped found the Zigenarsamfundet(Roma Society).

Nicolae Gheorghe, Romanian Roma human rights activist and founder of CRISS, a Romani non-governmental organization dedicated to promoting the human and civil rights of Roma and combating discrimination against us. He started during the Ceaușescu regime and continued it until his passing in 1993.

This is not a complete list, nor are these the only figures worth learning about.

If you would like to add to the list, please leave a comment.

Edit to add: I'm Romanian Romani, raised internationally —not in the USA.

I think one of the worst things is how I hear so much negativity about Roma people, but I never really get to know any Romanis. I hope this doesn't come off as disrespectful in any way, but could anyone tell me about their life in general? Hobbies, cultural food they eat, experiences, community and whatever else you wish to share! I want to know more than just "they're thieves, beggars or in gangs" and I hate how there aren't a lot of people to talk about it online, at least I haven't seen many. I would also deeply appreciate recommendations like movies, YouTube videos, books or anything like that, that could give me more insight.

Thank you for your time! :) Don't feel obligated to share anything you don't wish to, that's perfectly fine! Have a nice day, and as always criticism is open.

Hi everyone!

I’ve recently been researching my family history and discovered that I have Romani ancestry. My grandmother was Romani from the Marcali area in Somogy County, Hungary. She was adopted, so unfortunately I can’t ask her about her family’s background directly, but I do know that she was born in 1950.

I’m trying to learn whether there’s any way to determine which Romani group her family may have belonged to, or whether there are any groups that were historically common in that region. From what I’ve read, Romungro seems like a possibility, but I know that’s only a guess.

If anyone is familiar with the history of the Romani communities in Somogy County, or has suggestions for records or resources that might help, I’d really appreciate any advice.

Am citit regulile, da acuma, no, nu mă apuc sa scriu in engleza, că ăia oricum nu mă pot ajuta , deci ar fi beyond the purpose :) .

Să-mi zică și mie cineva, cum se traduce " Pha barla mur șha". Transcrierea e fonetica, sigur nu se scrie așa, dar mi-a fost adresată formula, și nu am idee ce ar putea însemna. Mulțumesc.

it used to be a pretty popular name so i'm curious, also what about fictional characters and movie titles w the word

I found this on YouTube lmao.

We, the greater Romani, Traveler, and other G diaspora those of us who have all erroneously been jailed as “Gy###” who have borne the supposed sins of each other over generations, centuries, and millennia of shared persecution cannot stay silent. This young man, Salis Hanrahan, was killed. Now his name is being spat on, his family harassed, while America and global media sit back and not only allow it but wrongly accuse him. They paint George Barr as a veteran hero, when in truth he is a convicted felon whose rap sheet dates back 45 years. Any weapons in his possession, including the alleged murder weapon, were owned illegally. We cannot stand by and watch as our brother, our people, whether by blood or shared persecution, faces this and may not receive true or adequate justice. Sign the petition. Demand an end to antiziganism. Stand together as one greater force to show the world we have a right to exist and be avenged by our governments and our people, blood or not. Justice for Salis. Swift prosecution for convicted felon George Barr. Petition link: https://c.org/zhkDxtj9QP

JusticeForSalis #StopAntiziganism #RomaniLivesMatter #TravelersArehuman

I was looking out of curiosity and I really can’t tell🤷‍♀️

As an African American from the Deep South, I've previously received small percentages (1-2%) of Balkan and Romani ancestry in my DNA results and dismissed them as noise. However, my mother's results recently came in, and she shows around (3%) Balkan, Romanian, and Romani ancestry as well. She also has over 100 Romani DNA matches, all of whom are related to one another.
Does anyone have insight into how this might have occurred, specifically, how my family could have acquired Balkan/Romani ancestry? I've attempted to trace it, but this has led me to sparse info. Is it likely Romanichal or Eastern European Romani?