If your surname is Geffen and you have roots in Lithuania, you are surely part of this wonderful family.

In the four years of our research we have attached over 2700 Geffens worldwide to our main tree. Even though there are still several hundred unattached names in our database, we feel that in time they will all be connected. Research seems to lead to all Geffens, with the exception of those who took the name upon entering Israel, back to our earliest ancestor, David Geffen circa 1758 from the town of Vilkomir, Lithuania. Click here to see the first three generations.

There are many more years of research to come and on our Research Page, you will see the projects we are pursuing now. This has been a collaborative project with many people.

This site is far from complete. In the essence of time, I made the decision to go online with the site as it is, so that I could share the beginnings of the research with family members. I welcome any new information or additions that anyone may have.

I will be continually working on the site, and will be happy to notify you when new information is put up. Please be sure to E-mail me above if you would like to be notified when the updates are added to the site.

There is information on all of the pages shown on the navigation panel to the left. Also, many of the main pages lead to others via links. The main Family Tree is a complete list of descendants from the first David Geffen down. Through the Family Tree Surname Index, you can find your name and then click on up through the tree to your earliest ancestor.

If you do not find your name in the index, it may mean that you are in our files, but not yet connected to the main tree. Hopefully, information from you will enable us to tie in your family.

Thank you for visiting our site. We hope you find it informative and interesting.

December 2004...We are very pleased that with the help of Peter Geffen, we have made contact with our Geffen relatives presently living in Vilnius. They are descendants of the late Shalom Lieb Gefen (born 1868) who was the brother of the late Rabbi Tobias Geffen. We welcome Shalom's grandsons and great grandchildren to the family. Click here to read Peter's description of his recent meeting with his new 2nd cousin and a wonderful photograph.

Research Update December 2006...We have made wonderful strides in connecting the Geffen and Gafanovich families. At present, we are having research done in both Lithuania and Latvia which we hope will document our findings. We believe the original name of the family was Gafanovich and that the family first settled in Kupiskis, Lithuania, which was a hub for Portuguese Jews.

We believe that the patriarch David, of our Geffen family, had at least four brothers. These four brothers all eventually settled in different towns including one in Ukraine. Also their father was Itsko Gafanovich, born c. 1710, and his father was David Bentzion, born c. 1690.

We are looking forward to receiving our research during the coming year and thusly adding several hundred names to our tree.