jdf0007, I don’t understand most of your comment, but regarding my ancestry, I was never interested in my yichus until my daughter had a project in high school and we got her family trees and stories from my husband’s and mine extended family members (cousins) who were interested in these things…it was VERY EASY to PROVE our ancestors going back a few hundred years were JEWISH. We even shtamed from famous Rabbonim and a Chassidish Rebbe from Europe (actually we both knew about our famous ancestors before but we now we saw the family tress and how exactly we shtamed from them).
Not that having non-Jewish ancestors, if it is not an halachik issue, is something to be ashamed about. Our Avos and Imoas had non-Jewish ancestry (and as a result, us as well…) as did Dovid Hamelech. My point is to prove that we could have proof of our Jewish ancestry. No one has to know their family yichus till Har Sinai but if you know where you shtam from that is what matters. My daughter and I were too lazy too bother with a very long report, honestly it doesn’t matter that much too us, but girls in her class had huge reports on their ancestry. All her classmates knew where they came from. This is the result of intermarriage between Jews.
Baalei teshuva should be able to trace their mother’s side of the family to full-fledged religious Jews a generation or two back. How far back can one go to prove their mother was a Jew? Can Spanish Catholics, who are still practicing Marrano traditions passed down for centuries, claim to be Jewish if they marry mostly with other families living in their village? There are also other halachik considerations to consider such as if a women who was married to two Jewish men who was the person who officiated the divorce from the first husband? And other considerations are important to consider due to the immorality in today’s secular society. Putting one’s head in the sand to do kiruv is not a mitzvah. Doing kiruv and messing with the fabric of tbe Jewish people should not be taken as lightly as it is.