Janet Billstein Akaha graduated from Wittenberg University and the University of Southern California with a BA in East Asian Studies and Economics. She began working in genealogy over 15 years ago, and branched into German Jewish genetic genealogy, becoming an administrator of the German Jewish GerSig DNA Project that was started by Nancy Grossman, and in 2011 Janet started a new DNA project called “The Jews of Frankfurt". She also is the administrator of the J1c3 haplogroup project,, seven surname projects, including Shapiro/Spier and Wertheim(er), both of which are integral to the Jews if Frankfurt project. She has lived in Monterey, California for the past 20 years and is the mother of a son who lives in Honolulu and a daughter who lives in Tokyo.