So you are Mormon and Jewish and raised Catholic (father) and Protestant (mother) and are studying your Jewish heritage?
My last name suggest that I am Ashkenazi but I believe you have to have at least a Jewish mother to be considered Jewish, is this true or am I Jewish as well?
Not making light of your circumstance just trying to understand if I may.
I have most types of Jew on both sides, and many hybrids during ruling eras where kings from different regions from all around Europe and the Middle East traded offspring in arranged marriages.
My surname is an Ashkenazi name with a well documented genealogy. All of my father’s father’s carry the name and it is always a version of “Black” depending on which era.
The most important considerations from a genetic perspective is the father’s father’s father’s and etc, and the mother’s mother’s mother’s. The female lines are important for female offspring mostly. All of my lines find their way to Jewish populations.
If your last name has genealogy back to the first temple era, you’re genetically Jewish. This isn’t the only qualifier because there are four separate groups that are generally considered four separate genetic Jewish races if I’m not mistaken.
Hybridism in Ashkenzai is prevalent through their long distance migration out of Middle East, through the Mediterranean, and into Germany, Switzerland, Scandinavia. Most of the kings that ruled every country from Ireland to Israel are descendants of King David.