You prove it by doing the research going by one generation at a time.

Understand Jews today do not agree on how to define a Jew.

Many liberal groups will define a Jew by the religion or by a person identifying themselves as a Jew.

Orthodox and Conservative Judaism defines a Jew by the mother alone. If a person only has a Jewish father the only way they will regard that person as Jewish is for him/her to go through the rite of conversion. So if your father had a Jewish mother he is regarded as Jewish by the Talmud but unless your mother is Jewish they would not consider you Jewish.

So a person can have Jewish ancestry and not be regarded as Jewish by other Jews.

Here is a great link:

http://www.jewfaq.org/whoisjew.htm

Now from what you have stated in your question I have a feeling you might have some Jewish ancestry and your family still observes Jewish tradition. The surname alone doesn't mean anything. When surnames were taken in Europe during the last millennium Jews took them the same as Christians. I know a lot of names in the U.S. are viewed as Jewish as a large portion of immigrants with certain names were Jewish while back in their country of origin the same name was used by Jews and non Jews.

At least one person is. Anderson is on RWWC
http://wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/...

The e-mail address is blurred so the spambots don't get t. I can't get it either.

He is on 21 "Public Member Trees" in Ancestry.com. Some have impeccable source citations, some don't. He seems to have married a Mary Anne Pringle (some of the PMTs have her as "Mary Anne Quait") or a Sarah Jane Brown. His birth year is 1824 on some of the trees. His middle name is Lindsay, Alexander or Turner, depending on which PMT you read.

Some public libraries and many LDS FHCs have access to Ancestry. You could also sign up for a free trial and cancel after 13 days. Or, if you are serious about research, subscribe for a year.

I'm going to move your question to the genealogy category for you. You can move it back if you object. The chance of anyone researching the Quait family seeing your question in the "History" category is remote. The chance of anyone researching the family seeing it here is remote too, but some of the regulars may want to see if they can find him for you.

No, if you want to know who your ancestors were and where they lived, were born etc then the only way is to research the written records they generated in their lifetime and that research starts with you and your own records which are at home and free for you to look at, this will help you do that http://familytimeline.webs.com/recordsin... and you do one generation at a time, connection each generation as you go to the next.

You surname tells you nothing nor does your eye, skin, hair shades ( so what you look like) so your stereotyping of " mostly southern european (olive toned skin, thick eyebrows, dark brown hair,etc. " is incorrect that could fit any European from the UK to Greece and everywhere in between.