Galicia Day program announced

If you are researching Galicia (Austro-Hungary, Poland, Ukraine), then you won't want to miss Gesher Galicia SIG day, July 16, at the 27th IAJGS International Conference on Jewish Genealogy.

Early discounts for the conference end May 15, so register now and remember to add workshops, luncheons and other activities of interest. Register online here.

Pamela Weisberger research coordinator of Gesher Galicia SIG, has announced the program:

For the first time at an IAJGS conference we are honored to have Brian Lenius, founding 1st vice-president of the Federation of East European Family History Societies (FEEFHS) presenting two lectures relating to Galicia on Monday, July 16 - the Gesher Galicia SIG Day:

1. Jewish Registration Districts, ADs, JDs, and More: Using Historical Gazetteers to Understand Political Jurisdictions of Galicia: 2-3:15pm

2. Land Cadastral Records and Property Maps in the Austrian Empire - Focus on Galicia: 5-6:15pm

Lenius’s first talk will prove useful in understanding and analyzing record-keeping. Jewish Registration Districts were hastily brought into effect in 1876 with 18 sets of regulated changes occurring by 1905 with the express purpose of centralizing and standardizing Jewish vital event registration for more than one Jewish community.
He will provide answers to questions like: How does an estate relate to a community? Are communities and villages the same thing? What is meant by the pre-WWI term “Jewish Registration District?”

As Galician researchers accumulate a variety of records that contain house and parcel numbers, their interest in cadastral maps has also grown. As described by Brian: "Three distinct property land surveys were conducted for all of Galicia during the Austrian period of the 18th and 19th centuries.

These consisted of detailed records showing the size of land parcels, type of land, crops grown and more. The Austrian Stable Cadastral Survey of the 1830s-1860s consisted of records and extremely detailed maps showing the smallest parcels of land, individual yards, houses, barns, roads, field plots, synagogues and even large trees. At least three versions of these maps were created at the time including a field sketch, a preliminary drafted version and the Cadastral Map in full color. At least one or more versions of these maps still exist for most villages."

Researchers can track families over time by creating tables of house numbers, gleaned from these vital records, as the house number was noted in most Galician birth and death records, tabula registers, notary and property records, homeowners lists and even religious conversion documents. Several examples of cadastral maps for Galician towns and shtetls will be displayed at Lenius second talk of the day on this topic.

Gesher Galicia’s SIG meeting will feature a short film - House Number 7 - about a researcher's return to Grzymalow to look at the house where he was born in 1946

As early registration for the IAJGS conference will ends May 15, consider attending -even for just our special Galician-focused day on Monday, July 16 - which includes the Gesher Galicia luncheon 12:30-2pm, with Erin Einhorn speaking on her genealogical quest involving a building in Poland and a family debt going back 40 years. The Gesher Galicia SIG meeting is set for 3.30-4.45pm.

A longer article about Brian Lenius's research and Gesher Galicia at the IAJGS conference is in this month's The Galitzianer, Gesher Galicia's journal.

We look forward to seeing all Galitzianers in July in Salt Lake City.

For all conference information, click here

Pamela Weisberger
Research Coordinator, Gesher Galicia