Chicago 2008: Chicago, Midwest program details

Chicago and Midwest Jewish genealogy research will be one focus of programming at the 28th IAJGS International Conference on Jewish Genealogy (Chicago, August 17-22).

If you are searching ancestors who lived in the area, these programs will provide information on many sources:

• The Musical 'Chicago' and All That Genealogical Jazz: Ron Arons and Mike Karsen collected standard genealogical documents to piece together the lives of two women and related them to Chicago history.
• Resources for Jewish Genealogy in Chicagoland: Mike Karsen will highlight major sources for tracing Jewish roots in Chicago, including key cemeteries, vital records, census records and immigration records, newspapers and synagogue records.
• Q&A Breakfast on Chicago Research Resources: Mike Karsen will answer questions.
• Clerk of the Circuit Court of Cook County, Illinois Genealogical Records: Phillip Costello will demonstrate how filed pleadings, judges orders and naturalization, divorce, or probate case files provide unintended secondary value to historians and genealogists.
• Polished Gems: Property Records Cook County, Illinois: Jeanne Larzalere Bloom, CG(SM) discusses real estate records held by the Cook County Recorder's Office.
• But ... It's Not Where It Is Supposed to Be! Unpolished Gems: Jeanne Larzalere Bloom, CG(SM) highlights additional records, such as Affidavits (Dates of Death Marriages and Marital Status; Kinship and Family Relationships); Petitions (Change of Surnames); Certificates (Naturalization); Agreements; and Military Discharge Papers.
• How I Almost Didn't Find Doda Channa from Tshikago (Chicago?): Rony Golan tells the story of how he reunited his Holocaust survivor mother with her Chicago family.
• Genealogy Research in Indiana: Autumn Gonzalez and Diane Sharp. Genealogy librarians from the Indiana State Library will assist Resource Room visitors.
• Midwestern Resources for Jewish Genealogy: Gayle Sweetwine Saini will demonstrate synagogue and community archives, Jewish federations and Jewish genealogical and historical societies, Jewish newspapers, community histories, university and historical libraries.
• Researching at Chicago's Newberry Library: Jack Simpson, curator of Local and Family History, will demonstrate how to use the library, emphasizing Jewish research.
• Genealogical Resources of Milwaukee and Southeastern Wisconsin: Manning Bookstaff will demonstrate Wisconsin Jewish and general genealogical resources, such as libraries map collections, historical societies and libraries and more.
• The Jewish Agriculturalists' Aid Society: Philanthropy and Jewish Farm Settlement in the Heartland: Sandy Rikoon focus on the JAAS (1888-1910) which provided loans and other support to more than 425 Jewish families living on heartland homesteads and farms.
• Research in the Genealogy Center of Allen County Public Library, Fort Wayne, IN: Curt B. Witcher will highlight the center's Jewish genealogical research resources, including the Yizkor collection, periodical collection, online databases, local history material from across North America, and share technological enhancements benefiting researchers in the newly expanded facility.
  
  To learn more about the program, speakers' bios, registration and other details, click here
  
  The conference is co-hosted by the Jewish Genealogical Society of Illinois, the Illiana Jewish Genealogical Society and the International Association of Jewish Genealogical Societies (IAJGS).