Florida: 18th Mini-Conference, Nov. 19

The Jewish Genealogical Society of Palm Beach County will hold its 18th Workshop/Mini-Conference on Wednesday, November 19, in the Beifield Auditorium at the Levis JCC campus in Boca Raton.

The full day conference, open to the public, is geared to both beginner and intermediate researchers.

The conference chair is Sylvia Furshman Nusinov, a past president of the society.

Sylvia says that this year several changes have been made, resulting in lower fees, a shorter agenda, and innovative programming sessions focusing on beginner researchers as well as intermediates.

Five well known genealogical educators will present sessions on how to research family history with the latest resources. Here's the schedule.

9.30am: Registration

10am-noon: Concurrent sessions:

- Beginner's Workshop: "The Aleph Bet of Jewish Genealogy - Where do you begin - the Where, How and Why," with Phyllis Kramer, VP Education, JewishGen.

- Intermediate/Advanced Workshop: “Photographic and Document Preservation – Scanning and Restoring Old Family Photos, and Methodology and Technology in Genealogical Data Exchange,” with Beau Sharbrough, VP Content, Footnote.com.

12.15-1pm: Kosher box lunch

Afternoon: Sequential sessions

- How to navigate Footnote.com’s Jewish Records, and other online important historic documents, now available through an agreement between the National Archives Records Administration [NARA] and Footnote.com, with Beau Sharbrough.

- How to use your home computer to access Jewish genealogical resources available through the PBC Library, with Palm Beach County Library System's genealogical research staff: supervisor Bob Davidsson and research librarian Isabel Toolsie.

- How to convert genealogical research into compelling and interesting narratives, with writer/instructor Patricia Charpentier of “Writing Your Life.”

The Resource Room, manned by Natalie and Dr. Marv Hamburg, will be open to researchers and genealogy experts will be on site with displays of genealogically related maps, books, albums and family trees, etc. Translators will be available by appointment, to translate documents in Polish, German, Hebrew and Yiddish.

In the Plough Library, librarians Irving Skorka and Ben Karliner will assist with researching the JGSPBCI Genealogy and Judaic Book collection, along with computers for Internet research.

Fees, including lunch: Members, $25; others, $30.

For more information, visit the JGSPBC website.