Colorado: Three great January programs!

While most people might not think of Colorado as a hotbed of Jewish genealogy, Tracing the Tribe knows better.

Ellen Shindelman Kowitt and her colleagues in the Jewish Genealogical Society of Colorado are doing a fantastic job in educating their community, organizing multi-session courses, and inviting experts to speak.

Three programs will take place during January.

-- Sunday, January 10, 9-11am
How to find naturalization records and why they are so useful for researching family history, with Joan Grady, PhD. There is no charge. Congregation Har HaShem, 3950 Baseline Road, Boulder.

Grady teaches several courses, including one on genealogy, at Arapahoe Community College's Adult Education division, has presented to local and national groups and her articles have appeared in genealogical magazines.

In addition to earning a PhD, MA, MLA and BA, she completed the BYU Certificate for genealogy with a special emphasis on the British Isles and is a member of the Association of Professional Genealogists. She's been a public and private education teacher, principal and superintendent.

-- Thursday, January 14, 6.30pm
Digitized Documents: Footnote & Family Search Pilot, with Janice Prater. There is no charge. Congregation Emanuel, 51 Grape Street, Denver.

Come learn about the exciting research tools on Footnote and FamilySearch. Footnote enhances your genealogy research through the use of digitized documents from the National Archives and Library of Congress.

The FamilySearch Pilot Site is a focus of the LDS and Family History Library; thousands of volunteers are working world-wide to make indexes and digitized images available to researchers. As these records become available, genealogists will benefit from this ever-changing site with expanded search capabilities.

Prater is Colorado Genealogical Society past president and editor of British Connections, a publication of the International Society for British Genealogy and Family History. She has worked in the Denver Public Library's Western History/Genealogy Department for eight years, and now volunteers in the same department and archives.

Tracing the Tribe has previously written about Ellen's eight-session Jewish Family Tree Initiative: Workshop and Mentoring Series. Here's the information on the next session of this great course, which will take place at Temple Sinai, 3901 S. Glencoe Street, Denver.

-- Sunday, January 24, 9.30-11.45am
Maximizing the Internet to Jump Start Research: Jewish Resources Online.

Learn how to successfully navigate Internet resources for tracing Jewish family history. Get pointed in the right direction and jump start your research. This lecture will focus on resources that identify, index or explain specifically Jewish documents, gravestones and traditions; JewishGen, Holocaust Research, Jewish Archives in the U.S. and Israel, Blogs and more.

The lecture and workshop are part of the series supported by the Rose Community Foundation. Sessions are led by members of the Jewish Genealogical Society of Colorado and developed to help people get started in Jewish family history research.

Each session includes an instructional lecture and a hands-on workshop to assist with the creation of family trees and historical research utilizing genealogical resources and techniques. Mentoring assistance outside of class will be available.

There is an $18 one-time fee for non-members to cover a book and materials; the course is free for JGSCO members. For those who have already attended one session and paid the fee, the other sessions are free. Attendance is not required for all eight sessions, so feel free to jump in to the sessions you want.

Questions on any of the JGSCO programs may be sent to Ellen. For more information, click on the Jewish Genealogical Society of Colorado's site.