San Francisco: Publishing your family history, June 26

Publishing your family's history will be the topic at the next meeting of the San Francisco Bay Area Jewish Genealogical Society, on Sunday, June 26.

Doors open at 12.30pm; the program begins at 1pm, at the Oakland Regional Family History Center, 4766 Lincoln Avenue, Oakland.

Jeff Lewy will present "Book 'em, Dano!  Publishing Your Family's Story."

Learn how to create and publish a family history story without having to become a professional author first.  Jeff Lewy will explain how he wrote down the family stories he acquired from others, added old photos, filled in some of the gaps with his own research, and used an online publisher/printer to create an inexpensive book his relatives are buying and telling others about.  Learn how helpful it can be for your family research: documenting the family history, attracting other family members to share what they know, and sparking interest among younger family members to learn bout their family history.

Treasurer of the San Francisco Bay Area Jewish Genealogical Society (SFBAJGS), Lewy became interested in genealogy to make sense of family photos going back four generations in the U.S. and Europe and to learn about the people in the photos.

Most of his family lines arrived in the U.S. in the 1840s and 1850s, mostly in Alabama, before settling in Chicago by 1870.  His family tree now includes seven or more generations for most of his families.

For more information, click here.

Orlando: New methods of publishing family history, January 25

New ways to publish family history, with speaker Marlis Humphrey, is the topic at the next meeting of the Jewish Genealogical Society of Greater Orlando (Florida) on Tuesday, January 25.

The meeting begins at 1pm at the Congregation Reformed Judaism, 928 Malone Drive, Orlando. There is no admission fee to attend.

"I couldn't put it down! - New ways to publish family history," will provide ideas, techniques, checklists, templates and samples for new methods of publishing family history.

Humphrey has approached genealogy with  a unique perspective on how advances in multimedia applications can enrich the sharing of family history. She has more than two decades experience in high tech computer and broadband communications at major corporations.

Her first major accomplishment was finding the shtetls for all of her great-grandparents.  She recently returned from a roots trip to Cleveland where she met her 88-year-old great aunt for the first time and located dozens of ancestors in three Jewish cemeteries. She has discovered ancestors in the 1897 Census of the Russian Empire. 

 

Currently, she is the JewishGen Ukrainian SIG project coordinator and has translated Russian cemetery records and ghetto lists held by the US Holocaust Museum. She has approached genealogy with  a unique perspective on how advances in multimedia applications can enrich our sharing of family history.

For more information, click here. 

Australia: History of Jewish publications

Looking to trace Jewish ancestors in Australia? The University of Sydney, Archive of Australian Judaica has just issued its 2008 edition of some 400 Jewish publications that have been published in Australia.

Each may hold the keys to your family's details!

For background and history, click here, to see the variety of periodicals, including English and Yiddish newspapers, synagogue publications, journals and more.

To see the list of the 400 publications in a 208-page PDF, click here

This is just one section of the listings and the date runs:

Communal Newspapers - State and National

The Australasian Hebrew, v.1, no 1-v.2, no 26 (Nov 1895 - Nov 1896)
Australian Hebrew Times, Jan 1894 - Dec 1894?
The Australian Israelite, v.1, no 1-v.4, no 44 (1871 - May 1875)
The Australian Jewish Chronicle, v.1, no 1-v.9, no 2 (Mar 1922 - June 1930); ns v.1, no 1-v.11, no 77 (June 1930 - Feb 1931)
The Australian Jewish Herald, v.1 (1920-1933); ns v.1-90 (1935 - Aug 1980). Supersedes The Jewish Herald, v.1, no 1- v.40 (1879-1919)
Australian Jewish News, v.1 (May 1935)+. Supersedes The Jewish Weekly News, (Oct 1933 - May 1935)
Australian Jewish News. Melbourne edition, Apr 1990+. Continues
Australian Jewish News
Australian Jewish News. Sydney edition, v.9, no 6 (Apr 1990)+. Continues the Australian Jewish Times
The Australian Jewish Times, v.61, no 48-v.9, no 5 (1935 - Mar 1990). Continued by The Australian Jewish News. Sydney edition. Incorporated Sydney Jewish News from 1971. Continues The Jewish Times, v.60, no 16-v.61, no 47 (1953-1955). Continues The Hebrew Standard of Australasia, v.1, nos 1-2 (Nov, Dec 1895); v.2, no 1-v.60, no 15 (July 1897 - Oct 1953)
The Communal Opinion, v.1, no 1-v.2 (Oct 13, 1913-1914)
Hebrew Standard of Australasia, v.1, nos 1-2 (Nov, Dec 1895); v.2, no 1-v.6, no 15 (July 1897 - Oct 1953). Continued by The Jewish Times
JNF: The Link with Israel, v.1, no 1 (1950s-1960s). Superseded by Shalom The Jewish Herald, v.1, no 1-v.40 (1879-1919). Superseded by The Australian Jewish Herald
The Jewish Observer, v.1, no 1-v.5 (1918-1924).
The Jewish Times, v.6, no 16-v.61, no 47 (1953-1955). Continued by The Australian Jewish Times
152 Jewish Times. Wellington, 1926-1932. Superseded by The New Zealand Jewish Chronicle
The Jewish Weekly News, Oct 1933 - May 1935. Superseded by The Australian Jewish News
The Judean Bulletin, pre-1941. Superseded by The N.Z. Judean Bulletin
Kesher-Connections: Newsletter, Sydney (Jewish Communal Appeal), no 1 (1992)+
Menorah: Monthly Magazine for Jewish Children, Hunters Hill, NSW (Isabella Lazarus Home), nos 1-2 (Dec 1941 - Feb 1942)
Shalom, Sept 1964-Jy 2004?
The Sydney Jewish News, v.1, no 1-v.34, no 21 (1939-1973). Incorporated Oystralier Leben. Incorporated in Australian Jewish Times
The Voice of Jacob, nos 1-3 (May - Sept 1842)
The Westralian Judean, v.1, nos 1-27 (Nov 1924 - Sept 1955)

Look at the complete listings and details for each publication. If you are looking for family members who may have gone to Australia, these publications may be very important to your quest.

Remember that life cycle events (birth, engagement, marriage, death) were a big part of such publications' content and may hold many genealogical clues.

Seattle: Epidemics and family history

Stephanie Weiner's program at the Southern California Genealogical Society Jamboree in June focused on epidemics and plagues impacting the worldwide Jewish community, including the 1918 flu pandemic. It seems the Seattle Public Health organization is also in on this act. According to this blog entry, local comic artist and art teacher David Lasky was hired to produce a comic about the possibility of an upcoming flu pandemic. It was in comic form for non-English speakers to understand the message

When Lasky took the job, he wasn't aware it would hit close to home.

"My great-grandmother died in the 1918 flu pandemic," he said. "It was a connection to my past and gave me a much better understanding about what happened to her."

Lasky said he wasn't aware, and so many other people aren't aware, that half a million Americans died of the flu in 1918.

"Doing this comic I realized I wasn't alone," he said. "This affected thousands of families in this county."

It has been translated into 12 languages and will be distributed at schools throughout Washington, as well as local King County health offices.

Oakland, CA: Publish your family history workshop, Saturday

Readers in or near Oakland may be interested in this California Genealogical Society workshop, "Hints on Publishing Your Family History." It takes place this Saturday, August 9, from 10:30am-2:30pm at the CGS Library, 2201 Broadway, Suite LL2, Oakland. A few spots are still available.

At some point, it is time to put a stop to the research (at least temporarily) and create something tangible that can be passed down to the next generation.

Shirley Pugh Thomson, Matt Berry and Jane Knowles Lindsey are ready to share their experience and help you explore the options available, including newer non-traditional, online methods, such as blogs.

The CGS Library collection has scores of examples of traditionally published histories for you to peruse. Our panelists will choose a few so workshop attendees can see some prime examples.

Thompson, retired owner of Indices Publishing, will speak on, "Skills Needed to Publish Your History" and "Mistakes to Avoid," while Matt Berry will discuss his self-publishing experience using Lulu.com.

A lunch break is included, brown bag it or visit the nearby deli.

The workshop is free for CGS members, limited to 15 people. There is a $10 sign-up fee, but this can be applied toward membership on the workshop day.  To reserve a seat, call CGS, at 510-663-1358.

Gen-blogger colleague Thomas MacEntee - who lives in Chicago - suggested that the CGS do a podcast/webcast of this workshop.  I second the motion!

Everton Genealogical Helper: Online Edition

Everton's Genealogical Helper in print has been around for 62 years. As of July 1, it will add an Online Edition.

Genealogy Online (which does business as Everton Publishers) is the Helper's publisher also publishes the best-seller guidebook for family history researchers - Handybook for Genealogists - now in its 11th edition.

Helper editor Leland K. Meitzler - he also writes the Genealogy Blog - has just sent information about a new venture.

A major portion of the Helper is now focused on Internet family history. This very popular section began in the September-October 2006 issue. In-depth reviews are included on websites that the Helper considers to be the best on the Internet. These are grouped by topic, and a special issue on genealogy blogs is planned for the January-February 2009 issue.

What makes this new venture more important is that the Helper will have an online edition in addition to the print version.

The online edition will launch July 1, at an annual subscription of a mere $10 until that date ($12 later). It is an identical copy of the 176-page traditional print edition - but complete with hotlinks to hundreds of website addresses. Current print edition subscribers will have complete free access to the magazine - no extra fees. For more information, click here.

The Net Family History section is a magazine within a magazine. New information specific to using the Internet for genealogy is always found in this part of the bimonthly publication, along with extensive website reviews and articles dealing with Internet-related activities.

Meitzler adds that because some of the most exciting genealogical resource advances are taking place online, it is important that this information should be provided to the Helper's thousands of readers in every issue. Readers will be able to go from the paper edition to the hotlinked online edition to access any included website.

The online edition will be in PDf format (Adobe Acrobat Reader required) and it will be hosted by FamilyLink.com, Inc. (parent company of World Vital Records).

The Helper also offers, in addition to the Internet section, how-to and historical articles, genealogical sharing, extensive book and CD-ROM reviews and announcements, queries, the most complete event calendar anywhere, and hundreds of ads for new products and services.

In addition, subscribers will also have access to the new updated, hotlinked Directory of Genealogical and Historical Societies – coming in the Sept/Oct and Nov-Dec issues! Edited by Leland K. Meitzler, the Helper is guaranteed to help you extend your lines and fill in those blanks in your family tree.

What will you get for your $10 (before July 1)? You'll have the print magazine and online access for less than 3 cents per page. What a deal!

France: GenAmi new issue, June 2008

GenAmi is French Jewish genealogical society in Paris, and it publishes an excellent journal, also called GenAmi.

According to Micheline Gutmann, the June 2008 table of contents includes the following topics:

- Do you know our forum?
- Sulzburg in Baden and the list of adoptions of names
- A Rabbi Kahn of Ribeauville in Vichtinetz, descendents in France.
- Families Weijl in the Netherlands
- Rabbi Samuel Sanvil Weyls children, complete list
- Mannheim: Michael Mays children
- Genetics, genealogy and adultery
- News for genealogical research in U.K.
- Reopening of the Pavillon Osiris of Rueil-Malmaison
- Communications and mails
- Acquisitions (Acht Jahrhunderte Juden in Basel, Jews in France in 1898)
- Genealogical reviews
- It happened in ... Short trip in time and space (1308, 1408, 1508, 1708, 1808)
- General Research in UK

For more information on how to subscribe, click here.

Australia: "These are the names"

Members of international Jewish genealogical societies can offer amazing local resources and help on the ground. It always pays to contact JGSs in the places your ancestors lived or immigrated from. Members of these groups know all the ins-and-outs of research in specialized archives and are truly expert in local matters.

Les Oberman of Melbourne is president of the Australian Jewish Genealogical Society (Vic), which publishes the quarterly journal Jewish Genealogy Downunder. He's always been a great source of help. On a personal note, he located and contacted Talalay relatives who moved there from Bobruisk, Belarus nearly 20 years ago.

I've just received my copy of the Melbourne journal and also receive The Kosher Koala, the newsletter of the Sydney society.

Your local Jewish genealogical society likely receives the newsletters and journals of societies around the world, and it always worth a visit to your society's library. Find a list of all member societies of the International Association of Jewish Genealogical Societies here. While these publications carry general announcements of interest to all genealogists worldwide, they also carry informative articles focusing on local interests, history and resources.

The first article in Downunder focuses on Rabbi John Levi's new book These are the Names: Jewish Lives in Australia 1788-1850, an 873-page book published last year; it sold out soon after its release.

His previous book (1976) was The Forefathers: A Dictionary of Biography of the Jews of Australia 1788-1830. The new book includes all information in Forefathers and extends the research range another 20 years, providing information on some 1,500 Jews who had arrived up until 1850.

The article is an account of the problems Levi faced in researching these individuals and how some research was easier now because of Internet accessible resources, such as the UK's Old Bailey Court records which hold transport information on Jewish convicts.

Another interesting article is on the Jewish community of Penang (Malaysia) by Margot Bailey, president of the Jewish Genealogical and History Society of South Australia (Adelaide).

On a 1995 visit, she received a book, Streets of George Town Penang, a guide to the city's streets and historic buildings. She found the following interesting entry:

Yahudi Road, Jewish Cemetery Penang had a small community of Jews whom the locals called orang Yahudi. Like the Armenians they came from India along the trade route. The Jewish Cemetery, which has over 100 graves from the 19th and early 20th centuries is well maintained.

Bailey follows up with an account of her later visit with her husband in 1998, and contact with the lone Jew in Penang, David Mordechai. She relates that Mordechai said the first burial was in 1835 and a photo of the stone appears to be that of a person with the family name Sassoon-Levi, dated July 9, 1835. The 1971 Encyclopedia Judaica, according to Bailey, records that "A few Jews settled in Penang, of whom the first was Ezekiel Menassah of Baghdad in 1895.

Most society journals and newsletters also print family inquiries asking about possible relatives, and Jewish Genealogy Downunder prints eight in this issue.

The society also has a discussion group where you may receive even more assistance; for information, click here.

Spain's Jewish magazine

Recently I told researchers about the monthly Jewish culture bulletin, Carta de Sefarard, available here, which is read by more than 8,000 subscribers worldwide.

The bulletin is published by Sefarad Editores, which also publishes the quarterly magazine Raices (Roots). The publication has just celebrated its 20th anniversary, and includes aspects of Jewish history and culture, contemporary arts, literature, history, language and thought.

When, in 1986, Spain and Israel established diplomatic relations, an increased interest in Sephardic and Jewish themes followed, with articles and books emphasizing Jewish history, Sephardic music and more.

In Madrid, Argentinian Horacio Kohan of Madrid had been Israel's press attache with the World Tourism Organization before official diplomatic contacts were established, and founded Raices in 1986.

Authors include researchers and specialists in many areas: history, literature, linguistics, social sciences, visual arts, music, theatre, philosophy, religion, and others.

There are more than 1,200 subscribers for the advertising-free publication (it went online in 2001), living in Spain, Portugal, other European countries and North and South America. It is sold at selected bookstores and can be found in all public libraries.

Carta de Sefarad (“the monthly bulletin of cultural news about Jewish Spain”) contains up-to-date information about cultural events of Jewish interest scheduled to take place throughout Spain as well as in other countries in Europe and North and South America.

For more information, click here.

Jerusalem Post: Tracing the Tribe in Blog Central

I began writing on Jewish genealogy in the Jerusalem Post, authoring some 150 "It's All Relative" twice-monthly columns from 1999-2005 in the Metro weekly section, and continue to contribute genealogy feature stories.

I'm very happy to report that selected Tracing the Tribe blog entries are now being featured in the Jerusalem Post's Blog Central, in the Mixer section.

Click here for the introductory post.

Carta de Sefarad: For Sephardic researchers

Researching Sephardic families or know someone who is? Here's a monthly bulletin that highlights interesting Sephardic activities in Spain, Europe, North America and the rest of the globe.

The November issue indicates events will take place the Spanish cities of Avila, Barcelona, Cordoba, Girona, Huarte, Lorca, Madrid, Palma de Mallorca, Sevilla, Valencia, Valladolid and Zaragoza. There are also events in Germany, Austria, Egypt, US, UK, France and Israel.

Events include tours, photo exhibits, conferences, concerts, music, art, theatre, Hebrew classes, a new Jewish Studies Master's Degree, poetry, art history, Israeli film festival, cinema, holiday celebrations and lectures.

Its title in translation is the Monthly Cultural Bulletin for Spanish Jewry, and it is in Spanish. For November's edition, click here

UK: Jewish cultural guide available

The autumn-winter edition of "Jewish London" - the fifth edition of the guide to the city's Jewish culture events - has been published by Jewish Culture UK. It features a wide variety of events and activities at London's museums, galleries and theaters that will interest Tracing the Tribe's readers.

Among organizations featured: The London Jewish Cultural Center; the Jewish Museum; the Jewish Historical Society of England; the UK Jewish Film Festival; Spiro Ark; Springboard Education Trust; the Jewish Music Institute; the Jewish Community Center for London; the Jewish Council for Racial Equality; the London Jewish Forum; European Day of Jewish Heritage and Culture; Jewish Renaissance magazine and Yad Vashem UK Foundation.

Some events spotlighted: Hanukka celebrations at the Victoria and Albert Museum, a commemoration of Jewish ex-servicemen and -women at the Cenotaph war memorial in Whitehall, the UK Jewish Film Festival; an Iraqi-Jewish band performing in Hebrew and Arabic, as well as events for children and families.

The guide, according to the Jerusalem Post story, is one of many activities and events organized by the mayor of London to highlight the contribution of Jewish Londoners to the capital, the Mayor's Office said.

Read the entire story here.

WSJ: Leisure activities?

The International Herald Tribune's story on a Wall Street Journal announcement started my mental wheels turning.

NEW YORK: The Wall Street Journal announced Monday that it will launch a glossy monthly magazine next year that it will distribute with the Saturday edition of the newspaper.

The magazine, to be called "Pursuits," marks the latest expansion of the Journal's efforts to attract consumer advertising with coverage of leisure activities and lifestyle topics, following the launch of a Saturday edition of the paper two years ago.

Is anyone taking bets on whether genealogy will be covered in the new section to begin this month? Will we see ads for gen events, private researchers, subscription sites, software or roots travel?