Tracing the Tribe just spoke with Ellen Silverman of Philadelphia who is attending the conference.
Ellen demonstrates the diversity of attendees. While not Jewish herself, her husband was and she's helped Jewish friends with their research. Our conferences provide many general topics as well as specifically unique Jewish topics.
Each year we learn something new. Ellen just told me about the First Friday program at the NARA branch here in the city at Chestnut near 9th Street.
On the first Friday of each month, genealogists and researchers gather noon to 2pm to share success stories, ask questions, collaborate, network. These are people who regularly use the archives and gather once a month.
She's even found a family member at one of these meetings - they discovered that they were researching the same families from the same localities!
A staff archivists is always on hand to answer questions and assist.
Jefferson Moak, one of the local NARA archivists, will be presenting three talks at the conference this week. Ellen reports that he is often the archivist who joins in the First Friday get-togethers.
She suggested that other attendees may want to join the group this Friday after our conference ends.
Thanks, Ellen, for the information!
02 August 2009
01 August 2009
Philly 2009: Pre-event day
Many attendees were already in the hotel today. It did take us awhile to get the Internet connection working in our room, but did get it accomplished with the help of great tech guy Ryan.
I went downstairs and saw many old friends, joined a bunch of people in the bar area for some hellos, such as JewishGen's Warren Blatt and his wife Debra, Michael Tobias and his wife, as well as Stephanie Weiner and others.
Dinner was with Bob Wascou of Sacramento and Romanian national archivist Dr. Dorin Dobrincu, a truly charming man making his first appearance at the Jewish genealogy conference.
Many people registered tonight after 9pm and it was quite efficient: pick up the basics and bag at one station, ribbons at another, CD/syllabus at another. I gave Tracing the Tribe stickers to attendees still around the registration area.
It was great to see so many old friends!
I've just spent some time going over tomorrow's schedule and highlighted internal passport records of the Russian Empire, the JRI-Poland luncheon on cemeteries and property restitution, historical newspaper research, digital imagery for genealogy, the major opening session at 7.30pm and much more. During the day, I'm planning to access records in the Resource Room, visit the vendor room and start working in covering sessions.
Right now, though, it is time to get some sleep before tomorrow's busy day!
I went downstairs and saw many old friends, joined a bunch of people in the bar area for some hellos, such as JewishGen's Warren Blatt and his wife Debra, Michael Tobias and his wife, as well as Stephanie Weiner and others.
Dinner was with Bob Wascou of Sacramento and Romanian national archivist Dr. Dorin Dobrincu, a truly charming man making his first appearance at the Jewish genealogy conference.
Many people registered tonight after 9pm and it was quite efficient: pick up the basics and bag at one station, ribbons at another, CD/syllabus at another. I gave Tracing the Tribe stickers to attendees still around the registration area.
It was great to see so many old friends!
I've just spent some time going over tomorrow's schedule and highlighted internal passport records of the Russian Empire, the JRI-Poland luncheon on cemeteries and property restitution, historical newspaper research, digital imagery for genealogy, the major opening session at 7.30pm and much more. During the day, I'm planning to access records in the Resource Room, visit the vendor room and start working in covering sessions.
Right now, though, it is time to get some sleep before tomorrow's busy day!
Philly 2009: Film festival highlights
The 2009 Film Festival at the conference offers these highlights:
- Sunday afternoon: "The House of Life: The Old Jewish Cemetery of Prague," (2.50pm) with filmmaker/artist, Mark Podwal, followed by "The Tree of Life" (4.20pm) dealing with the magical and mystical history of the Jews of Italy with documentarian, Hava Volterra. (repeated 5.15pm Monday with Volterra)
- Join us for the hilarious, short film "My Nose," about the standards of "beauty" in the Jewish world, with Gayle Kirschenbaum (accompanied by her mother, the impetus for this documentary). 11.50am.
- Tuesday, 5.35pm - Composer Jeff Hamburg, now living in Amsterdam, will discuss his film, "Terpe Kind Mains, Terpe," in which he returns to his Ukrainian ancestral village, and also travels to Uman.
- John Kovacs, a child survivor of the Abonyi Street Jewish School in Budapest, which is the topic of this new Hungarian film, "Captain Laszlo Ocskay: The Forgotten Hero," will discuss events in Budapest during WWII. 5pm Wednesday.
- Sharon Rennert - Tuvia Bielski's granddaughter - will introduce "Defiance" at 8.30pm Wednesday and "present her own full-length program: "The Bielski Partisans: A Granddaughter's Story" at 11.15am Thursday.
- Gabriella Bohm will discuss her film "The Longing: The Forgotten Jews of South America" at 9.45am Wednesday, and her film "Passages," on her Argentinian, Hungarian, and Israeli life-changing sojourn at 3.25pm.
- Richard Kollins takes us along on his surprising shtetl trip to Ukraine in "Bashert," at 2pm Thursday. If you've ever thought of undertaking a trip like this, this is a film worth seeing.
- No genealogical film festival would be complete without a screening of the hit UK program: "Who Do You Think You Are?"The festival will screen two episodes: Zoe Wanamaker, (11:15am Wednesday), covers UK, Chicago and Nikolayev, Ukraine research; and Esther Rantzen's (2.45pm Thursday) shocking discoveries in London's East End and Warsaw. Two Rantzen researchers - Hadassah Lipsius and Laurence Harris - will answer questions. after the screening.
- To view the complete film program, click on "film festival" on the program page. Click on the film title to see a complete synopsis.
All films and discussions are scheduled for Salon 3/4.
Popcorn, anyone?
- Sunday afternoon: "The House of Life: The Old Jewish Cemetery of Prague," (2.50pm) with filmmaker/artist, Mark Podwal, followed by "The Tree of Life" (4.20pm) dealing with the magical and mystical history of the Jews of Italy with documentarian, Hava Volterra. (repeated 5.15pm Monday with Volterra)
- Join us for the hilarious, short film "My Nose," about the standards of "beauty" in the Jewish world, with Gayle Kirschenbaum (accompanied by her mother, the impetus for this documentary). 11.50am.
- Tuesday, 5.35pm - Composer Jeff Hamburg, now living in Amsterdam, will discuss his film, "Terpe Kind Mains, Terpe," in which he returns to his Ukrainian ancestral village, and also travels to Uman.
- John Kovacs, a child survivor of the Abonyi Street Jewish School in Budapest, which is the topic of this new Hungarian film, "Captain Laszlo Ocskay: The Forgotten Hero," will discuss events in Budapest during WWII. 5pm Wednesday.
- Sharon Rennert - Tuvia Bielski's granddaughter - will introduce "Defiance" at 8.30pm Wednesday and "present her own full-length program: "The Bielski Partisans: A Granddaughter's Story" at 11.15am Thursday.
- Gabriella Bohm will discuss her film "The Longing: The Forgotten Jews of South America" at 9.45am Wednesday, and her film "Passages," on her Argentinian, Hungarian, and Israeli life-changing sojourn at 3.25pm.
- Richard Kollins takes us along on his surprising shtetl trip to Ukraine in "Bashert," at 2pm Thursday. If you've ever thought of undertaking a trip like this, this is a film worth seeing.
- No genealogical film festival would be complete without a screening of the hit UK program: "Who Do You Think You Are?"The festival will screen two episodes: Zoe Wanamaker, (11:15am Wednesday), covers UK, Chicago and Nikolayev, Ukraine research; and Esther Rantzen's (2.45pm Thursday) shocking discoveries in London's East End and Warsaw. Two Rantzen researchers - Hadassah Lipsius and Laurence Harris - will answer questions. after the screening.
- To view the complete film program, click on "film festival" on the program page. Click on the film title to see a complete synopsis.
All films and discussions are scheduled for Salon 3/4.
Popcorn, anyone?
Philly 2009: Game show night, August 4
Who said genealogists don't know how to have fun?
Calling all groyse machers, alter kockers, yentas, balabustas and mavens to the Jewish Genealogical Game Show Night, at 8.30pm, Tuesday, August 4, produced by Pamela Weisberger and Ron Arons.
Want to participate? Just put your name in the shtreimel. Contestants will be chosen at random that evening. The producers are also seeking contestants for the following Family Feud teams: Galitzianer, Litvak, Ashkenazi and Sephardic. Email Pamela Weisberger now to be categorized and take your shot at stardom.
Calling all groyse machers, alter kockers, yentas, balabustas and mavens to the Jewish Genealogical Game Show Night, at 8.30pm, Tuesday, August 4, produced by Pamela Weisberger and Ron Arons.
Hosted by the always-hilarious and wildly-inappropriate, Jordan Auslander,The surprises and prizes will range from a genuine Golem clay figurine from Prague (made in Japan, no doubt); autographed books including "Talk Dirty Yiddish," "Chanukah Guilt" and "Jewish Fairytales;" tea named after your Uncle Irving; Bernie Madoff souvenirs; Soviet-style Polish candies that Bubbe used to make back in the shtetl; MP3 players with Jewish tunes, designer T-shirts for the 2010 IAJGS conference (be the first on your block!) and more.
this will be an evening of entertainment in which conference attendees can
demonstrate their genealogical knowledge, historical acumen and research
skills by participating in game show formats adapted to the world of Jewish
genealogy, including: "Jewpardy," "Family Feud" and "Name that Jew!"
We will have Litvaks squaring off against Galitzianers, Ashkenazis versus
Sephardim, and experts versus amateurs, demonstrating how much they know and how much they like showing off how much they know.
Want to participate? Just put your name in the shtreimel. Contestants will be chosen at random that evening. The producers are also seeking contestants for the following Family Feud teams: Galitzianer, Litvak, Ashkenazi and Sephardic. Email Pamela Weisberger now to be categorized and take your shot at stardom.
Even if you can't yet talk dirty in Yiddish, can't tell an Ahnentafel from a Gedcom, and don't know if your first cousin twice removed is closer to you than your third cousin once removed, come to have fun, be enlightened, show off your chutzpah, and laugh out loud.See you on Tuesday night!
ShteLinks: New and updated pages noted
New (N) and updated (U) JewishGen ShtetLinks webpages have been announced. See the links below for much more about each locality where our ancestors lived.
According to Susana Leistner Bloch (JewishGen's VP for ShtetLinks) and ShtetLinks technical coordinator Barbara Ellman, a team of volunteers are ready to help readers create pages for their ancestral homes. If you would like to create a page but require help, send an email as above.
Ukraine:Tracing the Tribe readers who want to create a new site for their ancestral shtetls or adopt an existing "orphaned" page, should send an email.
(N) Chynadiyovo (Szentmiklos)
(N) Kovel (Kowel)
(U) Jewish Agricultural colonies in the Southern Ukraine
Hungary:
(N) Edeleny (Balajt, Ladbesenyo)
(N) Vamospercs
(U) Bodrogkeresztur (Keresztur)
(U) Kormend
(U) Tiszalok
Belarus:
(N) Selets (Shiletz)
Poland:
(N) Zloczew
According to Susana Leistner Bloch (JewishGen's VP for ShtetLinks) and ShtetLinks technical coordinator Barbara Ellman, a team of volunteers are ready to help readers create pages for their ancestral homes. If you would like to create a page but require help, send an email as above.
Philly 2009: Arrived in Philadelphia!
Tracing the Tribe has arrived at the Sheraton City Center and the Internet connection is up and running.
The blog is now open for business at the 29th IAJGS International Conference on Jewish Genealogy.
Stay tuned for announcements and events!
The blog is now open for business at the 29th IAJGS International Conference on Jewish Genealogy.
Stay tuned for announcements and events!
Tracing the Tribe is 3!!!
It seems like just yesterday that Tracing the Tribe went live! That was in August 2006 at the 26th IAJGS International Conference on Jewish Genealogy, in New York City.
Tracing the Tribe will celebrate its third blogoversary at this year's conference in Philadelphia, which begins tomorrow (Sunday, August 2).
For three years, Tracing the Tribe has informed readers around the world about new resources, books, people, events and much more, helping them to find information on diverse topics of interest.
We've blogged from Jewish genealogy and general genealogy conferences, participated in two Southern California Genealogical Society Jamboree geneablogger panels with some of the most famous geneabloggers and have met some of the nicest people in person and online. Special recognition goes to Thomas MacAntee of geneabloggers.com, footnoteMaven and Randy Seaver, but there are many more!
Tracing the Tribe has been honored: Ranked 10th (and the only Jewish genealogy-focused blog) in 2009's most popular 25 genealogy blogs by ProGenealogists.com, and named as "Best for Jewish Researchers" in the 2008 Family Tree Magazine's best 101 sites for researchers.
Recognition has brought additional opportunities, such as writing a major Jewish research article for Family Tree Magazine and future projects with other outlets. This goes along with previous credits in JTA.org, The Forward, Reform Judaism, Outreach and many US Jewish media outlets. Of course, all of this grew out of our stint as Jewish genealogy columnist at the Jerusalem Post from 1999-2005.
Alongside Tracing the Tribe, of course, is my other hat, the MyHeritage Genealogy Blog, a general topic blog at MyHeritage.com. Randy's "Best of the Blogs" has included postings for both blogs in his weekly feature (thanks, Randy!).
As a sort of recap for the past three years and to see how this third year (from last year's Jewish genealogy conference to today) compared, here are some general stats.
Nearly 210,000 visitors entered Tracing the Tribe through some 6,600 pages, resulting in more than 335,000 page views, which means about 1.6 average page views. There were some 135,000 unique visitors.
Countries of visitors totaled 189, with the top ranked being US (141,000+), Israel (12,600+), Canada (11,900+), UK (11,900+), Australia, Germany, France, Netherlands, Brazil, Spain (nearly 1,000), Italy, Poland, South Africa, Belgium, India, Ireland, Sweden, Argentina, Finland, New Zealand, Switzerland, Mexico, Russia, Philippines (400+), Turkey, Norway, Hungary, Austria and Denmark. Other interesting visitors: Japan (211), China (206), Iran (200), Egypt (110), Indonesia (100), Saudi Arabia (76), and even 1 from Vatican City!
They used 81 languages, with the top being English (US), English, English (GB), German, French, Hebrew, Spanish, Dutch, Portuguese (Brazil), Russian, Polish, Italian, Spanish (Spain), Chinese, Swedish, Turkish, Hungarian, Finnish and Portuguese.
How did readers find Tracing the Tribe?
Some 54% arrived through search engines, about 26% via referring sites and about 20% directly. Search engine traffic was nearly half via Google, followed by Yahoo, AOL, Search, MSN, etc. with the new Bing in 10th place (well, it is new!).
For referring sites, there were nearly 53,000 visits via 2,265 sources. Top referring sites were Google.com, followed by Blogger.com, JTA.org, my.yahoo.com, RootsTelevision.com, Bloglines.com, FamilyTreeMagazine.com, Jewishgen.blogspot.com and blogcatalog.com.
As far as content, 10,358 pages were viewed some 321,000 times. The 20 most-read stories of all time:
As Tracing the Tribe begins its fourth year, even more exciting developments are coming on line, and this week many announcements made covering the entire world of Jewish genealogy.
As is the custom, the next event (Los Angeles, July 2010) will be announced at the current conference. Details will soon be announced by the hosting Jewish Genealogical Society of Los Angeles, so watch for information very soon.
Stay tuned for Tracing the Tribe's fourth year!
Tracing the Tribe will celebrate its third blogoversary at this year's conference in Philadelphia, which begins tomorrow (Sunday, August 2).
For three years, Tracing the Tribe has informed readers around the world about new resources, books, people, events and much more, helping them to find information on diverse topics of interest.
We've blogged from Jewish genealogy and general genealogy conferences, participated in two Southern California Genealogical Society Jamboree geneablogger panels with some of the most famous geneabloggers and have met some of the nicest people in person and online. Special recognition goes to Thomas MacAntee of geneabloggers.com, footnoteMaven and Randy Seaver, but there are many more!
Tracing the Tribe has been honored: Ranked 10th (and the only Jewish genealogy-focused blog) in 2009's most popular 25 genealogy blogs by ProGenealogists.com, and named as "Best for Jewish Researchers" in the 2008 Family Tree Magazine's best 101 sites for researchers.
Recognition has brought additional opportunities, such as writing a major Jewish research article for Family Tree Magazine and future projects with other outlets. This goes along with previous credits in JTA.org, The Forward, Reform Judaism, Outreach and many US Jewish media outlets. Of course, all of this grew out of our stint as Jewish genealogy columnist at the Jerusalem Post from 1999-2005.
Alongside Tracing the Tribe, of course, is my other hat, the MyHeritage Genealogy Blog, a general topic blog at MyHeritage.com. Randy's "Best of the Blogs" has included postings for both blogs in his weekly feature (thanks, Randy!).
As a sort of recap for the past three years and to see how this third year (from last year's Jewish genealogy conference to today) compared, here are some general stats.
Nearly 210,000 visitors entered Tracing the Tribe through some 6,600 pages, resulting in more than 335,000 page views, which means about 1.6 average page views. There were some 135,000 unique visitors.
Countries of visitors totaled 189, with the top ranked being US (141,000+), Israel (12,600+), Canada (11,900+), UK (11,900+), Australia, Germany, France, Netherlands, Brazil, Spain (nearly 1,000), Italy, Poland, South Africa, Belgium, India, Ireland, Sweden, Argentina, Finland, New Zealand, Switzerland, Mexico, Russia, Philippines (400+), Turkey, Norway, Hungary, Austria and Denmark. Other interesting visitors: Japan (211), China (206), Iran (200), Egypt (110), Indonesia (100), Saudi Arabia (76), and even 1 from Vatican City!
They used 81 languages, with the top being English (US), English, English (GB), German, French, Hebrew, Spanish, Dutch, Portuguese (Brazil), Russian, Polish, Italian, Spanish (Spain), Chinese, Swedish, Turkish, Hungarian, Finnish and Portuguese.
How did readers find Tracing the Tribe?
Some 54% arrived through search engines, about 26% via referring sites and about 20% directly. Search engine traffic was nearly half via Google, followed by Yahoo, AOL, Search, MSN, etc. with the new Bing in 10th place (well, it is new!).
For referring sites, there were nearly 53,000 visits via 2,265 sources. Top referring sites were Google.com, followed by Blogger.com, JTA.org, my.yahoo.com, RootsTelevision.com, Bloglines.com, FamilyTreeMagazine.com, Jewishgen.blogspot.com and blogcatalog.com.
As far as content, 10,358 pages were viewed some 321,000 times. The 20 most-read stories of all time:
Aug. 2007: Jewish history of SicilyThe top 20 stories since August 2008 have been:
Aug. 2008: Jewish athletes at Beijing Olympics
Aug. 2008: Italian Americans' Jewish roots conference
Oct. 2006: Jewish Vikings DNA
Dec. 2006: Judaism in Appalachia
Oct. 2007: Abraham's Children
Aug. 2006: Jews in Italy
Dec. 2006: Anger at Simon Wiesenthal's posthumous baptism
May 2007: Sarkozy's Jewish roots
Jan. 2009: Iranian Jews
March 2008: Curacao Jewish history
Dec. 2006: Genealogy video clips
Dec. 2006: Bad Arolsen on '60 Minutes'
Nov. 2006: Genghis Khan DNA error
March 2008: Crypto-Jewish conference in Texas
April 2008: Sephardim in Caribbean
March 2008: Ellis Island myth and fact
July 2007: JRI Poland update
June 2007: Calabria, Italy Jewish history
March 2008: Cracking DNA Code
Aug. 2008: Jewish athletes in BeijingTo read these, search via Tracing the Tribe's archive by month or by keyword.
Jan. 2009: Iranian Jews
Aug. 2008: Sicily's Jewish history
Jan. 2008: Italian Americans' search for Jewish roots
Oct. 2008: Jewish Pirates of the Caribbean
Sept. 2008: Obama's rabbi in family
Aug. 2008: Chicago conference: JewishGen/Ancestry
March 2008: Curacao Jewish history
Sept. 2008: Ashkenazi Sephardim
Sept. 2009: New DNA Study Spain
March 2008, Crypto-Jewish Symposium, Texas
Aug. 2008: Chicago conference: JewishGen logo controversy
April 2008: Caribbean Sephardic records
Feb. 2008: Italian Jewish roots conference
May 2008: DNA Sephardic mtDNA
May 2008: JRI Poland data added
Oct. 2008: Decoding Russian names
Nov. 2008: Sicily two lists of Jewish names
Dec. 2008: Canada Ancestry's Jewish records
Sept. 2009: Lisa Kudrow WDYTYA U.S. series
As Tracing the Tribe begins its fourth year, even more exciting developments are coming on line, and this week many announcements made covering the entire world of Jewish genealogy.
As is the custom, the next event (Los Angeles, July 2010) will be announced at the current conference. Details will soon be announced by the hosting Jewish Genealogical Society of Los Angeles, so watch for information very soon.
Stay tuned for Tracing the Tribe's fourth year!
Philly 2009: A search in Galicia
Judy Maltz has a first-person account of her Galician search in today's Jewish Exponent.
"In Search of a Shared Past in East Galicia, With Camera in Hand" covers her visit to Sokal, where her father was born and her grandpaents lived.
Before the war, some 6,000 Jews lived there, about 50% of the population. At the end of the war, only 30 had survived.
On this journey, Maltz has discovered an international network of friends and others who have Sokal in common. Connections were made on the website for the film.
Among her new friends:
- Alan Charak of Sydney, Australia, whose father survived as a teenager working at the Sokal train station, where Maltz's great-uncle Shmelke watched out for him.
- David Zugman, a hidden child from Sokal, shared his extraordinary tale of survival from FLorida.
- New York Times' former executive editor Max Frankel's mother was from Sokal, and still remembers a trip there as a 6-year-old.
- Poland's first full-time Reform rabbi, Burt Schumann's great-uncle was a neighbor and friend of Maltz's grandfather.
The film will be screened at Philly 2009; check out the online program to see the schedule.
Read the complete article at the link above.
"In Search of a Shared Past in East Galicia, With Camera in Hand" covers her visit to Sokal, where her father was born and her grandpaents lived.
It's one of those many little towns in the area known as East Galicia that every few years seemed to change hands. When my grandparents were coming of age, it was part of the Austro-Hungarian empire; between the two World Wars, it found itself on the edge of Poland's eastern border; during the Second World War, it was occupied by Nazi forces; and after the war, when the border moved west, it became Ukrainian territory.Two years ago, she finally visited the town as she arrived to film a documentary on how her family had survived the Holocaust.
But unless your family happens to have roots there -- as I've discovered -- most people have never heard of this part of the world.
For years, I'd try to imagine what it must have looked like. I'd picture the little farmhouses along the Bug River, the town square with its lively marketplace, the majestic synagogue where the Jews would gather each week for Shabbat prayers.
Judy Maltz entering Francisca Halamajowa's home at No. 4 Street of Our Lady for the first time; Maltz has made a documentary of her experiences.
Before the war, some 6,000 Jews lived there, about 50% of the population. At the end of the war, only 30 had survived.
Maltz's film, "No. 4 Street of Our Lady," tells the story of Francisca Halamajowa, a Polish-Catholic woman, who risked her life to save 15 of these Jews, including eight members of my own family.Her grandfather, Moshe Maltz, kept a diary of those years which offered details of daily life. she was able to locate the house where three families had been hidden, using the diary as a guide. She also found the old Jewish ghetto, the three-century old synagogue ruins and the old Beit Midrash. Everything else had vanished.
She hid two families -- the Maltzes and the Kindlers -- in the hayloft of the pigsty behind her house, and another family, the Krams, in a hole dug under the kitchen floor. For almost two years, she fed and cared for her Jewish boarders, even while German forces had their tanks parked on her property and had moved into her tiny two-room house.
On this journey, Maltz has discovered an international network of friends and others who have Sokal in common. Connections were made on the website for the film.
Among her new friends:
- Alan Charak of Sydney, Australia, whose father survived as a teenager working at the Sokal train station, where Maltz's great-uncle Shmelke watched out for him.
- David Zugman, a hidden child from Sokal, shared his extraordinary tale of survival from FLorida.
- New York Times' former executive editor Max Frankel's mother was from Sokal, and still remembers a trip there as a 6-year-old.
- Poland's first full-time Reform rabbi, Burt Schumann's great-uncle was a neighbor and friend of Maltz's grandfather.
The film will be screened at Philly 2009; check out the online program to see the schedule.
Read the complete article at the link above.
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