What to expect from Tracing the Tribe

In 1989, when I began researching my family, there was nothing on the Internet to help me – there was barely an Internet. All I had was the hint of a place name on a river, an unusual family name, and nothing much else … and few people to ask.

Family history researchers know that this is the curse of Jewish genealogy. When we finally catch the passion of finding out who and what we really are, there are few people to ask.

I hope this blog becomes the place where you can ask, and get real answers, when you have genealogy questions so you can find out more about your heritage.

This is an exciting time of year for genealogy: The 26th IAJGS International Conference on Jewish Genealogy is starting on August 13 in New York (www.jgsny2006.org). This major event brings together about 1,500 international researchers (from beginners through professionals) and experts who will participate in 280 programs.

I’ll be blogging from the conference, which has interesting events from expert panels to a film festival to concerts, tours of Jewish sites and cemetery visits.

What are your interests? Sephardi families in Greece or families from Spain who migrated into Poland? Ashkenazi families in Russia or Israel? Connecting families separated by the Holocaust? Tracking ancestors in rural German Jewish communities, small UK towns, medieval Italian Jewish communities or Jewish cemeteries in America’s deep South? How DNA testing can track and match families, or reveal our roots? Set up a Web site for your family research?

Tracing the Tribe will provide information to help you connect. We will explore new resources, materials and methods, provide information on communities, investigate high-tech innovations to make research easy, and talk to the people who make it all possible.

Schelly