Colorado: Following the paper trail, Nov. 21

Follow your family's paper trail  at a special computer lab session for beginners at the University of Denver Computer Lab, on Sunday, November 21. 

"Becoming an American: Following Your Ancestor's Paper Trail" is a beginner-level program on using internet resources  that will run from 10am-noon.  It is part of the Jewish Genealogical Society of Colorado's Family Tree Initiative Workshop and Mentoring Series.  

Learn which documents immigrants completed as they entered America and became citizens, where those materials can be found, and what information they contain about changed names, relatives, origins and more. Follow a paper trail including passenger ship manifests, census, naturalizations, vital records, military service, land ownership, and probate – all starting from the computer!

Take a field trip to the computer lab at the University of Denver where every participant will be connected to a computer. No prior knowledge of genealogy or computers is necessary. There is a one-time $30 fee that covers all sessions, a book, materials, and one year of membership in the Jewish Genealogical Society of Colorado.  Participants can attend one or all seven lectures of the Jewish Family Tree Initiative.

Reserve in advance to save your seat for this program.  

California: Jamboree mini-course registration begins May 1

In the Los Angeles area? Here are 14 more reasons to attend the Southern California Genealogical Society Jamboree (June 11-13), in Burbank).

Registration opens May 1 for these 14 mini-course workshops (one or two hours each) - a really good line up of classes and instructors. If you are interested, sign up fast (only online as of May 1). These will likely fill quickly with only 17 seats per class.

You may sign up for the workshops only if you've already registered for Jamboree, but you can do both at the same time. Each registrant may sign up for only one workshop. All workshops (except one) require attendees to bring laptops or netbooks.

Download the complete Jamboree program grid here, so you'll be better prepared to organize your time.

Read instructor bios, class descriptions and whether there's an advance assignment to complete. Some courses require attendees to download something, register for an account, bring family details, have a specific program on your computer.

Seating is limited, so choose a second if your favorite has already filled. 

Course times, titles and instructors:

• Friday: Using Google Earth to Map Your Ancestor’s Home, Google Docs for Beginners, Using Excel in Genealogy.
• Saturday: Platting Your Ancestor’s Land, FindAGrave, Skype - The Cool New Way to Talk to the Grandkids, Blogger for Beginners, WordPress for Beginners, Writing Your Family History Using Microsoft Word.
• Sunday:  Using Your Computer, Video Camera and YouTube, Second Life: A New World of Online Genealogy, Using Excel in Genealogy, Scanning Tips and Tricks, Google Reader for Beginners.

For complete mini-course descriptions, instructors and requirements, click here.

Florida: Orlando's online computer research forum, April 27

As Tracing the Tribe has often said, genealogy is the great equalizer. It crosses all boundaries of faith, ethnicity, cultures and other issues that might divide us.

Genealogy doesn't care what you eat, how or when; what you wear on your head or not; or any other issues that often separate communities and cause tension within even similar communities.

All of us are joined by our common interest in learn more about our ancestors and our unique family history.

The Internet can also be considered a great equalizer, and an online computer research forum sponsored by the Jewish Genealogical Society of Greater Orlando will help to break down brick walls, on Tuesday, April 27.

The program begins at 1pm in the main social hall of the Congregation of Reform Judaism, 928 Malone Drive.

The focus will be on breaking through brick walls, aided by five experienced computer genealogists - Herb Adler, Irwin Feldman, Paul Enchelmayer, Larry Morrell and Jose Valle - who will attempt to resolve difficult problems by demonstrating online techniques.

JGGO program chair Jerry Kurland established a working committee in early February to set up the Forum, with Carl Migden as a special advisor. Kurland surveyed society members and requested that they submit their major stumbling blocks.

Among the problems received:

-- A member cannot find any trace of his great-grandfather despite the fact that he died in 1898 and is buried in Oak Woods Cemetery, Chicago.

-- A member is looking for the date and port of entry of his parents from Austria.

-- A third person had been trying for years to find his mother-in-law on a passenger list.

Kurland says that the forum should provide some successful results and that, as a result, researchers should become more comfortable in browing the Internet and sampling websites from home.

Society members and guests will be able to view a large screen projection on how to connect to various websites.

For more information, address, directions, visit the JGSGO site.

UK: 'Finding family' workshop, Dec. 17

The Jewish Genealogical Society of Great Britain will focus on finding family in England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland, at its meeting on Thursday, December 17.

The meeting runs from 7.30-9.30pm at the JGSGB Library in London.

The session will cover information for beginners as well as those more advanced, and for confident and less-confident computer users.

To register, send an email to reserve a place. Fee: JGSGB members, free; others, £5.00.

For more information and address, click JGS of Great Britain (JGSGB).

Michigan: Computer techniques workshops, Oct. 18

Where would we be today without computers and the Internet? The Jewish Genealogy Society of Michigan's next meeting is a workshop focused on computer techniques for genealogists.

Registration begins at 9.30am on Sunday, October 18, at the Holocaust Memorial Center, 28123 Orchard Lake Rd, Farmington Hills.

Program: Participants may select one session in each time slot.

10-11:15am

- Computer Research: Fred Apel, JGSMI past president
- Data Bases: Gayle Saini, Librarian
- Beginners Googling: Pam Smith, Flint Genealogical Society treasurer

11:30am-12:45pm

- Making Ancestry Easy: Ruth Rosenberg, Generations Magazine editor
- Facebook/Blog Useage: Adina Lipsitz, JGSMI president and webmaster
- Advanced Googling: Pam Smith, Flint Genealogical Society treasurer

Fee: JGSM members, free; others, $15 one session, $20 two sessions. This program provides an incentive to join the society.

Advance registration is recommended. See JGSMI's website for more information.

Seattle: Share family history creatively, Nov. 12

The Jewish Genealogical Society of Washington State's next meeting will feature genealogist Steven Schwartz in a program focused on creative ways to share and preserve family history.

Schwartz became involved in genealogy as a hobby in 1997 when his oldest daughter researched her family tree for a school project. With his experience in computers and other technologies, he has experimented with a variety of ways to present genealogical information in interesting new formats, and his personal research has produced a database of more than 5,000 relatives.

The program will help attendees to organize and present collected information in a meaningful way.

He'll explore creative ways to share your family history, with an emphasis on using your computer. The focus will be on using tools that do not require advanced training in computers or video production. However, the results will enable you to tell your story using video, photos, maps, documents, and interviews, and to decorative family trees that you can frame for display. He will also explore how you can spruce up a traditional book format with photos and aerial views of shtetls using Windows’ Live Earth and Google.

The program is for both newcomers and more experienced researchers, and will begin at 7pm Monday, November 12, at the Stroum Jewish Community Center, Mercer Island. Free for members, $5 for others. Photo ID is required to enter the building.

For directions and more information, click here.

Copenhagen: Steve Morse to speak June 13

Yes, yes .... it is a little early.

Generally, to hear Steve Morse, you have to be in North America, so this is a great opportunity for Tracing the Tribe's European readers. I wanted to provide readers with plenty of time to organize a visit to Copenhagen.

Steve will speak about his One-Step Web site at 7 p.m. on June 13. For more information, e-mail jgsdk_ep@hotmail.com to reach Elsebeth Paikin, president of the Jewish Genealogical Society in Denmark, and also SIG Coordinator and webmaster of JewishGen's Scandinavia SIG.

Caracas: Jewish genealogy classes start May 7

I am always happy to spotlight events and activities of the international Jewish genealogical societies, for Tracing the Tribe's many readers around the world.

The JGS of Venezuela, writes president Ignacio Sternberg, will begin offering basic and intermediate Jewish genealogy sessions in the computer labs of the Colegio Moral y Luces Herzl Bialik in Caracas.

The first session will be 7 p.m. on May 7, with others scheduled in the coming weeks. For more information, write JGSVenezuela@bellsouth.net.

Cleveland: Genealogy computer group meeting

Readers in the Cleveland area may be interested in a meeting of the Computer Assisted Genealogy Group on March 17, at the Fairview Park Regional Library.

The program includes sessions on major genealogy software programs and computer fundamentals.

The morning session is "Making Sense of Sources," with a focus on that which "separates genealogy from mythology," according to the presenter. Learn how to document data, including printed materials and data on the Internet.

The afternoon session focuses on "Forms for Genealogy," and forms that your genealogy software can create as well as free forms that you can find online. Use the right forms to keep track of sources and results, and to work with research logs, correspondence, timelines and census transcription forms.

For more information, click here.