Seattle: Jewish genealogy society receives grant

Some time ago, Tracing the Tribe wrote about the grant program offered by Archives.com, and asked which Jewish genealogy group might be the first to receive one.

We are delighted to report that the newest $1,000 grant has been given to the Jewish Genealogical Society of Washington State (JGSWS), to allow the group to begin a digitizing project of the 120-year-old Jewish Transcript newspaper.

Anyone with roots in Seattle or other Washington state communities will find a wealth of information on the Jewish community. JGSWS has wanted to work on this digitizing project for many years but did not have the resources to carry it out.

Tracing the Tribe is especially interested to learn about our JASSEN family, which arrived in Seattle around 1923.

The pages of this venerable publication contain community news; birth, marriage and death announcements, life cycle events and historical news. Currently, the issues are in bound volumes held in the Seattle Public Library. The goal is to digitize the pages and make the records searchable online and accessible to interested researchers around the world.

For those researching Sephardic families, this publication will be of great interest as Seattle has one of the largest Sephardic communities in the US, with origins in Rhodes, Saloniki, and Turkey.

According to the Archives.com blog post:

Archives is pleased to contribute to this project which will clearly have a positive impact on anyone researching their family history in Washington State.

JGSWS President Nancy Adelson notes, "Because of this grant, Jewish Genealogical Society of Washington State will be able to start an important project that we've wanted to do for over seven years... Thank you so much for choosing us and our project! I can't tell you how much this means to the members of JGSWS and how it will help make Jewish genealogical research a bit easier."

For more information on JGSWS, view its website.

Is there a project that your group wishes to accomplish related to family history or preservation? Learn more and apply for a grant here.

WDYTYA: Gywneth Paltrow & JRI-Poland

Jewish Records Indexing-Poland played an essential part in research for the new episode of "Who Do You Think You Are?" - spotlighting actress Gywneth Paltrow - to be aired Friday night, April 1, on NBC.

Paltrow's family's original name was PALTROWICZ, a rabbinical family from northeastern Poland, specifically Suwalki, Lomza and other towns. JRI-Poland offers 90 records for the family.

JRI-Poland will appear in the credits for the episode.

Our dear friend Montrealer Stan Diamond (co-founder and executive director of Jewish Records Indexing-Poland) called Tracing the Tribe the other day to let us know about the JRI-Poland connection.

For readers not familiar with JRI-Poland, it is a continually growing resource of more than 4.2 million records used by many readers to discover family data.

The following press release provides more information:

Jewish Records Indexing - Poland

4.2 million Polish-Jewish records database is key resource for Gwyneth Paltrow episode of NBC's "Who Do You think You Are?

Actress Gwyneth Paltrow’s ancestral search, told in a new episode of NBC’s “Who Do You Think You Are?”, might not have happened if not for Jewish Records Indexing - Poland.

The April 1st episode of the documentary series features Academy Award-winner Paltrow’s search. The U.S. born daughter of producer Bruce Paltrow ("St. Elsewhere," "The White Shadow"), her roots go back to a long line of rabbis named Paltrowicz from northeastern Poland and the towns of Suwalki, Lomza and nearby shtetls.

The show’s researchers were able to tap into JRI-Poland’s online database as the starting point in documenting Paltrow's ancestry. The website has 90 record entries for Paltrow's ancestors and the WDYTYA team said "JRI Poland is a wonderful resource for anyone researching Jewish Polish ancestry and was invaluable during the research for the Gwyneth Paltrow episode."

Founded in 1995, JRI-Poland was an outgrowth of Montrealer Stanley Diamond's need for access to Jewish vital records of the former Lomza Gubernia area of Poland for research into his family’s genetic history. Diamond is Executive Director and the organization has a global board, hundreds of volunteers serving thousands of researchers, funded by groups and genealogists around the world.

JRI-Poland is creating searchable on-line indices of Jewish records from current and former territories of Poland. The vast database of records going back to the late 18th century belies the misleading notion all the Jewish records of Poland were destroyed in World War II.

The searchable database has indices to 4.2 million records from more than 550 towns, with thousands added every month, vital records and censuses from the Polish State Archives and other sources both inside and outside of Poland. The database also includes army draft lists, cemetery burial indices, ghetto death records, birth, marriage and death announcements in newspapers in Poland, and more.

JRI-Poland has been recognized by the medical and scientific communities for the potential benefit for Ashkenazic families trying to trace medical histories, particularly those at increased risk for hereditary conditions and diseases. As a result of statistical analyses indicating a high incidence of medical and genetic abnormalities in individuals of Polish-Jewish descent, JRI - Poland is creating a finding aid for those who may need answers to medical-related questions or require bone marrow or other transplants. Because of this, JRI-Poland has received commendations from the Gift of Life Foundation and the National Marrow Donor Program.

For more information,  visit JRI-Poland, or contact Stanley Diamond. And for more information on the upcoming episode, click here.

Thank you, Stan, for creating this valuable resource for so many researchers. JRI-Poland's many volunteers are also to be commended for their work over the years and in advance for their future contributions.

Antwerp, Begium: Foreigner indexes at FamilySearch.org

Did your family pass through Antwerp, Belgium on their immigration journey?

If so, then you might find information in the Foreigner Index at the Felix Archive in Antwerp, which contains files of foreigners who lived there from 1840-1930. Many of these individuals were Eastern European Jews.

Previously researchers could find names, file numbers, date and place of birth at the archive, but now these details can be found at FamilySearch.org using a name search.

Here's a portion of a page, with Joseph Aaronowicz from Czernowitz highlighted:

Read more about the Police Immigrant Index here.

While I did not find any of my TALALAY in the index, I did find numerous FINK that might be related. Now all I need is more time to check out those names.

To search this index, click here.

JewishGen: Worldwide Burial Registry update

JewishGen has added to its Online Worldwide Burial Registry (JOWBR) database with 171,000 new records, 32,700 new photos, 360 new cemeteries, updates/additions to another 213 cemeteries in 21 countries.

Total holdings now include more than1.57 million records from more than 3,050 cemeteries or sections in 47 countries.

To check the database, click here. Learn how to use it here.

Donors of material include individuals, Jewish genealogical societies, historical societies and museums, including dedicated transliteration by JewishGen volunteers. Here are the highlights:

• Lodz, Poland.  Added some 39,000 making a total of some 50,000 records from the “Organization of Former Residents of Lodz in Israel” burial registers. The next update will include surnames beginning with K, P, R and S. These will also be added to the JRI-Poland database.
• Melbourne, Australia.  The Melbourne Chevra Kadisha submitted more than 29,000 records from 49 cemeteries in Melbourne and environs.
• Wisconsin, USA.  The Jewish Museum Milwaukee submitted some 27,000 records from 50 state cemeteries
• South Africa.  Stan Hart submitted nearly 17,000 records from more than 135 cemeteries, and hope to add photos in future updates.
• Virginia / Maryland, USA.  The Jewish Genealogy Society of Greater Washington, Inc.  (DC) and a volunteer team (coordinated by Marlene Bishow, Ernie Fine and Harvey Kabaker) for 5,000 records and 4,800 photos from Arlington National Cemetery and more than 1,500 records from the B'nai Israel Congregation Cemetery (Oxon Hill, Maryland).
• Ontario, Canada.  Allen Halberstadt (lead contributor, Jewish Genealogical Society of Canada, Toronto’ Cemetery Project) submitted and updated some 120 cemeteries with 5,000 records from Bathurst Memorial, Lambton Mills, and Mount Sinai cemeteries. More than 4,000 photos from Dawes Road Cemetery are included.
• Georgia, USA.  Ruth Einstein (special projects coordinator, The Breman Jewish Heritage & Holocaust Museum; Atlanta, Georgia) submitted 4,000 new and updated records from 17 Atlanta area cemeteries.
• California, USA.  Peggy Hooper (California Genealogy and History Archives) submitted 3,400 records with photos from sections of Eden Memorial Park, Temple Beth Israel, Home of Peace (LA), and Home of Peace (San Diego) cemeteries. Eden Memorial photos were taken by Dr. William A. Mann.
• Czeladz – Będzin, Poland. Jeff Cymbler submitted more than 3,200 records and 3,100 accompanying photos.
• Florida, USA.
• Susan Steinfeld (cemetery project coordinator, Jewish Genealogy Society of Broward County) and her team submitted more than 3,000 record and photos from selected sections in Miami's Star of David Cemetery.
• Ina Getzoff (JOWBR coordinator, Jewish Genealogical Society of Palm Beach County)  submitted 150 new records and 450 photos from the South Florida National Cemetery.
• Petah Tikvah / Segulah, Israel.  Gilda Kurtzman refined records and added 3,000 new photos. Current holdings for this cemetery are now nearly 60,000 records and 17,000 photos. .
• Sighetu Marmaţiei, Romania. Vivian Kahn (H-SIG coordinator) for 2,950 records from the Sighetu Marmaţiei cemetery register, with more to come.
• Roman, Romania.  Claudia Greif and Rosanne Leeson submitted 2,100 records from the Roman cemetery register from Roman (Moldavia region, Romania).
• El Paso, Texas, USA.  Sandy Aaronson updated and photographed B’nai Zion and Temple Mt. Sinai cemeteries with 450 records and 2,100 photos.
• Ferndale, Michigan, USA.  Stuart Farber submitted 2,000 records from Beth Abraham Cemetery Association.
• St. Joseph, Missouri, USA.  Deena Sandusky submitted more than 1,700 records from Adath Joseph and Shaare Sholem Roches cemeteries.
• Latvia / Lithuania / Ukraine.  Christine Usdine permitted JOWBR to include various Latvian, Lithuanian and Ukrainian cemetery records and photos from her site at http://usdine.free.fr/ Translations are by Sarah Mages.
• St. Paul, Minnesota, USA.  Eileen Wegge (eighth grade public school teacher) who during her Holocaust history curriculum coordinated a cemetery indexing project with her students at Chesed Shel Emes Cemetery.
• Greensboro, North Carolina, USA. Gene Baruch indexed and photographed 1,000 stones at the Greensboro Hebrew Cemetery.
• South Carolina Cemeteries. Ann Hellman (president, Jewish Historical Society of South Carolina) for 1,000 additional records from various South Carolina cemeteries.

Without dedicated volunteers in all spheres of Jewish genealogy and history, researchers would have many fewer records to work with.

If you live in or near a Jewish cemetery or section that has not be catalogued, researched, photographed, now might be the time to start a project, either on your own or in conjunction with a local genealogical or historical society. These types of records and photos are invaluable to researchers living around the world who may never make it your town, city, state or country. Your contribution of material can potentially help thousands of researchers globally.

You might even belong to or know of a local group or organization which may already have such records or photos in their own archives. Perhaps they may wish to donate that material so that a wider audience might find it useful.

For more information, check out the JOWBR link above or contact JewishGen's vice-president of data acquisition (and JOWBR coordinator) Nolan Altman through that link.

Ohio: Bravo to Bravo!

Attorney Kenneth A. Bravo is the new president of the Jewish Genealogy Society of Cleveland.

A partner with Ulmer & Berne, he has extensive experience in both business litigation and white-collar criminal defense, holding a J.D. cum laude (Ohio State University Moritz College of Law) and BA (Rutgers University).

The nonprofit JGSC was formed in 1982 and is dedicated to encouraging local Jewish family history and genealogical research.

The society maintains a research library, encourages the collection of genealogical material and family histories, and its meetings are free and open to the public.

The society's next meeting (Sunday, February 7) will provide information on and a demonstration of the Cleveland Jewish News digitized collection, such as the Jewish Independent Obituary Index.

Click here to go to the Index search tool; read the notes to understand what is included in this index. Tracing the Tribe has previously reported on the CJN's digital archives and has a personal connection (TAYLOR/TALALAY) to the city.

For more information on the group and its future programs, click here.

Canada: Online resource additions, updates

Does Canada figure in your family quest? Regardless of whether your ancestors were just "passing through" or stayed in Canada, the updates to the Library and Archives of Canada (LAC) may be quite helpful.

There are some 12 million new records, in total.

Recent updates include:

2,000 digital images added - Board of Guardians database update
104,000 digital images added - Passenger Lists database update
40,000 digital images added - Citizenship Montreal Circuit Court database update
180,000 digital images added - Canadian Naturalization database.

Corrections were made to the databases for Home Children, Canadian Expeditionary Force and Killed in Action.

The Canadian Genealogy Centre (CGC) at LAC has added three pages - Finnish, Ukrainian and German ethno-cultural - to the already online resource pages for Aboriginal peoples, Acadians (French Canadians), Blacks, Chinese, Irish, Jewish, Metis and Poles.

Numerous pages have been updated (many are corrections). These updates include French record abbreviations, bibliography, Canadian Forces (after 1918-WWII), criminal records, divorces, events, WWI, genealogical societies, Irish, Jewish, newspapers, Northwest Mounted Police, notarial records, provincial and territory archives, provincial land records and reference sites.

Additionally, there has been a release of indexes and digital images for the Censuses of 1861, 1871 and 1916; digitized Census returns (1851-1916) are on multiple websites. See the CGC for more information.

By 2011, according to the Libraries and Archives Canada site, all digital images and indexes for Census returns will be on the LAC website, which can be searched here.

Footnote.com: 60 millionth image added

If one picture is worth one thousand words, what's the value of 60 million images?

Footnote.com has just posted its 60 millionth image. If you find just one image of an ancestor or a document about that individual that couldn't be found elsewhere, the value is priceless.

There's nothing like an original resource and Footnote.com helps researchers by providing photos, letters and documents through its digitization projects. While indexes and transcriptions are very useful, nothing really replaces seeing the original. Researchers know that the more an item is indexed by human beings or a document is transcribed, the more likely an error may creep in. Viewing the original helps to minimize such errors.

I always check the site as new collections are introduced and have found records for many related individuals.

October is Family History Month and Footnote's been busy adding more than a million new records each month, in addition to millions of images. The site's partnerships with organizations, such as the National Archives and Gannett publishers, has produced digitized and indexed historical documents and photos.

Researchers around the world can access these valuable resources online, and scholars, historians and genealogists use Footnote's unique record collections, including:

Historical Newspapers
Revolutionary War Documents
Civil War Records and Photos
The Interactive Vietnam Veterans Memorial
WWII Collection

While the subscription site is for-fee, it also includes a number of free collections, such as the Social Security Death Index (SSDI), which allows visitors to create interactive experiences from a simple index. For each record, there's a page featuring a timeline, map, photo gallery and a place for readers to contribute stories and details about an individual. The index spans those born in 1875 through those who died last week, providing name, birth date, death date and last known residence.

Visit Footnote.com to explore these and other historical collections.

New gen data venture announced

Just announced is a new genealogical data brokerage service by the formidable team of Susan E. King and Joyce Field, with decades of experience in genealogy and data acquisition.

Read the complete announcement here.

They have teamed up to use their unique skills to provide a service - brokerage services for those having data of important genealogical value. With contacts spanning the globe and unparalleled relationships with those in the market to digitize, store, and serve genealogical material, there is no doubt that this team will work relentlessly and tirelessly to assure that your data find the proper home which meets the objectives of your organization and are accessible to those who are on their journey of researching their past.

It is well-known, even in the current environment, that many archives and other historical institutions still house an enormous number of valuable genealogical collections in paper records and on microfilm. These records exist without indexes, without finding aids, without online searchable databases. These now inadequate storage media make vital information totally inaccessible for researchers and put an enormous strain on institutions, with staff shortages, trying to answer questions on records.

In addition, storage of and access to historical paper documents, which are often in fragile condition, and microfilm collections are expensive in comparison to digital records. While so many organizations and institutions lack financial and human resources to digitize and index their collections, there are other organizations today eager to partner with them. These partnerships could include digitizing and indexing services at no cost to the institutions with an agreement that the data can be searched online.

The announcement also says that online ordering system can be implemented to process record requests identified in the searchable online databases.

It is possible that the most important benefit of this new venture is to bring much needed funding to those who hold such collections, and also reduce the cost to for staffing to handle the increasing request load. Susan and Joyce call this a win-win situation for everyone.

The goal and objective of the team is to find the most appropriate partner institution for the holders of such collections and to assist institutions in negotiating preliminary details of an agreement to suit the needs of the collection owners.

Susan and Joyce are known through the genealogical community, and believe there should be ways to offer revenue streams for data holders by placing real records beind an online ordering system, while offering searchable indexes to locate them.

Do you have holdings to discuss?

For more information, contact Susan E. King or Joyce Field.

New York State: Pre-1881 birth certificate index

A name index to more than one thousand delayed birth certificates (pre-1881) is now in the New York State Archives and eight other state locations.

The 1,048 names represent births that took place from 1823-1880 in the state, outside of New York City's five boroughs.

Prepared by the New York State Department of Health, certificate fields include the county district number, child's full name, birth date, full names of mother (with maiden name) and father, and filing date. Search by the child's name, mother's maiden name or year of birth.

The index is available in state archives and public libraries in Albany,
Buffalo, Elmira, Glens Falls, New York City, Patchogue, Rochester, Syracuse and Watertown.

For more information on this index and others, click here -> Genealogy -> Research -> Vital Records. For information on ordering copies of vital records, click here.