Cleveland: 'Rocks, readings, rubbings' - August 3

Planning to visit your family cemeteries? What do you need to know to prepare? What do you need to know when you get there?

The next meeting of the Jewish Genealogy Society of Cleveland -at 7.30pm, Wednesday, August 3 - will focus on just that.

Cynthia Turk will speak at Menorah Park in the Miller Board Room, 27100 Cedar Road, Beachwood.

A member of the Cleveland-area Computer Aided Genealogy Group, Ohio Genealogical Society, Columbiana County Genealogical Society and East Cuyahoga County Genealogical Society, Turk is past president of the Lake County Genealogical Society and North Eastern Ohio Computer-Aided Genealogy Society, and served as chair of the Lake County Cemetery Inscriptions Project.

She will present “Rocks, Readings, and Rubbings; Getting the Most From Your Cemetery Research.”

For more information, visit the JGS of Cleveland. While at their website, check out their databases and other Jewish genealogical research tools.

Seattle: Cemetery research tips, June 13

Cemetery research tips will be the next program of the Jewish Genealogical Society of Washington State, on Monday, June 13.

"Carved in Stone: Tips for Cemetery Research" begins at 7pm at the Stroum JCC, on Mercer Island. The library and Wi-Fi will be available.Admission: JGSWS members, free; others, $5.

Deb Freedman of Tacoma will share tips for doing genealogical research in cemeteries, including cemetery etiquette and how to read a tombstone. She will reveal her recently discovered method for photographing headstones.

Deb will bring ideas for accessing mortuary records and obituaries, and for making virtual visits to cemeteries. You’ll learn basic abbreviations used on many stones, plus methods for figuring out Hebrew names and dates.

Freedman retired from a 20-year career as a youth services specialist for the Tacoma Public Library, which helped her to develop research and genealogy skills to dig into original research. She is a charter member of the JGSWS, past board member of the Tacoma Historical Society and the Washington State Jewish Historical Society, and current board member of Tacoma’s Home of Peace Cemetery Association and has completed a book of transcriptions of its tombstones.

An award-winning author, Freedman received the Pierce County Heritage League’s Individual Achievement Award for writing a third-grade local history supplement - "Tacoma’s Twenty-One Tales" - and is currently writing a book on Tacoma’s 19th-century Jewish merchants - tentatively titled "Dry Goods and Wet Goods."

For more information, click here.

NEHGS: Jewish cemetery database growing

A growing Jewish cemetery database, with records dating from the 1840s, is being made available by the New England Historic Genealogical Society (NEHGS), the American Jewish Historical Society of New England (AJHSNE), and the Jewish Cemetery Association of Massachusetts (JCAM).

The online database currently includes 13 Massachusetts Jewish cemeteries, with some 5,000 records. By the end of the year, according to the press release, all 106 JCAM cemeteries, with more than 100,000 total records, will be online.

Here's the press release for more information:

NEHGS PROVIDES ACCESS TO MASSACHUSETTS JEWISH CEMETERY RECORDS

Access Program Part of collaboration with Jewish Cemetery Association of Massachusetts and American Jewish Historical Society

Boston, MA–March 2, 2011 –The New England Historic Genealogical Society (NEHGS) today announced that, together with the Jewish Cemetery Association of Massachusetts (JCAM), and the American Jewish Historical Society of New England (AJHSNE) have made available for the first time online access to a growing database that currently includes 13 Massachusetts Jewish cemeteries, with approximately 5,000 records. More records are being added weekly until all 106 JCAM cemeteries, which include more than 100,000 total records, are online.

The names in this extensive database cover the years 1844 to the present, and, when completed later this year, will offer access to more than 100,000 names of Jewish Americans buried in Massachusetts.

NEHGS President and CEO, D. Brenton Simons, said, “For genealogists and researchers, this database is a tremendous resource and provides unique access to a set of names vital to Jewish family research. We are pleased to work with AJHS and JCAM in this way. The Jewish Cemetery Association of Massachusetts is a marvelous society for those with Jewish ancestry and we know countless people will benefit from having it available online.”

“This is one of the first of many benefits that will accrue as a result of our strategic partnership with NEHGS,” said Justin Wyner, chair of the Boston Board of Overseers of the American Jewish Historical Society. “This additional resource is of significant genealogical importance. AJHSNE now makes its home inside the NEHGS research center in downtown Boston.

According to JCAM’s Executive Director Stanley Kaplan, “This partnership with NEHGS and AJHS provides people with access to where their loved ones are resting, a source that is known for genealogy,” said Kaplan. “We have broadened …our reach within the community.”

For more information, visit the NEHGS website at www.AmericanAncestors.org , the American Jewish Historical site at www.ajhsboston.org or visit the Jewish Cemeteries Association of Massachusetts at http://www.jcam.org/.

About NEHGS

Founded in 1845, New England Historic Genealogical Society is the country's leading resource for family history research. We help family historians expand their knowledge, skill, and understanding of their family and its place in history. The NEHGS research center, located at 99-101 Newbury Street, Boston, houses millions of books, journals, manuscripts, photographs, microfilms, documents, records, and other artifacts that date back more than four centuries. NEHGS staff includes some of the leading expert genealogists in the country, specializing in early American, Irish, English, Italian, Scottish, Atlantic and French Canadian, African American, Native American, and Jewish genealogy. Our award-winning website, http://www.americanancestors.org/, provides access to more than 135 million searchable names in 3,000 collections.

Readers with Massachusetts connections may well find information on their families at the links above.

Mocavo.com: New, free genealogy search engine launches

Claiming to be the world's largest free genealogy search engine, Mocavo.com launched today.

The tag line reads, "Searching billions of names in tens of thousands of free sources."

The world’s largest free genealogy search engine, says Mocavo.com, provides genealogists access to the best free genealogy content on the web including billions of names, dates and places worldwide.

The site seeks to index and make searchable all of the world’s free genealogy information.

According to the website, Mocavo.com discovers new sites every day. Sites currently searchable include genealogy message boards, family trees, state and local historical societies. Some of the well-known sites that Mocavo accesses include the Library of Congress, National Archives, Ellis Island, Find A Grave, the Internet Archive, various U.S. state archives, and large numbers of genealogy sites built by individuals for their own family history.

Mocavo links directly to the original content sites.

Dick Eastman and Randy Seaver have already posted about their experiences. Tracing the Tribe is contributing to the Jewish experience on the new site.

I usually start with my names of interest, TALALAY and DARDASHTI, moving onto the geographical locations important to this research, as well as other topics of interest. The website claims to enable the search of more than 50 billion words, so there must be something for Tracing the Tribe, right?

• There were 168 results for TALALAY and 1,757 entries for DARDASHTI.

The TALALAY entries included Ancestry board posts, conference entries and more. This search did offer a few new ones that I need to follow up on, and it saved me from what usually happens on a Google search, which produces thousands of references to cousins producer Rachel Talalay and her films, Dr. Paul Talalay (Rachel's father), the latex rubber Talalay process and broccoli sprouts.

The DARDASHTI entries included many for Tracing the Tribe, of course, but the others included many conference entries.

• My first geographical location -Mogilev, Belarus - displayed more than 1,550 hits, mostly from JewishGen's various pages, but aso including other sites. Some results need to be investigated more thoroughly.
• A search for "sephardic" - important for many Tracing the Tribe readers - produced more than 7,000 results, mostly from JewishGen. "Jewish Sephardic" brought out some 1,100. There were differences in the results.
• A search for "Tracing the Tribe," brought in some 71 hits, while "Jewish genealogy" resulted in nearly 20,000 results, covering a wide gamut of resources (JewishGen, Jewish genealogical societies, various archives, libraries, book lists, individual family history pages and much more).
• Searching merely for "Jewish," produced nearly 680,000 results. Among these were state history sites, message boards, state sites for Jewish archives, museums, JGSs, local history sites, cemeteries and many more.

Tracing the Tribe suggests you try it for your own "dot on the map" and surnames. Many more sites will likely be added and searches will produce many more results.

Mocavo.com also has a Facebook page, which Tracing the Tribe has "liked." I think you'll also like it.

Try it out and let your fellow readers know what you've found in your own search.

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.

Hong Kong: The Jewish flavor

The Urban Photo blog offered an interesting interview with the new rabbi of Ohel Leah synagogue in Hong Kong.

The post also mentions three of the wonderfully warm and welcoming people whom I met in Hong Kong last spring on my way to and from Melbourne, Australia, to speak at the National Jewish Genealogy Conference. I also spoke at the Hong Kong Jewish Community Center.

While there, I met with Howard Elias, who runs the Hong Kong Jewish Film Festival and also handles the Jewish cemetery; with Erica Lyons, an American ex-pat who lives there with her husband and children, publishes the wonderful Asian Jewish Life magazine; and had tea with Judy Green, all mentioned in the post.

In Hong Kong, I attended Shabbat services at Ohel Leah, and at the Reform congregation, celebrated Purim at the JCC and had a fascinating first trip to Asia.

Planning a trip to Hong Kong? Make sure to email, call or write ahead of time to see the JCC and Ohel Leah, and find out what's going on in the community.

The JCC restaurant is also quite good (and kosher)!

By the way, the new issue of Asian Jewish Life is online now (see cover above left), so take a look at what's happening on the other side of the world. This issue has numerous articles on various aspects of Jewish life in India, including felafel in Bangalore.

Boston: Belarus Jewish history, cemetery restoration, Nov. 7

Boston readers with roots in Belarus should not miss the next program of the Jewish Genealogical Society of Greater Boston on Sunday, November 7.

The meeting starts at 1.30pm at the Gann Academy, 333 Forest Street, Waltham.

Speakers Michael Lozman and Rochelle Goldberg Ruthchild will provide an inside look at the history of Jews in Belarus and the work being done on Jewish cemeteries.

Rochelle Goldberg Ruthchild, a Research Associate at the Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies at Harvard University, will speak on the history of Belarus’ Jewish community, noting that there was always a large Jewish population in that area of the world but that Belarus did not come into existence as a separate country until 1991.

Dr. Michael Lozman will speak about his work in protecting, preserving and restoring Jewish cemeteries destroyed by the invading Nazis and further deteriorated by neglect due to the absence of returning Jews as a result of the Holocaust. He and his team have to date restored ten Jewish cemeteries in Belarus, and have more planned for future years.

Fee: JGSGB members, free; others, $5.

For directions, click here. For more on the JGSGB, click here.

Heads-up:

December 12:
Aaron Ginsburg and a panel, "Finding relatives from the former Soviet Union."

January 16:
Robert Weinberg: “DNA of the Jewish People, Similarities and Differences”

Rhode Island: Newport's Jewish history

In 1790, George Washington visited Newport, Rhode Island.

A few days later, he wrote a letter to the synagogue members - Sephardim who had fled the Inquisition, settled in the Dutch West Indies, were expelled in the 1650s and came to America.

Congregation Jeshuat Israel (established 1658) is now Touro Synagogue (dedicated 1763), the oldest synagogue in America. It was designated a National Historic Site in 1946. In 2001, the National Trust for Historic Preservation selected Touro to become part of its collection of historic sites.

The letter assured Jews of full citizenship in the US.

Wrote Washington, “…the government of the United States… gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance… every one shall sit in safety under his own vine and fig tree, and there shall be none to make him afraid.”

Each year, the letter is read aloud in the synagogue; this year the date was August 22 and some 150 people gathered to hear the 63rd annual reading.

Following the reading, guests visited the Ambassador John L. Loeb Jr. Visitors Center, which opened last August. It is a state-of-the-art museum spotlighting Touro's role in the birth of religious freedom and contributions Jews have made to America. Loeb funded the center; his ancestors were among Touro's first congregants, including the first spiritual leader, Isaac Touro.

Guests also toured the Colonial Jewish Burial Ground, near the synagogue, where many founding families are buried. Perhaps the most notable is Judah Touro, a Newport-born philanthropist whose donation funded the restoration and maintenance of the cemetery, the second oldest Jewish cemetery in America.

For more information on the annual event, see the Rhode Island Jewish Voice & Herald for the story by Nancy Abeshaus. For more on the Touro Synagogue, click here.

New York: A visit to Mount Carmel Cemetery

Are your relatives buried at New York's Mount Carmel Cemetery?

Tablet magazine takes a podcast look at the cemetery and sees how far American Jews have drifted - geographically and ritually - from their immigrant ancestors. There's also a slide show of photographs by Molly Surno, such as this one:
It is a High Holiday tradition for Jews to visit the graves of family members, say kaddish and leave a stone of remembrance.

Immigrant societies - landsmenshaften - in New York are buried in Jewish cemeteries established a century ago. Generations later, their descendants may also be there.

The 14-minute podcast discusses what makes a Jewish cemetery Jewish, who can be buried there, some famous individuals buried there, why more recent graves have no or little Hebrew inscriptions, design elements and meanings, fewer stones on gravestones and why, vandalism, varying intentions of older and younger generations, the role of the rabbi - or not - in the process, chevra kadisha and funeral homes, when to start thinking of one's future burial and where.

It features Rabbi Andy Bachman of Congregation Beth Elohim (Brooklyn), who took Vox Tablet host Sara Ivry (and photographer Molly Surno, see the slide show) on a tour of Mount Carmel Cemetery in Queens, where some 85,000 New York Jews are buried.

Read the complete story, listen to the podcast, see the slide show here.

Washington DC: 'DC resources' newest edition

Happy 30th anniversary to the Jewish Genealogy Society of Greater Washington!

The society has pubished the new updated and expanded fifth edition of “Capital Collections: Resources for Jewish Genealogical Research in the Washington, DC Area.”

Planning a trip to the nation's capitol? Researching the area or live there? This 116-page guide is essential in so many ways.

Resources, phone numbers, websites and security information is updated; new sites are added. There's even a section on public transport, including a DC Metro system map.

The 31st IAJGS International Conference on Jewish Genealogy will be in Washington DC in August 2011, and this guide will be invaluable for those planning research in conjunction with that event.

Contents include:

-- ARCHIVES I
-- ARCHIVES II
-- NATIONAL RECORDS CENTER (WNRC) New!
-- THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS
-- U. S. HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL MUSEUM
-- NATIONAL MUSEUM OF AMERICAN JEWISH MILITARY HISTORY
-- DAUGHTERS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION (DAR) LIBRARY
-- FAMILY HISTORY CENTERS
-- NATIONAL LIBRARY OF MEDICINE
-- HOUSE OF THE TEMPLE LIBRARY
-- U. S. NAVY MEMORIAL AND HERITAGE CENTER New!
-- THE NAVAL HISTORICAL CENTER New!
-- MARYLAND including: Annapolis, Baltimore City, Baltimore County Eastern Shore, Frederick County, Montgomery County, and Prince George's County
-- VIRGINIA including Northern Virginia and Richmond
-- SYNAGOGUES & CHAVUROT
-- CEMETERIES IN THE WASHINGTON AREA
-- CEMETERIES IN THE BALTIMORE AREA

Spiral-bound, it lies flat for easy use, and would be very useful for genealogy libraries. Price per copy: $25 (including shipping/handling in the US); or, for JGSGW members only, $15 (includes shipping/handling in the US).

To order, send a check, payable to the JGS of Greater Washington Inc., to:

The Jewish Genealogy Society of Greater Washington, Inc.
P.O. Box 1614
Rockville, Maryland 20849
Att: Capital Collections

For shipment outside the US or more questions, contact the JGSGW.

Poland: Nowy Dwor Mazowiecki, new names revealed

Researchers with roots in Nowy Dwor Mazowiecki should be aware of the project led by Ze'ev Shaked and Alan Knecht.

They visited the cemetery on June 7, unearthed numerous gravestones and added the names to their lists.

The Jewish community and cemetery date from the 17th century. During the Holocaust, Jewish gravestones (matzevot) were removed and used in road construction and other works, squatters had set up homes in the cemetery amid graves that had been opened and desecrated.

The men excavated the following matzevot (Jewish gravestones). Abraham Schul, who was born and lived in the town corrected the original list of names, copied below. I also discovered a few more corrections:

Gitel SEGALOWICZ
Sara Mindel Etke SEGAL
Asher MELMAN
Etke Lea RACHIMOWSKI
Szmuel Itzchak PERELMUTER
Bluma GRABMAN
Szmuel Baruch WAINSZTOK
Hana Lea GERSZWANE
Hana FINKELSZTEJN
Lea ZILBERTHAL
Hana Zelda ACKERMAN
Abraham Baruch BERNSZTEJN
Fajga Rivka KRONENBERG
Miriam Gitel KARCOWICZ
Hana Edel MAGID
Itzchak Baruch GRYNER
Hersz BRONSZTEJN or BORNSZTEJN
Perla HAIDELBERG
Miriam Yente SZKLANKA
Briandel ROTSZTEJN
Ruchama Rachel DOMB

There are a few additional stones (1880s-1930s), but the names are illegible.

Alan Knecht has posted pictures of some of these on the project's Facebook page (Nowy Dwor Jewish Cemetery Memorial), and has added additional information wherever possible. More will soon be posted.

Readers are invited to look at the images and see if they can add more information or make corrections to the transliterations.

There's another photo that the group is wondering about. Here it is:

Do you know any of the people in the image? If so, let the project know.

The project is dedicated to the desire to make sure that the Jewish cemetery in Nowy Dwor is secured and that the descendants of the Jewish community have a place at which to gather, remember and mourn.

The group's major accomplishment has been the start of the fence construction around the cemetery. They have raised $40,000 - with $10,000 from the Chief Rabbi of Warsaw.

Better news is that the city undertook - on its own - to dig up more stones while Ze'ev was there, which permitted more images to be photographed.

For more information, see the Nowy Dwor Jewish Memorial, where you can see a current list of names, a photo gallery, contact information and more.

New Jersey: Jewish Historical Society, June 17

Jewish Historical Society of North Jersey president Jerry Nathans will speak at the next meeting of the Jewish Genealogical Society of New Jersey, on Thursday, June 17.

The program begins at 7pm at the YM-YWHA of Wayne.

Nathans will discuss the society's holdings, which include Yiddish books printed in Paterson to objects to cemetery ledgers, and much more. The area's Jewish history begins around 1840.

His talk will be followed by Q&A.

Fee: None.

For directions, or other information visit the JGSNJ site.

JewishGen: Worldwide burial registry updated

The JewishGen Online Worldwide Burial Registry (JOWBR) database has been updated with more than 108,000 new records and some 13,000 additional photos.

There are 170 new cemeteries with updates to another 155 cemeteries in 19 countries. The database now holds more than 1.4 million records from some 2,700 cemeteries or sections in 46 countries.

View JOWBR here. New users should click here for information.

Here are some of the new additions:

-- Iasi, Romania: nearly 32,000 added; database now 65,000.

-- Lodz, Poland: Organization of Former Residents of Lodz in
Israel has given permission to add their burial register names to both JOWBR and JRI-Poland, totalling some 70,000-75,000 records. This update offers the first 12,000 records.

--Lodz, Poland: More than 2,000 burials recorded by the IDF and the Yad LeZehava Holocaust Research Institute in three sections of the Lodz cemetery; database now has 3,400 burials.

-- Louisville, Kentucky: Herman Meyer & Son Funeral Home has compiled extensive information on burials from seven Jewish cemeteries in the city; database totals nearly 11,500 records. Additional information on Kentucky resources and headstone photos.

-- Baltimore, Maryland: Jewish Museum of Maryland and Deb Weiner for 9,900 records from the Belair Road and Berrymans Lane Baltimore Hebrew Cemeteries.

-- Maine: Harris Gleckman of Project Shammas - "Documenting Maine Jewry" - for nearly 6,500 records from 16 Maine cemeteries and sections.

-- American Jewish Archives (AJA): US and Caribbean cemetery records from The Jacob Rader Marcus Center of the American Jewish Archives (AJA), Cincinnati, Ohio; more than 6,000 records from 36 cemeteries.

-- Pennsauken, New Jersey: Rabbi Gary Gans submitted 6,000 records from the Crescent Memorial Park.

-- Liepaja, Latvia: 3,600 records from the town of Liepaja,
Latvia.

-- Bathurst Lawn Memorial Park and Pardes Shalom Cemetery, Ontario: JGS of Canada-Toronto; more than 3,200 records from 122 updated and new sections of these Canadian cemeteries.

-- South Carolina Cemeteries: Jewish Historical Society of South Carolina; 2,200 burial records and 365 photos from five South Carolina cemeteries.

-- Petach Tikvah, Israel: TSegulah Cemetery; some 2,200 additional photos.

-- Sacramento, California: 2,200 records from the Home of Peace Cemetery.

-- Various US States: More than 2,100 records from 25 cemeteries in nine states, by Julian Preisler.

-- Colma, California: San Francisco Bay Area Jewish Genealogical Society, nearly 2,100 records from the second book of burial records from Home of
Peace Cemetery & Emanu-El Mausoleum.

-- New Jersey: Jewish Historical Society of North Jersey; more than 1,000 records from
five cemeteries.

-- Bavarian Cemeteries: JewishGen and the Bavarian State Ministry of Science, Research and Arts/Center of Bavarian History. ; nearly 700 translations from seven cemeteries, and other civil document data.

-- German Cemeteries: 650 records from 21 small German cemeteries.

-- South Africa: 450 records and 550 photos from 13 cemeteries. For more information, click here.

Many donors - individuals and societies - have submitted information. To see how you can help, visit JOWBR at JewishGen.

Illinois: Midwest Jewish Genealogy Conference, June 6

The Jewish Genealogical Society of Illinois will present a one-day Jewish genealogy conference, "From the Shtetl to the 21st Century," on Sunday, June 6, in Skokie.

The venue is Temple Beth Israel, 3601 W. Dempster.

The full-day event, from 8am-5.15pm, features experienced instructors on topics to expand knowledge of genealogical resources, including a two-part Beginners’ Workshop. Fifteen sessions are scheduled - three each in five time slots.

Key note speaker Ron Arons is a nationally known expert on Jewish criminals, Jewish genealogy and research techniques. He will demonstrate new ways to use the Internet to find family information in  “Online Jewish Genealogy Beyond JewishGen and Steve Morse.” During lunch, he'll share how his interest in Jewish criminals led to his book - “The Jews of Sing Sing” - and he'll also lead a mapping techniques session.

Other presenters will be Judith R. Frazin, Harriet Rudnit, Abby and Bill Schmelling, Ralph Beaudion, Leslye Hess, Robin Seidenberg, Irwin Lapping, Alvin Holtzman, Louisa Nicotera, Everett L. Butler and Mike Karsen.

Sessions include: Beginners' Genealogy Workshop, Using the Internet to Research Your Family History, Travel to Your Ancestral Shtetl, Find That Obituary Online, Holocaust Research in Libraries and Internet, Polish Translation Guide, Mining for Gold: Online Newspapers, Waldheim Cemetery, Basics of DNA Testing, Mapping Techniques, Cook County Genealogy Online, Genealogy Research Reasoning, Write Your Family History Now, and Ask the Experts.

Fee: Before May 15, fees are: Members of any Jewish genealogical society, $45; others, $50, Conference plus JGSI membership (new member only), $70. After May 15, each category increases by $10.

The JGSI library with hundreds of books will be available. Refreshments and a box lunch food will all be kosher. The synagogue is wheelchair accessible and has an elevator.

Tracing the Tribe also believes that this event could be considered a great lead-in and preparation for the main event of the Jewish genealogy year, the 30th IAJGS International Conference on Jewish Genealogy - JGSLA 2010 - which runs from July 11-16, in Los Angeles.

Download an event brochure, and find more program details, at the JGSIllinois website.

Ohio: Cleveland's cemetery database, May 5

Do you have roots in Cleveland, Ohio?  There's a new database that may help you document individuals of interest in some 71,000 burials from 16 Cleveland-area cemeteries.

The project was carried out by the Jewish Community Federation of Cleveland’s Commission on Cemetery Preservation. The Federation staff person coordinating the project is Susan Hyman and she will be the speaker at the next meeting of the Jewish Genealogy Society of Cleveland on Wednesday, May 5.

The program begins at 7.30pm, at Menorah Park, 27100 Cedar Road, Beachwood, Ohio.

The topic is “Using 21st Century Technology To Find Your 19th Century Ancestors - Jewish Cleveland’s New Cemetery Database.”

She has been, since 2007, the Federation's Information and Referral Specialist in the Community Planning, Allocations and Community Services Department. In addition to helping those affected by the economic downturn, sharing information about community programs and services, her portfolio includes cemetery preservation and other areas as well.

On March 13, a story - "A new database helps Jewish families find graves of ancestors" - by Grant Segall appeared on Cleveland.com detailing the project and successes.

According to the story, genealogists in Cleveland and elsewhere are networking via computers to share and collaborate on family history.

A California woman slogged through Cleveland snow this month and found more than 50 family graves.

In a way, the snow helped. Ricki Lee Davis Gafter of San Jose used handfuls to moisten headstones and make the letters stand out in her photos.

Gafter got much more help from a new database compiled by the Jewish Community Federation of Cleveland's Commission on Cemetery Preservation. A dozen volunteers, some of them from the Jewish Genealogy Society of Cleveland, spent about six years compiling some 71,000 records of burials in 14 Jewish cemeteries and in Jewish sections at two other cemeteries.

"It's been really helpful," said Gafter, who spent a few days here in her hometown visiting the living and finding the dead. "My family came to Cleveland in the late 1800s, and no one knew where everyone is. There was no record."

Using the database, she discovered not just stones but facts. "I just found my great great-grandma, who I didn't even know had made it to the U.S. Now I know who paid for her plot."

While some area Jewish cemeteries are professionally staffed, others are run by volunteers and there are no burial lists.

The project brought together data from cemeteries, synagogues and other sources. In one example, someone had filled a scrapbook with Jewish obituaries.

There are some estimated 85,000 area plots, so the 71,000 records in the database offer a good sense of history. Volunteers will continue to expand and update it, and it is expected to be online in a few months.

If your family comes from the Cleveland area and you'd like more information, email Hyman.

SephardicGen.com: New searchable databases

SephardicGen.com holds excellent resources for those researching their Sephardic families from many countries.

Search the Consolidated Index of Sephardic Surnames with more than 85,800 names.

Among the new searchable databases on SephardicGen.com, compiled and maintained by pioneer Sephardic genealogist Dr. Jeff Malka, are the following:

- Dictionary of Bulgarian Jewish surnames
- Jewish surnames, Juderia of Tarrazona
- Personal files, Amsterdam Community, CAHJP
- Records of Portuguese Inquisition Trials (1583-1656, 1716-1717), CAHJP
- Victims of the Libya Riots
- Census of Jewish Family heads; Belgrade, Serbia
- Sephardic graves, Mount of Olives cemetery, Jerusalem
- VazDias database of aliases, Amsterdam
- Names from the Pautas (orphan girls, etc.), Amsterdam
- Names from the old cemeteries of Algiers
- Sephardic tombstones, marriages, births; Vienna, Austria
- Surnames from all Hispania Judaica books
- Tombstones, Trieste cemetery
- Jewish Surnames, Lebanon
- Craiova memorial of Jews who died in Balkan Wars and WWI

Access all these and many more here. Mathilde Tagger created these databases for SephardicGen.

France: Strasbourg Jewish cemetery vandalized

A Jewish cemetery in the eastern French city of Strasbourg was vandalized, according to a story on the World Jewish Congress website.

The attack occurred on the eve of International Holocaust Remembrance Day. Over 30 gravestones at the Cronenbourg cemetery were either spray-painted with swastikas and the Nazi slogan “Juden raus!” [Jews out], or toppled, according to the French Jewish community organization CRIF.

Laurent Schmoll, president of the 1,000-member Jewish community in Strasbourg, told reporters that he believed the cemetery was defiled in connection with International Holocaust Remembrance Day, which was being observed on Wednesday. “These are absolutely inscriptions from the Nazi period… I think there has to be a link.”

French President Nicolas Sarkozy issued a statement in which he "firmly condemns this unbearable act, the expression of odious racism." The mayor of Strasbourg said that the perpetrators were "evil cowards. It is no coincidence that the attack came on the international day when the Holocaust is commemorated."

Obermayer Awards: The honorees' stories

The 10th annual Obermayer German Jewish History Awards were given in Berlin on January 25, 2010.

The winners and their towns were:

-- Angelika Brosig (Schopfloch)
-- Helmut Gabeli (Haigerloch)
-- Barbara Greve (Gilserberg)
-- Heidemarie Kugler-Weiemann (Lübeck)
-- Walter Ott (Muensingen-Buttenhausen)

To read the complete profiles of the honorees, click here.

This year marks the tenth annual presentation of awards that were created to honor the past and enrich the future. German life was once filled with contributions made by Jewish scholars, writers and artists. Music, science, literature and architecture were often collaborative efforts that brought diverse talents together. The collective history of Germans and Jews was profoundly connected and served to benefit the world. The Nazi regime and its obliteration of the German Jewish community ended a long period of collaboration and mutual trust.

However, many German citizens, ranging from academics to those working in business and professions, did not let go of their interest and commitment to Jewish history and culture. Many worked at great personal cost to preserve and reconstruct aspects of Jewish life, which had contributed to the cultural richness of their lives and the lives of their respectivecommunities. These individuals have researched, reconstructed, written about and rebuilt an appreciation of Jewish culture that will enrich life today and in the future.

Diverse individuals, without thought of reward, have helped raise awareness about a once vibrant community. Their ongoing efforts pay tribute to the importance of Jewish subject matter and its value to German society as a whole.

Many volunteers have devoted years of effort to such projects, but few have been recognized or honored for their efforts. The German Jewish Community History Council and its cosponsors believe it is particularly important for Jews from other parts of the world to be aware of this ongoing work. The annual Obermayer German Jewish History Awards provide an opportunity for the Jewish community worldwide to acknowledge German citizens who have rekindled the spark of Jewish thought that once existed in Germany. The award winners have dedicated themselves to rebuilding destroyed institutions and ideals. Their achievements reflect a personal connection to Jewish history and a willingness to repair a small corner of the world.

-- Angelika Brosig launched a Web site to document her town's Jewish cemetery and to help finance its restoration. Her town is Schopfloch.

“My friend wanted to see the Jewish cemetery,” Brosig recalls, “and when we went and saw the conditions there, she started to cry. She said ‘It’s terrible, the stones aren’t readable, the plants and trees are all overgrown.’ I was surprised because it seemed natural for a cemetery to decay. But she said, ‘No, it’s not good for the descendants,’ and this was my start.” ...

-- Helmut Gabeli

The lawyer Helmut Gabeli moved to the small Swabian town of Haigerloch, on the edge of the Black Forest, when his wife was hired there as a teacher in 1968. Shortly after, the couple discovered that the town market where they bought their food was once a synagogue, and they instantly stopped shopping there.

“My wife and I said ‘No, we will not buy there in the future,’” Gabeli remembers. “I had respect for the Jewish religion. My moral standards told me it was not possible to buy from a building where the Jews once prayed.”

Twenty years later, on the 50th anniversary of Kristallnacht, Gabeli helped form the Gesprächkreis Ehemaliger Synagogue Haigerloch (Discussion Circle for the Former Haigerloch Synagogue). ...

-- Barbara Greve

Ask Barbara Greve what motivates her to unearth the Jewish past around theKreis Ziegenhain region of Hessen, and you get a not-so-German response.

“It may not be the right way to say it, but I think of it as a kind of mitzvah,” she says. “It’s a moral duty. I’m giving people back their history.”

Indeed, for Greve, a primary school teacher who has become a crusader dedicated to rescuing 400 forgotten years of Jewish history in her area, much of her passion stems from the desire for local residents to get their facts straight. ...

-- Heidemarie Kugler-Weiemann

For nearly two decades, Heidemarie Kugler-Weiemann has been wrestling with her city’s Holocaust history through research, teaching, tours, exhibitions, forums, memorials, articles and books. Not only has she made an impact on her community, but she has developed very strong personal relationships with survivors as well.

When she thinks how it all began, her memory returns to her grandmother’s nervous eye. Born in Lübeck in 1951, Kugler-Weiemann recalls that “the war was very present for me as a child” because of the strong memories lingering in her family, and one in particular: the day the Gestapo came and arrested her grandfather for listening to the BBC. Though her grandfather was eventually released, her grandmother’s eye never stopped twitching after that. ...

-- Walter Ott

It was in 1973, when the castle outside Buttenhausen was being renovated, that Walter Ott’s home became a temporary storage place for chests and boxes belonging to the city— some of which, he discovered, contained eye-opening documents like a letter from Baron von Liebenstein, inaugurating the town’s 200-year-old Jewish history.

“I was impressed with that history. It was taboo,” says Ott, who was born in 1928 near Stuttgart and spent most of his life working as a farmer. “The subject wasn’t talked about in Buttenhausen; it was new to me. So I asked people, ‘Why don’t you speak any more about the Jewish community?’ and they answered, ‘Oh, it was so long ago.’ This is a small village and no one wanted to talk, but the truth is that three-fourths of the citizens here were Nazis.”

With the material he found in the boxes, and later in the town archives, Ott sorted and catalogued Buttenhausen’s history into a first-ever Jewish archive—from 1787, when the first 25 Jewish families were granted the right to settle in Buttenhausen, to the residents’ deportations to Theresienstadt, Auschwitz and other concentration camps in the final years of the war. (Located in a remote part of the Swabian Alps, Buttenhausen was used as a collection point for Jews deported from across Germany, before their shipment to the camps).

Read these inspiring full-page stories for each honorees at the link above, and view the links to their projects.

Jerusalem: Mount of Olives now online

The world's oldest Jewish cemetery just went online, according to the Jerusalem Post.

More than 20,000 gravestones have already been documented, but there are some 200,000-300,000 in the cemetery. There's a lot still to do.

Mount of Olives burials go back some 3,000 years, to the First and Second Temple periods, and continues today. From 1948-1967, when Jordanians were in charge of the area, there was severe destruction, including broken and destroyed tombstones, with others used to pave floors in Jordanian army camps. During that era, a road was paved south from the top of the mountain. The road to Jericho was widened. All of this took place on top of the graves.

Following the Six Day War, the cemetery was slowly restored. Until now, however, there has been no major effort to map and record graves or to decipher and restore names on the tombstones.

Workers identify the graves and locate them on the map. The website allows global viewers to zoom in on an aerial photo and see a photo of each grave. Each name listed shows available information and a photograph, while users can upload additional data and photos about their loved ones and others who are buried there.

Those planning a visit can also create (and print) a map and route of graves to visit.

Read the story here, about the website, which is available in English, Hebrew and Russian.

Tracing the Tribe's experience with the database:

Search the database with only one letter. I searched for D (Dardashti) and for T (Talalay/Talalai) and J/I (Jassen/Iasin), but none were listed yet, although I know some who are buried there. I'm sure they will be listed eventually. Using the first letter or the first two letters of the surname produces a drop-down list of possibilities. However, if you put in the first three letters of a surname, there is no drop-down list. However, the list appears if you put in the first three letters of a given name.

Doing a search for COHEN, I found COHEN YAZDI. I clicked on the results and found the grave of Lea Cohen Yazdi who died March 27, 1944. On the map I could zoom to the specific grave. Here's a portion of the map that showed (the red dot is the grave):

I clicked on Grave Details and saw this:

This was interesting as the burial society was listed as Spanish, yet the surname of YAZDI indicates a Persian origin.

Here is the actual gravestone photo, after using Snag-It and adjusting brightness and contrast.

According to the news story:

A new project undertaken by the City of David archeological Park, located south of Jerusalem's Old City and at the foot of the Mount of Olives cemetery, has begun the process of identifying and documenting tombstones throughout the entirety of the Mount of Olives and uploading the data to the Web.

Tens of thousands of graves on the mount have already been mapped and incorporated into a database, in the first-ever attempt to restore the graves and record the history of those who were buried there. The project includes the creation of a Web site (www.mountofolives.co.il ) that aims to raise awareness of the City of David and to honor the memory of those buried in the cemetery, as well as to inform about the tours and activities available.

Additionally, the Web site tells stories of the people buried in the cemetery and, through a simple search window, one can locate the documented graves by name.

The project's public relations director Udi Ragones hopes the web site will give people around the world an opportunity to clear the dust from generations of their loved ones' graves. The project is fascinating from both personal and historical perspectives.

Read the complete story here.

Poland: Lodz ghetto Cemetery list online

Steve Lasky of the Museum of Family History has added two lists, including 1,400 names of Jewish residents who perished in the Lodz Ghetto and buried in its cemetery.

Later this year, he will announce a large online exhibit on the Jewish ghettos of Europe.

View the Lodz Ghetto cemetery list here; all names are on a single web page.

For each person buried, the fields are: the grave number, name and surname, death date and age, along with the Polish and Hebrew forms of father's given name (as well as the surname and given name variant transliterations and spellings). Section one has only the English date of death, while the second section has both English and Hebrew dates; there are other differences between the first and second lists.

For example: Goldsztajn Gawryl Arja, son of Mojsze is also noted as Goldstein Gavriel Arye, son of Moshe in the first list. This should help researchers who know the contemporary surnames but not the original Polish name forms. In turn, this will assist them to check other online resources using the original spellings.

These lists are by no means complete, as there were no doubt many more of our ancestors who died in the Ghetto and were buried there. However, these lists might just help some of you who had family in the Ghetto during World War II with your Lódz family research. The lists give the names of the deceased, and often the father's name, the date of death and age at death.

The lists come to you courtesy of the Lódz Jewish community through the agency of Yad LeZehava (YZI) in Kedumim Israel and with the dedicated cooperation of the officers and men in the IDF 'Witnesses in Uniform' Program.

Visit the Museum of Family History.

Read Steve's blog for frequent updates on the Museum. Questions? Ask Steve.