San Francisco: 'Cadastral Maps, Landowner Records,' April 10

Northern California genealogists can learn about cadastral maps and landowner records with Pamela Weisberger at the next meeting of the San Francisco Bay Area Jewish Genealogical Society, on Sunday, April 10.

Doors open at 12.30pm for the 1.30pm program, at the Oakland Regional Family History Center, 4766 Lincoln Avenue, in Oakland. The meeting is free.

"Cadastral Maps and Landowner Records: New Horizons for Genealogists" will demonstrate why Galician (today Polish and Ukrainian) cadastral land records and property maps are valuable sources of family history information, especially when vital records are sparse or missing.

Pamela's talk will cover the history and relevance of cadastral maps as an alternative source of genealogical and community information, how to obtain this type of record from overseas archives, the history of Gesher Galicia’s cadastral map program, and how to create your own community projects using these data.

These maps, created in the early 19th-20th centuries, show exact locations of churches, synagogues, cemeteries, schools, and market squares and often have the names of the landowners written onto the plots of land.

The house or parcel numbers can be used to chart a family across several generations and the land records can provide the size and/or values (for taxes) of properties that an individual owned and show inheritance patterns. In some cases, these records may be the only documented evidence of a family living in a particular town or village.

Pamela started out in the film industry working for Otto Preminger, who never took no for an answer, which was excellent training for becoming a genealogist! She is currently the 1st vice president and program chair for the Jewish Genealogical Society of Los Angeles and president of Gesher Galicia.

In addition to co-chairing/program chair for the 2010 Los Angeles IAJGS conference, she has coordinated the genealogical film festival for the past four events. She chairs the LimmudLA film team and is a professional genealogist.

For more than 30 years, she has conducted research in Germany, Poland, Ukraine and Hungary with a specialty in newspaper research. She holds a BA from Washington University in St. Louis and an MS from Boston University.

For more information and directions, click here.

Denver: Border changes & migration routes, February 27

Do you know how border changes impacted your ancestors? How did they find their way to the boats that would carry them to new worlds?

"Chasing Border Changes and The Choice of Migration Routes for 20th Century Eastern European Jews" with Dr. David Shneer PhD, will begin at 10am on Sunday, February 27, at the Jewish Community Center, Denver. There is no fee.

When American Ashkenazi Jews think of their migration stories, they almost always involve a small town in contemporary Poland or Ukraine, a boat across an ocean, and a story of triumph in the new world. What about those Jews who took trains to other places in Eastern Europe like Moscow, Kharkov, Lodz, or Budapest? In this lecture, we will learn more about Jewish migration patterns, changing European country borders and ask how the mass emigration of many of our relatives fits into a larger story about Jewish migration throughout Eastern Europe.

David Shneer is associate professor of history and director of Jewish Studies at University of Colorado at Boulder.

His newest book project - "Through Soviet Jewish Eyes: Photography, War, & the Holocaust" - looks at the lives and works of two dozen World War II military photographers to examine what kinds of photographs they took when they encountered evidence of Nazi genocide on the Eastern Front.

Shneer has lived and worked as a scholar and writer in Russia, Germany, and Israel and has written for the New York Times, Huffington Post, Rocky Mountain News and the Denver Post as well as magazines dedicated to Jewish life and culture, including The Forward, Pakntreger, Jewcy, and Nextbook.

He has served as the Resnick Fellow at the US Holocaust Memorial Museum and the Stern Senior Scholar at the South African Holocaust Foundation.

For more information, view the JGSCo website.

Southern California: Leaving the Pale of Settlement, February 13

Some 80% of our ancestors lived in Poland and the western Russia Pale of Settlement in 1880.

Why they left such a "nice place" is the topic of the next meeting of the Jewish Genealogical Society of the Conejo Valley and Ventura County (JGSCV), on Sunday, February 13.

The program runs from 1.30-3.30pm at Temple Adat Elohim, 2420 E. Hillcrest Drive, Thousand Oaks. There is no charge to attend.

Speaker Hal Bookbinder will present "Why Did Our Ancestors Leave a Nice Place Like the Pale?"

Most Jewish genealogists are aware of the pogroms and mass exodus of our ancestors over the next generation. Hal's talk will provide background on the 120 years of the Pale from its formation at the turn of the 19th century to its dissolution during WWI.

Understanding this period in history provides context to the lives of our ancestors in the Pale, and their decision to leave everything behind for new lives elsewhere. The Pale of Settlement, in the Russian Empire, included much of  present-day Lithuania, Belarus, Poland, Moldova, Ukraine and parts of western Russia.

The Pale afforded permanent residency to Jews, and beyond its borders, Jewish permanent residency was generally prohibited.

Hal Bookbinder has been researching eight family lines for more than 27 years, identifying 4,000 relatives and tracing two lines into the mid-1700s. A JGSCV founding member and former JGSLA and IAJGS president, he created and continues to edit the annual Jewish Genealogical Yearbook.

In 2010, he received the IAJGS Lifetime Achievement Award for his contributions to Jewish Genealogy, and was recently elected to the JewishGen Board of Governors. He has spoken at numerous conferences, synagogues and society meetings on topics from computing to geography to brick walls.

For more information, contact the JGSCV or view its website.

Footnote.com: The Great Chicago Fire, 1871

Footnote.com is a wonderful resource for original documents.

October 8 was the anniversary of the 1871 Great Chicago Fire, and the site has a special collection of research material based on Chicago Tribune contemporary reports.

Primary sources available on Footnote.com for this historical event include:

--The original Chicago Tribune Article
-- Photo of Fire's destruction
-- Illustration of the Fire
-- Map of the Destruction
-- The Great Chicago Fire Footnote Page

Click here for more. Although Footnote.com is a subscription site, some collections are free and searches produce hits for free and fee materials. See what you can find in tthe site's extensive resources and you might find that a subscription could further your research.

On October 8, 1871, around nine o'clock in the evening, a fire started in the O'Leary's barn at 13 DeKoven Street and quickly spread throughout Chicago's business district.. Although legends hold O'Leary's cow responsible for causing the fire, the actual source is still unknown.

The blaze raged for two days, killing hundreds, destroying millions of dollars in property, leaving thousands homeless, and ravaging almost four square miles.

From the smoldering ashes, the citizens of Chicago began to rebuild and a new era began in the city's history. The resulting boom in building construction made Chicago one of the most populous, most economically profitable, and most modern cities in the United States. The Great Chicago Fire was a tragedy, but out of this disaster emerged the modern metropolis of Chicago.

Northern California: Mapping madness, Oct. 18

Ron Arons will present his popular "Mapping Madness" at the San Francisco Bay Area Jewish Genealogical Society's branch meeting on Monday, October 18, in Los Altos Hills.

The program begins at 7.30pm at Congregation Beth Am, 26790 Arastradero Road, Los Altos Hills.

Author and SFBAJGS member Ron Arons will discuss numerous historical map websites, and review online mapping facilities provided by Microsoft and Google.

He will introduce the audience to several other online mapping tools, including Microsoft’s MapCruncher, IBM’s ManyEyes, and Muckety.com

Born and raised in New York, Ron has traced his roots to England, Poland, Romania, Ukraine, Belarus, and Lithuania.

In researching his book "The Jews of Sing Sing," he took a genealogical approach, collecting a variety of original source documents. The book includes biographies of more than a dozen famous gangsters and lesser-known criminals and paints a broad canvas of Jewish criminality in New York City.

Ron's newest book is the recently released "Wanted! U.S. Criminal Records: Sources and Research Methodology."

Family Tree Magazine: Best state websites for 2010

Location, location, location! A new best-of list hits the newsstand and cyberspace, covering every US state from Alabama to Wyoming.

Family Tree Magazine has published its 2010 list of best US state sites for genealogy, with 75 sites and at least one from every state.

There are vital records, archives, museums, state encyclopedias, databases, historic newspapers, state libraries, memory projects, digital libraries, special collections, county clerk databases, historical societies, obituary indexes, genealogical societies, military sites, public health sites and more.

State-level government resources offer vital records, wills and probate records, court records, military records; early land records, legislative and other government records; records of orphanages, asylums, prisons and other state institutions; state censuses, and naturalization records, while non-governmental resources may include old newspapers, city directories, biographies, historical maps and photos and oral histories. 

Click the link above to access each of the sites and see what you can find.

Click to your roots from Alabama to Wyoming on these 75 stellar state-focused websites. In genealogy, as in real estate, it’s all about location, location, location. Finding where your ancestors lived is the first step in identifying records about them. Fortunately, the internet-ization of America also has swept over the nation’s state archives, historical and genealogical societies, libraries, vital-records offices and other keepers of genealogical gold. Many of the resources that once gathered dust in various statewide repositories now can be accessed without changing your own location—in front of your computer, that is.

Salt Lake City: East European conference, July 29-31

The 16th Federation of East European Family History Societies conference will be held in Salt Lake City, July 29-31.

Venues are the Family History Library and the Plaza Hotel (just around the corner from the FHL). For more details, view the FEEFHS site.

This year's theme - "Ancestors Found: Success through Assistance" - will be explored by well-known speakers covering

Part of the event's scope for registered attendees are research consultations with the attending specialists. A Saturday recognition luncheon is also scheduled.

Lecture topics cover handwriting and ethnic documents (Latin, Cyrillic, Gothic, German), using the FHL, gazetteers, maps, geographical research (Polish, Russian Empire, Austrian Empire, German, Balkan, Hungarian Empire, Baltic), Russian Orthodox customs, using US sources to cross the ocean and more.

Speakers include Barbara Bell, Thomas K. Edlund, Marek Koblanski,  Kahlile B. Mehr, Dave Obee, Sylvie Pysnak and Dee Semon.

There are two lectures at each of three time slots each day (8.30am, 9.45am, 11am), with assisted research from 2-5pm each day at the FHL.

Afternoon consultations may include questions concerning any of the countries between the Alps and the Urals, between the Baltic and the Black Seas (Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia, Bulgaria, Ukraine, Belarus, Russia, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia).

Registration is $100 (before July 3) and includes the syllabus, luncheon and research assistance. The special Plaza Hotel rate is $82.

For more details, click here.

Long Island NY: Digital Heritage Mapping, May 23

Digital mapping, with speaker Jay Sage, will be the topic at the Jewish Genealogical Society of Long Island (New York) meeting on Sunday, May 23.

The program begins at 2pm, at the Mid-Island Y-JCC, Plainview. Come early to get help from the JGSLI's expert mavens.

Google Earth -- Google’s high-resolution, three-dimensional model of the Earth -- provides an exciting new way to display one’s family history or to make virtual visits to family sites.

Users can create Google Earth "layers" comprising a collection of geographical markers with associated viewing perspectives and Web-page-like documentation that may include text, photos, video, and audio. Virtual tours can be created that lead one from place to place.

Sage will demonstrate how to utilize Google Earth to document locations anywhere on the globe associated with the history of a family, such as hospitals where relatives were born, their houses, schools, workplaces and cemeteries.

As researchers interview relatives, Google Earth can be used to make a virtual visit to places of their past, and as visual perspective enhances memory.

Jay Sage was co-president of the Jewish Genealogical Society of Greater Boston (2000-2003) and is currently co-editor of its journal, Mass-Pocha. He is president of the non-profit Digital Heritage Mapping, dedicated to virtual preservation and public understanding of cultural heritage sites around the world.

For more information or directions, click here.

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.

Los Angeles: Changing Eastern European Borders, April 26

To understand in detail where our ancestors lived requires knowledge of the changing borders of Eastern Europe.

If you're in or near Los Angeles, try to attend the next Jewish Genealogical Society of Los Angeles' meeting tomorrow (Monday, April 26), which will focus on "The Changing Borders of Eastern Europe," presented by Hal Bookbinder.

The program begins at 7.30pm at Tracing the Tribe's former home synagogue - Valley Beth Shalom - in Encino.

I've seen Hal's border changes presentation several times. It is excellent and puts everything into perspective. Researchers are likely to learn details that they never knew before. At left, compare only two screens for 1914 and 1937 to see some very major differences.

While the towns didn't move, the borders moved around them. My grandfather, born in Suchostaw (Galicia->Poland>Ukraine), used to say that he never knew where they were living until they heard how the teacher said good morning to the class.

Some towns have been in several countries, and this impacts archives and extant records, depending on  which government was in charge when. Border changes - country changes - also impacted the lives of our ancestors and knowing about those changes also helps. Changes impacted the languages in which records were kept, where the records may be found, migration patterns and more.

Hal uses his own ancestral town of Dubno as an example of these changes.

A past president of the IAJGS and a current JGSLA board member, he's been researching his family for more than two decades, has traced two lines to the mid-18th century and identified more than 3,000 relatives.  He's written several Jewish genealogy articles and contributed to several books. In his professional life, he directs computing for UCLA Healthcare and teaches university-level Information Technology.

Fee: JGSLA members, free; others, $5. The group's traveling library will be available at 7pm.

For more information, visit the JGSLA website.

New York: Gesher Galicia spring event, April 18

The Gesher Galicia Spring regional meeting is set for Sunday, April 18, at the Center for Jewish History, 15 W. 16th Street, New York City.

The two-part program begins at 11am.

Part 1: Update on the Cadastral Map and Landowner Records Project, with Gesher Galicia president and research coordinator Pamela Weisberger.

Cadastral land records and property maps are an excellent source of family history information. Studied together, they can show the exact location where a family lived in a shtetl. They can tell the story of neighbors or siblings who resided near each other and demonstrate how close a family lived to the synagogue, cemetery, schools, or the market square. Using house numbers gleaned from vital records, a connection can be made between these physical locations and the genealogical data. Landowner taxation books show the size and value of the properties that Jewish families owned or rented, adding greatly to the history of a family. These records are invaluable when other metrical records are not available, and in some cases they may be the only documented evidence relating to your ancestors.

Examples of maps and records from Phase 4 of the project will be shown and discussed, along with examples from a 1765 Polish magnate "census" book showing the Jewish residents of Grzymalow and the first appearance of Jewish surnames as derived from the occupations of the Jews who lived on the estate grounds. The next phase of the project (June 2010) will be detailed along with the return of the Lviv Street and House Photography Project in July 2010.

2. A Galician Childhood Recounted - The True Story of Feige Hollenberg-Connors Feige, who was born in Korolowka in 1933.

In addition to a house on the market square, her family had farmland outside of town, inherited from her Rosenstock grandfather. She led an idyllic childhood until war broke out and her family had to go into hiding. Hear her first-hand account of what it was like to grow up in this shtetl, until at age 14 she was hidden by a Ukrainian family that later betrayed her, escaped from the ghetto andlabor camp, and survived in the forest until the war's end.

Feige returned to Korolowka last summer with cave explorer Chris Nicola, who will be on hand to add a coda to her story involving his discovery of "Priests Grotto" the seven-mile long cave where 38 Jews from the town hid until the war was over, and his tenacious path to both discover the identities of those who survived the horrors of war and to successfully reunite them.

There is actually a Part 3 to this program. After lunch, the JGS of New York will meet with speaker Roma Baran to hear her story of rediscoveringher family's true identities.

A JGSLA 2010 preview will also be offered.

The meeting is free to all. Invite anyone who might be interested. Click here for directions.

Boston: Maps and Mapping Tools, March 14

Web-based maps and mapping tools are the focus of the next meeting of the Jewish Genealogical Society of Greater Boston on Sunday, March 14.

The program with Ron Arons and Jay Sage begins at 1:30 pm at Temple Emanuel, Newton Centre.

Ron will discuss websites that provide a broad range of historical maps.

He'll demonstrate basic and advanced features of internet-based mapping facilities developed by Google (maps.google.com) and Microsoft (www.bing.com/maps), as well as lesser known mapping facilities provided by whitepages.com, Microsoft’s MapCruncher, and IBM’s Many Eyes.

Jay will feature Google Earth - the web-based software and data that provide an amazing high-resolution three-dimensional model of the earth, based on satellite and aerial photographs - and explain how it can be used to map one’s family history or to make virtual visits to places where family events took place.

Ron has spoken at several international conferences on a variety of genealogy topics. He appeared in the PBS TV series, "The Jewish Americans," to discuss Jewish criminals of New York's Lower East Side and his book, "The Jews of Sing Sing," appeared in 2008.

Former JGSGB president, Jay is current co-editor of the Society's journal and has given lectures at international and local conferences.

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

For more details, click here.

Maryland: Snowmageddon mapping madness, Feb. 17

Are you considering using a dog sled team or cross-country skis to get around these days in Maryland?

Perhaps the white stuff will melt enough for you to attend this mapping madness program with Ron Arons, at a meeting of the Jewish Genealogical Society of Greater Washington, on Wednesday, February 17.

The event begins at 8pm, in the Tikvat Israel Synagogue sanctuary, 2200 Baltimore Road, Rockville.

"How to find anyone, anywhere, anyhow by using the latest in online mappnig, tracking and detecting techniques," is the title of Ron Aron's program. Ron's a New York native who lives in San Francisco.

The program includes the basics of Google and Microsoft's net-based mapping sites - map.google.com, bing.com, maps.live.com and more advanced functionality, as well as other useful tools as mywhitepages.com, Microsoft's MapCruncher, IBM's Many Eyes and more.

Things change so quickly in this field and Ron keeps up-to-date with all the new innovations.

He is the author of "Jews of Sing Sing" and his new book, "Wanted! US Criminal Records." Since losing both his parents nearly two decades ago, he became interested in understanding his roots, and has traced his families to England, Poland, Romania, Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania. For more about Ron, see his website.

He's a frequent speaker at many genealogy societies and conferences.

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

For more details, click here.

Southern California: Mad mapper Ron Arons, Feb. 1

Genealogy's mad mapper Ron Arons will present his popular mapping program at the Jewish Genealogical Society of the Conejo Valley (JGSCV), on Monday, February 1.

"Mapping Madness" begins at 7pm, at Temple Adat Elohim, Thousand Oaks. Note that this is a different day of week and time.

Learn how to use Internet-based on-line mapping techniques including maps, tracking and detecting showing how to find anyone, anywhere, anyhow. Technology is the genealogist's friend, and Ron is a great teacher of imparting new ways to utilize important resources.

He'll review the basics of Google and Microsoft's internet-based mapping facilities, maps.google.com, bing.com and maps.live.com, and then introduce more advanced functionality. Ron will also discuss less traditional facilities provided my whitepages.com, Microsoft's MapCruncher, IBM's Many Eyes.

Things change constantly on the Internet and Ron is up-to-the-minute with new resources and will discuss them during his presentation.

Ron wrote a very helpful article on maps for genealogists in Roots-Key (Fall-Winter Vol. 29, Issue 3-4) of the JGS of Los Angeles. It is reprinted in the most recent issue of the JGSVC (February 2010, Vol. 5, Issue 5, pages 4-6).

The Internet has plenty of records to keep even the most advanced researcher busy for many years to come. But the Net offers so much more, including historical maps and a variety of online mapping tools that will enrich a genealogist’s knowledge of his / her ancestors and current relatives. Historical maps allow one to see where a person lived and what the conditions in the neighborhood were like. By simple extrapolation, one can estimate what the physical setting and environment of that other person’s life was like.

Maps can be used to track migration patterns of family members or show where any / all of your relatives live currently or where they had lived anytime in the past. Beyond the maps themselves, mapping tools can be tied to photographs and even combined with them as we’ll see with Microsoft’s MapCruncher facility. Other interesting online mapping tools / sites include IBM’s Many Eyes website, Muckety.com, and a variety of tools from behemoth Google.

[NOTE: Ron's article has many tips and resources for those interested in learning how maps can help researchers. Tracing the Tribe recommends reading it, particularly for those readers who cannot hear Ron in person. To read the complete article, click here and use the bottom links to go to Newsletters. ]

A JGSCV founding member and a nationally known genealogy speaker, Ron began researching his roots some 12 years ago. He wrote a 2008 book, "The Jews of Sing Sing," and appeared on the PBS series, "The Jewish Americans."

Ron holds a BS (Engineering) from Princeton and an MBA from the University of Chicago.

The meeting is free and open to the public. For directions and more information, click here.

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.

Los Angeles: Litvaks, Galitzianers and Magyars - Oh my!, Jan. 28

The Jewish Genealogical Society of Los Angeles is a brave group to bring together - in one room, at the same time - Litvaks, Galitzianers and Magyars, on Thursday, January 28.

On the other hand, how many times can you get three major experts together in the same place?

The event begins at 7.30pm at the Skirball Cultural Center's Magnin Auditorium. Note that this meeting is on Thursday, a different than normal day for JGSLA meetings!

Are your ancestral roots in Lithuania, Galicia or Hungary? Don't miss this unusual opportunity to learn about the special interest groups for these regions. Our ancestors moved around quite a bit, and some may well pop up in a surprising location. Learning about other geographical resources expands our knowledge and horizons.

This program will provide updates and information from Litvak SIG president David Hoffman, Gesher Galicia president Pamela Weisberger and Hungarian SIG coordinator Vivian Kahn, followed by an extensive Q&A session.

LitvakSIG is the primary Internet source connecting researchers of Lithuanian-Jewish genealogy worldwide. Its goal is to discover, present and preserve information about our ancestors' lives in Lithuania, and to better understand their lives before some 95% of Lithuanian Jews perished in the Holocaust. David will explain the history and the goals of the group and tour its website, including the “All Lithuanian Database,” incorporating data from many sources into a searchable mega-database, with the largest number of Lithuanian Jewish records online. He’ll also elaborate on shtetl and surname research groups, articles and other materials of interest.

Gesher Galicia (GG) promotes Jewish genealogical and historical research in Galicia, a province of the former Austrian Empire that today includes towns in Eastern Poland and Western Ukraine. In 2007, Gesher Galicia began the “Cadastral Map and Landowner Records Project" to inventory and obtain copies of records at the Lviv Historical Archive in Ukraine. These are invaluable materials metrical records are not available. In some cases they may be the only documented evidence about your ancestors' lives. Pamela will also provide more information on the project, demonstrate the new searchable databases and show how maps and landowner records provide a window into the history of the Jews of Galicia.

Hungarian SIG covers the history of and resources for the country's Jewish community. Vivian will provide a short overview of the history and discuss the wide range of available genealogical resources including JewishGen's “All Hungary Database." The AHD includes nearly 1 million records for individuals in the current and former territory of Hungary, including areas in what is now Hungary, Slovakia, Croatia, northern Serbia, northwestern Romania and subcarpathian Ukraine. She'll discuss some of the SIG's current projects, including the Ungvar/Uzhgorod Cemetery Index and identify other online resources.

More on the speakers:

David B. Hoffman, PhD is a clinical psychologist and former UCLA professor, who has been involved in genealogy for 16 years. He's co-founder and current president of the LitvakSIG, on the JGSLA board and Roots-Key editor. He's published more than 35 articles and spoken at eight IAJGS conferences and to groups in South Africa, Israel, Great Britain, the US and conducted research in Lithuania. David established the Jewish Family History Foundation which focuses on 18th century Jewish records of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, in territory that later became Belarus, Lithuania, and parts of Poland and Ukraine.

Pamela Weisberger is JGSLA program chair, co-chair for JGSLA 2010 and Gesher Galicia president. She's documented her family’s history for more than 25 years, has traveled throughout Eastern Europe, visited ancestral towns and villages and conducted research in Polish, Ukrainian and Hungarian archives. She has a special interest in late-19th to early-20th century US city directories, newspapers and court records. For four years, she's organized the IAJGS conference film festival, and also produced the 25th-anniversary documentary of JGSLA (“Genealogy Anyone? Twenty Five Years in the Life of the JGSLA”).

Vivian Kahn is JewishGen's Hungarian Special Interest Group (H-SIG) coordinator and moderates H-SIG's mailing list. An experienced researcher, she has presented workshops on Jewish genealogy and researching Hungarian Jewish families at IAJGS annual conferences, for Lehrhaus Judaica and other San Francisco Bay Area groups. Her roots in pre-Trianon Hungary have taken her to Hungary, Slovakia, Israel and Salt Lake City. As JewishGen's Vice-President for SIG Affairs, she serves on the organization's Operating Committee. A San Francisco Bay Area Jewish Genealogical Society member, she has more than 30 years of professional city-planning experience in public and private sectors.

The Traveling Library will open at 7pm with special regional maps and books. Bring family documents, photographs and maps to share or to receive help.

Fee: members, free; others, $5. For more information, directions and future events, click the JGSLA site.

JGSLA 2010: Brian Lenius to speak

Professional genealogist and map expert Brian C. Lenius, co-founder of the East European Genealogical Society (EEGS) will speak at the 30th IAJGS International Conference on Jewish Genealogy.

Brian is the author of “The Genealogical Gazetteer of Galicia.”

His 10 research trips to Poland, Ukraine, Czech Republic, Germany and Austria have resulted in greatly expanding resources available in North America.

He will speak on “The Lviv Archive Research Experience,” cadastral maps and landowner records found in Ukrainian and Polish archives.

Brian will also staff a table at the Market Square event on the conference's first day, and demonstrate various Austrian Empire property maps and records which were created during three historical periods, 1785-88, 1819-1820, and 1817-1860s.

The last survey created property maps (cadastral maps) for the entire Empire.

These extremely detailed maps reveal individual houses, yards, barns, roads, fields, synagogues, cemeteries and more. Although they are considered technical resources, they provide rich detail for a genealogist or family historian who wishes to know more and trace their ancestors.

Along with vital records - or as a substitute if those records do not exist - the map can be a very powerful research tool.

With a house number and location, the researcher can see the routes his or her ancestors walked or rode by horse and wagon from home to fields, to school, synagogue, and learn about the family's neighbors.

Brian's expert knowledge will help researchers learn how to use these resources to uncover rich family details.

For all conference details, see the JGSLA 2010 site, and sign up for the newsletter and blog! Registration opens January 15.

Seattle: Mapping madness on the menu, Jan. 11

Mad mapper Ron Arons will be visiting Seattle to present his "Mapping Madness: Historical Maps and Genealogical Research" program to the Jewish Genealogical Society of Washington State on Monday, January 11, 2010.

Doors open at 7pm and the program starts at 7.30pm in the Stroum JCC auditorium on Mercer Island. There's WiFi, so bring your laptops. This program is practical for all researchers, regardless of skill or experience level.

Ron will discuss a variety of websites that offer historical maps for genealogical research. He’ll review the basics of the Internet-based mapping facilities from Google and Microsoft (maps.google.com and www.bing.com/maps, respectively), including more advanced functions of both systems.

He'll then cover more online mapping facilities provided by whitepages.com, Microsoft's MapCruncher, IBM's Many Eyes, and more.

Ron began researching his roots some 12 years ago. He has been a speaker covering Jewish genealogy and Jewish criminality ("Jews of Sing Sing) at eight IAJGS conferences and speaks at many other genealogy societies, JCCs, synagogues, history conferences and book fairs. He holds an engineering BS (Princeton) and an MBA (University of Chicago).

For more information and directions, click the JGSWS site here. Fee: JGSWS members, free; others, $5.

Tracing the Tribe has seen Mapping Madness and highly recommends this session to fellow researchers in Seattle and environs.

Sacramento: Ron Arons' Mapping Madness, Dec. 20

Sacramento genealogists of all backgrounds and interests have an excellent opportunity to see Ron Arons's "Mapping Madness" presentation at the Jewish Genealogical Society of Sacramento, on Sunday, December 20.

Join the friendly group at 10am at the Albert Einstein Residence Center and learn about Internet sites offering historical maps for genealogical research.

Ron will review the basics of Google and Microsoft's map sites as well as other online mapping sites (whitepages.com, MapCruncher, IBM's Many Eyes and more).

Tracing the Tribe has seen Ron's presentation and highly recommends it, as well as the great group of people who are JGSS members. I was delighted to speak there in 2007.

For more information, click here. In addition to being an IAJGS member, the JGS is also a member of the Genealogical & Historical Council of the Sacramento Valley.

Volunteer mapmakers: Changing our views

Do you use Google Maps? Do you know where they come from? Have you ever had a GPS device problem?

In summer 2007, I spoke at the Jewish Genealogical Society of Sacramento (California). The president drove me from the train to his house, cautioning me to watch his GPS device. As we neared his home, the voice repeatedly said "turn left" at the next intersection, but my friend was in the right lane. As I checked our surroundings on the left, I saw a large building (no road through it!). As he made the right-hand turn into his street, he said that he enjoys showing that to visitors and that complaints were made but nothing had been updated.

Perhaps by now it has been updated by local residents, who are tired of being told to make a left turn where there is no such possibility.

People on-the-ground in their own neighborhoods and cities know when there are local map errors or changes in roads or new buildings. According to a New York Times technology story today, Google and other websites now understand that local residents can fix problems more quickly than professional digital map providers.

The new philosophy of mapmaking and geo-volunteerism was addressed today in the story by Miguel Helft. Read it here.

Geo-volunteerism is a new term to Tracing the Tribe, and the story began with Richard Hintz, 62, of San Francisco, who enters map details into atlases accessible online. Using GPS devices and simple software, volunteers create digital maps that never existed and, on existing maps, fix mistakes and add data.

Google says accessible maps are even more important these days as so many cellphone users rely on them to get where they want to go. You can't get there from here without reliable data, and local users are providing it.

According to the story, Google is dropping traditional providers and using volunteers to create maps of 140 countries, which are more complete than those from professional providers.

Other online resources are mentioned, such as the non-profit OpenStreetMap, whose 180,000 contributors have made free maps available to anyone. Its maps are used in IPhones and even on a White House website. WikiMapia creates maps that are layered on top of Google’s.

There's information on how this data is being used in GPS devices.

A most interesting read at the link above.