Michigan: Success & Strategies, May 1

Genealogical success stories and strategies are on the program for the Jewish Genealogical Society's next meeting on Sunday, May 1.

The meeting begins at 1.30pm at the Farmington Hills Library Main Branch, 32737 W. 12 Mile Road, Farmington Hills. Admission: Members, free; others, $5.

Three JGSMi members will relate start and subsequent research in Jewish genealogical pursuits. Hear them recount their experiences as they share their successes and tips.

Jonathan Haber
will discuss what he has accomplished researching his grandmother’s nine siblings and their descendants.

Richard Jaeger
has discovered many relatives he didn’t know a thing about through a large collection of photographs he received.

Alexandra Goldberg
will talk about her breakthrough in finding the missing link affirming her descendancy from a rabbinical family with possible roots to King David.

For more information and directions, click here.

Ancestry.com: Demise of 'Expert Connect'

Ancestry.com has just informed the genealogy community that its Expert Connect service will be "disconnected" as of March 18.

Here is the announcement:

Over a year ago Ancestry.com created Expert Connect as a way to expand its service offerings and provide additional assistance for members through an elite group of professional genealogists and researchers. Through this service, customers were given the opportunity to hire genealogists to retrieve records, perform research or simply acquire expert advice.

Though this service has been a positive experience, Ancestry.com has decided to focus on other business priorities, so as of March 18, 2011, Expert Connect will no longer be a service that Ancestry.com will offer to its members.

Both experts and members currently involved in Expert Connect have been notified of this update. We encourage members to finish out existing projects with experts they have located through the Expert Connect service and if needed, continue relationships for future projects they may have.

At the time Expert Connect was created, there was some controversy, on which numerous genealogy bloggers commented.

Washington DC: JGSGW celebrates 30th anniversary, Oct. 17

The Jewish Genealogy Society of Greater Washington (DC)  will celebrate its 30th anniversary on Sunday, October 17.

Russian and Central European specialist researcher Boris Feldblyum (a JGSGW member) will present "Archival Research: Challenges and Strategies for Success."

He will share some tips and tricks he uses when researching for private clients. Learn how to get the most for your effort.

Doors open at 1pm, with the program at 1.30pm, at Har Shalom, 11510 Falls Road, Potomac, Maryland.

The event includes hors d'oeuvres, snacks and punch, door prizes.

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

The JGSGW is the host of the 31st IAJGS International Conference on Jewish Genealogy (14-19 August 2011) at the Grand Hyatt in Washington DC. Click here for all conference information.

On the air: Irish Jewish genealogy, Oct. 9-10

Stuart Rosenblatt of Dublin is the keeper of the faith. Irish Jewish genealogy faith, to be more exact.

Ireland's National Radio and Television (RTE Radio 1) notes that Rosenblatt - a Dublin resident - is the subject of "The Keeper of the Faith," to be aired at 6.05pm, Saturday, October 9, and repeated at 7pm, Sunday, October 10.

The radio documentary maps and explores Jewish Ireland with Dubliner Stuart Rosenblatt (photo left).

Listen to it now or hear the podcast here. Thanks to RTE's Sarah Blake for the links.

Enter the world of Jewish Ireland past and present with genealogist Stuart Rosenblatt as guide. Stuart is the author of the 16-volume Rosenblatt Series, the most comprehensive collection of genealogical material ever compiled on an entire Jewish community in any country.

Stuart's database contains details on over 44,000 people and their family relationships. These and other facts you'd expect, and might even find elsewhere - but Rosenblatt's work usually takes a step or two further.

Rosenblatt devotes "two weeks out of every one" to this unpaid, unacknowledged work. His daughter Sonia tells us how family life has suffered. As a businessman, Stuart is first to admit it's an expensive hobby.

He got the genealogy bug fifteen years ago with a curiosity about his mother's family, the Jacksons. We discover the Jackson family had roots in a village called Ackmene, and this tiny Lithuanian village was the one most common place of origin for Irish Jews. They did not leave and arrive in Ireland en masse when their migrations began in the 1880s - no one really knows why they arrived here but their descendants give us a few clues.

So the story of Jewish Ireland is the story of a global village called Ackmene. It's a quintessentially Irish story - where everybody knows everybody else - and there are nothing like six degrees of separation. It's the story of a fast disappearing world. Rosenblatt estimates the community, those who come to Shul (Synagogue), at no more than 380 with the majority from the older generation.

Anyone can access Stuart's work in the National Archive or National Library through the 16 printed volumes of the Rosenblatt Series, which he has donated to the nation. And the work continues with Stuart desperately looking for some missing bits of his jigsaw, such as several volumes of Alien Registration Files from the start of the 20th century and details of Jewish school children in schools records all over Ireland.

The show was produced by Clare Cronin and funded by the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland's Sound and Vision funding scheme.

Thanks to Louise Messick for this pointer.

Wales: Jewish history, then and now

Bangor University research has revealed that Jews first settled in north Wales during the building of Edward I's castles, according to a BBC story.

According to the story, Dr. Nathan Abrams and Dr. Sally Baker have put together a touring exhibit of their findings, celebrating regional Jewish history.
Abrams would like to hear from anyone with more information on the Jewish diaspora in Wales.

(Photo: The Wartski family of Llandudno. Their business had a branch in London's Bond Street. See below for more.)

See the exhibit at Bangor University's Main Arts Building, 16-30 October, and in Neuadd Dwyfor, Pwllheli - just don't ask Tracing the Tribe to pronounce that! - 6-20 November.

Previous studies have focused on 19th and 20th century Jewish communities, but there is evidence that Jewish families settled in fortified towns like Caernarfon and Beaumaris back in the 13th century.

“I think because Jews were mainly used for financing at that period, they were there to assist with the castle-building programme,” said Dr Abrams.

“In 1290, the Jews were expelled from England, and a little earlier from Wales. This was right at the height of the building work."So I think once they'd fleeced them, they expelled the Jews and their properties were appropriated.”

The exhibit was funded by a £19,000 grant from Beacon for Wales.

From ancient history, the exhibit then looks at Eastern European immigration in the 1800s. According to Abrams:

“They travelled out from places like Liverpool into the Welsh countryside as peddlers.

“But eventually they set up communities first in Bangor, then in Llandudno, Colwyn Bay, Rhyl and Wrexham.”

Those peddlers moved on to renting small shops, and then owning large stores like Pollecoff's of Pwllheli and Wartski’s of Bangor and Llandudno, which boasted of being 'By Royal Appointment’.

According to the story, Isidore Wartski become the mayor of Bangor, and is believed have been the first Jewish mayor in Wales. The Wartski store even had a branch in London's Bond Street.

The area's Jewish communities have dwindled since the mid-20th century. Although there is no longer a Bangor synagogue, there is a small one in Llandudno run by Manchester's Orthodox community. During the summer, however, Abrams says there are notices in the Orthodox press of Jewish services being held all over Wales.

Read the complete story at the link above.

Boston: 24 years leads to three databases!

What a great story about a Boston-area Jewish genealogist who's been researching for 24 years and has created three databases linked to the Jewish Genealogical Society of Greater Boston's website.

The databases include state-wide synagogues, cemeteries and Jewish newspapers.

The news has spurred me to investigate once again our Boston and Springfield branches of TALALAI (TALL, TOLLIN), CONVISER and others.

In fact, I found on the synagogue list the Springfield congregation built by our first TALALAI immigrant to the US. Mendl (Max) TOLLIN from Mogilev/Vorotinschtina, Belarus, arrived in 1898 and was a builder who constructed the first Kadimah synagogue building, its cemetery, the first and second homes for the aging and residential housing.

According to the database, Congregation Kodimoh (sometimes spelled Kadimah), was founded 1916/1919 in Springfield, and closed in 2007 after merging with the Longmeadow Alliance of Orthodox Congregations.

In the database of Jewish newspapers, I found two for Springfield, one running from 1929 and the other from 1952. Accessing those microfilms may well be my first task when attending the 2013 international conference on Jewish genealogy in 2013, to be hosted by the JGSGB. We genealogists plan ahead!

The story, on Boston.com (the Boston Globe's online portal), focuses on Dedham resident Carol Clingan's "hunger" for connection to her Jewish ancestry from Ukraine and Belarus to New England.

Many people tracing Jewish roots find stories with heartbreaking gaps as families were split apart by immigration and the horrors of the Holocaust, and records of birth, marriage, and death are often missing or deliberately destroyed.

Now, three new databases compiled by Clingan, who lives in Dedham, and others with the Jewish Genealogical Society of Greater Boston are about to go public to help Jews all over the world track their Massachusetts roots.

In the lists, every synagogue in the state is inventoried, as well as all Jewish cemeteries and newspapers, rendering the search for family a little more manageable for those starting out.
Clingan’s labor of love, which included searching through dusty archives and tapping the foggy memories of strangers to trace her grandparents’ emigration, two to Chelsea and two to Burlington, Vt., honors basic Jewish principles, she said.

According to Clingan, her labor of love honors basic Jewish principles. At Passover, as we read the Hagadah we are told to remember the exodus from Egypt as if it happened to each of us.

But, as genealogists know, that's not enough. We want to know much more than names, dates and places. We want to reveal the real stories of the people and their lives and the decisions they made to travel so far from their homes.

Clingan's database with 568 listings offers a listing of every congregation in the state, past and present.

It says when and by whom it was founded, the various locations it occupied, as well as when it closed and what happened to its records, and tracks the many mergers among congregations, to the last surviving one.

That list is cross-referenced to a cemetery database compiled by Groton resident Alex Woodle, and a third database prepared by David Rosen of Boston that lists the state’s Jewish newspapers. The plan is eventually to convert all the information into a database format and to make it accessible using a one-step search tool, but that may take time to implement.

Also quoted is JGSGB president Heidi Urich of Cambridge: “So many families were severed, and so many lost or left behind, that each piece you find is precious.’’

Judy Izenberg of Framingham tracks her work on large poster boards, as she investigates her family from Russia (Novograd Volynsk and Olinka), which settled in Chelsea and attended the Orange Street Shul. Two of Clingan's grandparents - her maiden name was Isenberg - settled in the same place and attended the same synagogue. Their mothers were high school classmates.

In another warm fuzzy part of the story, Isenberg is using the databases to find about relatives who went to Argentina 90 years ago. Using leads from the lists and with the help of others, she's found the South American relatives and is, in fact, leaving for Buenos Aires next week to meet them.

According to Woodle, the first Jew in the Boston area was Solomon Franco, - a well-known Sephardic name - in 1649. He returned to Europe because he could survive economically. However, from the mid-19th century, Boston had a Jewish community of German and Russian Jews.

Another Sephardic Jew, dry goods merchant Judas Monas was a Hebrew teacher at the Spanish-Portuguese synagogue in New York, came to Harvard College and taught Hebrew for 40 years. In 1735, the college published the "Grammar of the Hebrew Language." To keep his post, however, he had to convert to Christianity.

Several other genealogists are mentioned in the detailed story. Congratulations to reporter Michele Morgan Bolton, who got all the details right!

Read the complete story at the link above, and see the database links at JGSGB.org.

Washington DC: 2011 Jewish genealogy conference, Aug. 14-19

As soon as one conference ends, we look forward to information on the next.

As we congratulate the Jewish Genealogical Society of Los Angeles for their excellent program and event, we're already looking forward to see what the JGS of Greater Washington - 2011's host - has in store for the international Jewish genealogy community.

SAVE THE DATE!

Join the international Jewish genealogy community in Washington DC, from Sunday, August 14-Friday, August 19, for the 31st IAJGS International Conference on Jewish Genealogy. The JGSGW has been working for some time to prepare for 2011. They've hosted the annual event several times - Tracing the Tribe has attended two - and the team is very experienced.

Click here for the conference website, which currently only lists basic details.

The Grand Hyatt Washington, with its 12-story atrium and lagoon, is the event venue. It's so centrally located that attendees will find the Washington Metro subway system accessible from the hotel lobby!

Conference-goers will be only five blocks from the National Archives I, six blocks from the White House, and close to many additional resources.

The call for papers will go out in October, so start working on your proposals now. Registration and hotel reservation information will be listed in the fall, while program details will be posted in the spring.

Trying to budget for next year? Room rates at the Grand Hyatt Washington, 1000 H Street NW, will be $199 for single/double and $204 for triple/quadruple. This is the same rate as 2010.

The hotel has 888 guestrooms of all types, offers five on site dining possibilities and it also has a separate kosher kitchen.

Tracing the Tribe checked out the conference and event spaces at the hotel site, and it appears that less hiking will be required than at this year's event.

Start planning for next year!

Bookmark the conference site above and stay tuned to Tracing the Tribe for all details as they are announced.

Eastern Europe: Need a researcher?

Are you looking to hire a professional researcher in Eastern Europe? Not quite sure whom to ask?

JewishGen has come to the rescue following input from special-interest group members who have had good experiences dealing with Eastern European genealogists and researchers.

The goal was to provide JewishGen users with an option to find help.

Not everyone has the patience, experience or language skills to do it on their own, so this list may be of interest to those who wish to engage professionals to help.

See the list here.

Disclaimer: JewishGen has not independently checked these individuals. They are listed because other researchers had good experiences. Determine what you want a professional researcher to do for you and do understand the costs involved.

For more information on working with professional genealogists or researchers, click here.

If you have information to share on those listed or wish to add additional individuals, contact the project coordinator Peter Haas.

Forensic genealogy: Finding the fakers

Colleen Fitzpatrick and Sharon Sargeant exposed the Holocaust frauds concerning Misha DeFonseca and Herman Rosenblat, has just shared a new article in Publisher's Weekly (PW)concerning their forensic work.

Additionally, Colleen and Sharon have launched a website for their new company, Identifinders. The homepage features an explanation of how they uncovered Herman's fraud.

Writes Colleen:

It was an important revelation to Judith Rosen, the reporter, that DNA could be useful to the publishing industry in determining whether to go forward with a book, and then how to position it. Working with the publishing industry to evaluate potential book projects is breaking new ground for forensic genealogy.

I certainly agree with Colleen and Sharon. Publishers shouldn't rush into deals for manuscripts purporting to be true - such as Holocaust "true" stories - without first utilizing the skills of experts to determine the truthfulness of the stories and, depending on the outcome of the investigations, then clearly label the stories as what they are (novels or fables). It would save publishers from PR nightmares, from book cancellations, recalls and legal entanglements.

If these two authors had merely presented their works as novels, the books would have been runaway hits, and films would still have been made. The problem is that the authors swore that the stories were true and the publishers believed them without checking things out.

I can understand the publishers, of course, for believing that no one in his or her right mind would actually lie about this tragic period of history. As we know now, at least Defonseca and Rosenblat presented fabrications.

The PW story will certainly reach industry movers and shakers - some consider it the "bible" of the publishing world. In print for 136 years, it purports to reach (according to a 2004 study) 6,000 publishers; 5,500 public libraries and public library systems; 3,800 booksellers; 1,600 authors and writers; 1500 college and university libraries; 950 print, film and broad media; and 750 literary and rights agents.

Perhaps the right people will take Judith Rosen's article to heart in the future. Here's an excerpt:

Genealogist is not a typical publishing title, yet forensic genealogy, best known for tracking down heirs, played a key role in unmasking two of 2008's biggest publishing hoaxes: Misha Defonseca's Misha: A Memoire of the Holocaust and Herman Rosenblat's Angel at the Fence.

Colleen Fitzpatrick and Sharon Sargeant worked on both cases pro bono, largely because when they learned about them—the Defonseca story came from former U.S. publisher Jane Daniels's blog, Rosenblat from Holocaust expert Deborah Lipstadt's blog—they knew they could bring resolution to the controversy that surrounded each story.

Their research uncovered baptismal and school records proving that Defonseca didn't escape the Holocaust by running with wolves. She didn't need to; her father was a Nazi collaborator. And if Defonseca had denied the evidence, Fitzpatrick and Sargeant were prepared to use DNA, which, along with photographs and archival records, are a forensic genealogist's stock in trade. “I almost feel disappointed that Misha confessed,” wrote Fitzpatrick on her IdentiFinders.com Web site. “I was looking forward to identifying her through DNA.”

Although there is no question that Herman Rosenblat was a concentration camp survivor, his memoir also turned out to be a work of fiction. According to Michigan State University professor Ken Waltzer, figuring out the real Rosenblat story was “truly a team effort. Sharon and Colleen found crucial information about the two families, discovered additional people we could interview and additional evidence that pointed to serious contextual issues in the case. We wedded the methods of forensic genealogy and social history to discover a publishing fraud.” ...

Read the complete article at the PW link above. Learn more about issues of context, inconsistencies, inaccuracies, why checking out hints and rumors is important, and how publishers can avoid getting entangled in big problems. According to the story, Colleen and Sharon are already working on another bestseller with a Holocaust angle.

There's a selection of other articles on this issue at the end of the PW story, so do click on those for additional viewpoints and information.

Also, Sharon has just posted (she works as late as I do!) "From Bunk to Bunko Squad: The Sleuthing News peg you can use," click here if you are already logged into Facebook.

USHMM seeks Holocaust researcher

Here's a research opportunity just received from the Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum:

The Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum is creating a multi-volume Encyclopedia of Camps and Ghettos, 1933-1945.

In support of this effort, the Center is seeking an independent researcher to gather information and write entries on particular sites (specifically, facilities under the Wehrmacht and the RSHA, and forced labor camps under other governmental agencies and/or private industrial firms), using the Museum's library and archival holdings as well as other resources in the Washington, DC area. The researcher will have the opportunity to publish his or her work in the encyclopedia. Some translation and editing duties may also be required. Work is to begin as soon as possible.

Applicants must possess some education beyond the first degree and have experience in historical research and writing. Knowledge of the Holocaust is highly desirable. Applicants must have excellent writing skills in English and a thorough reading knowledge of German; other central- or eastern-European languages are desirable.

The researcher will not be an employee of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, but will perform the work on a contract basis. The initial contract will require delivery of entries and other related products in accordance with a six-month schedule, with extensions to the contract possible after that. Payment will be commensurate with the researcher's education and experience, ranging between $1,500 and $3,000 per month.

The researcher will also have the opportunity to participate in Center and Museum events such as colloquia, seminars, workshops, fellows' discussions and lectures.

Please send a cover letter indicating dates of availability along with a curriculum vitae and a short writing sample (no more than 1,200 words) by March 31 to:

Geoffrey P. Megargee, Ph.D.
Applied Research Scholar
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies
100 Raoul Wallenberg Place SW Washington, DC 20024-2126

Email submissions are acceptable and may be sent to gmegargee@ushmm.org.

Virginia: Breaking brick walls, Feb. 3

Newcomers and experienced researchers can both hit brick walls - those situations that researchers just can't seem to break through in the quest for family history.

You know you need help from someone with specialized knowledge, but where do you go? Who can help?

If you live near Washington, DC, there's a program with four major experts who may be able to assist, so bring your "brick wall" questions for them. They'll be wearing their thinking caps, ready to help you.

The Jewish Genealogical Society of Greater Washington will meet at 1pm Sunday, February 3, at Beth El Congregation in Alexandria, Virginia. Admission is $5 for non-members.

This "Breaking through brick walls" session will feature experts Jonina Duker, Boris Feldbylum, Arline Sachs and Barry Shay.

Duker earned a Yale honors BA, attended the New School for Social Research, Wharton and the Burke Institute; holds a Hebrew University Certificate of Advanced Jewish Studies; has written JewishGen infofiles; founded JewishGen's Yiddish Theater and Vaudeville Research Group; coordinated the JewishGen translation of the Minsk yizkor book. An expert on Holocaust education, Duker has spoken at CAJE and IAJGS conferences.

Feldblyum, an architectural photographer, is co-founder and president of FAST Genealogy Service. His working knowledge of Russian, Ukrainian, Lithuanian and Polish, along with a thorough understanding of post-Soviet culture and mentality, and his ability to motivate archival officials are the main factors in the ongoing success of FAST, which was created in response to the demand of American researchers for access to records in FSU archives.

Shay is Latvia Special Interest Group president and Latvia SIG webpage editor.

Sachs, a retired computer information systems professor and author, has held many positions in JGSGW, including president, as well as former IAJGS secretary. She headed the International Cemetery Project, which has evolved into JewishGen's JOWBR project. She also co-hosts "Tracing Your Family Roots" a twice-monthly public access television show since 1997. Some three dozen episodes can be viewed online covering many topics with experts in their fields.

For more information and directions, click here.

Miami: One woman's obsession

Many genealogical resources have been created by one person with a passion, an obsession or simple frustration from a lack of resources in some area.

The results range - in Jewish genealogy, at least - from Susan King's JewishGen, Stan Diamond's Jewish Records Indexing Poland, Steve Morse's One-Step Pages, Steve Lasky's Museum of Jewish Family History and a host of other dedicated individuals who have created important singular resources.

JewishGen began as a small bulletin board; JRI Poland is the result of Diamond's search for relatives with a genetic problem; Morse's site stemmed from his frustration with the Ellis Island search engine; and Lasky wanted to honor his family. Today, these major sites hold many resources, useful tools and unusual collections of information. They are frequently updated and growing, sometimes with the assistance of large numbers of dedicated volunteers.

These are only four of a large number of Jewish genealogy sites. There are literally thousands of other genealogy sites focusing on ethnic, religious, country-specific, general and other topics; new sites appear daily.

In the obsession category, a Miami, Florida woman, 74, has compiled a 4,000-page and growing obit index and acquired the nickname of "detective of death."

"Looking for details about your great-grandfather's death 45 years ago? Searching for survivors of the friendly neighbor who died without a will? Can't find your long-lost cousin's grave?

Ann Josberger McFadden is the woman for you. She is a sleuth, a sort of detective of death, a woman who has read and indexed thousands of published obituaries and researched the unusual history of a handful of South Florida cemeteries.

For fun."

McFadden fell into this research to help her brother search family roots. He quit after a month, but she's still at it. Her husband thinks she's a bit crazy.

Tracing her roots led McFadden to Philadelphia, where she was born and spent her first 12 years. When she tried to get a copy of her great-grandfather's obituary, however, her request and the $5 fee were returned because there was no index of obituaries and no one to do the research. Figuring Miami had the same problem, she took it upon herself to index obituaries from The Miami Herald, Miami News, South Dade News Leader and Miami Times.

She began with 1940 to 1950 -- and never stopped. "Word got around that I was doing this, and I started getting calls for obituaries from other years. Somebody needed to find a person who had died in 1960 or 1970 or 1935. And so I said, 'Oh, why not do all of them?' " She now has about 120 years' worth of records.

She became a fixture at Miami's main library, and completed the huge obit index that is expanded every year. The Miami-Dade Public Library genealogy manager says she gets many obit requests: "...if we didn't have Ann's work or an exact date for the person, we could be reading microfiche for months and maybe not even find it."

Miami's "detective of death" has also indexed adoption, military and probate records and put together a short history of a handful of local cemeteries. Other librarians say her job has made their work much easier.

Read more here.

Understanding the culture of genealogy

Genealogists of all religions and ethnicities should understand how other groups view family history, traditions and how they preserve and transmit that knowledge to future generations.

As we learn about others' creative methods, we may find new ways to think about our own work.

Here's a story that sheds light on genealogy in the Armenian community.

Armen Afrikyan, a historian-lawyer by training, explains what importance a family tree has for Armenians and shows the family tree of the well-known dynasty of the Afrikyans authored by himself.

"It is typical for us, Armenians, to have a family tree. And it is not accidental that when we gather around tables, we don’t forget to drink a toast for our forefathers. And I think it is good when people know the history of their families,” he says.

Afrikyan's ancestors emigrated from Bayazet and Alashkert to Eastern Armenia, settled near Lake Sevan and founded Nor Bayazet village.

“Our great grandfather was Abraham, who married Khanum and had 10 sons and one daughter by her. In 1830, the branch of my grandfathers moved from Gavar to Yerevan,” Armen says.

The family was also in the Armenian capitol of Yerevan, where they owned several stores and factories, and built a water conduit as a charity project.

In 1842, Abraham’s name was changed (in church records) to Aprik. His children were called Aprikyants and, from 1870, Afrikyans, who worked and lived not only in Armenia but also in Tbilisi, Georgian Republic, Baku, Azerbaijan and Black Sea ports.

In a statement reminiscent of what all genealogists - no matter our personal backgrounds - have experienced as we embark on our quests, Afrikyans says there's "a gene sleeping in all of us that only needs to be awakened."

“Old photographs of the family had an influence on me and I began to study the history of the family. Nothing was spoken about our family for a long time during the Soviet years, because in 1922 my grandfathers were dispossessed of their property as kulaks and all their belongings were nationalized,” Armen says.

In 2002, he began to collect documents connected with his family and learned that Matogh Agha of the Gavar Afrikyans branch received the title of prince in Gavar, and that Arakel Agha's son became a Russian nobleman. He now considers himself to be of princely origin with all these certificates.

He produced a family album and a family tree, displayed at his recently opened inn, and he began to prepare albums for nine families who wanted them.

"Then I understood that simply a service needed to be established that could help people to get to know their roots if they wanted to,” Armen says.

In 2006, he established the Afrikyan & Bianjyan Group Co. that restores the history of customers’ dynasty and family. During research work the company works at archives in Yerevan and abroad, applies to state bodies and nongovernmental organizations for information.

“We do huge work with representatives of a given dynasty, collecting memories, recording interviews, making photographs, studying archives,” Armen explains.

Family archives of a dynasty are arranged into “Dynasty Book”, “Photographs Book”, “Documents Book” and “Family Relics Book” sections.

Afrikyan says that the service is an expensive indulgence.

“Usually, when they inquire about the cost, we cannot answer. The final expense depends on the size of a given dynasty,” he says.

The largest order ($6,000-$7,000) so far was from the Yerevan Brandy Company to create an album for the company's 130th anniversary. Research took six months and the 130-page album is made of silver and bronze, beginning with the family tree of original owner Tairyan and ending with the current owner's tree, Gagik Tsarukyan.

The story ends with a comment about the Afrikyans Inn that everyone can relate to: "Everything here feels sort of warm and dear. The past and the present appear to converge here, which makes visitors think about their forefathers for a moment."

Read more here.

Israel: Radio show connects people

Batya Unterschatz is a living legend for attempting to reconnect people during her years at the Jewish Agency's Search Bureau for Missing Relatives. Today, a daily radio program (Hebrew only) with Yaron Enosh attempts to fill the gap, announcing, at most, only seven searches on each show.

A Jerusalem Post story details Enosh's work as well as a recent reconnection as Italian-born Nobel Prize laureate Mario Capecchi discovered he might have a sibling in Austria, mentions the 19th World Conference of Child Holocaust Survivors underway in Jerusalem and the broadcaster's plans for a non-profit foundation and search for volunteers to assist.

According to the article, he is in touch with genealogical associations and search bureaus worldwide - Jewish and not - and "aims to set up a central voluntary search bureau in Israel using all the archive material of the Jewish Agency."

Jewish genealogy has become something of an obsession among Jews who lost relatives in the Holocaust or who do not know whether their relatives survived. Thanks to an Israel-based radio program, however, their chances of obtaining that precious information have greatly improved.

Yaron Enosh conducts a daily program called Hamador L'hipus Krovim (Searching for Dear Ones) on Israel Radio at 16:50 in which listeners seek to find data about missing relatives or about relatives or friends with whom they have lost contact. He has been inundated with so many requests that he is setting up a nonprofit organization dedicated to tracing Jewish individuals and families.

The story details the Capecchi family incident as well.

Marlene Ramberg Bonelli, 68, was taken in by an Italian family in the early years of the war when her mother was deported to Dachau in 1941. Her elder brother, Capecchi, was sent to another family, but the money his mother had provided for his upkeep ran out and the family turned him out to the street. He wandered homeless for nearly four years, sometimes living briefly in orphanages.

After the war, his mother returned and found him after an intensive search. She never reclaimed her daughter, and according to reports Capecchi said his mother never told him he had a sister.

Read more here.

California: San Francisco-area gen mavens

J. the Jewish News Weekly of Northern California devoted much of its "Faces" (August 10) column to Jewish genealogy in the Bay area.

Karen Roekard writes that Jewish genealogists abound in the Bay Area. Indeed, two recently won awards for their work. Stephen Morse, of San Francisco, whose calendar of speaking engagements includes Germany, Copenhagen and England (along with more mundane locales such as Livermore, Sacramento and Chicago) won the 2007 Award of Merit from the National Genealogy Society.

Roekard herself won a first-place award in the International Society of Family History Writers and Editors “Excellence in Writing” contest in the category “Want-to-be-Writer/Columnist” (“The only one open to me,” she joked). Her winning piece is being published in Avotaynu: The International Review of Jewish Genealogy. Roekard has translated the Yizkor book from the town of Belz, Ukraine, which includes a list of 7,500 people from the town who died in the Holocaust.

Also mentioned:
Rosanne Leeson (South Bay) - Alsace Lorraine and Romania.
Robin Magid (Kensington) - Lublin, Poland.
Vivian Kahn (East Bay) - Hungary.
Henry and Marcia Kaplan (South Bay) - Galicia.
Judy Baston (San Francisco) - Lithuania.
Ron Arons (East Bay) - Jewish criminals.
Jeremy Frankel (Berkeley) - president of the San Francisco Bay Jewish Genealogical Society (SFBJGS), with three branches.

Thank you, J., for spotlighting these individuals who contribute so much to our field!