Northern California: 'When Leopold met Lena,' April 11

Pamela Weisberger will present a fascinating tale of 1890s' marriage, divorce and deception at the Los Altos branch of the San Francisco Bay Area Jewish Genealogical Society, on Monday, April 11.

The meeting begins at 7pm, at Congregation Beth Am, 26790 Arastradero Road Rm. 5/6, in Los Altos Hills. The meeting is free.

"When Leopold Met Lena: Marriage, Divorce, and Deception in the 1890s" utilizes newspaper resources, court transcripts and more to reveal family secrets.

First came love, then came marriage—but on the heels of the baby in the baby carriage came accusations of adultery and two trials in New York City’s Court of Common Pleas. The unexpected discovery of a divorce decree in the 1890's New York Times “News of the Courts” led to scandal-ridden court transcripts held at the NYC municipal archives
and revelations of a family secret.

Beginning in Czestochowa, Poland, and Cracow, Austria, and continuing to Manhattan’s Lower East Side and Little Rock, Arkansas, the tumultuous, romantic, and litigious world of immigrant ancestors is brought to life in court records, graveyard inscriptions, newspaper articles, city directories, censuses, and vital records.

Enjoy the ride as Besser v. Besser is deconstructed and learn how present-day genealogical research can be used to solve 19th-century mysteries.

Documenting her family’s history for more than 30 years, Pam has conducted research in Germany, Poland, Ukraine, and Hungary with a specialty in newspaper research. She holds a B.A. from Washington University in St. Louis and an M.S. from Boston University.

For more information and directions, click here.

WDYTYA: Gywneth Paltrow & JRI-Poland

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

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

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

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

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

The following press release provides more information:

Jewish Records Indexing - Poland

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

UK: British Library, FindMyPast to digitize 5 million pages

The British Library and findmypast.co.uk will digitize 5 million pages of family history records.

For the first time, India Office Records and 100 years of electoral registers will be online and fully searchable.

The British Library holds the national collection of electoral registers covering the whole UK. These registers offer a huge number of names, addresses and other genealogical information.

"Digitisation of the electoral registers will transform the work of people wishing to use them for family history research," said Jennie Grimshaw, the Library's curator for Social Policy and Official Publications. "Printed electoral registers are arranged by polling district within constituency and names are not indexed, so the process of finding an address to confirm names of residents is currently incredibly laborious. Digitisation represents a huge breakthrough as users will be able to search for names and addresses, thereby pinpointing the individuals and ancestors they're looking for."

The project will involve the scanning of UK electoral registers covering the century that followed the Reform Act of 1832, along with records of baptisms, marriages and burials drawn from the archives of the India Office. When available online, these collections will enable historians, genealogists and family history researchers to make connections and track down details of ancestors and others at the click of a mouse - work that would previously have necessitated visits to the Library's Reading Rooms and many hours of laborious manual searching.

Also included are holdings from the East India Company archives and the India Office. These 18th, 19th and 20th century records offer information on Britons living and working in the Indian sub-continent up to the 1948 independence. There are more than 1,000 volumes of ecclesiastical returns of births, marriages and burials; applications for civil and military service; and pension payment details.

The resources will be available online at findmypast.co.uk and in the Library's Reading Rooms from early 2012. Online requires a subscription or pay-as-you-go. Library access will be free and it will receive copies of the digitized images of this project.

For more information, click here.

Southern California: 'Vital records and alternatives,' March 24

Gena Philibert-Ortega will present "Vital Records and their Alternatives" on Thursday, March 24, in Tarzana, California.

Gena is the speaker at a luncheon event of The Don Jose de Ortega Chapter National Society, Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR), which begins at 10.30am at the Braemar Country Club, 4001 Reseda Blvd.., Tarzana.

FamilyLink's genealogy community communications director, Gena is also the WorldVitalRecords newsletter editor and manages GenealogyWise. She is vice-president of the Association of Professional Genealogists' Southern California chapter, and is also a regional director of the California State Genealogy Alliance.

For more information, click here.

Litvak SIG: Recent translated records update

If your ancestors lived in Lithuania, take a look at recently-translated records available on Litvak SIG. The updates represent thousands of records and lines added to available records.

The records were translated during October, November and December 2010, and will be added to the All Lithuania Database (ALD) 18 months after being received. Currently, they are available in various LitvakSIG District Research Group (DRG) websites. Click here for more information and click District Research.

District coordinators are Aaron Roetenberg (Kaunas Gubernia), Dorothy Leivers (Suwalki Gubernia) and Joel Ratner (Vilnius District)

From the LVIA:
Kaunas city - Births 1896-1906
Svencionys District 1874/1875, 1899/1908 ARL (Svencionys, Svir, Linkmenys, Lentupis, Adutiskis, Daugeliskis, Zhodishki, Kobylniki, Komaie)
Vilijampole (Kaunas) births  -1893-1895
Kaunas deaths - 1902-1906
Vilkija Marriages, Divorces-1922-26
Vilkija Deaths - 1922-1926
Svencionys JC-1858
Vilkaviskis (Suwalki) Births -1810-1811
Nemunatis (Trakai)  1851-1857
Kudirkos Naumiestis (Suwalki) 1874, 1882 Births
Kudirkos Naumiestis (Suwalki) 1874 Deaths
Vilijampole (Kaunas) births  1896-1909
Plunge deaths -1862 - 1887
Seirijai (Suwalki)Marriages - 1922-1926
Seirijai (Suwalki) Deaths - 1922-1926
Veisiejai(Suwalki) - 1922-1924,1926 - marriages, divorces
Taurage (Raseiniai) marriage records
Veisiejai (Suwalki) - 1922-1926 - deaths
Pilviskiai (Marijampole) Deaths - 1922-1926
Taurage (Raseiniai) 1922-1939 Deaths
Virbalis (Suwalki) Marriages/Divorces - 1922-1939
Virbalis (Suwalki) Deaths -1922-1939
Kybartai (Suwalki) Marriages/Div - 1922-1939
Kybartai (Suwalki) Deaths - 1922-1939
Preniai (Suwalki) marriages 1893-1914
Kaunas rabbinate marriages 1932-1934
Zemaiciu Naumiestis (Raseiniai) Marriages/Div- 1922-1939
Zemaiciu Naumiestis (Raseiniai) Deaths- 1922-1939

From  the Panevezys County Archive:
(PCA) Panevezys Jewish Property - 1940s
Prienai (Suwalki) Deaths - 1839-1863
Sakiai (Suwalki) Births - 1842-1847

From the KRA (Kaunas Regional Archive):
Pakruojis 1856-1858 - Rabbi Electors
Troskunai (Ukmerge) 1893-1915 postal bank records- Part 2
Ukmerge 1910-1915 - certificates - with photographs
Kraziai (Raseiniai) 1845-list of residents who suffered from fire
Rietavas (Raseiniai) 1854 - testimonies
Skirsnemune (Raseiniai) 1868 - real estate owners
Rietavas (Raseiniai) 1866-community representatives
Birzai (Panevezys)1845 taxpayers-unable to pay
Joniskelis (Panevezys)1845 taxpayers-unable to pay
Krekenava(Panevezys)1845 taxpayers-unable to pay
Linkuva(Panevezys)1845 taxpayers-unable to pay
Pakruojis (Panevezys) 1845 taxpayers-unable to pay
Kavarskas(Ukmerge) 1906 -rabbi electors
Zelva (Ukmerge) 1889 - rabbi electors - 59 lines
Zelva(Ukmerge) 1907-1910 - Muni electors
Zelva (Ukmerge) 1910 -  Muni electors
Utena (Ukmerge) 1896 - rabbi electors
Ukmerge (Ukmerge)1919  residents
Svedasai (Ukmerge) 1896 el-r
Taujenai (Ukmerge) 1906  el-m
Troskunai (Ukmerge) 1898 el-r
Ukmerge (Ukmerge) 1892 el- m
Utena (Ukmerge) 1844 taxpayers-unable to pay
Kavarskas (Ukmerge) 1847 box taxpayers
Troskunai (Ukmerge) 1912 box taxpayers
Kvetkai (Zarasai) 1912 municipal electors
Zelva (Ukmerge) 1844 - taxpayers unable to pay
Ukmerge District -1913- Jews living out of towns
Ukmerge  District -1847-3rd Guild merchants
Utena (Ukmerge) 1896-1908 passport registration books
Ukmerge District 1915-passport issuance book

Internal Passport Records:Some 3,000 additional translated lines added for Utena lists (Ukmerge), Alytus City, Panevezys and Marijampole.

Central Archive (Vilnius):
Jewish Prisoners-Lithuanian Prisons - 1922-1940

Poland: Nowy Zmigrod birth records

Some 1,400 new birth records for Nowy Zmigrod have been added to Jewish Records Indexing - Poland.

They cover the years 1866-1889, and were in the Skoyszyn branch of the Polish State Records.

Search the records in the JRI-Poland data base.

Data includes the names of parents, and may include the parents' year of marriage or a data of death for a child that did not survive.

Some 500 surnames are mentioned in the records. See the name list here.

The records also reference some 150 towns - often nearby shtetls - in addition to Nowy Zmigrod, and indicating where the mother or father was born. Most frequently mentioned are Biecz, Brzezowa, Desznica, Dukla, Gorlice, Grab, Halbow, Jasienica, Katy, Korczyna, Kotan, Krempna, Nowy Sacz, Tarnow and Toki.

For more information, contact town leader Phyllis Kramer.

Vienna: 342,000 Jewish records

Looking for family from Vienna? Wondering why some branches simply disappear?

This resource can help in diverse ways.

GenTeam.com is an organization of genealogists or historians who produce databases on their own or as a part of a group, and who offer these databases to all researcher without any fee.

A non-commercial organization, the geographical focus of this work is present-day Austria and adjacent lands. No fee is required to search the databases, only a simple registration for the site.

The newest additions total some 550,000 new records.

about 342.000 records of the Jewish Community in Vienna (1826-1910). This index contains births and marriages from 1826, death records from 1866, all through 1910.

about 18,000 records of those who left the Jewish Community in Vienna (1868-1914). Some were baptised, some didn't belong to any denomination. Sources include official resignations and the leaving protocols of the Jewish Community Vienna City, Ottakring and Sechshaus. Other data came from records of the Jewish Community, Roman Catholic and Protestant Churchs as well as civil records, Jewish community conversion protocols and protocols of surname changes of the NiederOsterreichische Statthalterei.

about 5,000 records of Protestant Parish Vienna AB (1783-1860). Since 1783, two different Protestant Parishes existed in Vienna: AB and HB. Indices of parish AB marriages are available now. These records are not on microfilm or digital, but only in the parish office.

about 16,200 obituaries in the NFP - Neue Freie Presse Wien. An index of all NFP obituaries appeared in the paper (186401938). They are now in a GenTeam database. Search for surnames, given names, maiden names and year. There is a link which directs you to the obituary in the newspaper, which can be viewed free via Internet (site by ONB - Oesterreichische National Bibliothek/Austrian National Library). Included are obituaries of people who also lived and died in crown lands, not only in Vienna, and include important genealogical information on family members. 

about 142.000 new records of Roman Catholic Church records (1606-1896). n Lower Austria, Upper Austria, Moravia and Bohemia. New from Lower Austria: Munichreith, Langschlag, Pernegg, Schweiggers, Blumau, Messern, Plank, Lichtenau, Zoebing, Obermeisling. Upper Austria: St. Oswald bei Freistadt, Reichenau im Muehlkreis, Wartberg an der Aist, Schoenau im Muehlkreis, Leopoldschlag, Neumarkt, Gruenbach, Sandl, Rechberg. Moravia: Prossmeritz. Bohemia: Schwabitz, Niemes.

about 1.100 entries of Jewish community marriages in Grossmeseritsch, Moravia

The entire collection holds some 2.7 million records and is continually updated.

Other databases, in addition to those above, include:
- Gazetteer of Czech, Austrian and Slovenian Republic (with South Tyrol)
- Index, Roman Catholic marriages, Vienna and parishes (1542-1860)
- Owners, houses in Lower Austria (1817)
- Death Cards, soldiers, both World Wars
- Index, Roman Catholic church records
- Index, Protestant church records- Leavings from Viennese Jewish Community
- Index, Viennese civil records
- Directory, mills and mill-owners in whole Austria (Cisleithanien)(1876)
- Index, Wurzbach
- Obituaries, Pester Lloyd, Budapest

For more information or questions, email the GenTeam.

Individuals at GenTeam include professional genealogist Felix Gundacker, Traude Triebel and other volunteers.

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.

Washington DC: Tracing family secrets, Sept. 19

Learning a single family secret can set us on discovery road. Author Steve Luxenberg had just that experience.

Steve ("Annie's Ghosts") will present "Genealogy From the Inside Out: Tracing a Family Secret From a Single Clue," at the next meeting of the Jewish Genealogy Society of Greater Washington on Sunday, September 19.

Discovering a family secret – a hidden relative, marriage, divorce or cause of death - may change dramatically our understanding of our family tree. How do we - how can we - pursue that single clue?

Steve is one of my favorite people and I highly recommend attending his programs. His career as a professional journalist has provided the tools and experience to investigate and interview. Tracing the Tribe believes that a good genealogist or family historian must develop the same tools as those of investigative journalists.

If you haven't read "Annie's Ghosts: A Journey Into a Family Secret" - now in paperback - do read it before this meeting.

The meeting starts at 1pm, with the program at 1.30pm, at B'nai Israel, 6301 Montrose Road, Rockville, Maryland. It is open to people of all faiths and guests are welcome. A book-signing is also scheduled.

In 1995, Steve, an associate editor at the Washington Post, discovered that his mother (in her 70s) had been hiding the existence of her then-deceased sister. This was the impetus for his odyssey to unravel the rest of the story, including his aunt's 30 years in a psychiatric institution.

Steve's PowerPoint presentation will bring attendees along on his journey down discovery road as he wrote his award-winning book.

Following clues and leads, the process includes burial records, birth certificates, hospital records, immigration documents and wartime records, to develop a fascinating paper trail. One result of his investigation was a significantly changed understanding of his family history and societal stigma regarding mental health.

For more information and directions, see the JGSGW website.

NOTE: Mark your calendars as the JGSGW will host the 31st IAJGS International Conference on Jewish Genealogy, 14-19 August 2011, in Washington DC.

JRI-Poland: New FAQ, online contributions

Jewish Records Indexing-Poland executive director Stanley Diamond of Montreal advises readers that two additions have been made to the site.

There's a completely new FAQ and online credit card contributions will now be accepted.

Friends and supporters can make credit card contributions online and designate the town indexing projector projects to support at the same time.

See the JRI-Poland website, and the direct link to the contributions page.

The new FAQ has been rewritten by JRI-Poland Board Member Susan Stone and includes considerable additional information and detail.

Check JRI-Poland frequently for updated town information.

Seattle: New building history guide

If Seattle, Washington is important in your research, there's a new Seattle Building History Guide that may assist you.

The information was detailed in the Seattle Public Library's Shelf Talk blog.

Now, Seattle history detectives are armed with a new arsenal, a comprehensive compilation of Seattle history resources created by our own Special Collections Department. The new Seattle Building History Guide annotates a wealth of Seattle history research tools and places them in a broader context than ever before. We'll be rolling it out on May 19th at the Third Place Books History Cafe. Afterwards, the guide will be available from our website.

If you only recognize the term "cadastral records" from Polish research, know that similar surveys were done in the early days of Seattle; as well as topographical charts from 1879 and Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps from 1893.

Other resources noted:

-- King County Property viewer for building research.

-- There's also information on obituaries, census records, marriage licenses, birth records and more, along with information on Seattle Parks Department , HistoryLink.org, Seattle Municipal Archives Photograph Collection .

Readers can download the Guide as a PDF file with hyperlinks, or print it. The blog post recommended two books as well: Native Seattle: histories from the Crossing Over Place by Coll Thrush; and House Histories: A Guide to the Genealogy of Your Home by Sally Light.

Check the library site today for the new resource.

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.

New York: Non-Jewish research in Jewish resources, May 13

Looking for new research resources? "Non-Jewish Research in Jewish Resources" is set for Thursday, May 13 at the New York Genealogical and Biographical Society's new location.

David M. Kleiman, president of Heritage Muse, is the speaker. The program starts at 5.30pm at 36 West 44th Street, 7th floor, in New York City.

Explore resources from around the world for Eastern and Western European research, often available for free.

Discover the research aids, books, and online content most often associated with the world of Jewish genealogy. These tools can open extensive research avenues for families of all faiths. Find surprising connections and general research sources in 17th-century colonial, and revolutionary American material, through to late 20th century immigration and burial data.

Publisher, researcher, folklorist and popular educator, Kleiman has been involved in family history works for more than 35 years. As president of Heritage Muse, Inc. and co-founder/chair of the NY Computers and Genealogy Special Interest Group. he is a member of the Association of Professional Genealogists and the Genealogical Speakers Guild, and serves on the Executive Council of the Jewish Genealogical Society of New York.

In 2009, he took on the duties of curator for the new Loeb Visitors Center at Touro Synagogue (Newport, Rhode Island), overseeing an extensive exhibit on the synagogue's history, Colonial Newport, and the founding of America's First Constitutional Amendment on Freedom of Religion. His company built the web site for both the Visitors Center and the sponsoring George Washington Institute for Religious Freedom.

Heritage Muse is a New York City digital publishing and research firm offering historical, genealogical, and design services to individuals, foundations, museums and corporations.

Fee: NYG&B members, $25; others, $40.

Visit the NYG&B website for more information and registration.

Lithuania: Vilnius project info

Researching ancestors who lived in Lithuania? There are some ongoing projects right now at the Historical Archive in Vilnius.

Readers interested in any of these records may make a qualifying contribution to the LitvakSIG District Research Group and will receive records soon after they are translated. It will take about 18 months before they will be added to JewishGen's All Lithuania Database.

Remember to cast a wider net. Your ancestors may have lived in more than one nearby village.

Contributions help to get more records translated, so if your interests lie in these locations, you might hit gold.

These are projects currently being translated:

Translator 1
Balbieriskis (Suwalki) marriages - 1858-1870
Balbieriskis (Suwalki) deaths - 1858-1870
Balbieriskis (Suwalki) births, marriage, deaths, 1808-1857.

Translator 2
Stakliskes (Trakai) 1850s
Varena (Trakai) 1850s
Zasliai (Trakai) 1850s
Ziezmariai (Trakai)1850s
Merkine (Trakai)1850s

Translator 3
Plunge (Telsiai) divorces 1839, 1844-46, 1854-1860
Plunge deaths 1842, 1844, 1854-1855.

Translator 4
Vilnius (Vilna) 1875 Family List Book 1 is done, ow working on Book 2. Book 3 no longer exists. Book 4 will be translated if enough funds are
contributed.

Translator 5
Kaunas births 1907-1914 ( total 2,777 records)

Translator 6
Kaunas deaths 1898, 1899, 1901-1906

Translator 7
Kaunas deaths 1907, 1913

To contribute, click here. For more information on records available and projects underway, visit LitvakSIG.

Florida: Genealogy beyond the Internet, April 14

Genealogy beyond the Internet is the program at the next meeting of the Jewish Genealogical Society of Palm Beach County on Wednesday, April 14.

The meeting runs from 12.30-3pm, with a brick wall session, business meeting and main program, at the South County Civic Center, Delray Beach. Members are free; others, $5. SIG groups for Hungary and Ukraine will meet from 11.30am-12.15pm.

Mark Jacobson, Jerry Naditch and Dennis Rice will present the main program, as they discuss genealogy resources not generally available online.

Researchers tend to forget that genealogists discovered useful sources of information well before the internet existed!

The presentation will focus on several “hard copy” resources such as: vital records, grave markers, published obituaries, city directories and Social Security applications.

The speakers will demonstrate examples of source material; how and where to obtain it. They will review resources of the Family History Centers (FHC), sponsored by the Mormon Church.

Many valuable genealogical documents are available only on microfilm, which can often be ordered and read at the Boca Raton Family History Library and other Palm Beach County sites.

Submit questions in advance for the Brick Wall program.

For more information, visit the JGS of Palm Beach County.

New York: Beyond the basics, April 11

The Jewish Genealogical Society of New York will present "Basics and Beyond," an afternoon family history seminar, on Sunday, April 11.

The program will run from 1-5pm, at UJA-Federation of New York 130 East 59th Street, 7th floor, Manhattan.

Experienced genealogists will present two tracks - for beginners and those more experienced.

Beginners’ Track:
-- How to get started
-- Tracing your family in the US
-- Finding/interpreting census/vital records
-- Crossing the pond: Finding/interpreting passenger arrival/naturalization records

Advanced Track:
-- Organizing, goal-setting, record-keeping
-- What’s new in computer research
-- Researching European records at home

Tracks run simultaneously; participants may attend sessions in either or both tracks

Topics include:

-- Finding and interpreting census and vital records
-- Passenger arrival and naturalization records
-- Computer research
-- Research organization
-- Record-keeping and goal setting
-- Searching European records from home.

Advance registration required, no on-site registration. For more information and registration, click here.

Fee: JGSNY members, $18; others, $25. New member special: $40, includes 2010 JGSNY membership (annual membership alone is $36).

Vienna: Searching JASSNIGER

At the Bendigo Famiy History Expo, attendee Margaret Brown told me about her JASSNIGER relatives from Vienna, and even went home to bring me the birth and death certificates.

Click on each image to see them better. Each holds detailed information on various individuas, including maiden names of mother and grandmother, etc.





If you are researching Margaret's father's rare name, let me know and I’ll put you in touch with her. Some dozen burials are in Vienna; she knows there was a US branch but has not yet checked for it.

Ancestry: SSDI now updated weekly

One of Ancestry.com's first databases, the Social Security Death Index will now be updated weekly.

The Social Security Death Index is known by its acronym SSDI. Names have been added to that database since 1996, more than 86 million of them, in fact.

The weekly updating means that this useful database will be much more current with recent deaths reported to the Social Security Administration.

What does the SSDI contain? It lists deaths reported to the SSA or the Railroad Retirement Board. Individuals who did not have social security cards are not included. Thus, not everyone you're searching for may be found.

Ancestry offers these search tips:

-- Search by the surname used by the individual at the time of death.

-- No hits? Try other surnames used at other times during that person's life.

-- Search by given name, death year, birth year - without a surname.

-- Try using initials as SSDI records do not always include a full given name.

-- Try searching with a middle name instead of the first name.

-- Try variant name forms, such as Sarah/Sally or Mary/Polly/Molly and other common forms or nicknames, such as Jacob/Jake, Isaac/Ike, Matthew/Matt, or James/John.

-- For dates, switch day and month (e.g. 5 February or 2 May, which can be written 5/2 or 2/5). Some records list the entire date of death, some only the month or year.

-- You can also search using the Social Security Number (SSN) alone, if you have it.

Ancestry has now made it easier to search using only the first few letters of the name and a wild card asterisk (*).

Researchers should remember that the location for death is not always where the person died or was buried, but is in fact the last place of residence known by the SSA for that person.

For example, the individual might have been on vacation or spending the winter in a warmer climate or have been anywhere in the world when they died, but the SSA would only be concerned with the official last place of residence.

Researchers need to find more evidence to determine the exact place of death.

With more records appearing weekly, check back often for family members of interest.

Australia: Oldest Jewish person turns 109

Tracing the Tribe notes the 109th birthday of the oldest Jewish person in Australia.

The Australian Jewish News reported that Mary Rothstein celebrated her birthday Sunday in a Jewish Care home for the aged in Melbourne. Among the guests were her daughter, Ruth Cavallaro, two grandchildren and six great-grandchildren.

Born in Russia on February 27, 1901, moved to the UK at 2, married Joe Rothstein in 1935 and migrated to Australia in 1958. She ran her own millinery business and made hats for the royal family before the move. In Australia, she worked at the famous Myer department store. She said she only lied about her age once to avoid a mandatory retirement at 65.

Rothstein can't understand why she's lived so long. "It doesn't seem possible," she told the paper.

Rosa Rein, who was the world's oldest Jewish person, died in Switzerland at 112 in early February.

Florida: John Martino, ItalianGen, March 7

You don't have to be Italian to be in the Italian Genealogy Group's database!

John Martino, a founder of the Italian Genealogy Group (IGG), will speak on just that topic at the next meeting of the Jewish Genealogical Society of Palm Beach County (JGSPBC) on Sunday, March 7.

The JGSPBC's annual "Lunch and Learn" is set for 11.30-3pm, at the Crown Plaza Hotel, West Palm Beach.

Now IGG vice president and Special Project Coordinator, John has received an award from the Jewish Genealogical Society of New York (JSNY), and ItalianGen also received the Malcolm Stern Award from the IAJGS for its work in developing research databases.

Tracing the Tribe remembers the excellent talk John gave at the IAJGS annual conference (New York 2006), where his society received the Stern Award.

John will discuss how his 1,200 worldwide volunteers - of all ethnicities and religions - have created a variety of databases in New York and New Jersey, and how the same can be done in Boston, Detroit , Philadelphia Chicago and elsewhere.

He'll address the many naturalization records, and county, federal, and NYC vital records now in the IGG databases that have helped many genealogists in the US and around the world, how to use these databases and how they were created. The information contained includes data for Jewish genealogists not found elsewhere.

Tracing the Tribe has found many items of value for her New York-based families in IGG's resources.

IGG was organized in 1990 and John was one of its founders. He has visited Italy twice and has traced his family back to 1572. Since he retired in 2000, he hs devoted most of his time to organizing volunteers to create databases.

He first helped the JGSNY with Kings County naturalizations, followed by Suffolk, Nassau and Bronx counties. The federal records came next, including the Southern District Naturalization and now he's working on the Eastern District.

Brian Anderson, Department of Records and Information Services commissioner, asked John to computerize the Municipal Archives' vital records. John and the IGG team have computerized New York City's death records (1891-1929) and the Groom Index (1895-1936).

Fee: members, $25; others, $30. Free valet parking. Reservations required by February 27. See the Jewish Genealogical Society of Palm Beach County website for information and reservations.