Randy Seaver of Genea-Musings has posted two excellent entries on working with MyHeritage.com's Family Tree Builder 2.0, a free downloadable program.
His first posting covered the basic open, upload, person and edit screens here. He focuses on the Chart and Report functions here, and he's planning another on the Book Report feature.
What should also be noted is that all information entered into Family Tree Builder 2.0 can be done bilingually. Currently, some 23 languages (including English) are supported for user interface and data entry: English, Hebrew, French, Italian, German, Spanish, Portuguese PT, Russian, Dutch, Greek Turkish Yiddish, Portuguese (both Portugal and Brazil, Norwegian, Danish, Lithuanian, Polish, Swedish, Ukrainian, Hungarian, Czech, Finnish and Afrikaans.
Pick an interface in any language, build and print a family tree in any of the languages. A translation wizard automatically translates trees from one language to another. Choose one language for display and another for data entry. There's even a virtual keyboard to enter data in any of the 23 languages.
For an interesting activity, go to MyHeritage.com. On the right side of the screen, there's a globe graphic and a drop-down box for language. Choose one and see what the homepage looks like in Russian, Polish, Hebrew, Turkish and Asian languages (for the homepage, not for data entry or interface ... yet!)
Language capability is a great feature if you want to share a tree with relatives in other countries who may be more comfortable working in other languages. It also helps you see what names look like in other alphabets, which could help in research.
Learn more in a tour of the features here .
For some very recent improvements, click here. A new simple way to navigate and edit your online family tree on MyHeritage has been added. The new Modern Look focuses a family tree around a single individual and lets you add relatives quickly. It allows users to see more people at a time and get a good overview of how people are connected. The Classic (hierarchal) look, is still available and you can toggle back and forth.
04 June 2008
Belarus: More on Dokshitsy rededication
A few days ago, Tracing the Tribe noted the JTA news brief on the cemetery rededication in Dokshitsy, Belarus.
Over the past few months, I've been in communication with Aaron Ginsburg of Sharon, Massachusetts, who has played an instrumental role in this accomplishment. There is much more information on the town and the event at JewishDokshitsy.org.
[NOTE: This posting was updated June 7 to correct Aaron's place of residence.]
The full story, by Grant Slater, is now up at JTA.
As in my own ancestral shtetl of Vorotinschtina (an agricultural colony adjacent to Zaverezhye, about 12 miles southwest of Mogilev), there are few, if any, Jews. The last time someone visited Vorotinschtina, there was one elderly lady who remembered the Jews, and pointed out one of the Jewish houses, and remembered one of our Talalay relatives. On one day in 1941, everyone (some 300 souls) was slaughtered; only a handful of people survived because they were away on business or at school elsewhere.
In Dokshitsy, about 2,800 were rounded up and shot; 98% (more than 800,000) of the rural Jews in Belarus were murdered by the Nazi Einsatzgruppen killing squads.
The story indicates that the Belarus government may be taking a new direction to honor victims, despite the anti-Semitic comments of its president, Alexander Lukashenko, although he later met with magnate Lev Leviev, a major supporter of Chabad in the FSU. Since that meeting, some local initiatives towards restoring several Jewish cemeteries have taken place.
Due south of Mogilev, where most of our Talalay lived, is Gomel with a half-million people. Construction workers came across hundreds of Jewish graves while a stadium was being expanded. The city consulted with Jewish leaders and recruited local Jewish students to help relocate the remains.
For nearly a decade, Ginsburg has traced his family back to Dokshitsy, two hours north of Minsk.
As is the case in many shtetls across Belarus, many Jews had already left for the US and elsewhere before World War II, most in the late 1890s-1918. Most of those who remained were murdered, as they were in Dokshitsy and in Vorotinshtina. The monument on the spot where the Jews were killed does not mention their religious background.
Demolished in 1965, the Jewish cemetery's gravestones were removed or buried in a park untouched for four decades. When the gravestones were discovered, the town officials wanted to preserve the cemetery and looked for someone to help. Ginsburg heard from them in February 2006; the letter said they wanted to right a wrong against its Jewish citizens.
Mark Izeman, an American lawyer in Minsk whose grandfather was born there, wondered why the city did this. He asked if it was guilt, but said after being there, "I think they are happy to help close the circle." He spoke to local residents at City Hall and in a school.
Read the complete article here, which quotes other individuals, such as Dokshitsy region chair Oleg Pinchuk and Michael Lozman, who has been leading groups of American college students for cemetery restoration activities since 2002.
Over the past few months, I've been in communication with Aaron Ginsburg of Sharon, Massachusetts, who has played an instrumental role in this accomplishment. There is much more information on the town and the event at JewishDokshitsy.org.
[NOTE: This posting was updated June 7 to correct Aaron's place of residence.]
The full story, by Grant Slater, is now up at JTA.
DOKSHITSY, Belarus (JTA) -- A smattering of the 7,500 residents of this village where Jews once lived huddle under their umbrellas as the rain falls.
They peer over their shoulders to catch a glimpse of Aaron Ginsburg, who traces his ancestors here, reciting a speech through tears.
""Dokshitsers made new lives in the United States, Canada, South Africa, Australia and what would become Israel," Ginsburg tells the crowd as a camera from Belarusian state television focuses on him. "Few came back. Those who did found all they had loved gone. We are their children and grandchildren."
Behind Ginsburg stand 170 gravestones etched with faded Hebrew inscriptions, the most recent reincarnation in a patchwork effort by local authorities, local Jewish communities and returning descendants to restore Jewish cemeteries across Belarus.
Ginsburg, a pharmacist and amateur genealogist in Sharon, Massachusetts, played a vital role in the Dokshitsy project that is being marked on this May day.
As in my own ancestral shtetl of Vorotinschtina (an agricultural colony adjacent to Zaverezhye, about 12 miles southwest of Mogilev), there are few, if any, Jews. The last time someone visited Vorotinschtina, there was one elderly lady who remembered the Jews, and pointed out one of the Jewish houses, and remembered one of our Talalay relatives. On one day in 1941, everyone (some 300 souls) was slaughtered; only a handful of people survived because they were away on business or at school elsewhere.
In Dokshitsy, about 2,800 were rounded up and shot; 98% (more than 800,000) of the rural Jews in Belarus were murdered by the Nazi Einsatzgruppen killing squads.
The story indicates that the Belarus government may be taking a new direction to honor victims, despite the anti-Semitic comments of its president, Alexander Lukashenko, although he later met with magnate Lev Leviev, a major supporter of Chabad in the FSU. Since that meeting, some local initiatives towards restoring several Jewish cemeteries have taken place.
Due south of Mogilev, where most of our Talalay lived, is Gomel with a half-million people. Construction workers came across hundreds of Jewish graves while a stadium was being expanded. The city consulted with Jewish leaders and recruited local Jewish students to help relocate the remains.
For nearly a decade, Ginsburg has traced his family back to Dokshitsy, two hours north of Minsk.
As is the case in many shtetls across Belarus, many Jews had already left for the US and elsewhere before World War II, most in the late 1890s-1918. Most of those who remained were murdered, as they were in Dokshitsy and in Vorotinshtina. The monument on the spot where the Jews were killed does not mention their religious background.
Demolished in 1965, the Jewish cemetery's gravestones were removed or buried in a park untouched for four decades. When the gravestones were discovered, the town officials wanted to preserve the cemetery and looked for someone to help. Ginsburg heard from them in February 2006; the letter said they wanted to right a wrong against its Jewish citizens.
Ginsburg created the non-profit Friends of Jewish Dokshitsy and raised more than $28,000 to help fund the cemetery's reconstruction.
What had been a field of gravestones buried or strewn about is now a fenced-off area with more than 100 gravestones standing upright and a marble monument with inscriptions in Hebrew and Belarusian.
A smooth stone pathway leads from the road to the cemetery gate. All of it was built by the Dokshitsy city government.
For the trip, Ginsburg united 14 people with ancestors from Dokshitsy and brought them to the cemetery, where they recited the Mourners' Kaddish. The descendants came from South Africa, Israel, Russia and the United States.
Mark Izeman, an American lawyer in Minsk whose grandfather was born there, wondered why the city did this. He asked if it was guilt, but said after being there, "I think they are happy to help close the circle." He spoke to local residents at City Hall and in a school.
Read the complete article here, which quotes other individuals, such as Dokshitsy region chair Oleg Pinchuk and Michael Lozman, who has been leading groups of American college students for cemetery restoration activities since 2002.
03 June 2008
Journal: Sharsheret HaDorot, May 2008
The May 2008 issue of the Israel Genealogical Society's journal - Sharsheret Hadorot - is out.
Stories in this issue include:
For more details and subscription information, click here.
Stories in this issue include:
In search of Roots of the Chelouche, Schelouche, Schlouch, Chlous and Slous Families in Algeria from late 18th to the Early 20th Century, by Evyatar Chelouche
Writing a Family Tree, by Shilo Gal
Getting Acquainted with the Arolsen Files at Yad Vashem, by Martha Lev-Zion
Is Sauce for the Goose also Source for the Gander? Sources of Evidence Used During Genealogical Research of the Levitas Family, by Gidon Levitas
From the Baltic to the Black Sea, by Edward Gelles
The Montel and Esdra Families of Marseille – Part III, by James Montel
Galveston Port and Immigration Museum: A Source for Family Research, by Harriet Kasow
There Was a Small Town; Its Name Was Lunna, by Ruth Marcus
New Developments in Rabbinic Genealogy, by Rabbi Meir Wunder
Annual Conference of the Horowitz Family Research Foundation, 2007, by Gabriel Horowitz
Research On-line: http://www.shoahconnect.org, by Israel Pickholtz
Annulment of a Marriage by Refusal, by Yehuda Klausner
For more details and subscription information, click here.
Montreal: Shaking the family tree
When Ron Arons shook the family tree, a bad apple fell out.
The Montreal Gazette's Mike Boone, did a nice story on Ron and his appearance in Montreal this week.
Ron is a transplanted New Yorker who lives in San Francisco. He's just written "The Jews of Sing Sing."
He and his brother sold their chldhood home after their parents died, and had to go through a "a mountain of papers and memorabilia."
Very early, he discovered his maternal great-grandfather, Isaac Spier, was a high-living skirt-chaser who'd done time in Sing Sing for bigamy. Ron discovered, in his ancestor's past, alias and conflicting information on the man.
In addition to the regular scenario of genealogical research - passenger lists, citizenship records, censuses, birth, marriage and death records and telephone directories, he also accessed FBI and court records, and prison documents.
Today, researchers can acquire much information online, but when Ron started, it was the old-fashioned way.
Although many family historians are happy enough to list names, dates and places, Ron wanted to go beyond that to find out about his colorful ancestor, and encourages other genealogists to explore and find out more about the people in their trees.
Ron speaks at the annual international Jewish genealogy conferences and also speaks at many Jewish genealogical societies. If he is visiting your city, do try to attend; you won't be sorry.
Read more here.
The Montreal Gazette's Mike Boone, did a nice story on Ron and his appearance in Montreal this week.
Ron is a transplanted New Yorker who lives in San Francisco. He's just written "The Jews of Sing Sing."
He will be in town this week for two talks sponsored by the Jewish Genealogical Society of Montreal. The topic tonight is "Bugsy Siegel & Meyer Lansky - the hilarious story of two not-so-nice Jewish boys." Arons' talk tomorrow is "Kosher Nostra - Every Jewish family has a black sheep."
Arons is not a historian by training. He is a Princeton-educated engineer who was at his alma mater in New Jersey for a class reunion when I reached him by phone on Friday.
His virage toward research and writing on Jewish criminals began with a sequence of personal crises. Between 1989 and '91, Arons lost both his parents to cancer.
"I really wasn't ready for that," he said. "I was a young man in my 30s and I loved my parents dearly. I also lost two jobs and a significant relationship in a period of 18 months.
"So I basically shut down. I watched soap operas for six months because that's the only thing I was capable of doing."
He and his brother sold their chldhood home after their parents died, and had to go through a "a mountain of papers and memorabilia."
"Two things piqued my interest," Arons recalls.
"One was a family tree my father had shown me when I was in college, when I'd thought, 'Gee, that's boring.' The other was postcards from eastern Europe in Russian and Yiddish script.
"Everything else in the house could be replaced. But these were truly original and unique. And I ran with that."
Very early, he discovered his maternal great-grandfather, Isaac Spier, was a high-living skirt-chaser who'd done time in Sing Sing for bigamy. Ron discovered, in his ancestor's past, alias and conflicting information on the man.
In addition to the regular scenario of genealogical research - passenger lists, citizenship records, censuses, birth, marriage and death records and telephone directories, he also accessed FBI and court records, and prison documents.
Today, researchers can acquire much information online, but when Ron started, it was the old-fashioned way.
"If I were to start now," he said, "it would take me maybe 20 per cent of the time it did 12 years ago. It's gotten far easier."
Although many family historians are happy enough to list names, dates and places, Ron wanted to go beyond that to find out about his colorful ancestor, and encourages other genealogists to explore and find out more about the people in their trees.
Ron speaks at the annual international Jewish genealogy conferences and also speaks at many Jewish genealogical societies. If he is visiting your city, do try to attend; you won't be sorry.
Read more here.
02 June 2008
South Africa: German Jewish refugees
Readers interested in locating family from Germany that survived the Holocaust should view this site. It focuses on German Jewish refugees to Johannesburg, South Africa.
There are 35 biographies, photographs and more information about these refugees and their communities. The material was part of an exhibit, "Seeking Refuge."
Among the names (there are many more): Auerbach, Benedick, Blumenthal, Czapski, Gerschlowitz, Giesenow, Grunebaum, Heinemann, Levi, Lowenstein, Meyer, and Wreschinski.
Thanks to Ann Rabinowitz for this pointer.
There are 35 biographies, photographs and more information about these refugees and their communities. The material was part of an exhibit, "Seeking Refuge."
Among the names (there are many more): Auerbach, Benedick, Blumenthal, Czapski, Gerschlowitz, Giesenow, Grunebaum, Heinemann, Levi, Lowenstein, Meyer, and Wreschinski.
Thanks to Ann Rabinowitz for this pointer.
Museum of Family History additions
Steve Lasky of the virtual Museum of Family History announces new additions to his excellent website:
Great Artists Series: The Immortal Al Jolson
With the cooperation of the International Al Jolson Society, there's a 27-page exhibit with 17 short video clips and 48 sound clips. In “The Jewish Side of Jolson,” hear Jolson sing “Kol Nidre,” “Hatikvah,” and “Cantor on the Sabbath,” (in Yiddish). Steve notes this exhibit is best viewed with hi-speed Internet access and an updated media player.
Cemetery Project
A new unique surnames list for Wielun, Poland list. Updates for Czernowitz and Pryluky, Ukraine, as well as Szczuczyn, Poland.
Sonia Pressman Fuentes is a public speaker, writer, lawyer, and co-founder of NOW (National Organization for Women). She has written about her family life in the Catskills in the 1930s-1940s. Find this on the Site Map page under “ERC Lecture Series.”
Living in America: Neighborhoods — Brooklyn, New York
“Holocaust to Herzel Street” and “The Loew’s Pitkin….”
Family History Theatre
The Museum's Family History Theatre represents the interactive, multimedia aspects of the site. Take the Museum’s initial "virtual tour." Recently added is a series of video excerpts from interviews conducted with the Rosenthals from Miskolc and Vac, Hungary. They are part of the Museum's ongoing exhibition "Walk in My Shoes: Collected Memories of the Holocaust."
Postcards from Home
Pre-war family photos from Grodno, Belarus; Berlin, Germany; Rezekne/Rezhitsa, Latvia; Duskieniki and Vilkaviskis, Lithuania; Czestochowa and Zambrow, Poland; Pskov, Russia, and Czernowitz/Cernauti and Mukachevo/Munkacs, Ukraine.
Yiddish World
Chapters 16-19 of Yiddish acting great Maurice Schwartz’s biography “Once a Kingdom.”
There is much more to peruse on the site.
Great Artists Series: The Immortal Al Jolson
With the cooperation of the International Al Jolson Society, there's a 27-page exhibit with 17 short video clips and 48 sound clips. In “The Jewish Side of Jolson,” hear Jolson sing “Kol Nidre,” “Hatikvah,” and “Cantor on the Sabbath,” (in Yiddish). Steve notes this exhibit is best viewed with hi-speed Internet access and an updated media player.
Cemetery Project
A new unique surnames list for Wielun, Poland list. Updates for Czernowitz and Pryluky, Ukraine, as well as Szczuczyn, Poland.
Sonia Pressman Fuentes is a public speaker, writer, lawyer, and co-founder of NOW (National Organization for Women). She has written about her family life in the Catskills in the 1930s-1940s. Find this on the Site Map page under “ERC Lecture Series.”
Living in America: Neighborhoods — Brooklyn, New York
“Holocaust to Herzel Street” and “The Loew’s Pitkin….”
Family History Theatre
The Museum's Family History Theatre represents the interactive, multimedia aspects of the site. Take the Museum’s initial "virtual tour." Recently added is a series of video excerpts from interviews conducted with the Rosenthals from Miskolc and Vac, Hungary. They are part of the Museum's ongoing exhibition "Walk in My Shoes: Collected Memories of the Holocaust."
Postcards from Home
Pre-war family photos from Grodno, Belarus; Berlin, Germany; Rezekne/Rezhitsa, Latvia; Duskieniki and Vilkaviskis, Lithuania; Czestochowa and Zambrow, Poland; Pskov, Russia, and Czernowitz/Cernauti and Mukachevo/Munkacs, Ukraine.
Yiddish World
Chapters 16-19 of Yiddish acting great Maurice Schwartz’s biography “Once a Kingdom.”
There is much more to peruse on the site.
New Look: Now a search box!
Along with Tracing the Tribe's new look, readers now have a handy-dandy Search Box.
It is located directly above the Tag Cloud.
Type in a search term, hit search, and results will pop up above the postings. The default is Tracing the Tribe, but there is also a tab for Web.
More tweaking to come in the future.
Enjoy!
It is located directly above the Tag Cloud.
Type in a search term, hit search, and results will pop up above the postings. The default is Tracing the Tribe, but there is also a tab for Web.
More tweaking to come in the future.
Enjoy!
Belarus: Dokshitsy cemetery rededicated
JTA's Breaking News briefs included this item on Dokshitsy, Belarus.
For more information, go to Jewish Dokshitsy.
The non-Jewish leaders of a town in Belarus rededicated its Jewish cemetery.
The Dokshitsy cemetery was rededicated May 22, the holiday of Lag B'Omer. On this day and succeeding days in 1942, some 2,800 adults and children, the last of the town's Jewish population, were taken to a pit across the street from the burial ground and murdered by the Nazis. The original cemetery was destroyed by the Soviets in 1965.
In initiating the restoration project, the town's non-Jewish authorities said in a letter they wanted "to correct a mistake that was done many years ago and to create a memorial to the hundreds of Jewish citizens of Dokshitsy."
Aaron Ginsburg, an American genealogist whose father was born in Dokshitsy and the president of the Friends of Jewish Dokshitsy, said he was "dumbfounded" that the non-Jewish locals initiated the project and "had to quickly overcome any preconceptions about their attitude to the town's Jewish past."
Descendants of former Dokshitsy residents and others from the United States, Israel, South Africa and Russia, as well as the town's mayor and Belarus officials, recited the Mourners' Kaddish at the newly restored cemetery and the site of the massacre across the road.
"It is hard not to cry when I think of the overwhelming experience we had today in Dokshitsy," Ginsburg told JTA after the ceremony. "The town rolled out the red carpet from beginning to end. Our mission was a success, and we will be going back."
Cape Town resident Joe Polliack, who traces his family's presence in the village back 200 years, said of the rededication ceremony, "It's something you just can't describe."
For more information, go to Jewish Dokshitsy.
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