New York: Galicia, Hungary, Lithuania on the menu, May 22

The Jewish Genealogy Society of New York has two programs planned for Sunday, May 22, covering Galicia, Hungary and Lithuania.

Both sessions will be held at the Center for Jewish History, 15 West 16th Street, Manhattan. Admission is free for NY JGS members, $5 for others.

11am-12:30pm: Gesher Galicia regional meeting.

• Pamela Weisberger will begin with a virtual tour of the new Gesher Galicia website, a review of the Cadastral Map Landowner Records Project and an introduction to the new Galician 20-century voter records initiative.
• Israeli researcher Hanna Palmon will discuss her fall 2010 trip to the Lviv and Ternopil Archives and visit to the Busk, Ukraine cemetery.
• David Semmel will introduce his new historical novel, “The 11th of Av,” set in Przemsyl, and based on the lives of his Galician grandparents.
• Mark Halpern will update attendees on JRI-Poland's Galician records indexing.
• A preview of the IAJGS 2011 Conference program (August 14-19, Washington DC) preview, focusing on the “Galicia Jewish Museum” in Krakow and Jewish life from the earliest settlements to the present day.

2pm: JGSNY program: "Methods from the Mavens: Researching Galicia, Hungary and Lithuania" will feature a panel moderated by Linda Cantor, with researchers Jordan Auslander, Eden Joachim, Mark Halpern.

Each panelist will share expertise and experience. Learn what types of historical documents and vital records are available and how to access them. Learn what you can do from home and how to prepare for on site visits to ancestral homes.

• Jordan Auslander: Hungary. His history BA degree had seen practical use in title search, real estate and other research contracted for various literary projects, before he got into genealogy, like everyone -  too late. A former urban transportation planner, he is now a New York-based professional genealogist, lecturer and expert witness. He has pursued case research across the United States, Europe and Israel. He contributed the Hungarian chapter in the "Encyclopedia of the Jewish Diaspora;" translated, created and published an index to vital records in the Slovak State Archive system, and "A Genealogical Gazetteer of the Kingdom of Hungary." See the Hungarian ShtetLink.
• Eden Joachim: Lithuania. She has spent more than 30 years in finance and human resources, and has been tracing her family roots since 1991. Her research resulted in connections to Lithuania, Belarus, Congress Poland, Galician Poland and Prussia. She helped establish a Genealogy Center at the Holocaust Museum and Study Center in Spring Valley, NY. On the Litvak SIG board 2007, she serves as treasurer and vice president and is archive coordinator of two Polish State Archives for JRI-Poland. She has held leadership positions in the Vilna District Research Group, Gesher Galicia, the JGS of Bergen County and on the JGSNY executive committee.
• Mark Halpern: Galicia. A retired chemical company executive, he's been researching his Galitzianer and Litvak roots since 1996. Mark is a member of the executive committee and board of directors of Jewish Records Indexing – Poland and also serves on the Gesher Galicia advisory board. He was program chair for the 2009 Conference on Jewish Genealogy (Philadelphia) and is immediate past president of the Jewish Genealogical Society of Greater Philadelphia. Mark is the originator and coordinator of BIALYGen, the Bialystok Region Jewish Genealogy Group and coordinates a project to index and restore the Jewish Cemetery in Bialystok, Poland. He lives in West Chester, but was born in Paterson, New Jersey and is a long-time member of the JGSNY.
• Moderator Linda Cantor is JGSNY past president. A retired New York City teacher, she's been researching her family history for more than 25 years on her Lithuanian, Galician and Volhynian roots. She is a former JGS of Long Island president, a former IAJGS board member, and coordinator of several Lithuanian town SIGs. Linda was the 19th Annual Conference on Jewish Genealogy registration chair, the 26th IAJGS International Conference on Jewish Genealogy co-chair, JGSNY secretary and member for more than 25 years.

Join the experts for two excellent sessions on Sunday, May 22.

Australia: False Holocaust memoir?

Forensic genealogist Dr. Colleen Fitzpatrick is featured in an Australian story concerning allegations that a wartime memoir is false.

The Herald Sun story on Alex Kurzem, 75, who authored an international best-selling book ("The Mascot") describes the investigation by Fitzpatrick and her team.

She was instrumental in exposing Holocaust fakes Misha Defonseca and Herman Rosenblat some three years ago. Defonseca was forced to admit that "Surviving with Wolves" was false, and Rosenblat confessed he made up much of his "Angel at the Fence."

Kurzem has refused the newspaper's offer "to organise and pay for medical and DNA tests to help prove his identity and whether or not he is Jewish." He has refused unless he is paid $100,000 to undergo those tests.

His book allegedly describes his life as a Russian Jewish child, age 5, who survived the Holocaust by becoming the mascot of a Latvian military unit. The story was an award-winning 2004 ABC documentary and a movie about his life is being made by a French company.

According to the news story, Dr. Fitzpatrick's team also includes Melbourne Holocaust Centre senior staff and US psychologist Dr. Barry Resnick. Their files detail doubt about Kurzem, which has sparked three investigations by the Jewish Claims Conference, the German government compensation and pension department and the US Attorney's office.

Kurzem claims he watched his Jewish mother and siblings executed by the Nazis.

Read the complete story at the link above.

NY Times: Thomas MacEntee, Geneabloggers mentioned

Read an interesting story on family history resources online in the New York Times.

"Finding Family History Online," by Mickey Meece, can be read here.

The article included Ancestry, WikiTree, FamilyLink, Footnote, Tpestry, Facebook, Twitter and other sites.

Unusually, for a story dedicated to family history social networking, it did not mention MyHeritage.com.

Geneabloggers' own Thomas MacEntee was quoted:

Thomas MacEntee, a genealogy educator, writer and speaker, said the explosion of interest in genealogy was because of “an alignment of technology planets.” First came software, then the Internet and now social networks, he said.

“In the genealogy world, we have always been a social group,” said Mr. MacEntee, founder of GeneaBloggers.com, a community resource hub. “In a way, social media is a natural progression.”

...“This is a great time to be in genealogy,” said Mr. MacEntee, who became interested in the field after watching the 1977 television miniseries “Roots.”

Way to go, Thomas!

Three conferences in 10 days!

Tracing the Tribe has just arrived home after speaking at three conferences in two countries in 10 days!

Each was very different in format and topics addressed, and Internet access - on a personal level - varied, significantly curtailing communications. Jet lag, surprisingly, wasn't an issue on this trip. Along with the events themselves, Tracing the Tribe also connected with family, old and new friends.

The Society of Genealogists' Centenary Conference (London, UK; Saturday, May 7), was followed by the Jewish Genealogical Society of Great Britain's Northern Regional Conference (Manchester, UK; Sunday, May 8). Just two days later, I flew to the exciting National Genealogical Society's event in Charleston, South Carolina.

At the SOG and NGS, my topic was the IberianAshkenaz DNA Study as a case study - administered by Judy Simon of New York and myself - at FamilyTreeDNA.com. Each time this topic is presented, there is more to update on results and participants. It aways changes.

In Manchester, I spoke on social media for 21st-century genealogists, also an evolving topic.

At SOG and NGS, DNA was an interesting topic as the number of Jewish attendees is traditionally rather small, although there were more who had Jewish ancestry, some recently discovered. It was a different audience, with different questions, and we believe that these two opportunities helped to raise awareness of genetic genealogy - and FamilyTreeDNA.com.

From questions asked in session Q&As to those fielded during the rest of the events (and later emails), it was obvious that people are fascinated by this rather amazing tool available to us. The presentation includes the nuts and bolts of creating a DNA project applicable to any ethnicity, religion or geographic region.

At the JGSGB event - with some really excellent topics presented - it was a privilege to help explain how genealogists (as well as genealogy societies and other institutions) can benefit from today's social media, such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, blogs and more.

Watch for separate posts on each conference.

Now back home in New Mexico, I still have a few weeks before the Southern California Genealogical Society's Jamboree 2011 (speaking on creating online ancestral communities) and the Association of Jewish Libraries' event in Montreal (speaking on Sephardic research) soon after.

What do I do when at home, other than reading accumulated email, getting some needed sleep and generally not travel farther than the supermarket? Well, there are articles to write, a stack of books to review, and local genealogy goings-on, including genealogy presentations at local senior centers.

The schedule includes even more as I am genealogy co-chair of the New Mexico Jewish Historical Society, and involved in the creation and organization of the new general Sandoval County Genealogical Society.

Tracing the Tribe firmly believes that all Jewish historical societies should join the International Association of Jewish Genealogical Societies (IAJGS), as the NMJHS has recently done. It always seems that genealogists understand the connection between what we do and history, but that historical societies don't always see that essential connection. More cooperation between local genealogical and historical societies provides more learning opportunities for members of both.

What's on the menu for these two societies? We'll soon begin working on the new program year for both groups and contacting prospective speakers.

The Sandoval County society will be meeting the first Saturday of each month, from 10am-12.30pm, and we are working on the timing for the NMJHS events, which will be on Sundays (to be scheduled) at the Albuquerque JCC.

Back to email!

JDC Archive: Finding gold!

Looking for lost relatives? Try the searchable, online archive of the Joint Distribution Committee (JDC) launched earlier this week. Even more documents will be added during the summer.

Read about the goldmine of records in an NPR story, which mentions the work of volunteer transcribers and how the past president of the Jewish Genealogical Society of New York - Linda Cantor - found a relative.

JDC has made a collection of its historic records and photographs from the Holocaust period available online on its Shared Legacy website. During and after WWII, the organization cared for hundreds of thousands of Jews in many places around the world. JDC supported Jewish refugees fleeing Hitler in Kobe, Japan until 1941, and supported Jewish refugees in Yokohama (1918-20), most fleeing Russia. It supplied free parcels to thousands of Jewish individuals and families in the Soviet Union, 1943-45. And that's only scratching the surface.

JDC was also active in Iran until 1978 or so. It supported schools, an old-age home, kindergartens and the Jewish hospital, particularly in the 1950s and earlier. But this current collection focuses on Holocaust records.

The online database has more than 500,000 names; more will be added. There are some 1,500 photos from 14 countries - readers help in tagging the photos is sought.

Among those receiving assistance from the JDC was number 665 on page 2 of a list of beneficiaries of JDC’s free parcel service in the Soviet Union, 1943-1945:

There is a list of more than 6,300 individuals and families who received these packages. An addendum lists name and address changes for those in the main list. This was an interesting find in their new online archives.

When searching for BANK, my maternal great-grandmother's family near Kovno, my first search brought up a list of 270 names -  but only a few were Bank, many others were Band, Blank and others. There is no provision for "exact" searches.

I tried to go through the many pages, clicking on names to see the birthplaces of individuals in various lists, but when I tried to return to the search results there was often an error page ("There are no results matching your query. SEARCH AGAIN"). Whether this is due to high traffic, I don't yet know. I tried several times, sometimes reaching the list, more often not.

A second try brought up the list again. People were listed as going to Uruguay, Australia, the US and many other locations. I haven't yet found any on the list from around Kovno, but I'll keep looking.

For FINK (my maternal grandfather), there were some 135 results with geographical locations of Shanghai, Israel, Brazil, Australia and more. Some were from Galicia - I was looking for Skalat and Suchostaw and have not found those yet, although I did find Grybow, Lemberg (Lviv) and other towns I knew relatives had lived in, according to JRI-Poland.org.

Tracing the Tribe believes this information may be a goldmine for many researchers. Unfortunately, the search engine is far from ideal. Where is Steve Morse and his One Step programs when we need him?

To search properly through these valuable records, there should be provisions for "sounds like," "begins with," "exact," etc. To avoid going through a list of hundreds of names, it would have been good to put the person's birthplace with his or her name in the list of results. Thus, a search could be narrowed down more usefully. There should be a way to search for birthplace or other geographical locations to narrow down results for a more practical search. There is only one search field - last name or first and last name.

To see what JDC has done in its history, click here for a roundup by decades.

This is a very valuable collection of records but somewhat difficult to negotiate because of the current search engine. So grab yourself a cup of something, and settle down for a long search.

JTA: Online news archive launched

The Jewish Telegraphic Agency - known simply as JTA - has launched a free, searchable online digital archive with some 250,000 articles dating from 1923.

JTA is near and dear to Tracing the Tribe's heart as that organization, in 2006, contacted me and requested that I begin a genealogy blog. A year later, due to reorganization, Tracing the Tribe became independent.

In my talks with various JTA people over the years, I always stressed that its archives would be of immense value to genealogists and family history researchers. As plans were made to make the archive available, I was delighted.

On Tuesday night, May 3, the archive was launched at a celebration held at the Center for Jewish History, in New York.

What can you find in the archive? Here are some tidbits from just a simple search.

--The first article on the the Babi Yar massacre 
-- The founding of Israel.
-- Many articles on Jewish women through the decades.
-- The Holocaust.
-- A 1930 story on how upper class Persian Jews were becoming Bahai.
-- A 1932 story about a 1,000-year-old Polish synagogue formed by Portuguese Jews in the year 933 (Hebrew year 4693) in Wronke - on the river Warthe - in Posen.
-- A 1924 article about elections in a village near Mogilev, Belarus - spelled Mogileff in the article - named Slobodoa Davidovka, Mozyr district, and the agricultural colony Kormi, in Mogileff district.

(NOTE: There seem to be some search engine vagaries - JTA should have consulted with Steve Morse! - which the last article above showed. Searching for Mogilev did not show that election article - although there were many more modern ones. I used an old spelling, Mogileff, to see if there were other articles for the town and that spelling brought up three. A search for "Persia" showed that at some point in time, Hamadan was spelled Amadan and Isfahan was Ispahan (useful information for future searches). A phonetic parameter would be a useful addition to the search engine. For now, if you know other spellings of the towns you are looking for, try all of them.

However, you can search by keyword, by date/decades, and there are additional search tips. You can also save your searches by registering at the archive. It's free; click the Sign Up logo on the upper right of the archive home page. Do check out your ancestral towns, surnames and more!)

JTA was founded in 1917 towards the end of World War I by Jacob Landau to transmit vital information about what was happening in Jewish communities around the world. It was originally called the Jewish Correspondence Bureau and, was the first news agency that gathered and also disseminated news around the globe.

JTA correspondents, since that date, have reported what they could confirm at the time, although some facts in their articles were later corrected through research. Events covered by the agency would never have been documented.

The JTA Jewish News Archive is a powerful reference tool that offers a perspective on current events and modern Jewish history that is not available anywhere else. With free access to nearly a century of reporting about global events affecting world Jewry, the Archive will not only serve as a rich resource for both the casually curious as well as students and scholars of modern Jewish history, it will also transform the way the next generation of Jewish leaders and activists learn about their heritage.

Until now, there has been no authoritative site that provides a comprehensive chronicle of modern Jewish history, as seen through the eyes of journalists. From the aftermath of World War I, to the rise of Nazi Germany, through the Holocaust, the creation of the modern State of Israel and right up to today, JTA journalists have been reporting on stories and issues affecting Jews around the globe. The JTA Jewish News Archive holds over a quarter-million articles They provide a unique lens through which to view world events that no other news organization provides.

Read the bulletins that were sent out during the Holocaust and see the information that was available, contrary to conventional wisdom that said Americans didn't know about that tragedy while it was happening.

The digital archive effort was spearheaded by Brandeis University professor of American Jewish history Jonathan Sarna, who is also a JTA board member. He said that "The JTA Jewish News Archive has the potential to spark an interest in the past that will transform the future."

According to a JTA article, the nonprofit Digital Divide Data helped create the archive. The group serves Southeast Asian disadvantaged youth. Young Cambodians digitized the files.

The effort was also supported by the Gottesman Fund; The Righteous Persons Foundation; The Charles H. Revson Foundation; Elisa Spungen Bildner and Robert Bildner, in honor of Norma Spungen; George S. Blumenthal; and the Grace and Scott Offen Charitable Fund.

See a video about the archive here.

DNA: Do you hold the Gift of Life?

In the past, Tracing the Tribe has written about the Gift of Life Foundation, which attempts to match donors of bone marrow with patients who need a life-saving match.

The best matches are often from those individuals who are genetically related. But only rarely do the families  looking for potential donors post the relevant geographical areas or surnames.

There is now a call for a bone marrow match for a New Jersey toddler, age 2. Fortunately, his grandmother - Karen Lefkowitz - is a long-time genealogist (her JewishGen researcher number has only four digits!).

She understands the need for ancestral information as tissue type is inherited. The best chance of finding a donor for her grandson lies with those of Eastern.European ancestry, particularly Polish and Hungarian.

Here are the towns and surnames associated with the child's ancestry:

Turkey: FRIEDMAN, SHAPIRO

Poland: Stopnica area: BORKENSZTAJN, ZISSER, SUSSER, KAFEL, LINDER; Tarnow and Szczucin area: SUSSER; Bialystok, Trzcianne, Goniadz area: BLACHER, PERLIS, BALABUS, BLOCK, LEVIN, DUDINSKY, GEDRES, COHEN; Nowogrod and Dobrylas area: LEFOWITZ (LEFKOWITZ), KIEK or KIJEK, COHEN, RUDZKA; Przasnysz: BLANK, MONKAR, MAKA

Moldava: Kishinev (Chisinau): FRIEDMAN, MEISENBERG, SHAPIRO, LEVITT

Ukraine: Zhitomir: MEISENBERG, TAUB; Chermerivtsi: GREENBERG

Hungary: Elmialfulva (Endrefalva or Ermihalyfalva?): KLEIN; Eger: BRAUN; Szikeoy (Cejkov?): BRIER; Balaton (Veladin?): BRAUN

Lithuania: Vilnus: VERSHOFSKY, BAUSC

Anywhere: LITTENBERG, STRASSNER

If these places or surnames are familiar, here's how you can help. Even if the names or places are not familiar, consider testing and joining the bone marrow registry so that others may receive the Gift of Life.

-- Potential donors must be age 18-60 and in general good health to join the registry.

-- Cheek swab test kits can be ordered online through Gift of Life Bone Marrow Foundation. Or find a bone marrow drive near you.

-- If you are above age 60, encourage family members and friends to join the registry.

-- If you live outside of the United States and Canada, send an email for more information.

-- For more information, click here or send an email.

--Shayne Pilpel is this project's Gift of Life coordinator and will be happy to answer questions about the Foundation.

Check the list of towns and names again. Do you know someone with those surnames from those areas? If so, ask them to get involved and join the registry.

Holocaust: New victims' assets database

A comprehensive archive of Jewish Holocaust victims' assets has been made public. The searchable, user-friendly database - known as Project HEART (Holocaust Era Asset Restitution Taskforce) - will help victims and heirs reacquire losses.

The database may also assist genealogists and family history researchers to learn more about their families.

The database includes property addresses, insurance policies, lists of homeowners, professions, lists of known confiscated properties, business directories, and other archival information that can assist potential applicants in their research.

Archivists plan to release several million records, making the database the international community’s largest single-source database of lost Jewish property assets from the Holocaust era.

Project HEART unveiled yesterday an initial set of archival records, in the presence of American Jewish community leaders.

The press release stressed the availability of new technologies in this cause.

“These new technological tools together with the official involvement of the State of Israel in this process give us the hope that this time things will be different," said Natan Sharansky.

"As a former Prisoner of Zion, I remember the difficulty that existed in transferring information in the Soviet Union. In the age of the Internet, Google and Facebook allow us to create magnificent revolutions. Project HEART’s website has received more than 700,000 hits during its first few weeks.

According to the press release:

NEW YORK, May 4, 2011 – A large-scale international effort to help Jewish victims of the Holocaust redress claims of lost property confiscated, looted or forcibly sold under the Nazi regime was jumpstarted this week with the unveiling of a large, publicly available and searchable database of more than 650,000 Holocaust era property records in its first release.

The records were compiled and made available by Project HEART (Holocaust Era Asset Restitution Taskforce), an initiative of the Jewish Agency, in cooperation and with the support of the Government of Israel, to help Jewish families identify personal property confiscated by the Nazis and to help victims seek restitution. ...

... Launched in late February, 2011, Project HEART seeks to identify Jewish Holocaust victims and their heirs worldwide whose families owned real estate, movable, immovable, or other intangible personal property that was confiscated, looted, or forcibly sold in countries governed or occupied by the Nazi forces or Axis powers during the Holocaust era. The only limitation for application is if a post-war settlement already has been made to a victim or the victim’s heirs for that property. In such cases, people are not eligible to apply to Project HEART regarding that property.

To participate, individuals need to fill out the questionnaire available on HEART’s website, www.heartwebsite.org. Since it was launched, details about Project HEART’s purpose and the application process have been translated into 13 languages, and a 24-hour call center is operational in all languages. To date, the project has received tens of thousands of requests for additional information."

For more information, click Project HEART's website.