Michigan: 'Tree of Life' film, April 26

The Jewish Genealogical Society of Michigan (JGSMI) will present a special event on the opening day of the Lenore Marwil Jewish Film Festival, in Walled Lake's Commerce Theater on Sunday, April 26.

"The Tree of Life" by filmmaker Hava Volterra will be screened as a fund-raising event for the society.

The $18 ticket includes bagels and coffee (11.45am), the film (12.30pm) and a deductible donation to JGSMI.

The Tree of Life, a remarkable film of great beauty and substance, begins with Hava Volterra recalling how one day, speaking with her father she thought that he sounded old. She wanted him to go and visit, Italy, the land of his birth.

Unfortunately, her father died before the trip could be made. Hava takes the trip her father could not make.

Volterra shows us a life lived by a man who thought himself a failure. But she discovers surprises as she shakes the family tree; bankers, a prime minister, a famous American politician, etc.

Volterra's trip to her ancestral land teaches us how to see what has been in front of us all the time.

For tickets and more information, see the JGSMI site.

Los Angeles: 'The Girl from Foreign," April 20

Genealogists are always on the hunt for clues to our ancestors, and our journeys may take us in very unusual directions.

Author-filmmaker Sadia Shepard arrived in Bombay with a crumbling family tree and asked directions to the "Jewish Mosque." The rest is history.

The Jewish Genealogical Society of Los Angeles will host Shepard at its next meeting as she discusses her quest, her book ("The Girl from Foreign: A Search for Shipwrecked Ancestors, Forgotten Histories, and a Sense of Home") and screens her film ("In Search of the Bene Israel") at 7.30pm, Monday, April 20, at the Skirball Cultural Center, 2701 N. Sepulveda Blvd.

Raised in Boston by her Muslim mother and Christian father, Sadia learned of her family's Jewish heritage as a teenager when her Indian grandmother told her of her birth name: Rachel Jacobs.

As an adult, on a Fulbright scholarship, arriving in Bombay, armed only with a crumbling paper containing her family tree and asking directions to the "Jewish Mosque" she fufills her "nana's" dying wish to discover her personal history and the larger story of the Jews of India.

The event is free for JGSLA members; $10 for others. Reservations are strongly suggested for what will be a very popular program. For more details, see the JGSLA website, which also features a film clip.

New Blog: Internet Genealogy by DearMyrtle

How she does all this, Tracing the Tribe doesn't know, but one of our favorite geneabloggers, DearMYRTLE, has started a new blog, Internet Genealogy.

Well, after much anticipation and behind-the-scenes effort, Ol' Myrt here is pleased to announce the birth of a BRAND NEW Genea-Blog namely the Internet-Genealogy Blog featuring my take on topics presented in Family Chronicle, Internet Genealogy, Discovering Family History and History Magazine.

Congratulations, Myrt. We wish you all the best.

For those who are newcomers to genealogy, Myrt is an amazing person. She writes three blogs now: DearMyrtle.com, TeachGenealogy.com, and now Internet Genealogy.com. She also conducts two podcast series, DearMYRTLE's Family History Hour and Family History Expos Genealogy Podcasts. She's also on Facebook!

Go to her new blog and sign up for alerts.

Baltimore: Tracing Jewish genealogy

Our genealogical journeys may begin with a passion to connect with ancient ancestors and longlost relatives around the world. Along the way, we hope to discover our place as a link in our family's chain and a bridge from the past to the future.

Tracing family history was the focus of this Baltimore Jewish Times article.

The story mentioned Ancestry.com, MyHeritage.com, Geni.com, JewishGen.org, some family sites, scrapbooks, professionals, Rabbi Malcolm Stern's “First Americans Jewish Families: 600 Genealogies, 1654-1988" now online, as well as The Jewish Museum of Maryland's Weinberg Family History Center with three generations of family genealogical records and Jewish cemetery records in Maryland.

Two major drawbacks: The story never mentioned genealogy blogs or Sephardim.

The author interviewed four Baltimore-area residents on their personal journeys down discovery road: Randi Hertzberg of Owings Mills; Adam Meister of Reservoir Hill; Edith Brotman; and Laya Bitman of Mount Washington.

Sometimes the search for one’s roots begins with a sepia-toned photograph of unfamiliar faces and nearly indecipherable handwriting and ends up with a trip to Uruguay to visit long-lost cousins.

Sometimes it begins with a scrapbook on a closet shelf which falls to the floor, revealing memories of family and events of years past, and ends up leading to a career.

Sometimes it begins serendipitously in a Dor Tikvah “how-to” class on researching genealogy and ends up with the discovery of relatives who were among the founders of Tel Aviv.

Perhaps, most often, the genealogical journey begins with a deep desire to connect with relatives, past and present, and ends up with a greater understanding about oneself and about one’s family.

The story offered good tips for beginning a search:

- Work backwards; narrow the search to one branch.
- Keep a source page. Back up every fact you find and every person you find, because family members may dispute what you find.
- Keep researching and delving into the research until you reach a point where you know you can’t go any further.
- Talk to living relatives and find out as much as they know about family.

And what to do with those family documents and photos:

- Keep photographs and family documents in acid-free scrapbooks or boxes to prevent aging and ruin.
- Remove photos placed in photo albums with magnetic strip pages and place in plastic sleeves. Put larger items in polyethylene bags.
- Do not store in an attic or basement due to extreme changes in temperatures or potential flooding. If they must be stored in the basement, place in plastic, sealed boxes or bins.
- Copy newspapers with family history or events, as newsprint eventually disintegrates.
- Transfer audio tapes to a digital recording, as it become inaudible after approximately 10 years.

Research areas covered by those interviewed include pre-state Israel, Romania, Latvia, Uruguay, Lithuania.

Read the complete story at the link above.

New blog feature: Star ratings

Today seems to be tech day, which isn't as easy as it seems for this very non-tech blogger who is definitely not in the category of Thomas, Randy, Jasia and some others in our geneablogging community.

However, there are great sites with excellent information.

After struggling with the Blogger star ranking widget and getting nowhere after all kinds of potchke-ing (Yiddish, fooling around with details) with code, etc., I gave up and looked for something less difficult.

I found it in Outbrain.com, an Israeli website based in Netanya and New York.

Tracing the Tribe has just added Star Ratings from that site. The widget was very simple to install (automatic, nothing to fool around with), the report feature seems to provide good reports and it is very easy to manage.

When I had a question about a function, I wrote to Outbrain.com's CEO Yaron Galai, who had signed the welcome email. I'm very happy to report that I received a very quick and personal response from him with the solution.

Bloggers can also enable recommended posts (a longer list, a short list or none). I had that up for a short time, but felt the suggestions were not really appropriate, so I set it to none.

At the bottom of each post, readers will see this:

Tracing the Tribe hopes that this rating system will help those readers who are too busy to write comments to still participate in informing the community.

I've also enabled the Top Posts feature, but it will take some time for that to properly report.

Of course, Tracing the Tribe would love to see this:

While I really enjoy reading the comments of readers who take the time to personally respond, I know there are many more out there who don't feel comfortable with written comments. I hope that more readers will participate now.

Try it out!

New blog feature: Following Tracing the Tribe

Tracing the Tribe has just added Followers Friend Connect on the right sidebar:



We know you're following Tracing the Tribe, so why not sign in and add yourself to our community?
Sign in with Google or Yahoo or AIM.

New blog feature: Comments made easier!

Here's an easier way to comment on Tracing the Tribe's posts.

At the bottom of each post, click "Add your comments here" and you will see all previous comments as well as a handy-dandy field for entering your new comment.

Try it out!

JewishGen: Jewish cemetery database

JOWBR is the Jewish Online Worldwide Burial Registry at JewishGen.

A 2009 update now brings the database to more than 1.125 million records from more than 2,100 cemeteries and cemetery sections in 45 countries. According to coordinator Nolan Altman, the latest update included more than 55,000 new records and nearly 25,000 new photos from 17 countries.

JOWBR features burial records, photographs, description files, maps and overview photos.

The new additions include:

Maryland: 31,000 records from Baltimore-area cemeteries, courtesy of the Jewish Museum of Maryland.

Colorado, Iowa, Nebraska: Terry Lasky submitted records and photographs personally created or coordinated with other volunteers. There are about 2,800 new recods and more than 15,000 photos.

Indiana: Gloria Green and her team submitted about 2,700 records and 2,700 photos for the Kelly Street cemetery complex in Indianapolis.

Bayside, NY: Maurice Kessler and his team submitted an additional 1,400 records from the Bayside/Ozone Queens cemetery complex - the original records were documented by Florence Marmor and David Gevertzman.

Pennsylvania: Susan Melnick of the Rauh Jewish Archives, John Heinz Pittsburgh Regional History Center, provided continuing submissions from various state cemeteries.

Chernivtsi, Ukraine: Hymie Reichstein and Bruce Reisch of the JGS of Ottawa, Canada, provided a second installment of some 3,800 records and photos.

Vilnius, Lithuania: Howard Margol submitted some 6,300 post-World War II burials in the Saltonishkiu Cemetery.

Iasi, Romania: Reuven Singer and his team translated an additional 1,000 burial records from the 1887 Hebrew burial registers.

JOWBR's next update is anticipated prior to the 29th IAJGS International Conference on Jewish Genealogy (Philly 2009), August 2-7, in Philadelphia.

Around the world, many Jewish genealogical societies and individuals work on small and large projects to help researchers around the world locate the resting places of their ancestors. JOWBR provides templates for recording information and other assistance.

Is there a Jewish cemetery near you that has not yet been indexed or photographed? Consider organizing a project.