I overcame the usual stress of getting ready for a trip:
doing the basics to get things tucked away at work, anticipating clothing needs
in a foreign climate (all places where there is actually winter weather are
foreign), and packing (I acknowledged to myself and to my husband my
embarrassment at being a technology dinosaur – why, I don’t even have an iPad
or a smart phone! The closest I come is my iPod Touch. I still have favorite
pens and pencils – maybe I shouldn’t go to RootsTech…) And then, I put the
finishing touches on my plans for searching at the Family History Library in
Salt Lake City, Utah. There is
never enough time to prepare, but finally, at about 9 P.M. the night before my
flight, I sang que sera, sera and resisted the urge to stay up till the wee
hours searching through online indices for previously unsecured remnants of great
great uncle whatshisname.
On Wednesday, I arrived about 11 A.M., shuttled to the hotel
and when they told me it was too early to check in, I knew just what to do: out
the back door, down the alley and around the corner to the Family History Library (FHL). As I’ve come to
expect of any LDS-sponsored genealogical venture, the FHL is fantastically
organized and was ready for the onslaught of more than 4200 eager (read rabid)
RootsTech genealogists. The place seems filled with books about and microfilm
from every corner of the earth. For
many, including me, this was our first foray in the FHL – although I now know
that my time spent in the Mesa Regional Family History Center was good
preparation for this place, albeit on a smaller scale.
It’s a thrill to be able to locate an appropriate microfilm
number and immediately get ones hands on the film. Truth be told, for Jewish genealogy the FHL is a mixed
bag. They do have some things from
Galicia in the areas where my mother’s mother’s family was located. I found the one Liebross record from
Okopy I’d identified in Gesher Galicia's All Galicia Database. I do not yet know if or how this Mene might be related to
my Liebross family, but it’s nice to acquire a record without having to wait
months for the Polish Archives to locate and send it. Beyond that, for me at least, the relevant Eastern European
records are scant. But that is not
because the FHL hasn’t tried. A couple
of years ago at the International Association of Jewish Genealogical Societies (IAJGS) conference in Los Angeles, CA I heard Kahlile Mehr, the Manager of the Slavic Collection Management & Cataloging Dept at the FHL, say that he’d been trying for more than ten years
to get an agreement with the Zhytomyr archives in Ukraine. Ach! He also didn’t have access to Khmelnytskyy or Zalishchyky
archives in Ukraine (triple ach!) – all places I need.
Anyway, the FHL is great for New York City records. And I decided to do a vacuum-like
search (look at everything in sight) for one of my hiding relatives:
Moses/Morris Epstein (my great grandmother Hoda Wilson Epstein’s brother).
Before I left home I queried Italian Genealogical Group Vital Records index of NYC death records for all
Moses and Morris Epsteins and, list in hand, used Steve Morse’s One-Step tool
for finding FHL film numbers for NYC vital records (why hadn’t I found that
before). After one day of maniacal
searching at the FHL, I’ve gone through about ¾ of my list of likely films. Haven’t found him yet.
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