IAJGS 2018 Warsaw Conference - Day 2

I have lagged in the blogging this conference. I left my laptop home and expected to blog my Eastern European visit via my iPad as I had done five years ago. Now, however, iPad apps for using Blogger are no longer supported by Google. Thus, I had to blog directly in the browser (Safari) on my iPad. 

This method is far from user friendly. I stopped and started several posts and then decided to finish them when I returned State-side and could work in Blogger via my laptop. 

So during the next few days, despite being in the throes of jet lag, I will complete my self-assigned task.

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On Monday, 6 Aug 2018, I started the day with an topic unfortunately relevant to much of my Eastern European research: "Hopeless Case Studies: How to Search for Family Roots in Towns Without Records." This talk by Jakub Czuprynski was quite good. Jakub, a Polish native, speaks  excellent English. He was easily understood.

Jakub explained that the paucity of records in some places is related to destruction due to a variety of events. Building fires and World War I and World War II caused record loss. In addition, there were poor archival practices in the Austrian Empire before 1875. In some cases there was deliberate and systematic disposal of documents. 

In 1876, the Austrian administration created the position of clerk for vital records registration. It wasn't until 1919 that the Polish State Archives (PSA) was created. At that point local repositories were to send their records to the PSA.

Jakob's take-away message was that persistent research can bring some results. Passport applications, notorial records, land and mortgage books, and court records may be located in municipal and district offices. He also mentioned the Antoni Schneider Collection - an unfinished encyclopedia of Galicia research by the late historian. This collection is in the National Archives in Krakow.

Next on my schedule was the Romania Special Interest Group meeting chaired by Barbara Hershey. I have recently agreed to serve on the new board for this group that is retooling after a change in leadership. Barbara explained that we have quite a few records in our possession that need indexing. Hew priority is to index those in hand before seeking out additional collections. There is much to do!

Those with interest should know that there are RomSIG records uploaded to Crowd Sourced Indexing. They are ready for those who have the ability and desire to help.

It seemed to be "Hopeless genealogy" day for me and I next attended the Disna Birds of a Feather (BOF) meeting chaired by Ralph Salinger. The discussion was quite interesting to me. 

A few years ago Ralph took over the group within Litvak SIG and did a great job finding records from the Disna District in what is now Belarus and Lithuania. But shortly after starting he announced that all records had been found. 

I recall asking if Litvak SIG had search archives in Belarus. He said, "No," and promised they would do so. Then shortly after that, he again announced that all records had been located. Needless to say, there were few records from my community, Kozyany, and none representing my family.

Paul Zoglin, an expert in Belarus records, pressed Ralph on Litvak SIG's methods of collection and record discovery. I now hope that the group will refocus their search.

The next talk on my schedule was cancelled, so I spend time in the Resource Room reviewing my PowerPoint for my talk tomorrow morning. 

I attended the conference "Meet and Greet Reception" and intended to listen to the Pamela Weissberger Memorial Lecture by Dr. Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett in the evening. But, a friend asked me to dinner and I took that opportunity instead.