New! Jewish Geneabloggers List

Emily Garber ©️ 2013

Recently, Thomas MacEntee announced that he will no longer update his blog GeneaBloggers and his Genealogy Blog Roll. Thomas' blog roll has more than 3,000 genealogy blog listings and it has been not only a useful source for readers, but also a useful marketing tool for bloggers.

I do not intend to completely duplicate those functions, but I have recently gone through GeneaBloggers' Blog Roll and extracted the blogs that self-identify with Jewish genealogy. I have accessed each, noted which ones are actively blogging (arbitrarily defined as publishing new posts in 2017) and which ones seem to be on hiatus. I have also added a few blogs that I know are relevant, but were not listed on GeneaBloggers.

I intend to keep this list current. How current will depend upon how many Jewish bloggers contact me when they start new blogs or restart old ones.

You may visit this new resource via the tab, above: Jewish Geneabloggers.*

If you are a Jewish genealogy blogger and you are not listed, please let me know via the email address shown on the Jewish Geneabloggers page.
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* In case you are wondering, I asked Thomas MacEntee if it would be alright for me to use the term "geneabloggers." He gave me permission.

Time for Blogging! IAJGS 2013 in Boston

Ah! My blog has been among the missing for several weeks. I won't provide any excuses - they'll all sound lame (and probably give you more information than you really want to know). I will say, however, that the last few days at the International Association of Jewish Genealogical Societies Conference in Boston have been whirl-wind and I'm just coming up for air.

The meeting started on Sunday, 4 August 2013 and I was initially busy with two time-consuming tasks: polishing my first-ever IAJGS presentation for Tuesday, 6 August, 8:15 AM delivery and serving as Volunteers Director of the JewishGen Ukraine Special Interest Group (SIG). 

On Saturday night before the conference started I checked out the St. James room of the Boston Park Plaza Hotel where I was to deliver my talk. My impression was that it seemed small, but that was somewhat of a relief - I didn't want a bunch of empty space.  I should not have worried, however. The presentation went well with extra chairs brought in, standing room only and serious concern about fire-code violations. 

My talk was titled: "Beyond the Manifest: Confirming One's Ancestral Origins Using Alternative Sources." It encouraged and provided examples of applying the Genealogical Proof Standard (GPS) to the problem of determining the name of one's Old World community. The big surprise was that more of the audience were not familiar with the GPS. I hope that I've whetted their appetite for further study of this critical part of conducting rigorous genealogical study. I've also decided that I will continue to beat the GPS drum next year at the IAJGS in Salt Lake City. 

On Friday morning I was pleased to hear Rhoda Miller, C.G., deliver another GPS-themed presentation: "Evidence Analysis: Determining the 'Right' Record." Rhoda talked about evaluation and analysis of sources, information and evidence. Her topic was similar to what is presented by Elizabeth Shown Mills in "Quick Lesson 17: Evidence Analysis Process Map" on her Evidence Explained website.

A few months ago I blogged about the choice of Aaron Lansky, MacArthur Award winner and Yiddish book collector, as keynote speaker for the conference. Lansky's presentation included a nice history of the Yiddish Book Center. I recalled several of his stories from his book. His talk displayed both his creative intelligence and humor - both extraordinarily admirable traits. I was pleased that my talk a couple of days later included reference to a source digitized and online at the Yiddish Book Center. To me, it helped illustrate the importance of his work for Jewish genealogists who may not have been familiar with the Jewish Book Center's website and their cooperative effort with the Steven Speilberg Digital Yiddish Library project and Internet Archive.

Aside from yours truly, there were quite a few other Jewish genealogy bloggers at the conference. Several were more successful at blogging the conference than I was. I counted:

Jenny Brown (J.S. Brown)
     "Among My People"
Ava Cohn (Sherlock Cohn)
Schelly Talalay Dardashti (Tracing the Tribe, now blogging occasionally for My Heritage)
Lara Diamond (Lara's Family Search)
     "IAJGS2013 Conference Next Week"
     "IAJGS2013 Conference - Day 1"
     "IAJGS2013 Day 1, Part 2" 
     "IAJGS2013 Conference - Day 2, Part 1"
     "IAJGS2013 Day2, Part 2"
     "IAJGS2013 Conference - Day 3"
     "IAJGS2013 Conference - Day 4, Part 1"
     "IAJGS2013 Conference - Day 4, Part 2"
     "IAJGS2013 Conference - Day 5"
Banai Feldstein (The Ginger Jewish Genealogist)
     "Packing for IAJGS 2013" 
     "IAJGS 2013 - Sunday"
     "IAJGS 2013 - Monday"
     "IAJGS 2013 - Tuesday"
     "IAJGS 2013 - Wednesday"
     "IAJGS 2013 - Thursday" 
     "IAJGS 2013 - All Done"
Smadar Belkind Gerson (Past-Present-Future)
     "Highlights from IAJGS International Conference of Jewish Genealogy" 
Elizabeth Handler (A Jewish Genealogical Journey)
     "IAJGS Conference Next Week" 
     "IAJGS 2013 Conference - First Half Report"
     "IAJGS 2013 Conference - Second Half Report"
Mark Nicholls (Jewish Genealogy? - blog of the JGS of Great Britain)
     "Another Year,.........Another Conference - Posting 1"
     "Another Year,.......Another Conference - Posting 2"
     "Another Year,.......Another Conference - Posting 3"
     "Another Year,.......Another Conference - Posting 4"
     "Another Year,.......Another Conference - Posting 5"
     "Another Year,.......Another Conference - Posting 6 and Last"
Israel Pickholtz (All My Foreparents)
     "August Abroad" 
     "Time To Go Home, But First A Few Words About The Last Few Weeks"
Eli Rabinowitz (EliRab)
     "The IAJGS International Jewish Genealogical Conference in Boston, MA, USA"
     "Boston Massachusetts - More on IAJGS"
Jane Neff Rollins (Kitchen Sink Genealogy)
Janice Sellers (Ancestral Discoveries)
     "IAJGS Conference, Boston - Day 1"
     "IAJGS Conference - Days 2 and 3"
     "IAJGS Conference - Days 4 and 5"
     "IAJGS Conference Wrap-Up, and Visiting Family and the Cemetery"
Jennifer Shoer (Scrappy Gen)
Philip Trauring (Blood and Frogs)
     "Genealogy Software for the Mac"
     "Routes to Roots, Improved"
Susan Weinberg (Layers of the Onion)
     "Informing Your Search Through Literature"
     "Making Sense of Genealogical Clutter"
     "Probate Records: An Often Forgotten Source"

If I missed anyone or anything for this list, please let me know.

I was able to meet and chat with most of the bloggers. I did not get a chance to meet Jenny, Phillip, Jennifer, Mark, Eli and Susan. My plan is to assemble all the attending bloggers at next year's conference in Salt Lake City for a dinner or lunch date.

Gen Podcasts: Geneabloggers Radio

An occasional blog series identifying online locations of genealogical knowledge in both audio and video podcasts with an emphasis on Jewish genealogy.  

Geneabloggers Radio – Thomas MacEntee, host

Update: Thomas MacEntee put this Blog Talk Radio show on indefinite hiatus. His last episode was 13 April 2012. One may still access episodes via the Blog Talk Radio website or iTunes.

Format:  This weekly live podcast began in February 2011 with the start of season 2 of Who Do You Think You Are?  The first episodes were tied in theme to the topic of each WDYTYA broadcast.  Each week, Thomas MacEntee, summarizes family history news, entertains those on an associated chat board, and interviews knowledgeable genealogists and other experts regarding the selected topic for the evening.  The show started with a 2-hour live show format, but then was reduced to a more manageable 90 minutes. Lately, Thomas has been joined by a guest co-host. This has definitely made the show flow more smoothly.

Episodes with Jewish Genealogy content: 

Episode # 9 (1 Apr 2011) “Jewish Genealogy – How to Get Started Searching Your Roots.” This is the show immediately following the Gwyneth Paltrow WDYTYA broadcast. Thomas interviews: 

• Stanley Diamond, Executive Director of JRI-Poland about the indexing project and his involvement with the Paltrow WDYTYA episode. 
•  Schelly Talalay Dardashti of the Tracing the Tribe and My Heritage blogs, who explains the special complications of doing Jewish genealogy.  
• Dr. Steve Morse who talks about the origins of his One-Step website.  
• Elise Friedman who discusses genetic genealogy.

Episode # 49 (7 Jan 2012) “Genealogy New Year’s Resolutions for 2012” 

At about 1:07 into the show, Thomas interviews Jan Meisels Allen, Vice President of the International Association of Jewish Genealogical Societies (IAJGS) and a member of the “Records Preservation and Access Committee” of the Federation of Genealogical Societies (FGS). She shares information on the preservation of and threats to access to vital records, especially the Social Security Death Index.

Episode # 54 (11 Feb 2012) "Genealogy and Technology in a Post-RootsTech World"

Brooke Scheier Ganz, Vice President of Gesher Galicia is interviewed starting about 1:05:00 into the show about her efforts developing LeafSeek, the search engine currently being beta tested on the Gesher Galicia database website.

The Episode #55 (18 Feb 2012) "Give Me Your Tired, Your Poor: 19th Century US Immigration"
Pat Richley-Erickson (aka Dear Myrtle) serves as guest host during this episode.  Highlights:

• Marian Smith, Chief, Historic Research Branch, US Citizenship & Immigration Service. All genealogists who use immigrant manifest records should be familiar with Marian who is the main author of the excellent InfoFile "Manifest Markings: A Guide to Interpreting Passenger List Annotations" that may be found on JewishGen.
• Unfortunately, technical difficulties made it impossible for Audrey Collins, Family Historian the UK National Archives, to be on the show. The otherwise dead air (that starts about 26 minutes into the podcast) was filled by Blogtalk radio with some insipid music.  Scroll forward to about 36:30 when Myrt gets back on the air and welcomes the next guest.
• Angela Walton-Raji, genealogist, talks about African American migrations (not Jewish genealogy, but interesting, nonetheless).
• Judy G. Russell, the Legal Genealogist, talks about legislation pending in the House of Representatives that, if signed into law, will have far-reaching effects on access to the Social Security Death Index.

Special Feature: One may participate in the chat board during the live podcast on Friday nights (I am usually otherwise engaged on Fridays, so I listen to the recorded version the next day).  There have, at times, been more than 60 people on the chat board discussing the show, giving Thomas feedback and posing questions for guests.  Links mentioned in the discussion are often posted on the chat board. So, one misses those if one does not listen live. One may access the chat board by logging in with an account set up on Blog Talk Radio or via FaceBook. Every episode opens with directions for accessing the chat board.

Access: 

• via Blog Talk Radio (live or recorded) - Every Friday night in the USA (9 pm Eastern; 8 pm Central; 7 pm Mountain; 6 pm Pacific; 2 am London; 1 pm Sydney, Australia) : http://www.blogtalkradio.com/geneabloggers
• via iTunes: search for Geneabloggers. One may download individual episodes or subscribe to the show.  The most recent show is usually available immediately after the live show airs. If you subscribe, new episodes will automatically be delivered to your iTunes podcast folder. 
• Show Notes: http://www.geneabloggers.com/tag/geneabloggers-radio