Jewish Genealogy Resources, Elizabeth Shown Mills and the NY Times

The New York Times Booming section published Elizabeth Shown Mills' "Advice on How to Research Family History, Part 2," on 13 November 2013.

Among the topics ESM addressed are two regarding Holocaust-related research:

• Geographic ‘Memory Holes’ Created by the Holocaust
• Migration of Holocaust Survivors to Argentina

I was actually pleasantly surprised to see this because ESM's case study examples are usually from the southern part of the United States. ESM gave all the correct advice, but the  concept of a "geographic 'memory hole' " (whatever that may be) may be somewhat challenged by the good works in progress by several Jewish genealogists and special interest groups. Most of these projects are free access - although many depend upon donations to keep them going.

Riga, Latvia - See the JewishGen Latvia Database which has over 160,000 records. A query on Riga netted 26,000 results.

Kaunas, Lithuania - Litvak SIG reports that the Kaunas District (Uyezd) Research Group has spend upwards of $35,000 thus far acquiring, translating and distributing 160,000 individual records from this area. The area includes Kaunas and many surrounding villages. Much of this is accessible via the All Lithuanian Database (with 1 million + records) or the JewishGen Lithuanian Database (with 1.5 million records) hosted on JewishGen. Some are currently only accessible via paid membership in the Litvak SIG Kaunas District group.

Moscow, Russia - see the Moscow kehilalinks webpage hosted on JewishGen.

Warsaw, Poland - Jewish Records Indexing-Poland has indexed more than 5 million vital records since it began in 1995. These records are included in registers from many former Polish Commonwealth towns in Eastern Europe, including Warsaw. The most exciting news is that the Polish State Archives is in the process digitizing all their records. As Jewish records are digitized, JRI-Poland creates direct links to them from their indices.

There are many Warsaw records located within the Warsaw archives and among the many not-yet-digitized microfilms of the Family History Library. See JRI-Poland's Warsaw page for the status of indexing these records.

Budapest, Hungary - Ongoing data collection/indexing projects are listed on JewishGen's Hungarian SIG pages.

Vienna  - Genteam has been indexing records from archives in Vienna and the vicinity for several years. They now have more than 8 million records indexed. Many of these are Jewish records.

While there's no question that records have been lost, I like to think that Jewish genealogists may be able to learn from the burned courthouse issues with which U.S. Southern states' genealogists (such as ESM) contend. I think the landowner records/cadastral maps that Gesher Galicia (the Galicia SIG) has been collecting may, for many shtetlach, be the partial answer to Jewish genealogists' missing European records issues. As someone recently pointed out, we need to love the records we have. I think that there is more and more to love.

ESM also addressed several additional questions regarding:

• Identifying Ancestral Photos
• Genealogical Templates for Citing Sources
• Numbering Systems for Genealogy
• Researching a Railroad Employee in 1921
• Beginning Indian Research from the U.S.
• Becoming a Professional Genealogist

I like the fact that the questions selected for treatment are not all beginner issues. And I excitedly await the third installment next week of ESM's New York Times' question and answer sessions. 

JewishGen Special Interest Groups

Most of us with Eastern European Jewish ancestry grew up with the supposed truism: everything was destroyed during World War II. There are no Jewish communities or records. You're interested in family history? Forgetaboutit! 

But, the dissolution of the Soviet Union in December 1991 changed all that. Suddenly archives and archivists, especially in the formerly satellite nations, were more open to sharing. Jewish Records Indexing - Poland (started in 1995) and Miriam Weiner's Eastern European Archival Database should have dispelled any notion that there were no records. With these efforts and the efforts of the Family History Library we seem to be entering a new golden age for Eastern European Jewish genealogy and the Special Interest Groups (SIGs) are at the forefront of finding records and making them available and accessible.   

Hail to the SIGs

Special Interest Groups within JewishGen seem to be working at a frenzied pace. Not a week seems to go by without one of them announcing acquisition, or translation, or indexing, or posting of new and exciting records for researchers. This is a relatively new and welcome phenomenon.*

The 26 Special Interest Groups that may be found on JewishGen are either geographically or topically oriented groups either part of or hosted by JewishGen. They may be broadly focused (such JRI-Poland and its interest in records from within the boundaries of 19th and 20th century Poland) or narrowly focused on a particular calling (Yiddish Theatre and Vaudeville Research Group). Some, like JRI-Poland, Bessarabia SIG and Gesher Galicia specialize in areas that cross-cut current national boundaries. In the case of the Ukraine SIG, it has, for the most part, been relegated those areas of the current Ukraine that are not included in for former Austro-Hungarian province of Galicia. JewishGen divvied up the SIG geographical areas to ensure that the boundaries of the SIGs do not overlap. All of them are geared to support the individual researcher's area of interest.

Most of these groups also host mailing lists or discussion forums to which one may subscribe. Access to these lists or forums is free, but one must register (for free) with JewishGen. This link to the mailing list requires JewishGen registration.

Getting There

To see all SIGs accessible from JewishGen.org, start at the Home Page, hover over the Research tab and click on Special Interest Groups.

You will come to a page that lists all the SIGs accessible from JewishGen. If you know which SIG you wish to access, click the name. If you are unsure of which SIG would include the area with your village of interest, look in the lower right part of this page. You may use this search feature to go your village's Community Page. In this case I've entered the name of one of my ancestral villages: Yurovshchina.

The appropriate SIG for the village entered will be identified at the bottom of the community page.

Next up, we'll examine one emerging Special Interest Group: Ukraine SIG and talk with one of its leaders, Ron Doctor.

Note:
* JRI-Poland started in 1995 and now has 4.5 million records indexed from the geographical area within 19th and 20th century Poland. Starting much more recently with its indexing projects, Gesher Galicia already has about 200,000 records indexed online. As of 2012, the All Lithuania Database of Litvak SIG has more than 1,200,000 records indexed. These three are all independent organizations hosted by JewishGen.

DNA: Another tool for the toolbox

I really like to concept of DNA testing for genealogy research. I like it just about as much as manifests and census records. Having no experience with DNA testing, I anticipate liking it a little less than the records I've found most useful: probate, naturalization and obituaries. In other words, I see DNA test results as a another source of data - another tool in my genealogical toolbox, to be used in conjunction with other good information. Perhaps DNA information will generate more questions than answers, but that is all part of what keeps me engaged in genealogical problem solving.

I'd been thinking about trying a genealogy DNA test for some time. Actually, what I'd really been thinking about was convincing a male relative of mine to do it. But then I thought, "Well, I need to do a test myself so I am familiar with the ins and outs and can honestly say, 'It's no big deal!' " So,this past Sunday, the last day of the recent Family Tree DNA (FTDNA) sale, I ordered up a mitochondrial (mtDNAPlus) and Family Finder kit.

I chose FamilyTree DNA because they are known to have the largest database of Jewish tests and they have partnered with JewishGen.org. If one is looking for matches, a large comparison population is a distinct advantage.

I first looked through a variety of resources on the Family Tree DNA website to ascertain which test would be best for me. Their resources include pages, articles and videos on not only the testing results, but also the testing procedures. When one selects the Products tab, the website asks you to tell them whether a male or female will be tested. It then offers you only the testing options for that gender.There are a variety of tests at a variety of prices - the pricier ones, naturally, provide results at greater level of certainty. But, one may upgrade later if one feels the need and has the cash.

Due to the character of DNA and genetic inheritance, women can only test along their female lines (i.e., mother's mother's mother, etc). Thus, my choices were limited to the mtDNA test. Men (lucky them), however, may track their DNA along either line, depending upon which test they select: mtDNA (which tests along the mother's line) or Y-DNA (which will only test along paternal lines (father's father's father, etc.)).

For me, then, the mtDNA test meant that I can only test my mother's mother's mother's side.

It is a good idea to tie oneself to a DNA project. These may be oriented to surnames,  geography, or both or haplogroup (something one wouldn't be able to identify until receiving Family Finder test results). One may change, add or subtract DNA projects from ones profile at any time. The DNAeXplained blog has a recent post regarding considerations for selecting a project.

Aside from the opportunity to compare notes with researchers with similar genetic genealogy interests, with project affiliation one may also find some discounts on FTDNA tests. In my case, I bought the test during a sale - so project discounts did not apply and would not have provided an advantage. However, current discounts in the project in which I was interested only apply to the Y-DNA 37 Marker test (the one most recommended for paternal line genealogy) on which one may save $20. The Family Finder and mtDNA tests are not discounted for the project I selected: Gesher Galicia.

Gesher Galicia is for those with Jewish origins in the area that is now part of Poland, and Ukraine. Around 1900 when most of my mother's family left Europe, Galicia was a province in the Austria-Hungarian Empire. There are currently 278 members of this Jewish genetic genealogy project. There are other projects to select, but I thought I'd start with one and see how it goes. This is all new for me, so information overload is a concern.

Having earned a little overtime pay recently, I chose to splurge a little and decided to not only go with the mtDNA Plus but also the Family Finder. The Family Finder is an autosomal DNA test. This is similar to the tests Henry Louis Gates has completed on his PBS series Finding Your Roots participants and gives one a breakdown of ones ethnic percentages. It may also provide information allowing one to connect with ancestral lines within about the last five generations. Since most Jewish people (including me) can't really trace much beyond that for people with surnames (for most of us surnames didn't appear until after 1800), this could prove useful in taking me back a generation or two. I believe my family line is 100% Ashkenzi Jewish. So, it will be interesting to see how that plays out with the autosomal test results.

Signing up with FTDNA meant selecting a project, selecting a test package, entering my name,  contact information, and credit card info and learning my kit number and password. After paying online, I received an email receipt reiterating my kit number and password.

My test kit arrived in the Friday's mail. I read the enclosed instructions and watched a suggested video demonstrating the DNA collection procedure. I'm glad I watched the video. The only tricky part is handling the scraper and releasing it from the handle into the specimen tube. The video does a better job explaining this than the written instructions enclosed with the kit.

After dinner last night, I waited, as prescribed, more than an hour and took the kit into the bathroom. (For some reason brushing my inner cheek seems like a bathroom type of activity but, truth be told, the collection procedure was not messy at all.) I unwrapped the first scraper, set my stop watch and scraped the inside of one cheek for 60 seconds. After I carefully delivered the scraper to the specimen tube and screwed on the lid, I repeated the procedure on the other cheek. I placed the specimen tubes into the provided zip-locked plastic bag, and put them and the completed waiver form into the provided mailing envelop. I will go to the post office this morning, buy postage for $1.95 and mail in my DNA.

One topic usually comes up when talking about this test. What about privacy? Well, while there are companies that will screen for some health information, the FTDNA tests only look into DNA for genealogical purposes. One does have the opportunity to select privacy settings for ones test results. Consider, however, that the concept of DNA testing for genetic genealogy is to connect with others. The larger the sharing group, the better for finding matches. And the usefulness of ones results will be tied to contacting those that FTDNA identifies as possible relations and figuring out the relationships. I don't see anything in these tests that someone may use against you.

Collecting the specimens was easy - no big deal. Stay tuned. I'll let you know how my DNA exploration turns out. And, if you're a relative, beware that if the results are interesting, I may be asking you for some cheek scrapings (!).

LeafSeek: Share the forest . . . as well as the trees

Brooke Schreier Ganz likes to share.  And we should all be happy she does. On Friday, 3 February 2012, her LeafSeek application was awarded second place in the Developer Challenge at RootsTech 2012. LeafSeek is the engine underlying the new Gesher Galicia search page. On Saturday in Salt Lake City, Utah, I listened to Brooke’s RootsTech presentation and then sat down with her for further conversation. 

Brooke Schreier Ganz at RootsTech

Brooke’s web development pedigree is impressive: she has worked at IBM, Disney Consumer Products division, and Bravo cable television. She now works part time from home so she can spend time with and care for her two little “start-ups.”

True to her nature, it was a database and its useful search engine (Jewish Roots Indexing-Poland) that first got Brooke interested in tracing her family history. Her family hails mostly from the Ukrainian portion of Galicia, as well as Poland and Moldova. Her husband’s family, which she is also tracing, has Polish, Romanian (Hungarian) and Sephardic (from the Isle of Rhodes) roots.

Gesher Galicia has been acquiring a variety of data sets including vital records, tax lists, landsmanshaften lists, industrial permit lists, and school and government yearbooks and wanted to put these 192,268 (and counting) records online in one database for Jewish genealogists’ use. Enter Brooke. While awake late at night with her baby, she’d sometimes use her iPhone to research the problem. Later, after much needed sleep, she’d work on the coding. In designing LeafSeek, Brooke sought to address the complexity of developing an effective search for multiple data sets with diversities of language, political boundaries and subdivisions, types of information, spelling, etc. all in one database. These are the issues with which all genealogists studying families from Eastern Europe have to contend. The Gesher Galicia database is proving to be fertile ground for beta testing the tool.

If you had Jewish relatives from Galicia, try a search.  One of the most valuable features on the Search Gesher Galicia website in the unlimited wildcard search in both the given name and surname fields.  There are no minimums for the number of letters required or maximums for the number of asterisks.  In your results, click on the + to expand the information in the record.  If information is provided on the current town name, click on that to see a map of its location.

Before heading to Salt Lake City I’d searched the Gesher Galicia database by entering one of my Galitzianer surnames (Liebross) in the search box and received one result. Mene Liebross of Okopy died in 1873.  The information in the result included the Family History Library (FHL) microfilm number.  How slick it that!?! I located the record on Wednesday at the FHL.

Facets on the left side of the results page allow easy sorting through results.  They include information on types and number of records, top surnames and given names, locations, years, etc. In the future expect to see the addition of hierarchical facets so that in addition to town names, one may also select parameters such as country, province, or district. 

Second Place Award for LeafSeek

Some time soon, Brooke plans to add the Beider-Morse Phonetic Matching (BMPM) system for names. She is also quite taken by the example set by Steve Morse’s One-Step website: “Steve Morse is incredible and inspiring not only for his work but also because he made his work open source – for everyone’s benefit.” Open source means that LeafSeek’s code is available free for anyone’s use.  Brooke visualizes LeafSeek as “a genealogy search engine in a box,” available to those who have need of its features.  She has plans for further features and improvements and hopes that others will use it and add to it. In fact, if you notice things that need correction or have suggestions for additional features, contact Brooke via the "contact us" button at the bottom of the Gesher Galicia webpage. She's always happy to make improvements.

I believe that LeafSeek will provide the opportunity to put databases such as JRI-Poland on steroids.  Imagine the JRI-Poland database with enhanced pattern recognition to better understand the connections among records and the people in them. Right now to do that, one would have to design and laboriously populate a spreadsheet with all the data elements found in one's JRI-Poland results. Only then, could one manipulate the data to see the patterns. LeafSeek has the potential to do much of that for us. 

So, congratulations to Brooke and thanks for sharing.

It's snowing in Mecca

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.

Thursday I was busy with the conference.  I’ll get back to my research Friday night when the FHL stays open for RootsTech until midnight.  Then I'll probably get into their considerable collection of books.  For now, out through the snow and across the street to the Convention Center.