IAJGS 2017, Days 5 and 6 (Thursday and Friday, 27-28 July)

I had recovered from Wednesday's marathon of presentations and only had one to do on Thursday morning.

Emily Garber - LIVE! "Blogging Family History: Reading, Writing, and Sharing," 8:15-9:30 AM

This was  another new preparation for me and it was carried on LIVE! This was, basically, everything-you-wanted-to-know-about-blogs (that I could fit into an hour presentation). It included the basics of starting a blog on Blogger.

Professional Genealogists Birds of a Feather

I believe this group started in Boston at the IAJGS meeting in 2013 and every year since then I have been scheduled to speak at the same time the group has met. So, imaging my surprise when I discovered I could actually attend the BOF this year!

There were surprisingly quite a few in attendance and the discussion mostly revolved around business issues such as fees, payment problems and report formats.

Susan Kobren - "How to Maximize Your Reunion Software," 11:15 AM-12:30 PM

I am a long-term Reunion (for Mac) software user, so I wasn't expecting a bunch of new knowledge - just an opportunity to pick up a tips or two for efficient use of the program in my research. Success.

JewishGen/Jewish Genealogy Portal Luncheon: "The future of networking and connecting"

I have some mixed feelings about this new partnership, but I think JewishGen said all the right things. They took an opportunity to branch out in partnership with an already successful FaceBook page. I do not see the Jewish Genealogy Portal FaceBook page as replacing the JewishGen Discussion Group [complete disclosure: I am one of the moderators of the JGDG]. I am not sure the administrator of the Portal agrees with me on that.

Resource Room 

Resource Room, Thursday's P.M. Crew: Roy Ogus, Harriet Myer, Phyllis Kramer, Jane Berenbeim, Emily Garber [photo, Eli Rabinowitz]

I spent Thursday afternoon and Friday morning volunteering in the Resource Room. Thursday was the second day with access to the ProQuest databases. The place was packed with every computer in use.

Phyllis Kramer recruited me to handle the Resource Room. I did not say, "no." I was not, initially, looking forward to it, but Friday was actually rather pleasant. I got to help a few people find passenger manifests and a few other documents. That's always fun.

Banquet

JewishGen Table - standing: Susanna Leistner-Bloch, Barbara Ellman, Avraham Groll, Max Heffler, Warren Blatt, Debra Zlot Kay; sitting: Emily Garber, Janette Silverman, Michael Tobias, Jane Tobias [photo by Chuck Weinstein]

Henry Louis "Skip" Gates spoke to us about the history of his involvement in "Finding Our Roots," his PBS program. That sounds rather boring - but it wasn't. He is an engaging speaker and wove in his family history and his fascination with genetic genealogy. He also showed a promo for the new season.

IAJGS announced their awards.  I think all these people/projects are incredibly well-deserving. The Awards Committee could not have made better choices! I understand that Reclaim the Records will use their award to off-set costs of going after Missouri for their intransigence in their dealings with Reclaim the Record's Freedom of Information request.

I include text from the IAJGS news release, below.

IAJGS LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD

Jan Meisels Allen

In recognition of many years of service to genealogy, both Jewish and beyond, we are proud to grant the IAJGS Lifetime Achievement Award to Jan Meisels Allen. Jan is the founding president of the JGS of Conejo Valley, presently its programming chair, and she has been the program chair of the JGS of Los Angeles. She has served as board member and vice president of the IAJGS, and chairs its Public Records Access Monitoring Committee. Jan writes almost daily posts for the IAJGS Leadership List that keep the genealogical community well informed of current items of interest. 

As conference Database Chairperson, Jan has been responsible for the resource room at IAJGS conferences for many years.  Beyond Jewish genealogy, she has been a regular speaker at FGS and NGS conferences, at the invitation of the German government and US Holocaust Memorial Museum, and has spoken on records access at European conferences. Her dedication to the cause of genealogical research and drive to work on its behalf has a continual far reaching effect. We are honored to name her as the recipient of this year’s award.

IAJGS VOLUNTEER OF THE YEAR

Rose Avigael Feldman

This year’s IAJGS Volunteer of the Year Award honors Rose Avigael Feldman’s dedication, encouragement, creativity, and achievements in the world of Jewish genealogy. Rose was an active volunteer in the organization of two IAJGS conferences. By contributing her time and energy to a records scanning project, documents from Israeli archives will be accessible to researchers worldwide. Rose has been and continues to be tireless in her efforts to promote Jewish genealogy: training volunteers for database work, writing and publishing articles, answering search queries, lecturing, attending genealogy lectures, and networking between people and organizations. We are grateful for her tremendous efforts and in appreciation we recognize her contributions through this award.

IAJGS OUTSTANDING PROJECT

Reclaim the Records

This year we bestow the IAJGS Outstanding Project Award to Reclaim the Records. As such we recognize the leadership of Brooke Schreier Ganz in organizing a group of concerned individuals and advocating for governmental agencies to release public data into the public domain. Using Freedom of Information laws (FOIL) and Open Data initiatives, in just a short time the organization has secured the release of thousands of vital records indices and voters lists, with continued efforts ongoing for records throughout the U.S. This project has had and will have an important impact in making public records available without charge to the public at large. 

 Next year in Warsaw!!!

IAJGS 2017, Day 4 (Wednesday, 26 July)

Wednesday at the conference was like running a marathon. I joked with someone on Tuesday that I would need to wear sweats and running shoes on Wednesday. 

I introduced Israel Pickholtz's presentation at 8:15 and then presented four talks. The last was over at 6:15. A looong day.

Israel Pickholtz - "Why Did My Father Know That His Grandfather Had an Uncle Selig?" 8:15-9:30 AM

Israel specializes in addressing complex problems with, sometimes, complex  solutions. Such is the case with this study. Using records from Jewish Records Indexing-Poland and DNA results, Israel took us on a wild ride though the Pickholtz clan to identify and explain why his father may have known about one particular otherwise fairly remote relative. 

I had heard this talk before a couple of years ago. Hearing it again was great because I could concentrate on how Israel made the finely-tuned case. Definitely a tour de force.

Emily Garber - LIVE! "Learning Our Craft: Online Opportunities for Improving Our Research Skills," 11:15 AM-12:30 PM

Well, I will not review my own presentations. This talk covered the gamut of online offerings including podcasts, webinars, non-credit courses and virtual conferences. It may be viewed with a subscription of LIVE! One may also listen to this presentation (an all my others) if one purchases the audio recordings of conference presentations.

Emily Garber - "When it Takes a Village: Applying Cluster Research techniques," 2:00-3:15 PM

After a lunch break, I was back to it with a discussion of locating, losing and, then, relocating a woman named Feiga Grinfeld who had accompanied my great grandfather to the United States in November 1922. If not for her extended family members, friends, and acquaintances I would not have located her far-removed from where I would have expected her to be.

In addition to standard genealogical records, I was also able to use DNA results from numerous cousins to bolster my case for the relationahip of Feiga to my Garber family members. 

Emily Garber - "Memory and Mystery: Breaking Down Family Lore," 3:30-4:45 PM

I have presented this talk several times, but never before at IAJGS. I provide two examples of family lore that needs examination.

The first features 18th century characters, Marmaduke Swearingen and Shawnee Chief Blue Jacket. The questions is: are they the same person. The discussion centers on a 1994 National Genealogical Quarterly article proving the case via standard genealogical techniques. I then examine Y-DNA evidence collected and analyzed in 2006 (ancient history in genetic genealogy!).

The second case example deals with my own family mystery featuring four brothers in the Russian Empire whose surnames were purportedly changed to avoid Russian Empire military conscription. 

Emily Garber - "Where's the Beef? Well-Done Research and Evidence Analysis," 5:00-6:15 PM 

I had to do something I know is not good form: apologize at the outset of this presentation. When I started planning this presentation back in the fall, I researched Clara Peller (f Wendy's hamburger fame) and intended to use her case study as one example among three. 

But, recently, as I completed the presentation, it became clear that Peller's case was not the best example. In addition, I realized that the case I wished to present would take the entire lecture period all by itself. So, Clara wa unceremoniously dumped. Serves me right for trying to be clever with my presentation title!

I renamed the talk, "Conflict Management: Evaluating Evidence of Identity." It's not as catchy, but ... oh, well!

JewishGen 2017 Annual Meeting 

After my last talk of the day, I dragged myself to my room, removed my dressy duds and took a short walk outside. True to form, my (naturally curly) hair puffed out into a halo of Florida frizz. 

After a light dinner, I headed to the JewishGen Annual Meeting. Avraham Groll, Warren Blatt and Michael Tobias summarized accomplishments during the past year and discussed plans for the future. There are ongoing efforts that will result in some technological improvements during the next few years. Numerous partnerships are under negotiation. We should see many positive changes.
 

There were more than 1,000 active volunteers this past year.
Janette Silverman, is one of the most productive, hardworking (maniac) genealogists I know. A couple of years ago, she took over JewishGen's Ukraine SIG. Among her efforts for Ukraine SIG, she spends huge amounts of her scant free-time massaging spreadsheets until they meet JewishGen's exacting standards for online sharing. I am in awe and, apparently, so are the powers that be at JewishGen. She was awarded Volunteer of the Year. Huge congratulations to someone who is hugely deserving!

Another notable announcement: JewishGen is starting the JewishGen Ignition and Signature Grants initiative to stimulate creative work that will result in additional records available to genealogists. Jewish societies and synagogues will be eligible to apply (starting August 15, 2017) for grants of up to $5,000 or up to $25,000. This is wonderful news. I already have some ideas!

IAJGS 2017, Day 3 (Tuesday, 25 July)

Ann Rabinowitz, Marian Wood, Mary-Jane Roth, Janice Sellers, Barbara Zabitz, Lara Diamond and Israel Pickholtz

Ann Rabinowitz, Emily Garber, Mary-Jane Roth, Janice Sellers, Barbara Zabitz, Lara Diamond and Israel Pickholtz

Jewish Geneabloggers' Breakfast - Tuesday started at 7:15 A.M. (my fault for setting the time so early) with the Jewish Geneabloggers' breakfast. This is our fifth annual meeting at IAJGS. The first one was a dinner get-together in Boston in 2013.

We had a nice showing with bloggers Ann Rabinowitz (formerly blogger for JewishGen and now mostly FaceBooking), Marian Wood (Climbing my Family Tree), Mary-Jane Roth (Memory Keeper's Notebook), Janice Sellers (Ancestral Discoveries), Lara Diamond (Lara's Jewnealogy), Israel Pickholtz (All My Foreparents), me (Extra Yad) and blogger-to-be Barbara Zabitz.

We had a discussion about the pros and cons of using Blogger versus WordPress. We also encourage Barbara to just do it! - i.e., don't sweat the stuff one may change easily later. Just start writing now!

Emily H. Garber - "Beyond the Manifest: Methods for Confirming One's Ancestral Origins" 

After breakfast, it was back to the cave to do final prep for my 11:15 presentation on what one should consider when nailing down the location of one's family community in Eastern Europe. This is a presentation I have given several times before - and is probably my favorite.

I did think of an innovation this year. In the past I have always had Janette Silverman introduce me and she has always stressed that people should review my presentation in the app. With that encouragement last year, I, apparently, had many more reviews than most speakers. 

This year, I figured I'd do all my introductions myself. In addition, I included a slide at the end with an image of the app page and an animation showing how to access the app. People seemed to really appreciate that. Some, apparently, did not know prior to seeing my slide how to find the presentation review function. 

I hope this will result in significant increase in reviews of my presentations. I do find them valuable for improving my talks.

Also, be aware, even though the conference is over, if one intended to review someone's talk and did not complete it, one may still use the app to do so. Not only the presenters, but also next year's conference planning team will appreciate your effort.

Phyllis Berensen (Ukraine SIG Luncheon)- "The Trip of a Lifetime - And then Another, One Year Later"

Phyllis did a nice talk (with slides) about her two trips, in short succession, to Ukraine with Alex Dunai and her brother. The success of her first trip bred the need to do another. Made me pine to go back to Ukraine!

Alex Denysenko - "Volhynian Quiz"

Alex, a Ukrainian researcher and guide is well known in Jewish genealogical circles. His talk centered on my pet area: Volhynia Gubernia (the Russian Empire province of my father's family). Alex explained a bit of the history of the area and why there are several archives one must now search to locate records from towns in the province.

As an example, Izaslav was the capital of the province until 1795. Novograd-Volynsky was the administrative center until 1804. After 1804, administration was moved to Zhitomyr.

It may seem confusing or, perhaps, illogical. But, this is the kind of information one must understand when planning research in the area. 

Rabbi Avrohom Krauss - "Charting: A Tool for Evaluation and Data Display"

I am always interested in innovative ideas for helping us manage, analyze and evaluate complex data. He visualized his data by placing it in charts and color-coding. The speaker showed the successes and pitfalls of the technique.

I have done something similar in spread-sheets: color coding like information so it stands out from the rest. A very useful strategy.

I was not completely convinced, however, by the example Avrohom presented: trying to determine an exact birth date for an ancestor from a variety of conflicting evidence in several records. 

I think, if we cannot locate a birth record, we must sometimes be satisfied that we may never know the exact date of birth. An estimate can be satisfactory.

I also think that if he'd used patterns indicated by birth order of siblings, that much of this charting would have been unnecessary. Or, at least, his first foray into the evidence would not have been, as he'd noted, so far from the mark.

---------------

I spent the afternoon doing some prep before the onslaught of Wednesday, when I will be on my feet for four presentations.

IAJGS 2017, Days 1 and 2: Busy, busy, busy!

I was not as diligent a blogger as I have been in past International Association of Jewish Genealogical Societies conferences, but this year in Orlando, was, indeed, chock full of good offerings and opportunities to network.

My disadvantage, in terms of blogging, was that I was responsible for six of the presentations, as well as a few other volunteer obligations. So, by the time I returned to my room each evening, blogging was pretty much the last thing on my mind.

Nevertheless, I did meet with several people and attended some sessions here and there. So, here's my take.

Sunday

I had studied the schedule and identified some that I very much wanted to attend, but I had one presentation that was not completely prepared. I managed to complete my PowerPoint (phew) by Sunday evening and that freed me up for the rest of the week. But my attendance at sessions on Sunday suffered.

I did lunch with Mary-Jane Roth on the Polonne and environs project that is part of Ukraine Special Interest Group: "Acquisition and Translation of Records of Seven Town in Polonnoye, Ukraine." Images of the records have been acquired. The problem has been finding translators who are not only familiar the foreign languages, but also old script and the peculiarities of verbiage in old records. We still have some ideas on where to head with this but, it has not been easy.

I dd attend the keynote session, "Alexander Hamilton, the Jews and the American Revolution." Professor Robert Watson of Lynn University in Boca Raton, FL, is an engaging speaker and spoke on a topic of interest to many. Hamilton had an interesting and difficult early life. While not Jewish himself, he benefited from his association with Sephardic Jewish people in the community of Nevis who, in recognizing his innate brilliance and talent, took him under their wing. 

Monday

Hal Bookbinder - "U.S. Immigration and Naturalization" I always enjoy Hal's presentations and, although at this point I know quite a bit about this topic, I always expect to learn something new from him. I was not as well-versed on early US naturalization law and policy, so I did enjoy that.

Throughout most of our history, naturalization could be achieved within five years of residence. Apparently, due, in part, to political conflict between John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, there was a short period when the time to naturalization was substantially lengthened. The June 18, 1798 Naturalization Act, the first part of the Alien and Sedition Act, increased residency requirement to 14 years.

Here's a short summary I found on Politico.

Marion Werle – “You found the Records – Now What? Records Analysis and the Jewish Genealogist”

I enjoyed Marion’s presentation. For me, it is interesting to see how different researchers approach instruction on evidence analysis and the Genealogical Proof Standard. I had a similar topic scheduled for Wednesday.

Marian presented several different record types and worked with the audience to evaluate the reliability of each based upon source type, informant and character of information provided. I was impressed.


I also think that people benefit from hearing different takes on similar topics. I do not know if many people attended both Marion's and, then, my later talk, but, if they did, they would likely come away with greater understanding.

Nolan Altman – “Patronymic Naming and the Genealogical Value of Jewish Cemetery Records”

Nolan is in charge of one of the largest and most useful searchable databases on JewishGen: the JewishGen Online Worldwide Burial Registry (JOWBR). There are now 3.1 million records in the database. 500,000 include tombstone photographs. There are about 7,100 cemeteries (or cemetery plots) representing 125 countries. Unlike Find A Grave or Billion Graves, JOWBR only includes Jewish burials in Jewish and non-sectarian cemeteries.

Information comes to JOWBR from volunteers, cemetery administrators, societies and synagogues. The data comes from stones, cemetery or burial society registers, published historical material and funeral home records.

JewishGen provides formatted spreadsheets, written instructions and instructional videos explaining how one may record and donate information to the JOWBR database.

I have, thus far, recorded and donated photos and partial translations from three landsmanshaftn plots in Montefiore Cemetery in Queens, New York; one in Beth Moses Cemetery, Pinelawn, NY; one in Baker Street Cemetery outside Boston, MA; and one in South Haven, MI. For my own family, research, this has been the gift that keeps on giving. As I do more and more research, I find more links and more family. I encourage every genealogist to join the effort. Do not just record your own family. Spend a few hours and photograph entire cemetery plots. It’s a mitzvah.

Sack lunch with Sallyann Sack 

Had an interesting lunch with Sallyann Sack-Pikus and several others regarding her concept for a Second Tier records project. I am honored she thought to invite me to participate.

As she stayed in an article in Avotaynu a few months ago, she is interested in pursuing records beyond the usual ones (i.e., vital records and revision lists) most Special Interest Groups collect. There are records such as notary records and land records in Eastern European archives that, while not identified as principally Jewish, are likely to yield many records regarding Jewish people. Identifying, collecting and translating these types of records would be a complex undertaking and will require quite a bit of coordination with a variety of groups currently working in the area.

LIVE! in Orlando, Florida!: IAJGS, July 23-28, 2017

At last summer's International Association of Jewish Genealogical Societies Conference I was honored to be selected to present one of the LIVE! presentations: "Beyond the Manifest: Methods for Confirming One's Ancestral Origins." 

A few weeks ago I was trying to out-guess the program planners for this year's IAJGS 2017 in Orlando, Florida and determined that, based upon preliminary room assignments for my six (!) talks, I was not going to carried LIVE! Well, I just checked the 2017 conference schedule this morning and discovered that LIVE! sessions are now listed and they include two of my sessions. Yes!

More than 50 IAJGS LIVE! presentations (and handouts) will be available online as they are being presented. These videos will continue to be available on-demand via Internet connection through 1 November 2017. The entire LIVE! conference schedule will be available to those who pay $149. A single day of LIVE! is $89.

Information about LIVE! seems a bit hidden on the IAJGS conference website. If one starts at the conference homepage, enter live into the search box on the upper right. To actually see the list of LIVE! sessions right now, one must check the program schedule.

It seems that one must go into the conference registration area on the IAJGS conference webpage to register and pay for for access to presentations included in LIVE! 

My two LIVE! sessions will be:

• "Learning Our Craft: Online Opportunities for Improving Our research Skills," Wednesday, July 26, 11:15 AM - 12:30 PM; and
• "Blogging Family History: Reading, Writing, and Sharing," Thursday, July 27, 8:15 - 9:30 AM

In addition, I will be presenting:

• "Beyond the Manifest: Methods for Confirming One's Ancestral Origins," Tuesday, July 25, 11:15 AM - 12:30 PM;
• "When it Takes a Village: Applying Cluster Research Techniques," Wednesday, July 26, 2:00-3:15 PM;
• "Memory and Mystery: Breaking Down Family Lore," Wednesday, JUly 26, 3:30 - 4:45 PM; and
• "Where's the Beef? Well-Done Research and Evidence Analysis," Wednesday, July 26, 5:00 - 6:15 PM.

In addition to the videos included in LIVE!, there is an opportunity to purchase MP3s (audio) of most of the conference presentations. I always enjoy this package. I load them onto my iPod and listen to them as I exercise during the months between conferences.

I look forward to seeing you in Orlando! If not, see ya at the movies (er...on screen). 😁

IAJGS 2016, Day 6

Renee Steinig and Judy Baston - "It's All in How You Ask: Getting the Most From Discussion Group Queries"

I was particularly interested Renee Steinig's and Judy Baston's talk because I, too, am a discussion group moderator for JewishGen. About 6-8 days each month I check the moderators' inbox for messages sent for posting on the main discussion forum: the "JewishGen Discussion Group."

Before sending messages on for posting, moderators must do some magic to the message headers and review content to make sure the messages are clear and acceptable within our guidelines. Renee moderates the Gesher Galicia mailing list and Judy, the JRI-Poland, Litvak SIG, Lodz, and Bialy Gen lists. For a list of JewishGen mailing lists, see this page.

Renee's and Judy's goals in this presentation were to help writers formulate inquiries that not only navigate the rules of all JewishGen mailing lists (thereby avoiding having one's messages rejected by moderators), but also generate the kinds of responses desired.

Moderated forums such as JewishGen's assure that no abusive, defamatory or indecent language is posted and that no one is subject to personal attacks. In addition, moderators review messages to ensure that copyrights are not violated in posted messages. All one has to do is read content in a non-moderated comment list these days to see why this is so important.

Moderators may change a subject line for a message or address capitalization issues, but they may not change the body of the message text. Therefore, if a message must be rejected for content, a moderator sends it back to the author and may suggest changes.

Additional reasons why a message might be rejected are the message:

• was sent in plain text (the Lyris program will reject it);
• was not related to Jewish genealogy;
• included long quotations without permission (it is best to paraphrase long quotes and/or just provide a web link);
• debates Jewish law or custom (Halakha);
• discusses opinions on contemporary anti-semitism; 
• should have been answered privately (usually for providing individual's contact information or for providing information that may only be of interest to one family researcher); and
• (for SIG lists) is not related to SIG area of coverage 

If you would like to recommend a researcher of guide, JewishGen has a page specifically for this purpose in the InfoFiles area.

One thing I don't recall Renee and Judy mentioning is that moderators check all web links (URLs) provided in a message (including those for ViewMate messages). If one or more URLs do not work, that is grounds for rejection.

Renee and Judy provided guidelines for crafting quality messages/inquiries:

• Make subject lines specific;
• Do not include diacritical marks (accents) in your text - they are not supported by Lyris;
• Use upper case letters only for surnames;
• Full addresses/phone numbers of living people will not be posted;
• Do not use abbreviations;
• Provide enough information so readers know what sources you have already checked, but not so much information that readers will not read your message;
• There is such a thing as too much information; and
• When asking for help with a document posted on ViewMate, nclude surname, town, year (or approximate date).

In your signature block make sure to include:

• Your full name and location;
• Correctly spelled surnames and towns;and
• A research (surname/town list) - limited to six lines.

I definitely like one of their helpful hints. If you have somehow missed the message from one day, you may request instant access to that day's digest for the main or SIG mailing lists. Put the following formatted information in your email subject line:

get [listname] (yyyymmdd]

Examples: get jewishgen 20160815
           get galicia 20160608

Send the message to lyris@lyris.jewishgen.org

You may also check message archives for the main discussion group or SIG groups.

Ron Arons - "Critical and Creative Thinking for Genealogy"

Ron Arons is a creative guy. He always seems to come up with new ways look at and analyze genealogical information.

He is also fearless. He knew full-well that he and I likely would have a difference of opinion about his topic, but he asked me to introduce him, nonetheless.

In this talk, Ron discussed two modes of thinking: critical and creative. Critical thinking is defined as deductive and focused. Creative thinking is inductive, divergent, diffused. Both are necessary and complementary when dealing with problem solving. Both are associated with skill sets that can be improved.

The Genealogical Proof Standard (© 2014-2016, E.H. Garber)

In particular, Ron was concerned that creative thinking been given short-shrift in the currently accepted genealogical methodology of the Genealogical Proof Standard (GPS): that the GPS requires critical thinking and is hostile to silent on creative thinking.[1] He argued that the GPS only allows focused questions and does not allow consideration of the question, "why?"

The Genealogical Proof Standard was developed by members of the Board for Certification of Genealogists and outlines best practices for the discipline. Meeting the standard requires five elements:

• conducting a reasonably exhaustive research, 
• citing sources, 
• analyzing information and assessing the quality of evidence, 
• resolving conflicts, and 
• developing a soundly-reasoned, written conclusion

As I mentioned in my comments toward the end of Ron's presentation, I was pleased that Ron has been studying and presenting about thinking creatively in genealogical research. Our thorniest genealogical problems are best addressed with a marriage of creative and critical thinking approaches. But, I do not agree with him that the GPS does not allow for creativity. Quite the contrary, I believe the GPS provides a framework within which creative thinking flourishes.

While Thomas W. Jones, one of the main proponents of the GPS, argues in his seminal work, Mastering Genealogical Proof, that we must start our research process with focused questions to "...frame our research scope, lead us to relevant information and help identify evidence...," his identification, evaluation and analysis of sources that may provide information that bears on our research questions is nothing but creative.[2] In fact some of the most outstanding articles published in the National Genealogical Quarterly, undeniably the flagship of GPS, blow me away with how creatively they solve problems posed.

Now, one of Ron's issues seems to be that the research questions that Thomas W. Jones identifies do not include why questions. Jones states that genealogical questions have two characteristics:

1. They concern a documented person, and
2. They seek information about the defining characteristics of that person (relationship, identity or activity).

Ron seems to believe that why questions, which may require information regarding historical context, are not acceptable in GPS. I would argue that within GPS context is critical to consideration of the location of extant records, to analysis of the creation and development of records collected, and, ultimately, to resolution of conflicts (which involves comparing and contrasting evidence from records and the context within which information in those records was recorded). Even creating citations for records used is a process that requires often in-depth understanding of the historical context of record creation.

Thus, while the purely genealogical questions posed by Thomas W. Jones, may seem stifling, they are, in fact liberating. As we pursue some basic questions, we are required to ask, "why?" Genealogical proof as defined in the GPS requires understanding of context.

Ron offered an interesting case for asking why. He tells the story of his grandfather who was married to several women at the same time.

He asked how common was bigamy in the 1800s and early 1900s? By the end of 1800s, bigamy was an increasing problem in New York - probably due to immigrant men making new lives for themselves in New York when their first wives and families were still in the old country.

He also wanted to know if his grandfather's sentence for bigamy was consistent
with those obtained by others. It was.

I agree that perhaps historical context and social science tools may not be applied as often as they should in genealogical analyses and provided in written genealogical proofs. But I would blame that more on the background of researchers than the limitations of the GPS. In fact, GPS requires that these types of context studies be integral, when appropriate, to our understanding of the genealogical record.

There's my soapbox and I think I will stand on it!

Notes:
1. Ron Aron has pointed out that I misrepresented his opinion on where creativity fits in the GPS. I agree my initial recollection was incorrect. I have, therefore, changed the text to more closely reflect his point of view.
2. Thomas W. Jones, Mastering Genealogical Proof (Arlington, Virginia: National Genealogical Society, 2013), 7.

Serendipity? Nah! Google.

One of the topics I did not get to speak about in a formal manner at the recent IAJGS conference was blogging. I did have a chance, however, to talk with several people about why I am such a blog-reading junkie and blogging proponent.

Someone asked why I started my blog and whether it has been useful. I told them, honestly, the reason I'd started the blog was to generate interest and conversation with my relatives. And, it has been an utter failure as far as that is concerned.

But, then I told him about the power of blogs as cousin bait - especially via search engines such as Google that include blog content as they crawl the web. On 17 April 2013, I posted an article about my great grandfather Louis Liebross' sister Ruchel who I had just found. Ruchel Liberas Gottfried showed up in a Jewish Records Indexing-Poland (JRI-Poland) index. I used the link to a digital image of the original record in the AGAD Polish State Archive and determined that she was, indeed, the daughter of Mane and Tsiril (who were also Louis' parents). The challenge was figuring out where Ruchel had been living when this record was created in 1885. The community name read as Schulhanowka. There is no place with that name today and it took some research to figure out that it is now the town of Shul'ganuvka in Ukraine.

Nearly two years later I received an email from a man named Eli in Israel. He was looking at the same record indexed by JRI-Poland and wanted to thank me for blogging about the current location of the town. He had Googled Schulhanowka, trying determine where it was. And there was my blog post providing the answer he sought! Turns out that Eli's family is related to the husband of another (previously unknown to me) sister of Louis Liebross, Rivka Liebross Schaffer. So Eli and I are, I guess, "shirt-tail" relatives (although I will definitely not try to explain that idiom to a non-native speaker like Eli!).

Some might call episodes like this serendipitous, I call them the results of good research practices. We know if we follow the Genealogical Proof Standard that we must conduct reasonably exhaustive research. But, I also think we should not just write up our research for posterity, but also publish it so it may be found by others using search engines. I want other researchers who are seeking the same families to find my research. That won't happen if all I do is post online trees on Ancestry or MyHeritage. Those websites do not allow this kind of content behind its login fire wall to be Googled.
 
So, did I tell you about the Thursday night banquet at the IAJGS conference? 

It was odd - er - great - er - interesting. Well, everything was typically pleasant until Judy Russell rose to speak - and then it got a tad weird.

I'd heard Judy's talk, "Don't Forget the Ladies - A Genealogist's Look at Women and the Law," this past spring when she was the featured speaker at the Family History Society of Arizona's Spring Seminar. I knew back in March that this talk had already been selected by the conference for her IAJGS Banquet speech and she and I chatted, then, about how she planned to add some Jewish genealogy-relevant records to her discussion for the IAJGS event.

So there I was Thursday night alertly listening for Judy's new material, when the New York City death record (at right) filled the two screens on either side of the ballroom. Judy announced, that this record of Sarah Morris who died in 1956 in the Bronx was particularly interesting because it provided not only Sarah's name, but also her maiden name, and her daughter's married name. Huh??!!

I was facing the screen that was actually further away from me and could not make out the small print (I've posted here a small image so you can see about what I saw from a distance). Did she say Sarah Morris who died in the Bronx in 1956? Why my great grandmother was named Sarah Morris and she died in the Bronx in 1956! I thought for sure that the informant on Sarah's death certificate would have been my great aunt Esther Blatt but I could not quite make out her name in that location on the form.

After the talk, while the everyone was eating I went over to Judy's table and tapped her on the shoulder, "I need to see that death certificate. My great grandmother was also Sarah Morris who died in the Bronx in 1956." The next morning I emailed Judy my Sarah Morris' death certificate. Match.

Here's a larger version to read:

Judy wrote a blog post about this titled "Serendipity in action:"

"...And guess whose great grandmother was that Russian woman reflected in that death certificate?
"Yup.
"It was Emily’s great grandmother’s death certificate I had happened to choose out of all the examples I might have had available to make that point..."

Serendipity. The term is often used by people who say that their dead ancestor was calling to be found. This is not an explanation that usually pleases my inquisitive nature. [I recall years ago taking a meditation course and having a strange visualization of light during one meditation. The instructor excitedly informed me that is was, of course, God (actually, he didn't say, "God" - he said, "Jesus."). Needless to say, I did not find that explanation as illuminating as my meditation experience. Perhaps I had just gotten into a place in my brain that I'd not experienced before. That was my explanation, anyway!] So, I commented on Judy's blog post:

Then, I tried a similar Google image search . . .  and there it was - the sixth one from the left on the top. 

Sometimes with Google image searching it is not always clear where the image came from. And the first time I located it, clicking on it took me to some odd webpage that had compiled bunches of death certificates from many websites with no links or citations. 

But let's get back to serendipity. Because I blog, my stuff is out there to find by good researchers. Judy found Sarah Morris' death certificate not because of serendipity, but because I blog my research for others to find and she is a good online researcher. That's it. Call it serendipity if you must (OK, I was in the audience). Google-accessible publishing and exhaustive research - two sides of the GPS coin.

IAJGS 2016, Day 5

On Thursday, the fifth day of the conference, I started my day with the Bloggers' Breakfast, a variation of an informal event I have organizing at IAJGS for the last several years. We met at 6:30 A.M. (that's dedication for you!) at one of the hotel restaurants. Our banquet speaker for this evening, Judy Russell - a prolific blogger -  joined us. Unfortunately, as usual, I forgot to take a photo before a couple of our group left. So, the following photo misses Lara Diamond and Janice Seller. The rest of us, however, were sated and celebrated: (l-r) Banai Feldstein, Emily Garber, Judy Russell, Steve Jaron, and Mary-Jane Roth.

Once the regular day began, I took in a talk about digital resources available via the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and then prepped and delivered my third and last talk at his year's IAJGS.

Megan Lewis - "Using USHMM digital resources in your research or to plan a research trip"

Megan Lewis is Reference Librarian at USHMM. The museum's mission is to advance and disseminate knowledge about the unprecedented tragedy of the Holocaust and to preserve the memory of those who suffered.

USHMM has been digitizing as many records as possible, improving cataloging, recataloging previously acquired collections, and developing its Collections Search page as the access portal and delivery system for materials.

Right now they have 14,642 items in their collection and 463 of them online.
Their finding aids cover 1629 collections. Most of their photograph collections are not online due to the fact that they lack permissions. As far as oral histories, they have (with the Shoah Foundation) 10,088 online. Oral history transcriptions online total 2303.

One may search USHMM catalogue at http://collections.ushmm.org
There is a geographical thesaurus that works with with Soundex so one need not worry about exact spelling for place names. For individual's names, however, there is no built-in Soundex. But, one may search names without regard to diacritical marks (e.g., accents).

Results of Google searches access USHMM finding aids and oral histories.

USHMM is concentrating on digitizing as many rare books as they can and hope to have 10% digitized by end of September 2016. OCRed. The books will be accessible via Internet Archive in the collection called "USHMM Rare Book Collection." Those accessing the digitized books will be able to search them via optical character recognition (OCR) technology.

There are three electronic indices of note:

• Holocaust Survivors and Victims Database;

• World Memory Project (a partnership with Ancestry); and

• JewishGen Holocaust Database

The International Tracing Service in Germany is still scanning records (150 million pages) for delivery to the USHMM and the ten other over-seeing countries- closed archives for many years. 11 countries oversee ITS now each have copies of records. Individual case files are still being scanned.

In addition to their other collection and cataloguing efforts, the USHMM is collection information in Ukraine on pogroms in 1919-1920 and the 1930s. In addition, they are working with Father Patrick Desbois, who has been research in villages and collecting testimonies from witnesses to World War II atrocities.

USHMM is building a new, additional 100,000 square-foot collections center that will have a state-of-the-art conservation laboratory in Maryland. It will include a reading room for visitors, but procedures for access have not yet been defined. The new building will open next Spring.

If one is planning a visit, one does not need an appointment to do research at museum, although Megan Lewis does recommend it.

Emily Garber - "Learning Our Craft: Online Opportunities for Improving Our Research Skills"

My talk started with the premise that we should aim to be improved genealogists by the time we return to the IAJGS conference in 2017.

There are definitely options with our local Jewish genealogical societies, as well as with societies that specialize in areas where our ancestors once lived. In addition, we should broaden our perspective and learn from those who may be dealing with genealogical challenges in non-Jewish settings. We can always learn from the challenges that others face. But, the main theme in this talk was online options for education.

There's so much to learn. I believe there are three main areas on which we should concentrate. We need to improve our knowledge of :

• the context of our ancestors' Jewish lives by learning more about political and social history, religion, tradition and languages;

• computer skills. If we don't have them, we need to learn them. If we have them, we need to improve them. And then, 
• we need to embrace the skills non-Jewish genealogists have developed as they attack difficult problems (such as burned courthouses in the Southern USA and lack of surnames among those with slave ancestors). We may be able to learn and share techniques and methodologies developed in the most difficult of research challenges.

To do all this we should, of course be aware of Cyndi's List, wikis and other guides to genealogy. JewishGen features many InfoFiles on numerous Jewish genealogy subjects.

Among the other topics discussed:
FaceBook, Google+, and message boards;
Blogs;
Podcasts;
Videos - FamilySearch, JGSLI and YouTube;
Webinars;
Virtual conferences;
Online courses and certificate programs.

My goal was to not only tell those in attendance about worthwhile websites, blogs, and podcats, but also give them the tools to find them themselves.

We ended by walking through training objectives and developing a training plan.

IAJGS 2016, Day 4

This morning I presented my second conference talk:

"Beyond the Manifest: Applying the Genealogical Proof Standard to Confirm One's Ancestral Origins"

In this talk I address a situation common to Jewish genealogists researching families from Eastern Europe: there are several similarly-named communities from which one's ancestors may have come. How does one determine which one was the community of origin?

When facing this situation, knowing my family's Yiddish name for the community - a name not found on any map or gazetteer of the area - and finding several conflicting notions, I chose to research exhaustively in line with the precepts of the Genealogical Proof Standard:

·      Conduct reasonably exhaustive search for information;

·      Cite sources of all information;

·      Analyze information & assess quality as evidence;

·      Resolve conflicts in evidence; and

·      Develop soundly reasoned, written conclusion.

The journey took me from manifests, to gazetteers. In the gazetteers (compiled sources), I drilled down to find the sources the authors' used to build their gazetteer. This took me to a 1912 work now digitized and online and a 1902 work found in the Jewish Theological Seminary's library. While this research did not provide the answer I sought, it did provide information that, combined with other findings eventually added to my evidence.

Landsmanshaft cemetery plots full of burials of immigrant families associated with the same town, provided a population of 60 immigrants for whom I was able to locate immigration records (manifests and, often, naturalization papers). I thought that a study of records from these associated individuals might provide additional information about the location of their town of origin.

Overwhelmingly, the immigrants identified one town name that is easily located on a map of the Russian Empire and another that matched the Yiddish community name used by my family. In six cases, different, independently-derived records for the same individuals yielded examples of both community names. Further analysis showed that it was likely that people from this town used both town names interchangeably.

The final study included records from the American Joint Distribution Committee's Archives. These eight letters were created in 1923 when the Joint completed a landsmanshaft-funded project in the community. My great great uncle, Myer Myers, was secretary of the landsmanshaft project organization and was recipient of one of the letters from the Joint. In addition there were letters and reports about the status of Jewish community in the town that used both terms to identify the town name.

Further confirmation was provided by comparing names of townspeople identified in the Joint's papers with Yad Vashem's Pages of Testimony for those killed in the Holocaust.

I published an earlier version of this study in Avotaynu: "Using Landsmanshaft Burial Plots to Discover and Confirm the Location of a Family Shtetl," Avotaynu 27 (Spring 2011): 1:3-9.

IAJGS 2016 Annual Meeting

I had a couple conflicts this afternoon (actually, three conflicts if one counts the fact that I could not attend the Board for Certification of Genealogists Workshop - something to which I had been looking forward). So, as Chair of the Phoenix Jewish Genealogy Group, I attended the first part of the IAJGS meeting. I had to leave mid-way to introduce another talk.

The IAJGS has been concentrating on promoting their member societies. They are working on branding and developing a consistent look and feel to their promotional material. They had a presence at most of the major genealogy conferences this year, including five Genealogy Road Show venues.

They plan to continue their branding efforts during the next year and are developing "Conference in a Box" to help societies create their own small events, outreach tools, website templates and recorded presentations from the IAJGS conference that may be shared with societies in their regular meetings in lieu of invited speakers.

Ekkehard Hübschmann - "Buried Treasures: Hardly Known Files of Genealogical Significance in German Archives - 19th Century"

Ekkehard was, unfortunately, ailing, but he soldiered on and presented information of interest to those conducting research on German ancestors.

He first explained the organization and locations of archives in Germany - not small task consider how many there are. This is partially a function of the diverse and complex history of the area now included as Germany.

Judenmatrikel records were created as a result of partial emancipation of Jews in 1813. Jews, at that point had to have inheritable surnames. They could then own land and had access to more career opportunities, but still were limited to where they could live. The registers kept track of and limited the number of Jews in each community. No one could be added to a town list for residents unless someone else was taken off the list.

For most of the 19th Century vital records for te Jewish community were kept with Parish records. In 1876 Civil registry Offices were started. Residency and marriage required approval and inheritance depended upon those approvals. These files contain good genealogical information, including inheritance, marriage, house numbers. For residency, men had to prove they had completed military service.

The 1828 Royal Bavarian Property Tax Cadaster was created as a base for land taxes. Historical maps are accessible online and include the ability to switch among modern, old and aerial views - great for locating ancestors' homes in today's communities.

Hübschmann also spoke of several additonal record types including emigration files.

Lara Diamond: "Your Ancestral Town May Not Have Been So Ancestral!"

Lara's mission in this talk? show that our ancestors sometimes moved a great deal more than we tend to think. She used her awesome family research as her as examples.

Part of her family Lived in Shpikov for a small time (although none had been born there). They were registered in Kuna. Before Kuna, they had lived in Uman. Shpikov is 30 miles from Kuna and Kuna is 40 miles from Uman.

She located six generations of one family and every generation was born in a different village.

At the same time, there were people who stayed in the same locale over several generations.

Why did people move? To take advantage of job prospects, avoid the military draft, respond to government incentives, avoid taxes, escape persecution, and marry.

In Lara's work it seems to her that it was about 50-50 as to whether a wife move to her husband's town or vice versa.