All warm and fuzzy: Finding success with JewishGen's and JRI-Poland's new fuzzy search

Fuzzy (from Pixabay.com)

Searching is definitely an art. And that art often involves working with and, sometimes, around the tools, restrictions and options offered on particular database-offering websites. The research goal is not only to locate records that were recorded and indexed correctly, but also to find those records where erroneous information has been introduced. 

Earlier this summer while reporting from the Jerusalem IAJGS conference, I noted that JewishGen.org and JRI-Poland.org had added fuzzy search options to their search parameters (actually, the organizations share search parameters, so they both changed to include the same options). I wasn't quite sure what fuzzy search would do for me. I can now report that fuzzy makes me happy. Fuzzy is a wonderful tool for working around transcription errors.

I've been collecting and analyzing records from people with the Wenkert surname from eastern Galicia. Wenkert was the maiden name of my great grandmother Bertha Wenkert Liebross (ca. 1867-1937, Brooklyn, NY) and her sister Perl Wenkert Ett (ca. 1850-1895, Skole, Austrian Empire). Their parents were Israel Hersch and Reisel Wenkert from Zaleszczyki. Beyond that, I run out of Wenkert relatives.

The lengthy gap between the Wenkert sisters' births seems to cry out for information about additional siblings. But, none are known.

Records I viewed at the Lviv Achives during my visit in 2013 indicate that there were Wenkerts in the Zaleszczyki area in 1820.

Alexander Beider, who has produced the seminal work on ononomastics (name origins) for the area, writes that the surname Wenkert has been found in Stryj, Zaleszczyki, Horodenka, Borszczow, Czortkow, Husiatyn, Tarnopol, and Kolomyja.[1] With the exception of Stryj (which is close, actually, to Skole), all of these are within close proximity in eastern Galicia.

So, I've developed a spreadsheet within which I am recording vital records for Wenkerts. I am reconstructing families and trying to see which towns they are from and how they might be related to each other. 

I thought I'd located all the records identified and indexed, thus far, by JewishGen and Jewish Records Indexing-Poland (which is hosted on JewishGen's website). I had been dutifully searching, sometimes using exact and other times using the Daitch-Mokotoff Soundex (Sounds Like). I would return to the databases periodically to see if salient records had been added.

Phonetically gives one access to the Beider-Morse Soundex (which provides fewer false positives and, therefore, a shorter list of alternative spellings).[2]

Fuzzy Match, directs search to include spellings with one letter different than what one had entered. Fuzzier Match provides results with two changes from the searched name. Fuzziest Match allows up to 1/3 divergence from the searched entry. 

A few weeks ago, in preparation for a short presentation for the Phoenix Jewish Genealogy Group on what new things I'd learned at this past summer's IAJGS conference, I finally tried the new fuzzy search. 

I found new records! Actually, not new records, but ones I'd not located before on JRI-Poland.
 

Several vital records for offspring of Frieda Wenkert and Chaim Bonuss were listed on my spread sheet. But I had no marriage record for the couple.

Fuzzy Match provided versions of Wenkert with one letter changed: Wenkerl and Wenert. It was clear from other information provided, that these records were likely related to the same Chaim and Frieda Bonuss I'd located previously.

I was curious to see if the error in the Wenkert name was the clerk's or transcriber's. So, I looked at the digitized record by clicking on View Nearby Image. This takes one to the website for the archive in Warsaw in which the record resides.

Here's the Wenkerl portion of  Akta 24, the Bonuss-Wenkerl marriage record.

Years ago, those writing a t at the end of a word often brought the  line at the end of the letter up sharply and did not cross the t. This is the case here. The transcriber misread the letter as l. Thus, Wenkerl. If one compares the last letter in the name Scheindel (in the second to last line) with the one in Wenkert, it is easy to see how the error occurred. They look similar.

I now have a marriage record that tells me that Friede Wenkert was born in 1864 - about 3 years before my great grandmother, Bertha. I am still not certain if Friede is related to me (her father was Hersch Wenkert, but her mother was not Reisel, but Scheindel).

Transcription error also hindered location of Froim's birth record. Akta 156 (transcribed as Wenert) was originally written by the clerk as Wenkert. Instead of mis-reading a letter, the transcriber created a typographical error by leaving out the k. 

Fuzzy search to the rescue! I've located a delayed marriage for Friede and Chaim and an additional child, Froim. Both of these records had been inaccessible to me previously due to the options I'd selected and the options available to me in searching. I realize, in retrospect, that I might have located these if I'd used starts with as a search parameter. With starts with Wenk in the JRI-Poland search box, I receive 115 hits. That's really not too many to peruse. I imagine, however, that someone seeking a name with a more common first few letters (such as Lieb...) would receive too many hits beyond useful.

Blurry (from en.wikipedia.org)

For me, Fuzzier Match and Fuzziest Match on Wenkert and a couple of other tested names, did not result in good hits. But, they may work for others. So, by all means try them.

My only issue now is that it is not clear on either JewishGen or JRI-Poland how to provide corrections for transcription errors. I will likely wait to collect several errors and then send a note to whomever I can contact outlining my concerns. 

Notes:
1. Alexander Beider, A Dictionary of Jewish Surnames from Galicia (Bergenfield, New Jersey: Avotaynu, 2004), p. 572.
2. For example, I searched for Wenkert in the Ukraine database on JewishGen.  Using Sounds Like search, resulted in 245 hits in exclusively JewishGen databases as well as the following on JRI-Poland: 40 in the Lwow Wojewodztwo, 69 in Stanislawow W., 80 in Tarnopol W., and 62 in Volhynia. For Phonetically Like I received 36 hits in JewishGen databases and 1 in Lwow W., 65 in Stanislawow W., and 32 in Tarnopol W. in JRI-Poland.

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. 

Ukraine 2013: Mapping the Journey

My daughter, Katherine, and I will be leaving in a few days for Ukraine. I will be suspending my Tombstone Tuesday and Treasure Chest Thursday blog posts until I get back (unless, of course I find something wonderful and have an overwhelming need to share under those themes immediately!).

In the meantime, here is a concept map of the planned trip. I say "concept" because while we will pretty much take these routes, there is flexibility built into the schedule and things may change.

Map constructed in Google Maps, 26 May 2013

Our journey will start in the Galicia section of Ukraine, part of the former Austro-Hungarian Empire. We will arrive in Lviv (A) about mid-day on 3 June. The next day we will head to Yaremche (B) with Alex Dunai (our genealogist, translator and guide) to take in Hutsel culture. I had hoped to hike Mt. Hoverla, the highest point (6762 feet) in Ukraine, but we've already had to change that plan due to a foot injury Katherine, my daughter, suffered yesterday. 

After at least looking at Mt. Hoverla we'll wend our way back to Lviv through the Carpathian Mountains. We will stop at Bolekhiv (C), the shtetl that Daniel Mendelsohn wrote about in his book The Lost: A Search for Six of Six Million. I am finally getting around to reading it. Alex Dunai is featured as Mendelsohn's Ukrainian genealogist.

My first family shtetl stop will be at Skole (D). Skole is the place where Jutte Ett Barath was born on 21 January 1894 and where, her mother (also mother of David Ett, and Sophie Ett Leiner, Sarah Ett Cohn, and Chaitze Ett Rappaport) Perl Wenkert Ett died on 18 August 1895.

We will then spend a couple of days seeing the sites of Lviv and working in the archives. Records will likely be in Polish script. I have been reviewing "Reading Polish Handwritten Records," a 3-part tutorial in the Learning Center on FamilySearch.org.

After Lviv, we will once again head south to continue treading the ground where my Wenkert and Liebross (maternal) relatives trod: Kolomyya (E), Chernivtsi (G) and Zalishchyky (F), Ustechko and Torskie. By the way, I have not been able to put Ustechko on the above map (I didn't even attempt mapping Torskie!). Each time I ask Google Maps to include Ustechko, Google places a dot north of Ternopil - way off from Ustechko's actual location just north of Zalishchyky. So, I had Google Maps place a dot near Chortkiv (H), which is a little north of Ustechko.

I am really looking forward to Kamyanets-Podilskyy (I). The photos I've seen indicate a picturesque location: a walled town with a castle. One of my floater "relatives," Samuel Myers (nee Zise Malzmann) lived in K-P before emigrating to the United States.

Visits to the archives in Khmelnitsky (J) and Zhytomir (O) will mark my entrance to the old Russian Empire and Volhynia Gubernia and my father's side of the family (Garber, Mazewitsky/Morris, Malzmann, and Kesselman). The Family History Library has been unable to film any records for Yurovshchina [once Labun (K) and Lubin], Gritsev (M) and Polonnoye (L). These towns, having been neither part of Poland nor the Austro-Hungarian Empire since about 1795 , have no records in the Warsaw archives (accessible to JRI-Poland). So, the best bet is checking the Ukrainian Archives. The records will likely be in Russian script. I'm working on understanding that, too.

I hope to not only find family records but to locate village records for Labun, Gritsev, Polonnoye and Baranovka that may be acquired, perhaps at a later date, for use by other Jewish researchers.

I'm trying not to be too excited about setting foot in Yurovshchina. I just don't know what to expect. But I will come prepared with early 20th Century maps for comparison sake and a photo the the bath house (pictured here) repaired with the American Joint Distribution Committee's help in 1923. I'd like to see if we can locate where it was located in the town. I want to know where the Jewish section was. I want to visit the cemetery - if there still is one. And I want to know where the Jewish people lived. 

I know that many Jewish people were slaughtered along with their Jewish neighbors from Polonnoye in a location near Polonnoye. I want to go there, too. 

I would like to visit Baranovka (N) so I can see the town where Feiga Grinfeld (Fannie Greenfield) was born. I've written so many posts about her, I've an investment (!). 

We'll end our trip with a few days in Kiev (P) and then fly home on 22 June. I hope to have my iPad and Dropbox folders filled with photos to share. If all goes well, I'll be able to blog a bit about my trip as it happens. If not, I'll be sure to post quite a bit when I return to the United States.

Treasure Chest Thursday: Whoo-Hoo! JRI-Poland and AGAD!

There's nothing like immediate gratification to brighten one's day! Tuesday night I read an announcement from Jewish Records Indexing-Poland that, as previously promised, the AGAD Archives in Warsaw (Archiwum Giowne Akt Dawnych - Central Archives of Historical Records) has started to digitized and put online vital records in their collections. Not only that, but the first online registers from Fond 300 (Tarnopol and Stanislawow oblasts), Signatures 1 through 2514, are linked to JRI-Poland database search results. I immediately found a record of great interest for my Liebross family history research.

Previously, when I wanted to acquire records that had been indexed by JRI-Poland, I ordered them via the efficient system set up and managed by Israel Pickholtz (thank you, Israel!). Israel P. would collect orders and then send them to AGAD who would fill them, send the records to Israel who would distribute them to those who had ordered. Since some money had to change hands, this limited how many of the records I'd ordered. 

I had tried to sort through the indexed records on the JRI-Poland website that would likely tie (using the standard genealogy principle of working backwards from what one knows) to my known Liebross and Wenkert family surnames and relatives. Since not every name listed on a record was always indexed, I did not catch one that would have been of interest.

Now for some indexed records in Fond 300, when one searches on surnames in the JRI-Poland database, one may click on a link on the far left side of the results table: "View scanned image." Before using the link, note the akta number and the year of the record. The link currently takes one to the first scanned image of the Signature (or book). At that point one must click on page images to locate the correct registered vital record (Akta). In some of these books the Akta number starts over at number 1 with each new year. So, if you don't immediately find the record of interest, make sure to double-check that you are in the correct year of the register.
JRI-Poland does intend to place direct links to image pages on which indexed records occur.

As a sidelight, I have to say that seeing the records in the context of digitized images of entire register books is stunning. Before, I merely received a page. Now I may see what the actual register books look like. Very nice. 

Birth Record for Ester, 16 September 1885, Jewish Metrical Books, Town of Jaglienica Births 1860-1904,
1906, Tarnopol Wojewodztwa, Fond 300, Year 1885,  Sygnatura 259, Akta 113, Archiwum Giowne Akt
Dawnych (Central Archives of Historical Records), Warsaw, Poland.

I have not had this record translated yet, but I can make out a few salient facts. Ester (no surname and no father is given on the record) was born in 1885 to Ruchel Liberus in Schulhanowka (now Shul'ganuvka - and not listed in JewishGen's Communities database, but found in the Gazetteer). Ruchel was the daughter of Mane and Cirl Liberus of Zaleszczyki [be still my heart!]. 

In earlier research in death and tombstone records, I'd found that Mane (likely Emanuel) was the father of Louis Liebross and his brother Simon.

Louis' and Simon's mother's name was a bit more of a challenge. Jewish tombstones don't usually include the deceased's mother's name. On Louis' death certificate the spot for mother's name was left blank.[1] On Simon's, "Celia" was written with a question mark, indicating that the informant was unsure.[2]

What I did know was that two women in the family had been given the name Tziril: Celia Liebross (Louis and Bertha's third daughter) and Cecile Liebross Markowitz (Harry and Gertie Liebross' second daughter). It was likely there was a Tziril in the family's past.

The fact that Ruchel is associated with family in Zaleszcycki is of great interest, as well. I'd previously established that Bertha's sister Perl Wenkert Ett and her family were from Zaleszczcyki and the nearby shtetls of Torske and Ustechko. I had some tantalizing clues that there were people with the surname Liebross in the Zaleszcycki area. Now I believe I have a link to my Liebrosses: Ruchel, sister of Louis and Simon Liebross. And Mane and Tziril Liebross registered as living in Zaleszcycki.

Ester's surname may have been Gottlieb. I've located another AGAD record through JRI-Poland that shows Ruchel married to Israel Gottlieb in 1903 when she gave birth to Perla. At that point, however, they were living in Kopychintsy about 12 miles from Shul'ganuvka.[3]

It's not always easy to get to "yes" in genealogical research. But, I'm feeling pretty good about my most recent find. This supports the contention that Tziril was the mother of Louis and Simon Liebross. It also adds some new players, especially Ruchel Liebross - sister to Louis and Simon. Of course it would be great to find marriage records for Louis, Simon or Ruchel to further bolster the information on Ester's birth record. As AGAD continues digitizing and JRI-Poland continues to index, perhaps those will be my next finds.

Notes:
1. Kings County, New York, Certificate of Death no. 14091 (29 June 1935), Louis Liebross, New York City Municipal Archives, New York.
2. Queens County, New York, Certificate of Death no. 5951 (18 November 1927), Simon Leibross [sic], New York City Municipal Archives, New York. 
3. Birth Record for Perla Gottlieb, 19 May 1903, Jewish Metrical Books, Town of Kopyczynce Births 1877-1896, 1901-1904, Tarnopol Wojewodztwa, Fond 300, Year 1903,  Sygnatura 2419, Akta 45, Archiwum Giowne Akt Dawnych (Central Archives of Historical Records), Warsaw, Poland. 

JRI-Poland and PSA: A marriage made in Jewish genealogy heaven

This is huge! We had some inklings a few weeks ago that Stanley Diamond, Executive Director of Jewish Records Indexing-Poland, and his colleagues were closing in on a new agreement between JRI-Poland and the Polish State Archives. They'd been in discussions for several years to re-establish the partnership they'd once enjoyed for indexing and accessing Jewish Records in the Polish archives. 

Now comes the announcement that the agreement was signed Friday, 15 February 2013. Not only will more records be available for indexing by JRI-Poland, but access to copies of the original records will be streamlined through a new Order processing System. Ultimately (and this is great not just for Jewish genealogists, but for all researchers interested in Polish genealogy),  PSA will digitize all vital records in all branches of the State Archives and make them available online. I hope this will serve as a model to get archives in neighboring countries to see the value of this endeavor!

What follows is the news release from JRI-Poland.

Polish State Archives and Jewish Records Indexing - Poland sign
historic agreement providing expanded access to Jewish records in Poland Bethesda, Maryland and Warsaw, Poland, February 15, 2013

Today the Polish State Archives (PSA) and Jewish Records Indexing - Poland (JRI-Poland) entered into a new multi-year agreement to expand access to Jewish records.

PSA General Director, Professor Władysław Stępniak observed: "The signing of this agreement will open a new phase in the cooperation between JRI-Poland and State Archives in Poland. I am convinced that the results of our mutual efforts will be helpful for many people interested in centuries-old Polish-Jewish relations, shared history and family history research."

JRI-Poland’s searchable online database of records from more than 550 towns is the starting point in Jewish family history research in Poland. The database of records going back to the late 18th century belies the misleading notion that Jewish records of Poland were destroyed in World War II.

The agreement will enable JRI-Poland to rapidly expand its current online database of indices to five million records, the largest database of Jewish vital records online. Indices to more than one million additional records are expected to become available within a year and will dovetail with the opening in Warsaw of the new Museum of the History of Polish Jews.

In a statement reflecting the strong significance of these records and their importance to family historians around the world, the PSA announced that they are beginning a massive effort to digitize all vital records in their more than 30 Regional Archives. These will be available — free — on their National Digital Archives and Regional Archive websites.

JRI-Poland will serve the research community and PSA by linking its search results to the PSA’s digital images of the Jewish records. As a result of the massive indexing undertaken by JRI-Poland since 1995, the indices to Jewish records will form the bulk of all digital image linking on the PSA website. Thus, for the first time a non-profit organization will be linking its search results to vital record images provided by a European archives.

In addition, JRI-Poland and the PSA will institute a new Order Processing System to vastly simplify the process of obtaining copies of archival records. JRI-Poland will have the administrative responsibility for processing orders for records from branches of the Polish State Archives. Researchers will be able to place orders by clicking on record index entries of interest in the JRI-Poland search results and paying by credit card via the JRI-Poland website. The Order Processing System will eventually be phased out as digitized records become available online.

The JRI-Poland database and volunteers have been instrumental in reuniting families separated by the Holocaust and helping hidden children find their identities. JRI-Poland has been recognized by the medical and scientific communities for the potential assistance to Ashkenazic families trying to trace medical histories, particularly those at increased risk for hereditary conditions and diseases. As a result of statistical analyses indicating a high incidence of medical and genetic abnormalities in individuals of Polish-Jewish descent, JRI - Poland serves as a finding aid for those who may need answers to medical-related questions or require bone marrow or other transplants. Because of this, JRI-Poland has received commendations from the Gift of Life Foundation and the National Marrow Donor Program.

Founded in 1995, JRI-Poland was an outgrowth of Executive Director and Montrealer Stanley Diamond's need for access to Jewish vital records of the former Łomża Gubernia area of Poland for research into his family’s genetic history. JRI-Poland is run by a global board, aided by hundreds of volunteers and serving thousands of researchers, funded by groups and private genealogists around the world.

For further information, please contact:

Stanley Diamond
smsdiamond@aol.com

Please visit: 

www.jri-poland.org  and  www.archiwa.gov.pl/en/news.html

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.

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

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.