Upcoming Monthly Meetings
Virtual Meetings Via Zoom
Times may vary each month
Times may vary each month
May 16, 2021: Guest speaker, Marian Smith, will present "The What and When of US Immigration and Naturalization Records"
Time: 1:00 p.m. Pacific Time (registration closes one hour before the event)
Members: To RSVP, click here. Members can register for any meeting at any time.
Non-members: Click here to pay $5 to receive the Zoom link. Then register by clicking here. Or become a member and join any of our 2021 lectures by clicking here.
"The What and When of US Immigration and Naturalization Records"
Marian Smith will present an overview of three historical eras (1820-Present) of US immigration and naturalization records illustrated with documents of Jewish immigrants. Using a timeline tool (included in the handout), she will demonstrate how plotting an immigrant’s life events can identify what records may exist for that particular immigrant, and where to find them. A question and answer session follows the presentation.
Bio of Marian Smith:
Marian Smith retired in 2018 after thirty years as an Historian for the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS), later US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). She now speaks to groups on US immigration and nationality records and leads the I&N Records Fortnightly study group.
Time: 1:00 p.m. Pacific Time (registration closes one hour before the event)
Members: To RSVP, click here. Members can register for any meeting at any time.
Non-members: Click here to pay $5 to receive the Zoom link. Then register by clicking here. Or become a member and join any of our 2021 lectures by clicking here.
"The What and When of US Immigration and Naturalization Records"
Marian Smith will present an overview of three historical eras (1820-Present) of US immigration and naturalization records illustrated with documents of Jewish immigrants. Using a timeline tool (included in the handout), she will demonstrate how plotting an immigrant’s life events can identify what records may exist for that particular immigrant, and where to find them. A question and answer session follows the presentation.
Bio of Marian Smith:
Marian Smith retired in 2018 after thirty years as an Historian for the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS), later US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). She now speaks to groups on US immigration and nationality records and leads the I&N Records Fortnightly study group.
| 2021_may_16_smith_handout_jgssn.pdf |
June 20, 2021: Guest speaker, Jordan Auslander, will present "Researching NYC Records Remotely"
Time: 1:00 p.m. Pacific Time (registration closes one hour before the event)
Members: To RSVP, click here. Members can register for any meeting at any time.
Non-members: Click here to pay $5 to receive the Zoom link. Then register by clicking here. Or become a member and join any of our 2021 lectures by clicking here.
"Researching NYC Records Remotely"
As the cosmopolitan gateway to the United States, New York City continues to appeal to those who dream of a better life. Between 1820 and 1920 over 82 percent of immigrants to the United States came through the port of New York. Even if they migrated elsewhere, over 100,000,000 Americans have an ancestral paper trail that involves New York City (of them about 40 million have roots in Brooklyn). Learn how to trace your New York ancestors, whether they were passing through or called it home as well as resources to help you reconnect with family that remained elsewhere. While on-site research is the optimal approach to research, this is not always convenient or feasible.
Nevertheless, much can be accomplished in advance or in lieu of physical travel. Components of New York City family history can be identified without setting foot on Broadway using a broad array of free and subscription internet sites as well as some conventional sources. These resources will be evaluated in the context of the questions and needs of lecture participants.
Bio of Jordan Auslander:
Former transportation planner, now New York based genealogical researcher, lecturer and expert witness. Jordan has pursued cases across the United States, Europe and Israel; translated, created and published an index to vital records in the Slovak State Archive system, Genealogical Gazetteer of the Kingdom of Hungary. (and articles including the history and documentation of US participants in WWI),
His history BA first applied in title search, real estate and background contracted for various literary projects; Jordan got into genealogy, like everyone else -- too late. Interest in family history grew while stuck with sorting through bales of material his paternal grandmother accumulated. He joined the Jewish Genealogical Society in 1988 serving on its board 1994-96; member of the Association of Professional Genealogists and The New York Genealogical & Biographical Society.
Applied his theatrical writing and acting pretensions as “Heir Jordan, Extreme Genealogist” Telly award winner for RootsTelevision.com and the ‘reliably inappropriate’ host of IAJGS conference Gameshow Night.
July 18, 2021: Guest speaker, Joel Weintraub, will present "Here Comes the 1950 U.S. Census! What To Expect."
Time: 1:00 p.m. Pacific Time (registration closes one hour before the event)
Members: To RSVP, click here. Members can register for any meeting at any time.
Non-members: Registration will open on May 24. Click here to pay $5 to receive the Zoom link. Then register by clicking here. Or become a member and join any of our 2021 lectures by lick here.
"Here Comes The 1950 U.S. Census! What To Expect."
The U.S. 1950 census will become public on April 1, 2022. Joel will prepare us for its debut by covering what is a census, who uses the census, census caveats, the 1940 census, how the 1950 census was taken, training of enumerators, enumerator instruction book, census sampling, 1950 schedule, 1950 Housing Schedule, census questions, post enumeration codes, 1950 undercount, and a summary of the results. Joel will conclude with a short discussion on his and Steve Morse’s 1950 census locational tools, online right now at the stevemorse.org website. Those 1950 utilities took 8 years to produce with the help of under 80 volunteers, involve 230,000 or so searchable 1950 ED definitions with about 80,000 more small community names added, and street indexes for over 2,400 1950 urban areas that correlate with 1950 census district numbers.
Bio of Joel Weintraub:
Joel Weintraub, PhD, a New Yorker by birth, is an emeritus Biology Professor at California State University, Fullerton. He became interested in genealogy over 20 years ago, and volunteered for 9 years at the National Archives and Records Administration in southern California. Joel has produced locational tools for the 1900 through 1950 federal censuses, and the New York State censuses for NYC (1905, 1915, 1925) for the Steve Morse "One-Step" website. Joel has published articles on the U.S. census and the 72-year rule, the name change belief at Ellis Island, finding difficult passenger records at Ellis Island, and searching census records (and the geography) of NYC.
August 15, 2021: Guest speaker, Amy Wachs, will present "History and Geography - Tools for Eastern European Research."
Time: 1:00 p.m. Pacific Time (registration closes one hour before the event)
Members: To RSVP, click here. Members can register for any meeting at any time.
Non-members: Click here to pay $5 to receive the Zoom link. Then register by clicking here. Or become a member and join any of our 2021 lectures by click here.
"History and Geography - Tools for Eastern European Research"
Researching our Eastern European ancestry remains challenging in many countries, where missing records may lead to frustrating “brick walls”. This presentation will offer guidance for using the region’s historical events and geography to help fill in gaps and move past brick walls to determine place of ancestry, trace migration, and identify ancestors.
Bio of Amy Wachs:
Amy Wachs has been involved in Jewish genealogy for over 30 years. She is Past President of the Jewish Genealogy Society of Cleveland and served on the Board of LitvakSIG, Inc. from 2014 through 2020. Amy is a retired attorney and university instructor. She taught law in Latvia as a Fulbright Scholar and in Moldova as a Fulbright Senior Specialist. Amy often speaks about Eastern Europe and Jewish genealogy topics at conferences and to local audiences.
Time: 1:00 p.m. Pacific Time (registration closes one hour before the event)
Members: To RSVP, click here. Members can register for any meeting at any time.
Non-members: Click here to pay $5 to receive the Zoom link. Then register by clicking here. Or become a member and join any of our 2021 lectures by click here.
"History and Geography - Tools for Eastern European Research"
Researching our Eastern European ancestry remains challenging in many countries, where missing records may lead to frustrating “brick walls”. This presentation will offer guidance for using the region’s historical events and geography to help fill in gaps and move past brick walls to determine place of ancestry, trace migration, and identify ancestors.
Bio of Amy Wachs:
Amy Wachs has been involved in Jewish genealogy for over 30 years. She is Past President of the Jewish Genealogy Society of Cleveland and served on the Board of LitvakSIG, Inc. from 2014 through 2020. Amy is a retired attorney and university instructor. She taught law in Latvia as a Fulbright Scholar and in Moldova as a Fulbright Senior Specialist. Amy often speaks about Eastern Europe and Jewish genealogy topics at conferences and to local audiences.
September 19, 2021: Guest speaker, Ellen Kowitt, will present "Comparison of Jewish Resources on the Giants; Ancestry, FamilySearch, Findmypast, JewishGen, & MyHeritage."
Time: 1:00 p.m. Pacific Time (registration closes one hour before the event)
Members: To RSVP, click here. Members can register for any meeting at any time.
Non-members: Click here to pay $5 to receive the Zoom link. Then register by clicking here. Or become a member and join any of our 2021 lectures by click here.
"Comparison of Jewish Resources on the Giants; Ancestry, FamilySearch, Findmypast, JewishGen, & MyHeritage."
Enjoy this comparative overview of Jewish record collections and research tools on the global powerhouse websites referred to as "Genealogy Giants." This lecture has been updated to reflect the ever-changing content found online and many record examples will be shared. Learn about how each site can be especially helpful for documenting Jewish families and get tips on each site’s best features or challenges, including how JewishGen collections found on Ancestry.com differ from comparable collections originating on JewishGen.org, both in content and in the search experience
Bio of Ellen Kowitt:
Ellen is Director of JewishGen’s United States Research Division and National Vice Chair of the DAR Lineage Committee Jewish Task Force. She is past president of JGS Colorado and JGS Greater Washington DC, has served on the IAJGS board of directors, and been recipient of IAJGS Program and Stern Awards. Ellen publishes articles in Avotaynu: The International Journal on Jewish Genealogy and Family Tree Magazine. Ellen is a member of the Colorado Chapter Association of Professional Genealogists, she accepts clients, and lectures often. Currently, Ellen is participating in the ProGen 46 study group cohort and was recipient of the UGA Jimmy B. Parker Scholarship for SLIG 2021. For the dates of upcoming lectures or more information, visit www.EllenKowitt.com.
Time: 1:00 p.m. Pacific Time (registration closes one hour before the event)
Members: To RSVP, click here. Members can register for any meeting at any time.
Non-members: Click here to pay $5 to receive the Zoom link. Then register by clicking here. Or become a member and join any of our 2021 lectures by click here.
"Comparison of Jewish Resources on the Giants; Ancestry, FamilySearch, Findmypast, JewishGen, & MyHeritage."
Enjoy this comparative overview of Jewish record collections and research tools on the global powerhouse websites referred to as "Genealogy Giants." This lecture has been updated to reflect the ever-changing content found online and many record examples will be shared. Learn about how each site can be especially helpful for documenting Jewish families and get tips on each site’s best features or challenges, including how JewishGen collections found on Ancestry.com differ from comparable collections originating on JewishGen.org, both in content and in the search experience
Bio of Ellen Kowitt:
Ellen is Director of JewishGen’s United States Research Division and National Vice Chair of the DAR Lineage Committee Jewish Task Force. She is past president of JGS Colorado and JGS Greater Washington DC, has served on the IAJGS board of directors, and been recipient of IAJGS Program and Stern Awards. Ellen publishes articles in Avotaynu: The International Journal on Jewish Genealogy and Family Tree Magazine. Ellen is a member of the Colorado Chapter Association of Professional Genealogists, she accepts clients, and lectures often. Currently, Ellen is participating in the ProGen 46 study group cohort and was recipient of the UGA Jimmy B. Parker Scholarship for SLIG 2021. For the dates of upcoming lectures or more information, visit www.EllenKowitt.com.
October 10, 2021: Guest speaker Miriam Weiner, will provide a guided tour of the Routes to Roots Foundation website with a focus on the new and updated features: Surname Databases, Maps, Images, Business Directories and Telephone Books (from Eastern Europe).
Time: 11:00 a.m. Pacific Time (registration closes one hour before the event)
Members: To RSVP, click here. Members can register for any meeting at any time.
Non-members: Click here to pay $5 to receive the Zoom link. Then register by clicking here. Or become a member and join any of our 2021 lectures by click here.
"Routes to Roots Foundation: New Surnames Databases, Maps, Town Images and More!"
From 30+ years of working in the archives of Eastern Europe (Poland, Ukraine, Moldova, Belarus, Lithuania), Miriam has acquired hundreds of various document collections yielding millions of surnames. She formed a close working relationship with archivists on all levels many of which continue to this day.
During the past two years, she has created a surname database containing over 2,000,000 names (with continuing updates regularly). At the website, a surname search can produce entries from Holocaust name lists, vital records, census lists, school records, property lists, various telephone and business directories, applications for Communist Party membership and much more, most of which do not appear elsewhere online. A surname search can produce document results with that surname and links to a street map and town images. All in a single search! A town name search can yield archive data for that town, as well as town images and a link to a street map of the town. Another valuable website resource is the Maps database. Miriam has acquired many maps from various localities. A map search will bring up very detailed maps that, when you zoom in, may reveal even the smallest shtetl.
Bio of Miriam Weiner:
In 1989, Miriam Weiner accepted an invitation from the Polish National Tourist Office to visit the Polish Archives in preparation for arranging genealogy tours to Poland. That visit led to a 30-year career working in the archives of Poland, Ukraine, Moldova, Belarus and Lithuania.
In 1991, The Jewish Week in New York, referred to Miriam as “The Genealogist who Lifted the Archival Iron Curtain”.
In 1998, The Forward referred to her as “The Indiana Jones of Pre-war Polish Jewry.”
In 2019, The Jewish Exponent in Philadelphia referred to Miriam in a lecture review as "Genealogy Rock Star Discusses Digging up Jewish Roots."
Miriam's work in the genealogy field has produced a slew of awards beginning more than 30 years ago; among them are:
The new version of the RTRF website has produced many comments from noted members of the genealogical community, See www.rtrfoundation.org/comments2020.shtml
Time: 11:00 a.m. Pacific Time (registration closes one hour before the event)
Members: To RSVP, click here. Members can register for any meeting at any time.
Non-members: Click here to pay $5 to receive the Zoom link. Then register by clicking here. Or become a member and join any of our 2021 lectures by click here.
"Routes to Roots Foundation: New Surnames Databases, Maps, Town Images and More!"
From 30+ years of working in the archives of Eastern Europe (Poland, Ukraine, Moldova, Belarus, Lithuania), Miriam has acquired hundreds of various document collections yielding millions of surnames. She formed a close working relationship with archivists on all levels many of which continue to this day.
During the past two years, she has created a surname database containing over 2,000,000 names (with continuing updates regularly). At the website, a surname search can produce entries from Holocaust name lists, vital records, census lists, school records, property lists, various telephone and business directories, applications for Communist Party membership and much more, most of which do not appear elsewhere online. A surname search can produce document results with that surname and links to a street map and town images. All in a single search! A town name search can yield archive data for that town, as well as town images and a link to a street map of the town. Another valuable website resource is the Maps database. Miriam has acquired many maps from various localities. A map search will bring up very detailed maps that, when you zoom in, may reveal even the smallest shtetl.
Bio of Miriam Weiner:
In 1989, Miriam Weiner accepted an invitation from the Polish National Tourist Office to visit the Polish Archives in preparation for arranging genealogy tours to Poland. That visit led to a 30-year career working in the archives of Poland, Ukraine, Moldova, Belarus and Lithuania.
In 1991, The Jewish Week in New York, referred to Miriam as “The Genealogist who Lifted the Archival Iron Curtain”.
In 1998, The Forward referred to her as “The Indiana Jones of Pre-war Polish Jewry.”
In 2019, The Jewish Exponent in Philadelphia referred to Miriam in a lecture review as "Genealogy Rock Star Discusses Digging up Jewish Roots."
Miriam's work in the genealogy field has produced a slew of awards beginning more than 30 years ago; among them are:
- In 1988, a writing award from the Council of Genealogy Columnists for her syndicated genealogy column
- In 1999, 2000, and 2003, three major awards from IAJGS (one for each of her two books and the Lifetime Achievement Award)
- In 2000, Reference Book of the Year award from the Association of Jewish Libraries
- In 2019, The National Genealogical Society presented Miriam with the prestigious "President's Citation" at its annual conference in St. Louis
- In 2020; The Federation of Genealogical Societies awarded her the Rabbi Malcolm H Stern Humanitarian Award
The new version of the RTRF website has produced many comments from noted members of the genealogical community, See www.rtrfoundation.org/comments2020.shtml
November 21, 2021: Guest speaker Nancy Levin will present "Oceanic Journey to America - Traveling in Steerage Class"
Time: 1:00 p.m. Pacific Time (registration closes one hour before the event)
Members: To RSVP, click here. Members can register for any meeting at any time.
Non-members: Click here to pay $5 to receive the Zoom link. Then register by clicking here. Or become a member and join any of our 2021 lectures by click here.
"Oceanic Journey to America - Traveling in Steerage Class"
Nancy will discuss the experiences that passengers endured at all points of time - including actual reports from newspaper articles, interviews, etc. For those that arrived in the 1840s - the oceanic experiences were different than those that come in the 1870s, and different again, then those who arrived after the cholera epidemic in Hamburg and ensuing changes.
Bio of Nancy Levin:
International lecturer; author; and full-time professional genealogist specializing in Jewish genealogy. Licensed by the Board for Certification of Genealogists since 1997. Speaker at annual NGS and Jewish genealogy international conferences (IAJGS); New England Historic and Genealogical Society; Hebrew College; community centers; libraries; and other venues. Author of chapters on immigration and naturalization in the Avotaynu Guide to Jewish Genealogy. BA, U. of Vermont; MBA, Northeastern U.
Time: 1:00 p.m. Pacific Time (registration closes one hour before the event)
Members: To RSVP, click here. Members can register for any meeting at any time.
Non-members: Click here to pay $5 to receive the Zoom link. Then register by clicking here. Or become a member and join any of our 2021 lectures by click here.
"Oceanic Journey to America - Traveling in Steerage Class"
Nancy will discuss the experiences that passengers endured at all points of time - including actual reports from newspaper articles, interviews, etc. For those that arrived in the 1840s - the oceanic experiences were different than those that come in the 1870s, and different again, then those who arrived after the cholera epidemic in Hamburg and ensuing changes.
Bio of Nancy Levin:
International lecturer; author; and full-time professional genealogist specializing in Jewish genealogy. Licensed by the Board for Certification of Genealogists since 1997. Speaker at annual NGS and Jewish genealogy international conferences (IAJGS); New England Historic and Genealogical Society; Hebrew College; community centers; libraries; and other venues. Author of chapters on immigration and naturalization in the Avotaynu Guide to Jewish Genealogy. BA, U. of Vermont; MBA, Northeastern U.