| by Diane Goldman |
To read an article or news release excerpted in U.S. Update, order the issue of the publication in which it appeared from the appropriate JGS. A list of Jewish Genealogical Societies can be found at <iajgs.org/members/members.html>. A list of Special Interest Groups can be found at <www.jewishgen.org>.
Greater Boston Vol. 18, No. 1, January 2009
Mass-Pocha
Alan Radack reports on a presentation by Sallyann Amdur Sack. The International Tracing Service has World War II-era materials that were deposited with the Red Cross. ITS’ staff keep up a Central Index of Names mentioned in those documents. Note the Index is neither soundexed nor organized geographically. <> Elayne Denker summarizes the particular genealogical value of newspapers—contemporary events, legal or death notices, articles on myriad topics—a presentation by Pamela Weisberger. Weisberger provided the URL for each of many online access points, e.g., ProQuest Historical Newspapers, selected libraries, selected archives, selected newspapers. The Stars & Stripes (World War I issues) stands out as a U.S. military newspaper. London Gazette (actually covering London, Edinburgh, and Belfast). <> Jay Sage distills a presentation about online search tools at <www.ancestry.com> and Steve Morse’s website. Carol Clingan explains the type of data and best search style for each. Paul Auerbach provides an example from his own research. <> Elaine Abrams begins a column on recollections of Boston-area Jewish communities. Jean Shultz remembers her journey to Revere/Revere Beach and Chelsea. <> Harris Gleckman introduces the Documenting Maine Jewry project <www.mainejews.org>. <> Book reviews: The Enemy at his Pleasure: A Journey Through the Jewish Pale of Settlement During World War I, English trans. (S. Ansky, Henry Holt, 2003) from the Yiddish Destruction of Galicia (S. Ansky, 1920); Anna’s Shtetl (Lawrence A. Cohen, University of Alabama Press, 2007).
Greater Boston Vol. 18, No. 3, October 2009
Mass-Pocha
Includes a list of resources for Israeli research. <> Jewish genealogy society wins Outstanding Program Award from the IAJGS at its summer conference. Award cites society’s curriculum for Foundations of Jewish Genealogical Research. <> The Google search engine offers image search, translation, and blog search, among a variety of tools described by Michael Marx and Jay Sage. <> Books by Dr. ChaeRan Freeze describe everyday life of czarist Russian Jews. Freeze works from information in archival documents: birth registrations and documentation requests, divorce petitions, court records regarding property or guardianship disputes. Particularly revealing petitions include those for financial, administrative, mental health institutionalization, and conscription. <> Determine someone’s census enumeration district by identifying their street address and some cross streets. Enter year, state, city, and street names at <http://stevemorse.org/census/index.html>.
Cleveland Vol. 18, No. 3, Autumn 2009
Kol
JGS awards 2009 Member of the Year to Paul Klein. <> Next Ohio Genealogical Society conference will be April 22–24, 2010. <> Archives of the City of Cleveland has variety of material on the local Jewish community. Examples include mid-19th century school and real estate records. <> Ongoing local cemetery project is gathering data from Alger, Brookmere, Denison, Erie Street, Harvard Grove, Highland Park, Monroe, Scranton, and Woodland Cemeteries. <> A Finnish database combines data on 1904 immigrants with data on emigrant Finns and Swedes. The Institute of Migration offers a subscription. <> A reprint from The Brooklyn Eagle (July 16, 1893) relates how immigrants sailed at the mercy of their shipping company. <> Neil Stone gives his experience following directions from Latvian State Historical Archives for getting documents at <www.arhivi.lv/index.php?&319>.
Conejo Valley & Ventura County (California)
Vol. 5, No. 4, January 2010
Venturing Into Our Past
The Galicia Jewish Museum will open June 2010 in Krakow <http://tinyurl.com/ybs49pk>. <> Eleven historic Jewish journals are accessible and searchable at <http:// tinyurl.com/ye9ru7q>.
Illinois and Indiana Summer 2009
Illiana
Wisconsin Historical Society Library publishes local history and information back to at least 1860 at <www.wisconsinhistory.org/wlhba/index.asp>. <> Book reviews: Annie’s Ghosts: A Journey Into a Family Secret (Steve Luxenberg) is a convincing argument for using genealogical research to fill gaps in family history; The Pity of it All (Amos Elon, 2002) presents German Jewry mid-18th to early 20th century.
Winter 2009–2010. Eulogies for Ursula Mansbacher, Arlene Graff, Mort Gerber, and Kurt Gutfreund. <> List of U.S. vital records available online, mostly at free sites, from Alabama (death records 1908–74), Arizona (birth and death certificates 1844–1958), Florida (deaths 1877–1939), Georgia (death records 1914–27), Illinois (statewide marriage index 1763–1900); Cook County (birth certificates and registers, marriage records and licenses, and death certificates roughly 1871–1920). A fee-charging site is the Cook County Clerk’s Office, which has a variety of vital records. Cook County has a privacy window of 75 years.
Los Angeles Vol. 29, No. 1/2, Spring/Summer 2009
Roots-Key
Los Angeles Regional Family History Center is closed for remodeling May until perhaps December 2010. <> Bruce Dumes learned research techniques by trial and error. His Dumes/Dumesh relatives came from Viski, Latvia. <> Madeleine Isenberg discovers the musical popularity of in-laws, Adolf “Dolek” and Leo Seifter. <> Ron Arons suggests roughly 50 online tools for researching Anglo-Jewish families. <> Virtual Shtetl wants to revive Jewish life in Poland by supplementing historical data with personal observations submitted by readers <www.sztetl.org.pl>. <> Reprint of an article on The Sentinel newspaper (1911–96), from the Chicago Jewish Historical Society journal (Chicago Jewish History 23 [4], Fall 2008). <> Updates on two Jewish genealogy projects: Pamela Weisberger reports on community records in the form of cadastral maps <www. jewishgen.org/galicia/cadastral_maps_and_landowners_ project/records.php>; Nolan Altman describes the value of school yearbooks <www.jgsli.org/yearbook_project.htm>. <> Gary Fitleberg lists names from Jewish gravestones discovered in and around Shanghai <www.shanghaijewishmemorial.com>. The city’s four Jewish cemeteries had been destroyed 1966–76. <> Sadia Shepard has produced a film, In Search of the Bene Israel, that complements her 2008 book, The Girl from Foreign, A Search for Shipwrecked Ancestors, Forgotten Histories, and a Sense of Home (Penguin Press). <> Book reviews: The Pages In Between: A Holocaust Legacy of Two Families, One Home (Erin Einhorn, New York: Simon & Schuster, 2008); Jewish Pirates of the Carribean (Edward Kritzler, New York: Doubleday, 2008); Come With Me to Babylon (Paul M. Levitt, Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 2007); Silverstone Stories & Other Mishagos (Judith L. White, Eshel Books/Bartleby Press, 2007).
Los Angeles Vol. 29, No. 3/4, Fall/Winter 2009
Roots-Key
Jewish genealogy society celebrates its 30th anniversary. <> Mara Fein learned the name of her ancestral town from U.S. passport applications. <> Selected American Jewish Historical Society records are now available through <www.ancestry.com>. Available records include those from Hebrew Orphan Asylums (Brooklyn and New York), the Industrial Removal Office, 18th- and 19th-century debtor’s cases. <> Judy Baston advises on how to use the American Jewish Year Book (1899–1907, Jewish Publication Society of America; 1908–present, American Jewish Committee), available online at <www.ajcarchives.org/ main.php?GroupingId=40>. Topics covered vary from volume to volume, e.g., lists of Jewish veterans, organizational directories, selected biographies, obituaries, subscriber lists, and significant U.S. and international events. <> Ron Arons lists online addresses for several large map collections, along with several search and mapping tools. Arons reminds readers to respect any copyrights and related restrictions. <> Part II of Arnold Shirek Chamove’s trip to Ukraine (Nikolaev/Mykolayiv and Balta), an adaptation of his Ukraine SIG correspondence. <> Naming patterns gave Andi Alpert Ziegelman the key to linking Alperovich relatives from Postavy and Kurenecs. Ziegelman drew from online revision and census lists. <> The life of Misha Paretsky illustrates many aspects of life in the Soviet Union. Paretsky was a cousin of David and Sonia Hoffman. <> Book reviews: Reading Jewish Women: Marginality and Modernization in Nineteenth-Century Eastern European Jewish Society (Iris Parush, Waltham: Brandeis University Press, 2004); William and Rosalie: A Holocaust Testimony (William and Rosalie Schiff and Craig Hanley, Denton: University of North Texas Press, 2007); Annie’s Ghosts: A Journey into a Family Secret (Steve Luxenberg, Hyperion Books, 2009); Mecheln-Auschwitz 1942–1944: The Destruction of Jews and Gypsies from Belgium (2009) (in Dutch, French, and English).
Greater Miami Winter/December 2009
Branches
Eulogy for Eleanor Laub, a founding member of this JGS. <> Selected historic newspapers from New York State and from Connecticut are available at The Old Fulton New York Post Card site <www.fultonhistory.com/Fulton.html>. Barbara Musikar found articles and notices from The Brooklyn Eagle provided a wealth of detail about family members, events, and dates. <> Joan Parker shares her list of definitions for genealogical acronyms. <> Helene Schenker says a translator is imperative for asking questions or making personal side trips in Ukraine. <> Part of Aaron Bernstein’s job as Southern Regional Director, American Society for Yad Vashem, is to help families and people such as Toby Rosenblatt Levin reunite individuals separated by World War II.
Michigan Vol. 24, No. 4, Winter 2009
Generations
Includes a list of JGS library resources. <> Judy Mintz searches for cartoons by her grandfather, Isaac F. “Fred” Leipziger (“Leip”), but she already has the journal he began in 1883. Mintz documents great-uncle Nate Leipziger by tracing his international career as a magician. The Russian Leipzigers traveled to Stockholm and Malmo, Sweden, and Utica, New York, en route to Detroit. <> The Library at the Holocaust Memorial Center Zekelman Family Campus contains a catalogue of survivor testimonies, yizkor books, and The Ghetto Anthology <www.holocaustcenter.org>.
Southern Nevada Vol. 12, No. 4, Winter 2009
Family Legacies
Gay Lynne Kegan compares Family Treemaker 2009 and a newer version. (She prefers the latter.) <> Report from IAJGS echoes the value of the USHMM Name List Catalog, Yad Vashem’s Shoah-related Lists Database, and the ITS Inventory Search “Inventar.” <> Book reviews: Conserving, Preserving and Restoring Your Heritage: A Professional’s Advice (Kennis Kim and Scott Symons, Dundurn Group, 2010); Death of the Shtetl (Yehuda Bauer, Yale University Press, 2010); Ghosts of Home: The Afterlife of Czernowitz in Jewish Memory (Marianne Hirsch and Leo Spitzer, University of California Press, 2010); Greece: A Jewish History (K.E. Fleming, Princeton University Press, 2010); Jews of the Pacific Coast: Reinventing Community on America’s Edge (Ava Fran Kahn, University of Washington Press, 2010); Liberators: America’s Witnesses to the Holocaust (Michael Hirsh, Random House, 2010); Remembering Survival: Inside a Nazi Slave-Labor Camp (Christopher Browning, W.W. Norton & Co., 2010) draws from survivors of Starachowice; San Diego Jewish Burials 1871–1995 (Roberta Wagner Berman, San Diego Jewish Genealogical Society, 2009); Tales of and About Jewish Youth During the Fin-de-Siecle Era (Lawrence M. Ginsburg, University Press of America, 2010) examines life in upstate New York; Words to Remember It: Memoirs of Child Holocaust Survivors (Sydney Child Holocaust Survivors Group Staff, Scribe Publications, 2010).
New York Vol. 30, No. 3, Spring 2009
Dorot
Dan Lynch explains the protocol for refining Google searches. Put quotes around a phrase to search for an “exact phrase match” rather than for web pages where all the words in the phrase appear. Preface a word with a tilde symbol to use a “similar keyword qualifier,” searching for the word you entered as well as similar words. Sandwich “OR” (in caps) between two terms to search for one or the other. Use an asterisk, or “wildcard,” at a point in a phrase where you don’t want to specify anything. <> Debra Braverman reminds us that probate records often have family information—vital to distributing the estate or assets of someone deceased. <> Yad Vashem Pages of Testimony also apply to anyone dying of natural causes during World War II in Nazi-occupied Europe—indirect Holocaust victims. <> As of April 8, 2009, one must formally request a search of vital records indices at the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. Access is restricted to the indices themselves. <> Barbara Kaufman has indexed YIVO’s Hungarian Society records. The Center for Jewish History Reading Room has this finding aid and another for YIVO’s collection of German Police Identification Cards. YIVO is acquiring and processing the archives of the Workmen’s Circle—New York head office—and the New York Association for New Americans. <> The New York Department of Finance has photographs 1983–88 of every property in the five New York Boroughs. <> National Archives and Records Administration will retain World War II Alien Case Files and open federal civilian employee files mid-1800s–1951. The Alien Case Files have a privacy restriction of one century past the subject person’s birth. <> Data for new years are constantly being added to the online brides indices. <> The Library of Congress has revised its online reference pages. Find New York-related material online by visiting <www.loc.gov/rr/program/bib/states/ newyork>. <> Search an illustrated list of gravestones from St. Petersburg’s Preobrazhenskiy Jewish Cemetery at <www.jekl.ru> (in Russian). <> The U.S. Surgeon General offers a website for recording family health history at <https://familyhistory.hhs.gov/fhh-web/home.action>. <> Book reviews: Jacob’s Legacy: A Genetic View of Jewish History (David B. Goldstein, New Haven, Conn.: Yale University press, 2008); Jewish Memorial Books: A Bibliography, in Polish and English (Adam Kopciowski, Lublin: University of Maria Curie-Sklodowska, 2008); The Litvak Legacy (Mark N. Ozer, Bloomington, Ind.: Xlibris, 2009); The Lost Synagogues of Brooklyn (Ellen Levitt, Bergenfield, N.J.: Avotaynu, 2009); Road to Victory: Jewish Soldiers in the 16th Lithuanian Division (Dorothy Lievers, ed., Bergenfield, N.J.: Avotaynu, 2009); Boulevard of Dreams: Heady Times, Heartbreak, and Hope along the Grand Concourse in the Bronx (Constance Rosenblum, New York: NYU Press, 2009); Social Networking for Genealogists (Drew Smith, Baltimore, MD.: Genealogical Publishing Co., 2009); Jewish Pirates of the Caribbean (Edward Kritzler, New York: Random House, 2008).
Vol. 31, No. 1, Fall 2009. JGS has its own Facebook page at <www.facebook.com/home.php?filter=lf#group. php?gid=62112838856&ref=searsch&sid=1424416892.508558736..1>. <> Steve Stein describes the United States of 1940. U.S. Census of 1940 will be made public April 2, 2012, using a digital format. <> List of free online historical map collections plus sites with map-related functions. Key mapping tools are <www.bing.com/maps>, <http:// maps.google.com>, and Mapcruncher for overlays. <> New public hours for the New York Public Library and the National Archives and Records Administration. <> Two Jewish genealogists are elected to Board of Directors, Association of Professional Genealogists. <> Many types of Estonian records are available in digital format online <www. ra.ee/dgs/explorer.php> in Estonian. Ken Blady sets out the history of so-called Russian Jewry and describes immigrant life in turn-of-century New York, employing a wonderful variety of Yiddish words. <> Book reviews: Yiddish Given Names: A Lexicon (Rella Israly Cohn, Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2008); Evidence Explained: Citing History Sources from Artifacts to Cyberspace, 2d ed. (Elizabeth Shown Mills, Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., 2009).
Oregon Vol. 20, Winter 2010
Shalshelet
Part II of Arnold Shirek Chamove’s trip to Ukraine (Nikolaev/Mykolayiv and Balta), an adaptation of his Ukraine SIG correspondence. Balta sits on the old border between Turkey, the Ottoman Empire, and Poland. Head of the Balta Jewish Community (Vadiem Vienyarsky) pointed out the homes of Jewish merchants distinguished by street-facing, rather than rear garden-facing doors. <> Gesher Galicia reports that Dick Koops is developing a searchable, illustrated database of Lviv addresses. <> New York State businesses and professionals have searchable websites e.g., <http://appsext8.dos.state.ny.us/corp_public/corpsearch.entity_search_entry> and <www.op.nysed.gov/opsearches. htm>. United Kingdom records are now available at the fee-based site <www.findmypast.co.uk>.
San Francisco Vol. 29, No. 4, Nov./Dec. 2009
ZichronNote
Negotiations are underway for JGS meeting places and dates. <> U.S. military service records provided documentation for addressing pension claims. Compiled Military Service Records (CMSR) sped claim processing by gathering abstracts of different records in one place. Organization is by unit and, within unit, by surname. Jeff Lewy explains the background of CMSR and how to use the information. Reprinted JewishGen InfoFile by Dan Leeson points to the need for research to answer genealogical questions. <> Elementary DNA science.
Washington, DC Vol. 29, No. 1, Winter 2009–2010
Mishpacha
Bill Yoffee explains the utility of subscription lists and the photographic tricks that enhanced pictures of Bernstein family gravestones from Philadelphia’s Har Jehuda Cemetery. <> Margarita Lacko began with grandmother Kornelia Fischer’s 1924 marriage record, obtained from the Budapest Jewish Community Center. She pored over registers from Gyongos and nearby towns for people with familiar surnames. Note that when Jewish residents of one town attended synagogue in another town, you should check the registers from both communities. <> Peter Lande explains the research value of the USHMM Name List Catalog <http://resources.ushmm.org/Holocaust-Names/List-Catalog/ search>, Yad Vashem’s Shoah-related Lists Database <www.yadvashem.org/lwp/workplace/listoflists>, and the ITS Inventory Search “Inventar” <www.its-arolsen.org> or <http://resources.ushmm.org/itsinventory/home.php>. <> Leonard Lobred shares his DC-area resource list for veterans of the U.S. sea services.
Special Interest Groups
Gesher Galicia Vol. 17, No. 1, November 2009
The Galitzianer
Online cadastral maps and landowner records will be moved to a members-only site by 2011. <> Images of ancestral houses in Lviv are available online at <www.jewishgen.org/galicia/projects/lviv_photography_project/>. Addresses photographed are those identified by members of the Special Interest Group. The effort and copyright belong to Dick Koop. <> An English translation of the yizkor book Sefer Skala (Skala Benevolent Society, 1978) will be printed by the Skala Research Group about March 2010. <> New town research groups will focus on Borszczow, Czortkow, and Mielnica (independently and as part of the Suchostaw Regional Research Group) plus Kalush. <> In the first two chapters of Lemberg to Warsaw, Jacob (Leopold) “Poldek” Weiss provides a memoir of pre-World War II L’viv (Lemberg). <> Morton Lang describes how his Polish father, Joseph Lang, evaded immigration quotas and created a business in pre-World War II Montreal. <> Moritz Lehrmann (Henry Lehrman) was one of several Galitzianers in the early Hollywood film industry. His accomplishments included partnering with Mack Sennett to create Keystone comedies. Thomas Reeder requests any information available about Lehrmann’s early life in Europe (address messages to Thomas-Reeder@live.com). <> Janette Silverman arranged to visit ancestral towns of Zhytomyr, Gusyatin, Skalat, Ternopil, Kolomyya, and Nadvirna, plus the regional archive at Ivano-Frankivsk. <> Milton Goldsamt shares his list of roughly 40 online resources for researching Krakow, Poland. <> Book reviews: Memories from the Abyss (William Tannenzapf) with But I Had a Happy Childhood (Renate Krakauer) (both from Azrieli Foundation, 2009); The Shoah in Ukraine: History, Testimony, Memorialization (Ray Brandon and Wendy Lower, eds., Indiana University Press, 2008).
Sefarade Vol. 12, No. 46, September 2009
Etsi
Penultimate issue before this publication ends for lack of funds. <> Rabbi Avner-Israel Hasserfarty (1827–84) wrote a reference on the Jewish community of Morocco, particularly the city of Fez (Yahas Fez) (Chronicle of Fez), 1879. His chronicle dates creation of the mellah (Jewish Quarter) to 1438. <> Laurence Abensur-Hazan introduces acceptable and non-acceptable individuals in the Italian Franchetti dynasty.
