Yad Vashem today is in a situation similar to that of 19th-century England—having started the Industrial Revolution, its machines became outdated before those of other countries who had started their industrial development later. Yad Vashem’s database, online since 2004, was […]
Online Polish Resources for Tracing Ancestry
This article surveys online resources that help genealogists determine where records were created and where they are found. Determining place names and jurisdictions are the basic skills a researcher must develop when searching for a Polish ancestor in the place […]
Using the Hebrew Calendar to Solve Date Discrepancies in Genealogical Records
Genealogists concern themselves with names, dates, and places, but they can be located and understood only in terms of the context in which they existed. Accurate dates are indispensible for many reasons—the scheduling of religious observances and the discovery of […]
Using Family Finder DNA Analysis To Unravel an Intricate Problem
Some genealogical problems seem destined never to be solved. However, the new Family Finder DNA analysis introduced by Family Tree DNA (FTDNA) in May 2010 solved a seemingly intractable problem that had resisted all efforts at solution for nearly 10 […]
Mechanize Your Pages of Testimony Submissions
Yad Vashem’s ongoing program of encouraging world Jewry to submit Pages of Testimony (POTs) on behalf of family victims of the Holocaust has given heightened priority to aging survivors and other eyewitnesses of those times who may not live much […]
Book Review: Promised New Zealand: Fleeing Nazi Persecution, by Freya Klier
Promised New Zealand: Fleeing Nazi Persecution by Freya Klier (Otago University Press) 2009. Translated by Jenny Rawlings. 256 pp. NZ$45.00. Available from http://www.amazon.com/Promised-New-Zealand-Fleeing-Persecution/dp/1877372765 Originally published by Aufbau Taschenbuch in Germany in 2006 as Gelobtes Neuseeland: Fluchten ans Ende Der Weld, this […]
Book Review: Pleasant Are Their Names: Jewish Names in the Sephardic Diaspora, by Aaron Demsky, editor
Pleasant Are Their Names: Jewish Names in the Sephardic Diaspora. Bethesda, Md.: University Press of Maryland, 2010, $35.00 Professor Aaron Demsky, editor of this new book focusing on Jewish names in the Sephardic diaspora, serves as director of Bar-Ilan University’s […]
Book Review: Beyond the Pale: The Jewish Encounter with Late Imperial Russia, by Benjamin Nathans
Beyond the Pale: The Jewish Encounter with Late Imperial Russia, by Benjamin Nathans, Berkeley: University of California Press, 2002. xvii + 424 pp. $26.95. At a recent genealogy society meeting, someone commented that her ancestor had lived in St. Petersburg […]
Bibliography for Records of the Former Soviet Union
At the IAJGS conference in Los Angeles, July 2010, Professor Benjamin Nathans presented a report on the archives of the former Soviet Union. As part of his talk, Professor Nathans distributed the following list of sources. His book, Beyond the […]
In Search of the Ciechanower Rebbe Connection
This is an article about the methodology I used in an attempt to prove (or disprove) a family tale of connection to a famous rabbi, the Ciechanower rebbe. It revolves around my grandfather, Simon Landau, who was born in Lodz, […]
Restitution of Holocaust Victims’ Property in Israel and Genealogy
Restitution of Holocaust Victims’ Property in This article is adapted from a presentation at the IAJGS conference in Los Angeles, July 2010—Ed. From the start of the 20th century—and especially during the 1920s and 30s—American and European Jews, many […]
A Different Approach to Polish Research
This article first appeared in the e-report of the Australian Jewish Genealogical Society, (Sydney), July 2010— Ed. Researching my father’s paternal Nachemstein side over 25 years has yielded wonderful results both in record retrieval and in finding and meeting cousins […]
Genealogical Methodology Used in a Biographical Research Project
Genealogical methodology, combined with knowledge of the historical context in which a subject lived, are valuable tools when constructing biographies—especially when we know little about the personal lives of our (even otherwise well-known) subjects. Several approaches are useful in […]
Exploring Cemeteries and Byways in Ukraine
From May 17 to June 1, 2010, I traveled in Ukraine, spending 15 days visiting 18 cities, towns, and villages looking for traces of Jewish life and records of my family’s residence there. My parents and grandparents all immigrated to […]
Nineteenth-Century Jewish Civil Records In Southern Germany
This article is adapted from a presentation at the IAJGS conference in Los Angeles, July 2010—Ed. Most Jewish genealogists researching their European ancestry eventually confront 19th-century civil records, but the variety of types and forms of such documents may be […]
Jewish Agricultural Colonies in Kansas
This article is adapted from a presentation at the IAJGS conference in Los Angeles, July 2010.—Ed. I had the record of his New York 1881 arrival from Russia. The New York City directories clearly listed Jacob Warschawski as a printer; […]
USHMM Resources For Attendees of 2011 IAJGS Conference
Those who attend the DC2011 IAJGS conference in August 2011 will have an opportunity to conduct research at three major institutions: the U.S. Library of Congress, National Archives and Records Administration, and the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM). This […]
YadPOT: An Aid to Creating Pages of Testimony
In its Hall of Names, Yad Vashem, the Israeli Holocaust memorial in Jerusalem, has documented half of all Holocaust victims, three million of them. Another three million, the second half, remain unmemorialized. Former chief archivist, Yaacov Lozowick, noted some years […]
Three Steps To Use DNA Testing To Determine If Families Are Related
My maternal great-grandmother’s maiden name, Leidesdorf, is relatively uncommon, and family lore is rich in fantastic tales about purported relatives from multiple European cities who were fabulously rich, extremely famous, and/or incredibly successful. Over three decades, I had accumulated information […]
Jewish Vital Records in the Polish State Archives Not Listed Elsewhere
LDS (Mormon) microfilms of Jewish vital records from Poland are the most convenient sources of Jewish vital records.1 Although Miriam Weiner’s Routes to Roots website <www.rtrfoundation.org> does not include copies of records themselves, it is another highly useful […]
World War II Arrivals in Switzerland
The Geneva (Switzerland) Cantonal Archives has posted a list of 25,604 names of persons who entered Switzerland through Geneva during World War II at <http: //etat.geneve.ch/dt/archives/a_votre_service-liste_refugies-1700. html>. Specific dates are not given. The information for each individual includes name, (including […]
Book Review: The Life of Glückel of Hameln, Written by Herself. Translated and edited by Beth-Zion Abrahams.
The Life of Glückel of Hameln, Written by Herself. Translated from the original Yiddish and edited by Beth-Zion Abrahams. New edition published in hardcover by the Jewish Publication Society, Philadelphia, 2010. <www.jewishpub.org> If, as historian Jacob Shatzky once observed, catastrophe […]
Book Review: The Rise of the Toronto Jewish Community, by Shmuel Mayer Shapiro
Toronto: Now and Then Books, 2010; softcover, 170 pp. Price: $22. Order from <www.now andthenbookstoronto.com>. The Jew in Canada, ed. Arthur D. Hart. Originally published in 1926; abridged facsimile edition Now and Then Books, cost: 2010. softcover, large format, 466 […]
The Myth of Impossible Proof: Modern Genealogy Methods and a Holocaust Fraud
This article first appeared in Association of Professional Genealogists Quarterly 23 (June 2008): 65–71—Ed. Persuasive arguments may cloud good judgment. When researchers are persuaded to see fiction as fact, they may overlook or ignore evidence. “Conventional wisdom,” scarce sources, unproductive […]
Geospatial Genealogy: Visualizing and Exploring Ancestral Places
A version of this article was presented at the 10th Annual Family History Technology Workshop (FHTW) held on April 28, 2010, in Salt Lake City, Utah, and also was published in the Workshop proceedings—Ed. A poignant film, the name of […]
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