Valerie Edwards The Double Life of Szmul Jedwabinski

Valerie Edwards  will speak about “The Double Life of Szmul Jedwabinski”, an intriguing family detective story. There was a legend in the family that grandfather Samuel Edwin of Chicago had a second family in New York. Using DNA matching, interviews with family members, life events and movements from Poland to New York to Chicago, and archival records in Poland and the United States, Valerie Edwards investigated whether Samuel Edwin, Samuel Edwards and Szmul Jedwabinski were in fact the same person with two different families in two different cities. Follow Valerie Edwards on her journey as she uncovers the facts behind the legend.

Valerie Edwards is an urban planner with the Los Angeles Unified School District, where she leads teams that coordinate school choice modeling and develop online initiatives to improve data analysis and operational processing.  Prior to joining the LAUSD, she was head of Strategic and Capital Planning for the Boston Public Schools from 1996 through 2005.

From 1975 until 1994, Valerie was a noted professional oboist and English hornist, performing with the Boston Pops Esplanade and Boston Symphony Orchestras, as well as with the New Japan Philharmonic Orchestra of Tokyo, Japan. She appeared as English horn soloist on the soundtrack of the motion picture “Schindler’s List”, recorded with conductor-composer John Williams and the Boston Symphony Orchestra in 1993.

Valerie loves movies. She studied film making at Los Angeles City College’s Department of Cinema and TV Production from 2011 – 2015, has produced three award-winning short student films, and hosts Shomrei Torah Synagogue’s annual film series in West Hills, CA.

Valerie is passionate about family history and genealogy, and has been building her family tree for over 25 years. Nothing makes her happier than the process of discovery and sharing adventures in genealogy with other family history enthusiasts!