September 2006

Logo-dark blue

JGSLA DATES AND UPDATES

JEWISH GENEALOGICAL SOCIETY of LOS ANGELES
P.O. Box 55443 , Sherman Oaks, CA 91413
JGSLA.ORG – (818) 771-5554

September 2006

· Program for Sunday, September 10, 2006 ·

“Common Interest Group Meetings & SIG Updates”
and
“Highlights of the 2006 IAJGS New York Conference”

1 – 2 p. m. “Common Interest Group Meetings & SIG Updates”

Small groups of JGSLA members who have a common interest in a particular geographical area will have the opportunity to network with other members to share research strategies and resources. Members who attended the SIG (Special Interest Group) meetings at the New York conference will share the latest updates and information with each group. These meetings will run concurrently, so please plan to participate in only one group. The Groups will be for these regions: Poland, Lithuania, Belarus, Ukraine*, Galicia*, Hungary*.

To learn more about Jewishgen SIGs for these areas, refer to the indicated website.

Lithuania: [ www.jewishgen.org/Litvak] Belarus: [ www.jewishgen.org/Belarus]
Ukraine : [ www.jewishgen.org/Ukraine] Galicia: [ www.jewishgen.org/Galicia]
Hungary : [ www.jewishgen.org/Hungary]

* As defined by the JewishGen SIG groups:

Ukraine includes Podolia, Volhynia, Kherson, Kiev, Ekaterinoslav, Chernigov, Kharkov, Poltava, and Taurida provinces of the Russian Empire.

Galicia includes provinces of the former Austro-Hungarian Empire – today western Ukraine and eastern Poland.

Hungary (pre-Trianon Hungary) includes present-day Hungary and Slovakia and lands that are now within Romania, the Ukraine, Austria, Croatia, Bosnia, and Serbia.

If you have expertise or have had significant success researching in one of the particular areas listed above, we ask that you step forward and share your information with others in the Group. Please bring any books, maps, directories, printouts, information about specific websites, etc. that you may have available about your particular area of research.

If you are not sure to which group your town belongs, consult the SIG websites listed above, or [ www.jewishgen.org/ShtetlSeeker] prior to the meeting.

2 – 4 p. m. “Highlights of the 2006 IAJGS New York Conference”

JGSLA members who attended the IAJGS conference in New York will discuss the presentations they found most enlightening and entertaining. They will discuss new genealogical research and databases presented and report on interesting lectures they attended. Clips from some of the genealogical and regional films presented at the conference will also be screened.

Location: University Synagogue – Klein Hall, 11960 Sunset Blvd., Los Angeles.

From the San Fernando Valley, take the 405 south and exit at Sunset. Turn left from the off-ramp, then right on to Sunset. Drive one mile on Sunset going west, then turn left on Saltair, and left into the parking lot. From the south, take the 405 north, exit on Sunset, turn left on Sunset, and turn left on Saltair.

Attendance/Parking Fees: Free for JGSLA members, $5 for others. Non-members are invited to join ($25 annual dues). Parking is free.

WWI German/Austrian Jewish soldiers
Nancy Biederman [NKBper@aol.com] The German War Memorial Website features a database of fallen soldiers of the German and Austrian armed forces [ www.denkmalprojekt.org/Verlustlisten/rjf_wk1.htm]. It includes the RJF Memorial Book (Gedenkbuch des Reichsbund Jüdischer Frontsoldaten), which memorializes Jewish World War I casualties of the German armed forces in Berlin, Hamburg, Elsaß-Lothringen, Frankfurt am Main, Königsberg, München, Posen, Schlesien, and Deutsche Schutzgebiete. See [ www.denkmalprojekt.org/en.htm] for instructions in English. The search engine is case sensitive, requiring surnames in all capital letters, and first names and place names (German spelling) with only initial capital letters.

Bremen Passenger Lists
Bobby Furst [bobby1st@sprynet.com]

The Bremen Passenger Lists, 1920-1939 contains about 635,000 names. The database can be searched by name, date of departure, destination harbors and hometowns of the passengers. Searches are free [ www.passengerlists.de].

London and U.K. Maps
Bobby Furst [bobby1st@sprynet.com]

Check the MAPCO website for a series of very high quality maps of London and the U.K. One example is a beautifully detailed 1877 Map of London clearly showing the boundaries of parishes, ecclesiastical districts and poor law divisions [ www.archivemaps.com/mapco/parish/parish.htm].

Moldova or Bessarabia Research
Sandy Malek [sandymalek@aol.com]

For those with research interests in Moldova or Bessarabia, here are two websites to check out. They are in English. Go to [ www.jewish.md] and [ www.chabad.md].

New York Cemeteries
Bobby Furst [bobby1st@sprynet.com]

A searchable database for Mt. Zion Cemetery in Maspeth, Queens, New York is now available and can be found at [ www.mountzioncemetery.com]. It offers the same search capabilities as [ www.mounthebroncemetery.com] and [ www.mountcarmelcemetery.com], the databases for other New York cemeteries.

All US Federal Censuses now on Ancestry.com

Ancestry has now completed digitizing and indexing all available US Censuses from 1790 through 1930. Ancestry is a commercial service to which you must subscribe. However, you can access it for free at some libraries, including UCLA and the FHL. Periodically, free one-year subscriptions to Ancestry are offered with the purchase of Family Tree Maker (FTM). Watch for when FTM is on sale and you can get a real bargain.

Facts from the Stacks
Barbara Algaze [barbara@jgsla.org]
The JGSLA booklist of our entire collection has been updated and is on the shelves for you to use to find the resources you need for your research. The updated booklist is also posted on our website so you can check it out before you make the drive to the FHC. We are in the process of installing shelf markers so that you can more easily find the area of research that you need: e.g. Russian, Polish, Family Histories, New York, Holocaust, etc.

We now have four JGSLA members volunteering at the Family History Center to help you with your research. Meryl Rizzotti and Barbara Algaze are there on Tuesdays and Gerry Winerman and Yale Zuckerman are there on Thursdays.

There have been many new books added to our shelves for your use. The following books were purchased from the JGSLA Library Fund. When you are celebrating a Mitzvah, consider making a donation to our Library Fund. We use it to purchase new and valuable items for our members to use in their research.

  • A Dictionary of German-Jewish Surnames by Lars Menk.
  • Encyclopedia of Jewish Life Before and During the Holocaust , VI and VIII (Volume VII was donated) edited by Shmuel Spector.
  • Genealogical Resources within the Jewish Home and Family by Rosemary Wenzerul
  • Guidebook for Sephardic and Oriental Genealogical Sources in Israel By Mathilde Tagger and Yitzhak Kerem.
  • Jewish Ancestors? – Series published by the JGS of Great Britain
    • A Guide to Jewish Genealogy in Lithuania by Sam Aaron
    • A Guide to Jewish Genealogy in the United Kingdom by Rosemary Wenzerul
    • A Guide to Organizing your Family History Records by Rosemary Wenzerul
    • A Guide to reading Hebrew Inscriptions and Documents by Rosemary Wenzerul
  • Latvia : Synagogues & Rabbis 1918-1940 [English, Hebrew, Latvian, and Russian] by Menachem Barkan
  • The Jewish Victorian: Genealogical Information from the Jewish Newspapers 1861 – 1870 transcribed and edited by Doreen Berger

Share Your Hints and News

Please let us know of major family events, brief research stories, exciting research successes and research hints so that they can be shared in Dates & Updates. Send your input to Hal Bookbinder, D&U Editor [hal@jgsla.org].

Consider Serving the JGSLA and Yourself

The JGSLA Board consists of 12 elected directors. Each year, one-third of their terms expire. Each September, a nominating committee is formed to develop a slate of recommended candidates to join, or continue to serve, on the board. Nominations are then determined at the November general meeting and elections are conducted in December. New board members begin their three-year term on January 1 st.

As a member of the board, you will be helping others pursue their Jewish roots by deciding on the programming, projects, library and resource acquisitions, community participation and other activities of the JGSLA.

Board members meet on a monthly basis. Each board member assumes a role on behalf of the society, including such things as publicity, programming, projects, newsletter, librarian, etc. These roles are critically important for the successful continuity of the organization. It also places the board member in a great position to be aware of what is going on in the world of Jewish Genealogy, its latest resources and its challenges.

If you are interested in serving, please drop a note to Sonia Hoffman [president@jgsla.org] or Nancy Beiderman [treasurer@jgsla.org].

Breaking Thru Brick Walls

Below are some of the hints and web sites Hal Bookbinder mentioned in his June presentation to the JGSLA

  • [ www.privateeye.com] Can be used to locate relatives and their co-located families. It can even be used to locate females where only the first name and date of birth are known.
  • [ www.anywho.com] One of many online phone directories. After finding someone, try doing a reverse search on the phone number and you might identify additional family members.
  • [ www.stevemorse.org] Use the white rather than the blue form when searching the Ellis Island records through the Morse one-step web site. Many Jewish passengers were not noted as such and so will not be found using the blue form.
  • [ www.jewishgen.org/ShtetlSeeker/] This website can be used to determine how far apart two towns were, which can be helpful in identifying your family shtetl.
  • [ www.wikipedia.com] This is an amazing on-line encyclopedia with more than 1.2 million articles. Look up your ancestral town.
  • [ www.google.com] Some ideas were shared for creative Google’ing, including using its advanced search features to screen out pages that are of little interest to you.

[ www.archive.org/web/web.php] This website provides access to a database of prior versions of web pages. It can be interesting, but hasn’t been updated in about 18 months.

Jewish Burials in Massachusetts
Eastman Genealogy newsletter [www.blog.eogn.com] The Jewish Cemetery Association of Massachusetts has placed 55,000 burial records of the association’s more than 100 cemeteries online. Access to this database is free. To search it, go to [ www.jcam.org], click on “Services,” and then click on “Genealogical Search” and enter the name (or just the first four letters of the last name). Next, click on SEARCH. The results returned show the name, burial location, name of cemetery, street name, and date of death of each record that matches the parameters you entered. Some records may not be available for lack of date-of-death information. Due to poor record keeping from years ago, in some instances, information may be incorrect. Records are only available for the Jewish Cemetery Association of Massachusetts’ cemeteries. Naturalization Index, LA County, 1852-1915
Southern California Genealogical Society
[ www.scgsgenealogy.com]

The Southern California Genealogical Society has announced the publication of a new three-volume series: The Naturalization Index of the Superior Court for Los Angeles County, California 1852-1915. The index includes mention of every naturalization transaction (Declaration of Intent, Final Papers, denials, etc.) that occurred in LA County Superior court. The index includes more than 40,000 entries, with close to 27,000 unique names and more than 350 countries or combinations of countries or origin, i.e., Hungary-Canada-Great Britain. The three volumes are available for purchase separately or as a three-volume set. The publication can be ordered through the SCGS website

Wisconsin , Illinois and Arizona Vital Records Free and Online
Bobby Furst [bobby1st@sprynet.com]

JGSLA welcomes the following new members

Maris Bredt
Galya Pillin-Tarmu
Marv Walker