In her second talk, Schelly Talalay Dardashti will cover the resources available for searching for family from Belarus. She will overview key historical events and their impact on the Jewish community. Finally she will discuss Mogilev and its Jews, presenting family trees, family archival records, and photos that focus on the Sephardic connection in Mogilev.

Pioneer Jewish genealogy columnist (Jerusalem Post, “It’s All Relative,” 1999-2005) and blogger (“Tracing the Tribe: The Jewish Genealogy Blog,” since 2006)  Schelly Talalay Dardashti is the US Genealogy Advisor for MyHeritage.com. Her noted articles have appeared in Avotaynu, NGS Quarterly, The Forward, and Hadassah, among others. She co-administers the IberianAshkenaz DNA Project at FamilyTreeDNA.com, which has successfully confirmed the Sephardic origins of some Eastern European Ashkenazi families.

Research Help

12:30 pm – come early to join the following discussion groups:

Ask the Experts – for help with U.S. research
Bessarabia Special Interest Group
Litvak-Baltic Special Interest Group (covers Lithuania, Latvia & Estonia)
Poland Special Interest Group

4:00 pm – meet with the new Belarus Special Interest Group

Admission is free for members, $5 for non-members. Refreshments will be served.