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Tammy Hepps – Ten Things I Learned about My Family from My Couch
October 26, 2014 @ 1:30 pm - 4:30 pm EST
at Temple Emanuel
New to genealogy and short on time? You can make amazing discoveries using online resources! These true research examples, all taken from Jewish immigrant families, demonstrate the breadth of materials available, especially Jewish-focused web sites, and suggest next steps for when you have time to go deeper. A number of Jewish-specific research techniques will be discussed to help you overcome the unique challenges of our ancestry. The handout for the talk can be found here.
Tammy A. Hepps is the founder of Treelines.com, a family story-sharing website and winner of the RootsTech 2013 Developer Challenge. With a degree in Computer Science from Harvard, more than fourteen years experience in digital media, and more than two decades in genealogy, she brings a fresh perspective on sharing family history in engaging ways that take advantage of the latest technology.
Get Tammy’s handout here.
Spotlight Talk*: By the Rivers of Babylon: The Story of the Jews of Baghdad
Speaker – Sam Shamoon
Sam Shamoon will talk about the Jews of Baghdad – their history and their lives in the 20th century. He will begin with the Babylonian captivity in 586 BCE and conclude with the decimation of the Jewish community by the mid 20th century.
Sam Shamoon was born in Bombay, India, shortly after his parents fled from Baghdad, Iraq, in the aftermath of a horrific pogrom known as the Farhud. During his youth, his family moved to Teheran, Iran, where many Baghdadi Jews lived. Sam came to the U.S. in 1963, and settled in Rhode Island where he serves on many boards including the Touro Synagogue Foundation.
*Spotlight talk is a short talk that follows the main lecture
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.