A Research Afternoon
Sunday, December 5, 1999 — 1:30pm to 4:30pm
Temple Reyim, West Newton
Come and spend the day using the research materials of the Jewish Genealogical Society of Greater Boston. Experts in Massachusetts, Polish, Lithuanian, Belarussian and other research areas will be there to assist you. A mini-talk on naturalization records will be given before the research by Al Luftman.
Admission: Free for members of JGSGB or Temple Reyim; $3 for non-members. Refreshments will be served.
For information phone: 617-796-8522. Email: JGSGB@aol.com.
Temple Reyim, 1860 Washington Street (Route 16), Newton (near the Newton-Wellesley Hospital, between Routes 128 and 30 — a short walk from the Woodland Stop on the Green Line). Click here for directions.
Getting Started in Your Family Research
Patti Couture and Jim Yarin
Sunday, November 14, 1999 — 2:00pm to 5:00pm
Temple Reyim, West Newton
This will be a three hour class of instruction, with explanations of how to use genealogical research sites and resources. It will be taught by Jim Yarin and Patti Couture.
Patti is co-President of the JGSGB with a depth of experience in Jewish as well as French-Canadien genealogy. Jim is a lawyer and professional genealogist with great expertise in all kinds of records for genealogical research.
Admission: Free for members of JGSGB or Temple Reyim; $10 for non-members. Course Materials: $10 per set.
Refreshments will be served. For information phone: 617-796-8522. Email: JGSGB@aol.com.
Temple Reyim, 1860 Washington Street (Route 16), Newton (near the Newton-Wellesley Hospital, between Routes 128 and 30 — a short walk from the Woodland Stop on the Green Line). Click here for directions.
“Our Night at the Archives”
Tuesday, October 19, 1999 — 6:30pm-9:00pm
National Archives, New England Region, 380 Trapelo Road, Waltham, MA.
The National Archives, New England Region holds many records for genealogical research, including the U.S. Federal Census (1790-1920); Passenger Arrival Reco
rds for Boston and other New England ports; New England Naturalization Records, Canadian Border Crossing records, WWI Draft Registration Card for New England, Russian Consular Records, and WWII War Crimes records.
For a complete list of the National Archives’ relevant holdings, see Resources for Jewish Genealogy in the Boston Area, (Boston: JGSGB, 1996).
This meeting will include an orientation lecture and over two hours of open research time. Archives staff and experienced JGSGB members will be available to help anyone who needs assistance. Microfilm copiers are available, so bring quarters.
This meeting is open to JGSGB members only — you may join at the door. Beginners and those wishing to join please come at 6:00pm, others at 6:30pm. Orientation promptly at 6:10 and 6:25pm. Refreshments will be served.
Directions:
- From Route 128: Exit at Trapelo Road (Exit 28A) and continue east on Trapelo Road for 2.8 miles to the National Archives, on the right side of the road.
- From Boston: Take Storrow Drive, follow signs for Route 2. Cross the Charles River at the Eliot Bridge, bear right but keep left, left on Mt. Auburn Street till it forks, bear right onto Belmont Street. When Belmont Street forks, bear right onto Trapelo Road, follow for 2.4 miles to National Archives on the left.
“Saudades: Nostalgic Yearnings”
by Steve Gorban and Dr. Manuel Luciano DaSilva
Tuesday, September 28, 1999 — 6:30pm to 9:30pm
Temple Reyim, West Newton
Steve Gorban will describe the Sepharad and Saudades Projects which attempt to connect the Iberian and Jewish communities of New England, lowering the historic veil between them to reveal glimpses of mutual yearnings and cultural memory.
Dr. Da Silva will subsequently describe the “Odyssey of the Portuguese Jews”, illustrated by slides taken on his recent trip through Portugal to sites of a glorious Jewish Sephardic past.
The talks will begin at 7:30. There will be time for research in the JGSGB resource materials from 6:30 to 7:30 and after the program.
Please join us. Refreshments will be served.
Admission: Free for members, $3 for non-members. You may join at the door.
Temple Reyim, 1860 Washington Street (Route 16), Newton (near the Newton-Wellesley Hospital, between Routes 128 and 30 — a short walk from the Woodland Stop on the Green Line). Click here for directions.
19th Annual Conference on Jewish Genealogy
August 8th – 13th, 1999
Marriott Marquis Hotel, New York City
You don’t want to miss the exciting schedule of workshops, lectures and meetings that is being planned for the 1999 conference in New York City. Whether you are just beginning your family research or have been researching your ancestors for many years and now consider yourself an advanced genealogist, you will find programs of interest and have the opportunity to check out New York’s wealth of historical and genealogical resources.
Sponsored by the Jewish Genealogical Society, Inc. of New York.
Genealogy Pops
Dick Eastman: “Online Genealogy – the Good and the Bad”
Sunday, June 13, 1999 — 3:00-6:00pm
Temple Reyim, West Newton
Join us for a fun afternoon. Dick Eastman, an internationally known genealogist and author of Your Roots, will speak on “Online Genealogy – the Good and the Bad”. A sharing session on “Your Worst Problem” will follow. Donald (not Keith) Lockhart will entertain us with Klezmer music as we have special refreshments at Pops-style tables. Come and celebrate another wonderful genealogical year!
Research materials will NOT be available that day.
$3 fee for non-members. No charge for members. You may join at the door.
Temple Reyim, 1860 Washington Street (Route 16), Newton (near the Newton-Wellesley Hospital, between Routes 128 and 30 — a short walk from the Woodland Stop on the Green Line). Click here for directions.
Roots and Ruses: Computer Tools for the Genealogist
Steve Kyner, founder of The Computer Genealogist
Sunday, May 2, 1999 — 2:00-5:00pm
Temple Reyim, West Newton
Genealogical research and data keeping becomes much easier and productive by using a computer — for updating and linking information, sharing data, searching tables and trees, retrieving information from on-line databases, etc.
As noted in a recent Time Magazine article, Steve Kyner has been a long time pioneer in this field, and whether you are a novice with computers or an experienced user, he will have instructive and interesting information and advice for you, including a discussion of the most recent genealogy programs.
The talk will begin at 3 pm. The society’s resources will be available for use from 2:00 to 3:00 and also after the talk.
Please join us. Refreshments will be served.
$3 fee for non-members. No charge for members. You may join at the door.
Temple Reyim, 1860 Washington Street (Route 16), Newton (near the Newton-Wellesley Hospital, between Routes 128 and 30 — a short walk from the Woodland Stop on the Green Line). Click here for directions.
Genealogical Research in New York
Steven Siegel
Sunday, April 4, 1999 — 2:00-5:00pm
Temple Reyim, West Newton
Do you have a New York connection somewhere in your family tree? Have you heard about New York’s new Center for Jewish History? How can one city consist of five counties? When’s the last time you were in New York?
New York…Gateway to America: The 19th Annual Conference on Jewish Genealogy — to be held in New York City, August 8-13, 1999 — offers a unique opportunity to do research in the city’s archives and libraries and to participate in more than a hundred lectures, workshops, meetings, tours and other events.
Our speaker will provide an overview of the dozens of research facilities in New York City and the surrounding area, with particular emphasis on those repositories consulted by Jewish genealogists. These include: The New York Public Library, New York City Municipal Archives, National Archives – Northeast Region (NYC), County Clerk’s offices and Surrogate’s Courts in the city’s five boroughs, and several Jewish research libraries.
New York City can be both a rewarding and a confusing place for genealogical research. Learn some practical techniques to maximize your time and minimize your frustration. For example, the genealogical holdings of several New York repositories are on microfilm through the LDS Family History Centers and may be consulted in advance.
Our speaker also will present a detailed preview of the Conference and answer your many questions about genealogical research in New York City.
Steven W. Siegel is the library director and archivist at the 92nd Street Young Men’s and Young Women’s Hebrew Association in Manhattan, where he has worked for 20 years. He is a founding member and past president of the Jewish Genealogical Society, Inc. (New York City) and served as managing editor of Dorot, the society’s quarterly publication. From 1995 to 1997, he was a member of the Board of Directors of the Association of Jewish Genealogical Societies.
He is currently president of the Jewish Historical Society of New York, a board member of the Jewish Book Council, and chair of the Documentary Heritage Program Advisory Council of the Metropolitan New York Library Council.
An expert in New York City records and history, Steven is the editor of the forthcoming revised edition of Genealogical Resources in the New York Metropolitan Area. He was a contributor to The Encyclopedia of New York City and to Jewish Women in America: An Historical Encyclopedia. He compiled the Archival Resources volume of Jewish Immigrants of the Nazi Period in the USA, and was co-founder and co-editor of Toledot: The Journal of Jewish Genealogy.
The talk will begin at 3 pm. The society’s resources will be available for use from 2:00 to 3:00 and also after the talk.
Please join us. Refreshments will be served.
$3 fee for non-members. No charge for members. You may join at the door.
Temple Reyim, 1860 Washington Street (Route 16), Newton (near the Newton-Wellesley Hospital, between Routes 128 and 30 — a short walk from the Woodland Stop on the Green Line). Click here for directions.
Presentation on Yizkor Books
Martin Kessel
Sunday, March 21, 1999 — 2:00-5:00pm
Temple Reyim, West Newton
Martin Kessel, Project Manager of JewishGen’s Yizkor Book Project, will give a talk on yizkor books and the genealogical resources they contain. Yizkor books contain a wealth of details concerning the Jewish communities of pre-Holocaust Europe, including descriptions and histories, photographs, and names of those who perished. The JewishGen Yizkor Book Project has already resulted in the translation of portions of over 70 yizkor books, with the translations available on-line. Researchers may access the Yizkor Book Database through JewishGen to see which communities are covered by yizkor books, to determine whether other researchers share a common interest in a particular book, and to view the partial translations as they become available. Mr. Kessel will describe the rich sources of information to be mined from the database and from the books themselves.
The talk will begin at 3 pm. The society’s resources will be available for use from 2:00 to 3:00 and also after the talk.
Please join us. Refreshments will be served.
$3 fee for non-members. No charge for members. You may join at the door.
Temple Reyim, 1860 Washington Street (Route 16), Newton (near the Newton-Wellesley Hospital, between Routes 128 and 30 — a short walk from the Woodland Stop on the Green Line). Click here for directions.
Ukraine, Lithuania and Latvia
Slide Show and Resource Night
Donald Lockhart
Sunday, February 21, 1999 — 6:00-9:00pm
Temple Reyim, West Newton
Mass-Pocha Co-Editor, Donald Lockhart, will take you on a slide show tour of former shtetls, Jewish cemeteries and archives in Ukraine, Lithuania and Latvia, based on his visit to those countries this past summer. He will discuss how he prepared for the trip, how he found interpreters, how he discovered archival documents concerning his wife’s family, how he located rural Jewish cemeteries and photographed all the headstones in them, and how he met with villagers who told him about the history of the Jewish communities in these towns and about his wife’s family. Among the slides will be close up photographs of some of the documents Mr. Lockhart discovered. Mr. Lockhart was a prosecutor with the U.S. Justice Department and now works at a law firm in Boston.
The talk and slide show will last from 7 to 8 pm. The society’s resources will be available for use from 6-7 and from 8-9 pm.
Please join us. Refreshments will be served.
$3 fee for non-members. No charge for members. You may join at the door.
Temple Reyim, 1860 Washington Street (Route 16), Newton (near the Newton-Wellesley Hospital, between Routes 128 and 30 — a short walk from the Woodland Stop on the Green Line). Click here for directions.
A Daughter’s Search for Her Mother’s History
Helen Epstein
Tuesday, January 12, 1999 — 7:00-9:00pm
Temple Reyim, West Newton
A hands-on genealogy workshop with author Helen Epstein, author of Children of the Holocaust: Conversations with Sons and Daughters of Survivors. Veteran journalist Helen Epstein will take you through her research and methodology on her family of Czech Jews, as demonstrated in her new book Where She Came From: A Daughter’s Search for Her Mother’s History.
You will learn interview techniques, how to patch a narrative together with anecdotal material, and verify family stories, enlisting the aid of museum curators, archivists, family and friends.
You are strongly encouraged to buy the paperback book, Where She Came From, and come prepared with questions.
Please join us. Refreshments will be served. Afterwards, the author will be available to autograph books.
$3 fee for non-members. No charge for members. You may join at the door.
Temple Reyim, 1860 Washington Street (Route 16), Newton (near the Newton-Wellesley Hospital, between Routes 128 and 30 — a short walk from the Woodland Stop on the Green Line). Click here for directions.