Collaborative genealogy is a process in which many researchers contribute to a common, extended family tree. Adam Brown will describe the ways in which Internet sites and social networking have already begun to bridge the gap between the collaborative trees, the family-specific trees, and the large record and DNA databases hosted by organizations such as … Continue reading Adam Brown – Collaborative Genealogy: A Revolutionary New Approach to Building Our Family Trees →

Join us for our 2nd Research Sunday, following our highly successful initial session in November. At Research Sundays, you have the opportunity to consult with experienced researchers to help you with your research questions and time to examine our extensive collection of reference books and maps. At this session, we are introducing a new service … Continue reading Research Sunday →

Plucking Stories from the Family Tree Speaker: Suzette Martinez Standring Stories of adventure, courage, or quirkiness make ancestors come alive, and help us to understand much about ourselves. A one-page written snapshot preserves a milestone, or experiences from a different era, or details of a special person as a lasting treasure. Such a written remembrance … Continue reading Plucking Stories from the Family Tree and Scrivener Software, a Tool for Writing Your Family History →

Probate, which includes wills and estate records, is an interesting topic because it’s not a source people immediately think about, but the files are rich with information and can provide routes around research roadblocks. In his presentation, Allan Jordan explores: what is a Probate file; how to determine if someone was likely to have Probate … Continue reading Allan Jordan – Finding Family History in Probate Records →

Join us for our 3rd Research Sunday, following our highly successful initial sessions in November and January. At Research Sundays, you have the opportunity to consult with experienced researchers to help you with your research questions and help you look for specific documents. You could also sit with a strategist to help you decide next … Continue reading Research Sunday →

Schelly Talalay Dardashti will introduce the growing field of Sephardic research, surveying websites, discussion groups, books, journals, conferences, archives and libraries, ongoing research projects, researchers, and DNA projects. She will include information on the Sephardic presence in Eastern Europe, a topic that has not been explored widely by researchers.   Pioneer Jewish genealogy columnist (Jerusalem … Continue reading Schelly Talalay Dardashti – Jewish Genealogy’s Other Side: Sephardic Research →

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. … Continue reading Schelly Talalay Dardashti – Belarus Research and My Sephardic Roots →

Jews in "the land of the Litvaks" lived alongside their  non-Jewish neighbors for nearly seven centuries before the Holocaust. Ellen Cassedy, author of the award-winning We Are Here: Memories of the Lithuanian Holocaust (Univ. of Nebraska Press, 2012), explores a rich cultural history, including the social structure of a multi-cultural world, the daily lives of … Continue reading Ellen Cassedy – Jewish Life in Lithuania Before the War →

What can we learn from our ancestors' photos? Ava (Sherlock) Cohn, the Jewish genealogy sleuth, explores how and why it is important to find the clues our ancestors left us in their photographic portraits. Sherlock defines photo genealogy and explodes common myths about dating Jewish photos. Learn what clues an expert looks for, how to … Continue reading Ava (Sherlock) Cohn – Clued-In: Case Studies from The Photo Genealogist & Annual Meeting →

Many of us have found our immigrant ancestors on the passenger manifests of the ships that brought them to the U.S. Others among us are still searching. But even when we find the manifest, it does not tell the whole story of the immigrant voyage. Phyllis Kramer will show us how our ancestors got their … Continue reading Phyllis Kramer – Passenger Manifests and the Immigrant Voyage →

Join us for a special double program with Steve Morse, the man who created the “One-Step” research tool that gives novice and experienced genealogists the key to Ellis Island and Castle Garden databases and much more. Morning lecture at 11 AM One-Step Webpages: A Potpourri of Genealogical Search Tools Steve Morse initially created the “One-Step” … Continue reading Steve Morse – Two Lectures: One-Step Webpages and A Case Study →

Co-sponsored by the Newton Free Library and JGSGB. Day to day Jewish life in pre-war and wartime Poland is captured in authentic detail by Allan Chernoff in his book, The Tailors of Tomaszow: A Memoir of Polish Jews, co-written with his mother, a Holocaust survivor. Polish Jewry has a deep and distinctive history in Poland. … Continue reading Allan Chernoff – The Lost Society of Polish Jewry →

You’ve now identified members of your extended family through your research, but how do you put all that work to practical use? If you are planning a family reunion or even just thinking about one, this workshop will provide numerous ideas and suggestions to make the planning process easier and lead to a more enjoyable experience … Continue reading Sheila Green and Beverley Olsberg – Planning Your Family Reunion →

Click here for recent WBUR interview with Arther Obermayer. Karen Franklin will show us how to “get into the archives” to find our German-Jewish ancestors.  She will explore how to mine the archives for family collections, correspondence and interviews, and will demonstrate research techniques with case studies.  She will also describe the extraordinary Obermayer German … Continue reading Karen Franklin and William Weitzer – German Jewish Research: New Strategies and New Opportunities →