Dr. Lea Haber Gedalia co-chair for programs at IAJGS2015 in Jerusalem. She was president, secretary and J-M branch chair of Israel Genealogical Society between 2005-2012 and thus responsible and organizer for many genealogical day seminars, conferences and events.

Lea is an active second generation member of the Organization of Bukovina Jews and a member of the team of those deciphering tombstones in the Czernowitz cemetery. She is responsible for establishing the Harlau, Romania, kehilalinks site on JewishGen. She is a researcher and developer of family trees, and a lecturer and tutor for beginners and advanced groups.

“Working by the book (literally) in Sephardic research” (Weds-126), 7:30 – 8:45 A.M.

Lea Haber Gedalia’s talk will follow the wandering Portuguese Gedalia family as a case study after expulsion and their wandering descendants.

Gedalia’s research started with Chief Rabbi Rachamim Gedalja who died in Nis, Serbia circa 1765 and who was (according to the Sephardic community lore) a descendant of Don Yehuda Gedalia the first Hebrew printer in Salonika after the expulsion.

Data on the web gives information regarding Gedalia/Gedaliah,Ghedalia/Gedilia ( and more variants) families in cities such as Salonika, Livorno, Mogador, Marakesh, Amsterdam, ,Hebron, New York, London and Nis, Serbia and countries such as Gibraltar, Brazil, Curacao and Egypt.  Lea’s quest to find out if these families were all branches of the same clan required many hours of library work for positive confirmation of the relevant branches. The next phase should be final verification by DNA.

Topics: Immigration and migration over the ages, Sephardic research