In 1988, Fred Blum obtained a Private Detective license. In 1998 he became interested in his family history.

Fred has located ancestors dating back to 1810. To date he has  identified over 1200 family members.

In 2005, Fred volunteered for the International Red Cross Holocaust Tracing Service, to try to assist the IRC reconnect Jewish, Polish and Ukrainian Holocaust survivors. In 2006, he was awarded the local and national “Volunteer of the Year” Award from the IRC.

In 2011, Fred volunteered for the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum to help locate European children who were orphaned between 1933 and 1945.

“How to Locate Individuals Through the Use of Genealogy” (Thurs-123), 4:30 – 5:45 P.M.

Fred Blum started his attorney service company in 1971. In 1988, he obtained his Private Detective license. In 1998 he became interested in his family history. He studied genealogy and was able to locate his ancestors dating back to 1810. To date he has identified over 1200 family members. With the knowledge he obtained, in 2005 he decided to volunteer for the International Red Cross Holocaust Tracing Service, to try to assist the IRC reconnect Jewish, Polish and Ukrainian Holocaust survivors. In 2006 he was awarded the local and national “Volunteer of the Year” Award from the IRC. In 2011, Fred also started to volunteer for the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Fred is helping the museum locate European children that were orphaned during the period 1933-1945.

Fred will present some techniques he uses as both as a Private Detective and a genealogist to locate individuals. This information will enable researchers to locate family and uncover distant relatives.

Category: Beginning genealogists

Sidney Sachs produced the television show “Tracing Your Family Roots” for 19 years after supporting basic research for the U.S. Army Research Institute for Behavioral and Social Sciences. Sidney is Project Administrator for several Family Tree DNA projects as well providing support for several DNA researchers.

“Statistical Approach to Genetic Genealogy” (Thurs-119), 3:00 – 4:15 P.M.

Genetic Genealogy is based on a series of different types of random events called mutations. In order to get the most from DNA, one needs to study it in a statistical way. It is not as simple as looking at how closely related people’s DNA is, but it is important to understand when the changes came about.

The author, a retired mathematical statistician who has been working with a retired Harvard professor, analyzing DNA differences. Sachs has been researching several different samples including his own very special Y-haplogroup subclade. In the process, Sidney Sachs developed special software and procedures. Sachs’ talk will explain why and how to use SNPs and STRs for all kinds of DNA.

Topics: DNA research and genetics

Lara Diamond is President of JGS Maryland and has been researching her family for 25 years, since she was too young to have a driver’s license and had to rely on her mother to drive her to the National Archives.

She has traced all branches of her family back to Europe and most multiple generations back using Russian Empire-era records. Most of her research is in modern-day Ukraine, with a smattering of Belarus and Poland.

She blogs about her mostly Eastern European research at http://larasgenealogy.blogspot.com.

“Ancestral Towns May Not Have Been So Ancestral!” (Weds-101), 4:30-5:45 P.M.

Many researchers, once they have discovered the town from which their ancestors left Eastern Europe, assume that their families must have lived in that town or the vicinity for many generations. While this was true for some families, there was significant movement through broad swaths of Europe by many Jews for a variety of reasons.

The speaker will demonstrate the breadth of some families’ movements with examples from her own research and will discuss the types of documents used to trace those families’ travels.

Topics: Ashkenazic research, Immigration and migration over the ages 

Anne Gillespie Mitchell is a Senior Product Manager at  Ancestry.com. She has worked in a variety of capacities for Ancestry for more than seven years. She has been chasing her own ancestors through Virginia, North Carolina and South Carolina for many years.

Anne holds a certificate from Boston University’s Online Genealogical Research Program, and is currently on the clock working towards certification from the Board for Certification of Genealogists.

“Putting Your Ancestors Into Historical Perspective with Newspapers” (Weds-137), 1:30 – 2:45 P.M.

Newspapers are a great place to learn about your ancestors. Not only might you find articles or obituaries that specifically mention your ancestors, but newspapers also provide context that helps you learn what their lives were like.

This course will teach you how to use Newspapers.com and other sites to find stories about your ancestors and get the scoop on their lives.

Topic: Jewish history and culture

“How to Find Probate and Estate Records on Ancestry” (Thurs-140), 3:00-4:15 P.M.

With over 160 million records from 50 states, you know that you are going to find something new and unexpected in the Wills and Probates Records collections on Ancestry. But should you search? Browse? How do you know what everything means once you find it?

We will show you the basics to get you started on the road to success.

Category: Beginning genealogists

Jean-Pierre Stroweis is a software engineer born in Paris, France. He made aliyah in 1981 and lives in Jerusalem.

A past president of the Israel Genealogical Society, he co-chaired the 2004 IAJGS conference in Jerusalem.

He is a member of the academic committee of the International Institute for Jewish Genealogy, Staszów town leader for JRI-Poland and a member of the Israel Genealogical Research Association.

He regularly gives lectures and training classes in Israel and at IAJGS conferences on a variety of genealogical topics. He wrote a few articles for Avotaynu and Sharsheret HaDorot.

“The Holocaust in France: A Resource Guide” (Thurs-134), 1:30 – 2:45 P.M.

In his Memorial de la Deportation des Juifs de France (1978), Serge Klarsfeld first published a list of some 80,000 Jews shot in or deported from France, filling a gaping void of silence that prevailed so far. Since then, many initiatives, from individuals or organizations, have traced and documented their fate.

Beyond Yad Vashem, US Holocaust Memorial Museum and the International Tracing Service in Bad Arolsen, this presentation reviews the major French resources, including archives and web sites. Sources differ in scope, viewpoint, accuracy, availability and level of detail. Sources may focus on children, on the Resistance underground, on an internment camp, on a specific deportation transport, on a given region and even on one Paris arrondissement. Careful comparison between the sources is very instructive. Surprisingly they are not always consistent and we’ll find out why.

The presentation is illustrated with examples, some taken from the author’s family.

Category: Beginning genealogists

Topics: Ashkenazic research, Holocaust research, Repositories, Sephardic research, Specific countries or geographic areas

Zvi Bernhardt is the Deputy Director of the Hall of Names Department and Deputy Director of the Reference and Information Department, Archives Division in Yad Vashem. I also serve as Yad Vashem`s liaison to JewishGen. I have presented in previous IAJGS conferences, as well as extensively at Yad Vashem and at other genealogy forums.

“Open Access – Ethical Questions” (Thurs-124), 1:30 – 2:45 P.M.

Yad Vashem aims to give open access to as many resources as possible. As part of this policy, we have many online databases. Chief among them, the Central Database of Shoah Victims’ Names. We also answer numerous on-site and remote queries about our resources. This has raised many ethical questions.

• Is putting information online about Jews who were murdered as mentally ill honoring their memory, or tarnishing it?
• How do we balance the right to privacy with peoples urge to find information on living family members easily?
• How do we answer a query where the answer might distress the enquirer, for instance, by showing that there parents actively avoided them post-war?

Topics: Ethical considerations in genealogy, Holocaust research, Technology in support of genealogical research

Sara Anne Scribner, CG, is a genealogical researcher and lecturer, working in North American and European records. The Board for Certification of Genealogists (Washington D.C.) awarded her certification confirming her work meets their strict standards.

She teaches critical thinking and research techniques at Olympic College and volunteers as an arbitrator for FamilySearch’s indexing projects.

Her master’s degree in Library Science is from Simmons College (Boston) and her B.A. from Vassar College (Poughkeepsie, New York).

After her own migration west, she makes her home, along with her Border Terrier Biscuit, in Bainbridge Island, Washington.

“BCG Certification Workshop: Meeting Standards” (Weds-140), 1:30-3:30 P.M.

[This presentation is included in LIVE!]

Certification by the Board for Certification of Genealogists is often the crowning achievement of a genealogist’s life work. This interactive two-hour workshop reviews the various pathways to genealogical certification and how to begin the process. Current associates explain the portfolio system, the rules, the judging rubrics and more, with plenty of opportunities for questions and answers.

[Presented with Just Russell and David McDonald]

Category: workshop

“Eastward Ho!: The Jews of Shanghai in World War II” (Fri-120), 10:00-11:15 A.M.

As Hitler rose to power and Jews searched for escape routes, most nations blocked their entry. Until it fell to the Japanese, Shanghai had no immigration restrictions.

Research in Shanghai Jewish studies has blossomed in recent years. This illustrated lecture updates and expands Peter Nash”s lecture at the IAJGS 2006 conference with newly published periodical and archival material, memoirs and research sites, as well as migration route and Shanghai historical material.

Examples of specific information about Shanghai Jewish families found using available records illustrate how research reveals the histories of those who got out by going East.

Topics: Ashkenazic research, Holocaust research, Immigration and migration over the ages, Jewish history and culture, Sephardic research

Mindie Kaplan has been involved in Jewish genealogy for more than 20 years. Her family tree currently consists 3,000 individuals. When printed (including stories and biographies) it is 173 pages for the Splaver side and 99 pages for the Entes side.

She has years of experience reaching out to distant family members to learn their stories, discover old photographs, and obtain DNA samples with the goal of putting together the story of her family.

Mindie has attended nearly every IAJGS conference since 2003 in Washington, DC. and is involved with the Jewish Genealogy Society of Greater Washington.

“Get Them to Say Yes: Reluctant Relatives, Cold Calls, & DNA Testing” (Thurs-108), 1:30-2:45 P.M.

This presentation provides techniques for reaching out to relatives, including those who are reluctant to meet with a stranger, and provides examples that will expand your research.

Relatives:

• What can living relatives add to my research?
• How to contact “uninterested” relatives, starting a conversation that will get them to open up?

Covered issues: family gatherings, preparation, audio/video recording, photos/scanning, documentation, and ethics.

Cold Calls:

• How do you find people?
• How do you reach out to a stranger and convince them to talk?
• How do phone techniques differ from e-mails or social sites such as Facebook?
• What if they think you’re a con-artist?
• How to build a relationship that will turn into a number of conversations, leading to more relatives?

DNA Testing:

• How do you ask someone to take a DNA test?
• Who pays?
• What are some examples that will get them interested in participating?

Category: Beginning genealogists 

Topics: DNA research and genetics, Ethical considerations in genealogy 

Karoly is a well-known Hungarian Jewish genealogist and military historian. Besides his native Hungarian, he is fluent in English, Russian and also speaks Hebrew, Yiddish, German. This and his Jewish background made him start his professional genealogy company HungarianRoots 13 years ago. He was the editor-in-chief of two Jewish genealogy related books.

As a military historian, he has been researching the Soviet air force presence in Eastern Europe since 1991 and is now the only researcher studying this topic. His research covered Jews in the Soviet Army, too.

“Lost treasure – The Guide to Elusive Hungarian Jewish Records” (Weds-107), 4:30-5:45 P.M.

During family research in Hungarian Jewish records, most of us will likely bump into a situation where the information that should be there is not there. Either because the register is gappy or there is simply no register to search in at all. Or at least this is what we think when we encounter such a case.

This positive presentation brings back hope even when we think we have hit a genealogy brick wall. The lecturer shows you possible ways of finding registers that have not been microfilmed, catalogued or that have been put under the wrong fonds, and so forth.

You will learn the reasons and will understand the logic underlying why so many of these registers have not been made available to the general public.

The presenter will share general ways to find such records and also bring a couple of examples in a well-organized and really interesting presentation.

Topics: Ashkenazic research, Jewish history and culture, Repositories, Hungary

“From Mano Kaminer to Mihaly Kertész – Impacts of Assimilation on Hungarian Jewish Naming Traditions” (Thurs-106), 1:30-2:45 P.M.

From the mid-1800’s most Jews of Hungary started referring to themselves as Hungarian Jews and this gradual process lasted for almost a century. It had several quite distinct states where new traditions were introduced.

This patriotism introduced a lot of changes in naming patterns, such as, but not only, Hungarianization of both last and first names. Typical Jewish names had become less common when Germanic names like Herman, Hermina became popular for a short time, just to be replaced by old style Hungarian names like Bela, Arpad, Tibor.

In this presentation covering almost two hundred years up till current times, you will get acquainted with how and why Jews in Hungary became loyal Hungarians and how this affected their naming patterns in the multilingual environment they had lived in. You will learn about this with the help of life stories of famous personalities and unique pictures.

Topics: Ashkenazic research, Jewish history and culture, Jewish surname adoption and naming patterns 

Lil Blume is a teacher, writer, and workshop leader living in Hamilton, Ontario. She has been leading family story workshops since 2000, including the 2009 Limmud Festival in Toronto and the 2010 IAJGS conference in LA.

From 2005-2010, she worked with a 2nd Gen writing group every year and genealogy groups in Edmonton, Vancouver, Halifax, and Toronto. Her workshop helped members shape their stories for the JGS Toronto‘s 25th anniversary book, Tracing Our Roots. Indeed, ever since IAJGS 2010, people have written asking for her to run another workshop.

“Writing Family Stories Workshop, Part 1” (Thurs-121), 12:30-1:15 P.M.

Writing Family Stories Workshop, Part 2 (Thurs-179), 1:30-2:45 P.M.

This interactive, participatory workshop provides tools and techniques for finding and writing the stories of our ancestors’ lives –and our own — as we follow the hints that they have left us.

Writing these stories finishes our unfinished business with the dead and honors them. The story may be in our detective work and genealogical research, our family’s lives, or the miracle of our survival given the weight of history against us. The story may be in finding and connecting with present-day humans who happen to share our great-great-great grandparents.

What stories can you write with the information that you have? How do you get started?

This workshop intends to inspire you to write these stories, one at a time, and find the family story that lifts your research from personal to universal.

The workshop will start at 12:45 p.m. in Cedar A and continue in Cedar B from 1:30 – 2:45. Bring paper and pen, tablet or laptop. We are writing.