Joel Weintraub, a New Yorker by birth, is an emeritus Professor at California State University Fullerton and won awards for his science teaching. He volunteered for nine years at the National Archives and Records Administration.

Joel created search tools for the U.S. and New York City censuses that are freely available on the Steve Morse “One-Step” website.

He and Steve are currently developing locational tools for the 2022 release of the 1950 federal census. Joel has talked on NYC and Federal census research, immigration and naturalization, biographical research, and Jewish genealogy topics and has published articles on many of those topics.

Educators Forum*: “What You Should Know About Designing An Intro to Jewish Genealogy Talk” (Sun-103), 10:15-11:15 A.M.

Joel will discuss planning and constructing an introduction to Jewish genealogy talk (IJG) from an educator’s point of view.

• Why do an IJG? (recruitment and retention)
• Who are our target individuals? (potential members for a JGS)
• What level of information and methodology to include? (“Blooms Taxonomy”)
• What sort of results do we want? (Learning Outcomes; debunk myths, honor the past, expand people’s expectations)

Then we will talk about putting this together in a PowerPoint presentation (“learning pyramid” and strengths and weaknesses of PPT) to make the message as clear and interesting as can be. Joel will show the impact of simple design and formatting changes (fonts, spacing, transitions, animations, graphics) to make slides more appealing, and how he presents a subtle (?) message to his audience that a JGS is indispensable for their genealogical research and growth. Powerpoint 2013 was used for the presentation.

Topics: Beginning genealogists, Holocaust research, Immigration and migration over the ages

*The combined fee for attendance at the full conference and the Educators’ Forum is just $365 during early on-line registration through April 30. If one wishes to attend the Educator’s Forum only,  registration fee is $50 per person.  See http://www.iajgs2016.org/educators/

“‘Manifest Destiny’: Names at Ellis Island” (Mon-164), 1:30-2:45 P.M.

About 70% of immigrants to the U.S. during 1892 through 1954 came through the Ellis Island immigration station. The Station’s history including the Wall of Honor and the changing questions on ship manifest forms will be shown.

The pressures of the “Great Migration” eventually led to immigration quotas.

The persistent myth of name changes at Ellis Island will be analyzed.

Twenty percent of processed immigrants ended up on detention sheets, and we will find out where those can be found.

Finally, with case studies, we will find out how to use all three (3!) of the ship name indexes. After this talk the audience should have a clear idea of the process the immigrants went through, and a greater appreciation of the manifest as a genealogy research tool.

Be prepared to try to successfully negotiate the “Island of Tears” and avoid deportation by Joel! Original material will be displayed.

Topics: Beginning genealogists, Immigration and migration over the ages, Specific countries or geographic areas

“Crowdsourcing the path to the 1950 U.S. Census” (Weds-102), 4:30-5:45 P.M.

The 1940 U.S. Census opened in 2012 without a name index. A FamilySearch-led consortium used 160,000 volunteers to name index that census in four months. In addition, before its opening, Joel and Steve Morse for the One-Step website, with about 125 volunteers, developed utilities to find which of 150,000 census districts someone was in by location or address. These projects are examples of crowd sourcing.

Joel and Steve are now doing a similar project for the 1950 Census. Joel will discuss differences between the 1940 and 1950 censuses. Film scanning, publicity, volunteer response, Yahoo Group site, cloud storage, software, One-Step utilities, and project phases will be discussed.

All 233,800 1950 enumeration district definitions have now been transcribed. Street indexes are now being completed for over 2,500 communities to help find 1950 census district numbers. Original 1950 census documents will be passed around.

Topics: Organization and preservation, Specific countries or geographic areas, Technology in support of genealogical research