Andrea Massion, native of Los Angeles, is a descendent of Jewish farmers in Wyoming and blacksmiths in Ukraine. An engaging storyteller and advocate for children, Ms. Massion worked as a Jewish Music educator & Actor/Singer for more than 30 years, and for L.A. Unified School District in school libraries for 13 years.

Currently, she is a site coordinator for Project Understanding in Oxnard, California and serves on the board of JGS Conejo Valley & Ventura County. As a member of JGS Los Angeles, she participated in cemetery projects and served on conference committees. “Genealogy provides discoveries that resonate within.”

Visit Andrea’s Ananiev Kehilalinks webpage: http://kehilalinks.jewishgen.org/ananyiv/Ananiev/Ananiev_Introduction.html

“The American Shtetl: Recreating Small Jewish Communities of the West” (Sun-107), 4:30-5:45 P.M.

Piecing together a small Jewish community in the West requires research and sources that are both conventional and unusual. Ms Massion will elaborate on methodology used to recreate Iowa Center, WY and how other academics did the same in surrounding shtels of the American West.

An engaging storyteller, Ms Massion will share documents, sources and stories that will show how to put meat on the bones of a town, its community and its characters including Yiddish and English sources from YIVO, New York, the Jewish Farmers’ Assn, and newspapers.

Category: Beginning genealogists
Topics: Immigration and migration over the ages, Jews of the Southwest United States, Jewish history and culture, Organization and preservation

Sleepless in Seattle, Open Mic Event: a “Two Genealogists Sat in A Bar” Production (Weds-164), 10:30-11:30 P.M.

Who appreciates a genealogy story? Only another genealogist! Here’s the return of the delightful Salt Lake City event that provides an opportunity to tell your favorite genealogy adventure in three (yes, three) minutes at an Open Mic Event hosted by two Jewish genealogy buffs who want to hear that story that makes your relatives’ eyes glaze over.

Bring your funniest or weirdest or most fulfilling genealogy research story and we’ll keep the timer running. Topics can run the gamut from mistakes to discoveries to best advice to family tales to . . . So be prepared and be concise. At 3 minutes, you get the hook, and we bring on the next victim, uh, we mean the next great Jewish genealogy storyteller. Awards will be given.

Brought to you by Andrea Massion & Jane Rollins.