Avrum Geller has maintained a practice as a member of the Association of Professional Genealogists for 12+ years. He is a member of the Jewish Genealogical Society, Inc. and served on their Executive Council. He leads the New York Genealogy & Technology Group meeting monthly in NYC. He is a consultant to genealogists for New York expertise. He sings in Yiddish with the Jewish People’s Philharmonic Chorus. He is a volunteer with DOROT, assisting elderly New Yorkers maintain independent living at home. He retired as VP-Marketing Services of Block Drug Company. He is a graduate of the University of Iowa.

“Is the Manifest Missing, Or Have I Missed the Boat?” (Tues-143), 7:30-8:45 A.M.

Audience members will be guided through the immigration process from shtetl to port, provided guidance in understanding name variants and their permutations, place name variants, and spelling and transcription anomalies to help find elusive family members.

The presentation uses tutorials to make best use of the capabilities of One Step Webpages by Stephen P. Morse.

The presentation will explore techniques for finding and using Naturalization papers and Certificates of Arrival to zero-in on manifests–including manipulation of clues from incorrectly reported information to get to the right information.

Avrum will demonstrate the value of using multiple resources that have been indexed through different eyes, and will show techniques for finding names on manifests that have been either incorrectly indexed or not indexed at all, and pages on manifests that have either been incorrectly linked, are faded or damaged, or have been skipped altogether.

Topics: Ashkenazic research, Immigration and migration over the ages