Ron Arons has presented at 12 of the past 15 IAJGS conferences on a wide variety of subjects and has also been behind the scenes at three IAJGS conferences to help produce “Game Show Night/Jewish Genealogy Jeopardy.”
Ron has traced his roots to Lithuania, Poland, Romania, England, Belarus, and the Ukraine. In 2006, Ron appeared on the PBS TV series The Jewish Americans.
He has published three books including The Jews of Sing Sing and, most recently, Mind Maps for Genealogy.
Ron earned a B.S. in Engineering from Princeton and an MBA from the University of Chicago.
See Ron’s website at: http://www.ronarons.com/
“Mind Maps for Genealogy” (Mon-105), 1:30-2:45 P.M.
[This presentation will be included in Live!]
A mind map is a graphical outlining tool used for brainstorming and creative thinking. They have been used in corporate America for brainstorming and product idea generation, by attorneys to explain their cases to their clients and to juries, and in education with students. This generic tool can also be used by genealogists to organize and succinctly summarize research findings more clearly.
Mind maps can be used to plan genealogical research based on a “focused question.” They can also be used as research logs. They especially excel in their ability to help correlate and explain discrepancies in evidence.
This presentation discusses mind maps’ basic concepts, how they can be built, and their application to various stages of genealogical research.
Topics: Technology in support of genealogical research
“Understanding Our Families, Understanding Ourselves, & Tools for Healing” (Weds-103), 4:30-5:45 P.M.
For more than 40 years, mental health workers have used “family systems theory” to analyze family dynamics through multiple generations. Unfortunately, most genealogists don’t know much about family therapy. Yet, genealogy and family therapy go hand in hand.
In this talk Ron will introduce basic concepts of family systems theory. He will also show how families can be represented diagrammatically using ‘genograms.’
Gayle Kirschembaum, who has created documentary films about dysfunctional mother/daughter relationships, will discuss “7 Healing Tools” on how to forgive and transform difficult relationships the process of healing.
As Gayle notes, “When you don’t forgive and you are filled with anger and resentment. It affects every aspect of one’s life from one’s relationships to their health.”
[presented with Gayle Kirschenbaum]
“Game Show Night/Jewpardy” (Weds-167), 7:30-10:00 P.M.
[This evening entertainment will be included in Live!]
This will be an encore performance, continuing the heritage of Jewpardy (Jewish Genealogy Jeopardy) which has been very well received at recent IAJGS conferences (Boston, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Philadelphia).
Jordan Auslander will be the Master of Ceremonies, giving lots of color commentary with the game board questions and contestants. Ron Arons will operate the game board from behind the scenes. Lots of laughter and possibly some education along the way.
“Critical and Creative Thinking for Genealogists” (Fri-104), 10:00-11:45 A.M.
A lot of fuss has been made over the Genealogical Proof Standard (GPS for short), introduced years ago by the Board for Certification of Genealogists (BCG). The goal of the GPS is to raise the level of work performed by not only professional genealogists, but also hobbyists. But does the GPS discuss anything about how to think? Not really.
This presentation brings together the best ideas from the leading thinkers in the fields of critical thinking and creativity. By using various strategies and tactics, you can expand and improve your thinking abilities not just for solving genealogical problems, but also for dealing with many other aspects of your life.
Topics: Methodogy