Joan Adler has been the executive director of the Straus Historical Society for the past 25 years, an organization she created. Her work includes research, archiving, writing, speaking and arranging events. She considers her overall function to be social historian: placing the lives of the people in the Lazarus Straus family within the historical, political and social context in which they lived.

Genealogy provides the facts. But other research including oral histories, writing, researching in newspapers, books, articles and other documents provides the “color.” She loves sharing her experiences.

See the website for the Straus Historical Society: http://www.straushistoricalsociety.org/

See Joan Adler’s website at http://www.joanadler.com/

“My Family: I Could Write a Book” (Fri-105), 10:00-11:15 A.M.

One large branch of the Straus family moved from the Rheinpfalz area of Germany to the northern most parts of Washington State where their experiences differed greatly from what they had known back in Germany, but also from those of their German immigrant counterparts who settled in the eastern US. This colorful bunch showed their spunk by accepting, even embracing, the rugged and often difficult life of a Jewish immigrant in the American frontier.

Using their stories Adler will show how to “flesh” out the lives of these people by writing vignettes about them and to publish these stories in book form or to post them on a family webpage along with photographs where available. This is one way to truly bring these people to life and to connect with your ancestors with a novel approach.

Category: Beginning genealogists

Topics: Ashkenazic research, Cemetery research, DNA research and genetics, Genealogy and Jewish history related to WWI, Holocaust research, Immigration and migration over the ages, Jewish history and culture, Organization and preservation, the Value of Writing