Ron Laby first became interested in the history of his family from his mother, father, and grandparents, who first provided fascinating information on their ancestors for a Hebrew School project. Along with his brother he has been researching his family roots in Spain, around the Mediterranean, and in Eastern and Central Europe for the past 15+ years.

Ron is a  patent agent with a Ph.D. in Plant Pathology.

“From Scraps of Paper- a Sephardic-Mizrahi Archive” (Thurs-142), 12:30-1:15 P.M.

Organized archival information is limited for many Sephardic-Mizrahi genealogists. However, information still may be found, literally as scraps of paper- “ephemera” (various paper documents) and as postal history (postcards, envelopes, letters…).

This was first addressed by Dr. David Sheby in his article “Sephardic Genealogical Information Available from Ottoman, Balkan and Levant Postal History,” ETSI Revue de Gènèalogie et d’Histoire Sèfarades, 1999).

The internet has now made more such scattered documents available. Such documents may be assembled into a searchable archive yielding useful information, including family names, dates, and addresses; business names and addresses; details of family life; and names of correspondents, among other items.

This presentation describes a demonstration archive assembled by the author.

Category: Beginning genealogists
Topics: Mizrachi research, Sephardic research