Saturday Night Genealogy Fun: A Name That Runs in the Family

I didn't realize I had missed so many Saturday Night Genealogy Fun posts of late.  I'm happy to be able to post for this week's challenge from Randy Seaver!

Here is your assignment, if you choose to play along (cue the Mission:  Impossible! music, please!):

1.  We all have many names (given, middle, surname, nickname) in our ancestry, whether we know all of them or not.

2.  Do you have a name that runs in your family?  Is there a first name — or nickname — that keeps repeating generation after generation in your tree?  Share the name, the pattern, and your best guess as to why it stuck.

3.  Share your information about your repeating name in your >own blog post, in a a comment on this blog post, or in a Substack post, Facebook Note, or some other social media system.  Please leave a comment on this post so others can find it.

Thank you to Linda Stufflebean for this idea.

I have not found any major patterns of repeating names in my family on either side.  My fifth(?)-great-grandfather Hananiah Gaunt had a son named Hananiah Selah Gaunt, and if I remember correctly he had a son named Hananiah, for three generations of that name.  My fifth-great-great-grandfather's grandfather was also a Hananiah.  That makes four generations with one skipped.

My adoptive great-great-grandfather, Cornelius Godschalk Sellers, named his son Cornelius Elmer (who went by Elmer).  Elmer named his first son Cornelius Howard; the child died at the age of 2, and no one else has been named Cornelius since that I know of.  Cornelius Godschalk had an uncle named Cornelius, but that man didn't name any of his sons Cornelius.  So one collateral plus three generations.

My mother's family was Ashkenazi Jewish, and they have a tradition of not naming after a living relative, so while family members were still practicing Jews I have found no consecutive generations with the same name.  What you will often find, however, is that a name skips a generation.  So my great-great-grandmother was Esther Leah (Schneiderman) Gorodetsky, and four of her children named their first daughter Esther Leah.  There would have been a fifth Esther Leah, but when it came down to finalizing the name, Morris' wife said she didn't want her daughter to be yet another Esther Leah, so she was Esther Malka, with the Malke being for a deceased ancestor on the wife's side of the family.  But I don't know of any Esther Leahs in succeeding generations.

An interesting lack of a continued name is that of my 3rd-great-grandfather Gersh Wolf Gorodetsky.  I know of no descendants named after him.  I don't know if that was because he was still alive when grandchildren were being born, so they wouldn't have used his name because of the tradition, or if he maybe wasn't such a nice person and not well loved by family members.

On the other hand, in my ex's Irish family, I have found the multigenerational name of Edmund.  I have documented four of five generations where the first son was named Edmund (and in one generation, when that first son died as an infant, the next son was also named Edmund).  (I consider it likely that the generation where I haven't found an Edmund is simply that I haven't found him yet.)  My ex was the second son, and his older brother was indeed named Edmund.  No one in my ex's generation named a son Edmund, though.  I have heard rumors as to why that didn't occur, but as all of the relevant parties are still alive, it is not for me to say why that situation exists.

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun: An Ancestor Who Took a RIsk

Tonight's topic from Randy Seaver for this week's Saturday Night Genealogy Fun applies to several of my ancestors.

Here is your assignment, if you choose to play along (cue the Mission: Impossible! music, please!):

1.  The life of every person has events and decisions that have risk factors that can significantly affect that life.

2.  Describe a risk that one of your ancestors made that affected that person's life.  How did it all turn out?

Share your information about an ancestor's risk in your own blog post, write a comment on this blog post, or put it in a Substack post, Facebook Note, or some other social media system.  Please leave a comment on this post so others can find it.

Every ancestor (and collateral relative) on my mother's side of the family (my Jewish side) who made the momentous decision to immigrate to the United States took a risk when doing so, because none of them knew how it would turn out.  I'm sure they all heard stories about the wonderful opportunities available in the Goldene Medina, the "golden country", but they probably also heard stories about how the move didn't work out as well as expected for some.  Probably the ones who took the biggest risks were the first ones in each family to do so.

My great-grandfather Joyne Gorodetsky, who chose the name Joe Gordon after he immigrated, was the first member of my Gorodetsky family to cross the pond.  The chain migration of the family from the Russian Empire began after the death of my great-great-grandmother Esther Leah (Schneiderman) Gorodetsky on December 10, 1908; eventually all eight children and my great-great-grandfather came to North America.  Joyne arrived July 5, 1909 (right after Independence Day!) at Ellis Island, traveling to meet his uncle Shmuel Schneiderman (Sam Schneiderman here), his mother's brother.

Joe found work in the garment industry in New York City.  A few years after arriving, he was a boarder at the home of Mendel Hertz (Morris) and Ruchel Dvojre (Rose Dorothy) Brainin in Manhattan, which is where he met my great-grandmother, Sore Leibe (Sarah Libby) Brainin.  Soon they married and had three children:  my granduncles, Alexander and Sidney, and my grandmother, Esther Lillian (who later changed her name to Lillyan E.).

From everything I have been told, Joe was successful in the garment industry.  In 1930 the family was in Baltimore, Maryland, possibly having moved there for better opportunities after the Depression had hit.  But soon they moved back to New York, where Joe bought a house in Brooklyn.  The extended family, including many aunts, uncles, and cousins, got together (almost?) every Saturday to socialize, with Joe and Sarah's house the center of the activities.  My grandmother told me how her father loved to host these events.  My mother remembered how he used to bounce her and her cousin Harriet on his lap and sing "Buttons and Bows" to them.

For many years Joe did not become a U.S. citizen.  He finally did so after World War II began, naturalizing on August 3, 1943 in New York.

Joe died May 2, 1955 (yahrzeit 10 Iyar) in Brooklyn.  He is buried in Wellwood Cemetery, Pinelawn, Suffolk County, New York.

Overall, I'd say his taking a risk turned out well.

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun: Who Is Your Ancestor #50?

This week's Saturday Night Genealogy Fun challenge from Randy Seaver was an interesting exercise, even if I didn't come up with much concrete information.

Here is your assignment, if you choose to play along (cue the Mission:  Impossible music, please!):

1.  Who is Ancestor #50 in your Ahnentafel list?  What were his birth date and place, his parents, death date and place, spouse's name, and marriage date and place.  How many children did he have, and which of his children do you descend from?
(Note: if you don't know your #50, then choose #25 or #12, or some other number).

2.  Share your information about #50 (or other) ancestor in your own blog post, write a comment on this blog post, or put it in a Substack post, Facebook Note, or some other social media system.  Please leave a comment on this post so others can find it.

Thank you to Lisa S. Gorrell for this week's SNGF challenge topic.

I don't routinely use Ahnentafel lists, so I had to look up how to figure out who #50 is on my list.  I used the reverse method #1 described on the Wikipedia page about Ahnentafels.  If I did it correctly, then #50 is my mother's father's father's mother's father, who is one of my 3rd-great-grandfathers.  It also means that the example using the method isn't accurate, because #1 is yourself.  But since Randy and other people who responded got 3rd-great-grandfather, I think I'm right.

So that means the person I should be writing about is:
mother Myra
grandfather Abraham
great-grandfather Moshe
great-great-grandmother Bela
3rd-great-grandfather UNKNOWN

I don't know Bela's maiden name or anything about her other than her given name.  I have her given name from my great-grandfather's death certificate.  I don't remember who the informant was for that, but it had to be one of his children, because his wife died 17 years before he did.  The older children may have known their grandparents, depending on when the grandparents died, because they were born in Kamenets Litovsk, where the family emigrated from.  So the name Bela might be correct.  My great-grandfather had a niece named Bela, so that lends some support to the name.

Even though I don't have any documented information about my 3rd-great-grandfather, I decided to write this about him to see what I could guess based on information I do have.

My great-grandparents Moshe and Mushe (Morris and Minnie in this country) named their first son Simcha, after Moshe's father.  I know that the second son, Herschel, was not named after Minnie's father, Gershon, or either of Minnie's grandfathers, Abraham or Ruven.  Maybe he was named after Moshe's grandfather, Bela's father.  I know that Moshe's sister Sore also named a son Herschel, so it's not an unreasonable hypothesis.  Moshe and Sore's grandfather was named Zvi, however, which is the Hebrew equivalent to Herschel, so their sons could have been named for him rather than their maternal grandfather.  But both men could have had the same name.  So now my 3rd-great-grandfather has a given name, even if it has a question mark after it.

I don't have a birth record for my granduncle Herschel, but the birth date he used in the United States is January 14, 1905.  So I can guess that my 3rd-great-grandfather had to have died before that date, because this part of my family followed the Ashkenazi Jewish minhag ("custom") of naming children after deceased ancestors.

To estimate 3rd-great-grandfather Herschel's birth year, I have to work from another hypothesized year.  I wrote recently about my great-great-grandfather Simcha Dovid Mekler, for whom I have no documented birth or death dates.  I estimated his birth year to be before about 1862 based on him being at least 21 when my great-grandfather Moshe was born.  Simcha Dovid was married to Bela, the daughter of 3rd-great-grandfather Herschel.  So if I say that Bela was two years younger than Simcha Dovid (just to pick a number), which would make her birth year before about 1864, and use the same logic that her father was at least 21 when she was born, that makes him born before about 1844.

I can estimate 3rd-great-grandfather Herschel's marriage to Bela's mother based on my estimate of Bela's birth year.  Since I made that before about 1864, the marriage year can be before about 1863.  As for whom Herschel married, the only other child I know of from Simcha Dovid and Bela's marriage was a daughter named Sore.  So maybe Bela's mother was named Sore.  I know that Simcha Dovid's mother's name was Esther, so Sore was not named after her.  On the other hand, Simcha Dovid had a sister and a niece named Sore, so the name was used in the Mekler family.

Because a common pattern seen in Ashkenazi Jewish families is that names skip one or two generations, it's possible that 3rd-great-grandfather Herschel's father was named Moshe.  Simcha Dovid's father was Zvi, as mentioned above, so my great-grandfather was not named after him.

Because the only location I have associated with my Mekler family is Kamenets Litovsk, Russia (now Kamyenyets, Belarus), my only guess for where 3rd-great-grandfather Herschel was born, married, and died is there.

I can put together the information from all of these hypotheses thusly:
Herschel (unknown family name), father possibly Moshe, mother unknown; born before about 1844 in Kamenets Litovsk, Russia; died before about January 14, 1905 in Kamenets Litovsk, Russia; married possibly Sore before about 1863 in Kamenets Litovsk, Russia.  I know of only one child, Bela, who is my great-great-grandmother.

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun: An Ancestor without Exact Birth and Death Dates and Places

I'm posting a little late for this past Saturday Night Genealogy Fun from Randy Seaver, but since this topic is practically perfect for Jewish research, I had to weigh in.

Here is your assignment, if you choose to play along (cue the Mission:  Impossible! music, please!):

1.  Do you have an ancestor with no defined birth and death dates or places?

2.  This week, please tell us about that ancestor and what clues you used to estimate birth and death dates and places.

3.  Share your ancestor and his estimated birth and death dates and places with us in your own blog post, by writing a comment on this blog post, or putting it in a Substack post, Facebook Note, or some other social media system.  Please leave a comment on this post so others can find it.

And here I go.

1.  Do I?  Hoo, boy!  I have at least a dozen just on my Meckler line!  But every single one of my Jewish lines has ancestors like that.

2.  The ancestor I decided to write about is my great-great-grandfather Simcha Dovid Mekler (before about 1862–before about November 16, 1903).  I have his name from the yizkor book about Kamenets Litovsk, former Russian Empire (now Kamyenyets, Belarus).  He was the father of my great-grandfather Moshe Mekler, who went by Morris and Max here in the United States and eventually spelled his last name as Mackler.

I have no original documents about Simcha Dovid Mekler from Europe.  I have his parents' names, Zvi Mekler and Esther, from the yizkor book and from a cousin who was born in Kamenets Litovsk.

I estimated Simcha Dovid's death date based on the birth date that my granduncle chose after he immigrated to the United States.  Simcha Mekler was my grandfather's oldest brother.  He used the name Sam in this country, and Mekler became Meeckler at some point.  He was named after his grandfather Simcha, and because my Ashkenazi Jewish family members followed the minhag ("custom") of naming their their children after deceased ancestors, that means Simcha Dovid had to have died before my granduncle was born.  But because he didn't know his exact date of birth and I have no documents for it, it's a rough estimate.  The birth date he used for his Social Security application was November 16, 1903, and it's all I have to work with.

I based my very rough estimate of a birth year for Simcha Dovid on the ages for my great-grandfather Morris in the records I have found for him, including his incoming passenger list and several censuses.  He apparently was born roughly around 1882.  I have no documents with an actual birth date, so it's another estimate (he didn't apply for Social Security, as far as I can tell).  I don't know if Morris had any older siblings, but I figure his father was probably at least 21 years old when he was born, so I backdated it to before 1862.

As for where Simcha Dovid might have been born or died, we have another guessing game.  In his will, Morris Mackler left a bequest for a new tombstone for his father's grave in the cemetery in Kamenets Litovsk.  Morris Mackler was said to have been born in Kamenets Litovsk himself.  So my guess is that Simcha Dovid died in Kamenets Litovsk.  Because I have no other location associated with him or Mekler family members, my guess is that he was also born there.

Maybe someday I will find documents relating to Kamenets Litovsk about my family members, but I'm not holding my breath.  The Nazis were extremely thorough in destroying almost all archival material about Jews in Grodno gubernia, so there's hardly anything left.  I do want to investigate what is there, just in case there's something about my family, but I need to save a bunch of money to have the research done.  So this is as far as I can get for now.

99 Things Genealogy Meme

I found this meme accidentally because Banai Lynn Feldstein, the Ginger Genealogist, had her blog hacked and some of her older posts, including the 99 Things Genealogy Meme, were sent out as new items.  I discovered that Saturday Night Genealogy Fun, which I use as weekly inspiration for posts, covered this topic, but in 2009, two years before I started blogging.  So I'm going to do it now.

Because my Jewish ancestry is a huge focus of my research, I'm using Banai's Jewish-focused version of the meme, although I do not agree with her logic on removing American Revolution, Civil War, and DAR as topics.  For several of the items, I changed "ancestor" to "relative" because not only did I not think it was realistic for all of those items to be for ancestors, my collateral relatives are also important in my research.  And I did a few edits just because I'm an editor and found things, and I couldn't help myself.

The list should be annotated in the following manner:
Things you have already done or found:  bold type.
Things you would like to do or find:  Italicize (color optional).
Things you haven’t done or found and don’t care to:  plain type.

1. Belonged to a genealogical society.
2. Researched records on site at a court house.
3. Transcribed records.
4. Uploaded tombstone photographs to Find-A-Grave.
5. Documented ancestors for four generations (self, parents, grandparents, great-grandparents).
6. Joined Facebook.
7. Helped clean up a run-down cemetery.
8. Joined the GeneaBloggers Group on Facebook.
9. Attended a genealogy conference.
10. Lectured at a genealogy conference.
11. Attended SIG/BOF meetings at a genealogy conference.
12. Spoke on a genealogy topic at a local genealogy society.
13. Been the editor of a genealogy society newsletter or journal.
14. Contributed to a genealogy society publication.
15. Served on the board or as an officer of a genealogy society.
16. Got lost on the way to a cemetery.  Because my father refused to ask for directions first.
17. Talked to dead relatives.
18. Researched outside the state in which I live.
19. Knocked on the door of an ancestral home and visited with the current occupants.
20. Cold-called a distant relative.
21. Posted messages on a surname message board.
22. Uploaded a GEDCOM file to the Internet.
23. Googled my name.
24. Performed a random act of genealogical kindness.
25. Researched an unrelated family, just for the fun of it.
26. Have been paid to do genealogical research.
27. Earned a living (majority of income) from genealogical research.
28. Wrote a letter (or e-mail message) to a previously unknown relative.
29. Responded to messages on a message board or forum.
30. Was injured while on a genealogy excursion.
31. Participated in a genealogy meme.
32. Created family history gift items (calendars, cookbooks, etc.).
33. Performed a record look-up for someone else.
34. Went on a genealogy seminar cruise.
35. Was convinced that a relative must have arrived here from outer space.
36. Found a disturbing family secret.
37. Told others about a disturbing family secret.
38. Combined genealogy with crafts (family picture quilt, scrapbooking).
39. Think genealogy is a passion, not a hobby.
40. Assisted finding next of kin for a deceased person (Unclaimed Persons).
41. Taught someone else how to find their roots.
42. Lost valuable genealogy data due to a computer crash or hard drive failure.  More than once, in fact.
43. Been overwhelmed by available genealogy technology.
44. Know a cousin of the 4th degree or higher.
45. Disproved a family myth through research.
46. Got a family member to let you copy photos.
47. Used a digital camera to “copy” photos or records.
48. Translated a record from a foreign language.
49. Found an immigrant ancestor’s passenger arrival record.
50. Looked at census records on microfilm, not on the computer.
51. Used microfiche.
52. Visited the FamilySearch Library in Salt Lake City.
53. Visited more than one LDS FamilySearch Center.
54. Visited a church or place of worship of one of your ancestors.
55. Taught a class in genealogy.
56. Traced ancestors back to the 18th century. [From Banai:  Removed 17th and 16th centuries for the Jewish version.  Ashkenazi Jews are not likely to go beyond the 18th.  There just aren’t records for us.]
57. Can name all of your great-great-grandparents.
58. Found an ancestor’s Social Security application.
59. Know how to determine a Soundex code without the help of a computer.
60. Used Steve Morse’s One-Step searches.
61. Own a copy of Where Once We Walked.
62. Helped someone find an ancestor using records you had never used for your own research.
63. Visited the main National Archives building in Washington, DC.
64. Visited the Library of Congress.
65. Found at least two relatives who came over on the same ship on different journeys.
66. Have a relative who fought in World War I.
67. Have a relative who fought in World War II.
68. Took a photograph of an ancestor’s tombstone.
69. Became a member of the Association of Graveyard Rabbits.
70. Can read a metrical record in Polish, Russian, and/or German.
71. Have an ancestor who changed his name.
72. Joined a RootsWeb mailing list.
73. Created a family Web site.
74. Have more than one genealogy blog.
75. Was overwhelmed by the amount of family information received from someone.
76. Have broken through at least one brick wall.  Well, I don't have any real brick walls, where I have exhausted every possible record and still haven't found an answer, but I did answer a longstanding research question.
77. Borrowed a microfilm from the Family History Library through a local Family History Center.
78. Have done indexing for FamilySearch Indexing or another genealogy project.
79. Visited the Allen County Public Library Genealogy Center in Fort Wayne, Indiana.
80. Had an amazing serendipitous find of the “Psychic Roots” variety.
81. Have used Border Crossing records to locate a relative.
82. Used maps in my genealogy research.
83. Have a convict ancestor who was transported from the UK.
84. Found a bigamist among my ancestors.  No, but I have found bigamists doing research for others.
85. Ordered records from the Polish State Archives, Ukraine, or German archives.  How about Swedish archives?
86. Visited an ancestral village in Eastern Europe and did genealogy research.
87. Found a cousin in a foreign country (besides Canada).
88. Consistently cite my sources.  I do this for my clients.
89. Visited a foreign country (i.e., one I don’t live in) in search of relatives.
90. Can locate any document in my research files within a few minutes.  I used to be able to do this before I moved to Oregon.  I still don't have everything organized well since the move.  That'll teach me to tear a rotator cuff while moving boxes around.
91. Have an ancestor who was married four times (or more).  No, but I have found a cousin who did so.
92. Made a rubbing of an ancestor's gravestone.
93. Organized a family reunion.
94. Published a family history book (on one of my families).
95. Learned of the death of a fairly close relative through research.
96. Have done the genealogy happy dance.
97. Sustained an injury doing the genealogy happy dance.
98. Offended a family member with my research.
99. Reunited someone with precious family photos or artifacts.

So I have done 84 of the 99 items.  There are eight I would like to do (a couple of which I could probably justify as putting in bold already) and seven I have no interest in.  Seriously, who wants to get injured on a genealogy trip or doing the genealogy happy dance?  Why are those even on the list?

Image from Wikimedia Commons and licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun: What Are Your Major Genealogy Research Challenges?

Randy Seaver is back with this week's challenge (a key word this week) for Saturday Night Genealogy Fun!

Come on, everybody, join in and accept the mission and execute it with precision.

1.  What are your major genealogy challenges — the family mysteries that you haven't been able to crack to date?

2.  Tell us about five of your real genealogy challenges with a short paragraph, and links to blog posts if you have written about them.

3.  Share your challenges in your own blog post or in a Facebook, SubStack, BlueSky, or other social media post.  Leave a link to your post on this blog post to help us find your post.

Okay, here's my list.

• Who was the biological father of my paternal grandfather, Bertram Lynn Sellers, Sr. (1903–1995)?  He was informally adopted by his mother's husband when he was seven months old and used the name Sellers his entire life.  See "I'm Apparently a Sellers via Informal Adoption" and "Looking for Mr. Mundy (or a variant thereof)."

• What happened to my cousin Raymond Lawrence Sellers (1945–?) after his mother put him up for adoption?  I was unable to find anything about Raymond before my aunt passed away, but her other children would still like to know.  See "Saturday Night Genealogy Fun:  Your 2024 'Dear Genea-Santa' Letter."

• All of my Jewish research is a challenge, but the especially difficult lines are those who were living in what was Grodno gubernia in Russia, now mostly in Belarus.  The Nazis were particularly thorough in destroying archival records about the Jews in the area.  So my Meckler (Mekler), Novitsky (Nowicki), and Yelsky lines I'm really, really stuck on.  See "Saturday Night Genealogy Fun:  Your Best Genealogy Research Find in May 2018."

• And speaking of the Jewish part of my family, I had a few cousins who ended up in Cuba when they fled Eastern Europe.  I have managed to acquire only four records from their time there (which ranged from the late 1920's to the early 1960's).  I don't know if going back to Cuba will help with my research on the Szochermans.  See "A Declaration of Intention — from Cuba."

• My ex's father (and therefore the grandfather of my stepsons), Karm Singh, was from Punjab, India, born when it was still controlled by the British.  The British barely bothered with records for their own people in India; they didn't really care about the Indians.  So I've gotten absolutely nowhere so far on finding any records for the family.  I have been told I would have better luck if I could travel there and talk to people in person.  See "'Finding Your Roots' – Margaret Cho, Sanjay Gupta, and Martha Stewart."

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun: Five Questions for an Ancestor

Randy Seaver went way over his allotment of five questions in his post, so maybe I'll do the same for this week's Saturday Night Genealogy Fun challenge.

Your mission, should you decide to accept it (cue the Mission:  Impossible! music) is:

1.  If you could go back in time to interview one of your ancestors, what questions would you ask him or her?  Tell us your selected ancestor's name, birth and death years/locations, and spouse's name and marriage date/location.  List at least five questions to ask that selected ancestor.

2.  Tell us about your selected ancestor and your questions for that person in a blog post of your own, in a comment to this blog post, or in a Facebook comment.

Ah, so now I see that Randy allowed for more than the allotted five questions by saying "at least five" in the more detailed instructions.  I can work with that.

I'm going to choose my great-great-grandmother Beila, who was married to my great-great-grandfather Simcha Dovid Mekler.  As her given name is pretty much the only fact I have for her, I'm going to start with much more basic questions.

1.  When and where were you born?  What were your parents' names?  What was your full name before marriage?  Do you remember when your parents died?  When and where did that happen?

2.  Did you have siblings?  What were their names?  When and where were they born?

3.  What were the names of your grandparents on both sides?  Did you know them?  Do you remember when they died?  When did that happen?  What did the family do at that time?  How did you commemorate them?  What are their yahrzeiten?

4.  Did you have aunts and uncles?  What were their names?  Do you know when and where they were born?  Do you remember when they died?

5.  When and where were you married?  Was it a civil marriage as well as a religious marriage?  Who attended the wedding?  After you were married, where did you and my great-great-grandfather live?  What did my great-great-grandfather do for a living?

6.  How many children did you have?  When and where were each of them born?  How many survived to adulthood?  Which of them married during your lifetime?  Did you get to know any of your grandchildren?

7.  What was everyday life like for you and your family?  Were there other Jewish families where you lived?  What was the community like?

8.  What do you remember about the end of your life?  Do you remember how old you were?  Did you become ill?

I can think of so many more questions!

Steinfirst Serendipity

Bird's-eye view map of Titusville, Pennsylvania, 1896, by Thaddeus Mortimer Fowler

The city of Titusville, Pennsylvania, in Crawford County, was incorporated on February 28, 1866.  So today is the 159th anniversary of that event.  Happy birthday, Titusville!

But I've never had family in Titusville, so why do I care about this city?

Well, you never know when or where you're going to find people researching the same families you're working on, or even used to be working on.

Last year I was giving a presentation to the Jewish Genealogical Society of Pittsburgh.  The topic was resources to help find maiden names, one of those perennially difficult research areas.

Several of the examples I use in that talk come from research I did many years ago on the (Jewish) Steinfirst family of western Pennsylvania.  Various members of the family were in Pittsburgh at different times, ranging from 1880 through to the present day.

And would you believe it, someone at the presentation recognized many of the names in the examples I used?  That's his family!

I began my research on the Steinfirsts in 2005 and pretty much stopped in 2010.  I had never determined where they emigrated from in Europe or even whether Steinfirst was the original family name.  One branch of the family, the Stones, I knew did not start out with that name, but I had not learned what the name was in Europe.

And now I know!

Steinfirst, which I had thought was a name the family had created here because I couldn't find anyone outside the family with that name, was actually the name in Europe, albeit spelled a little differently.  Stone was originally Stamm; I had been focusing on names that either started or ended with "Stein", so I was way off and doomed to failure.

More records have become available since I stopped researching the family, which made some of these discoveries possible, along with dedicated research by other individuals.

And even though I am no longer actively researching the Steinfirsts, I am still fond of the family because of the amount of time I put into the research, and I was really excited to have answers to some of the questions I was stuck on years ago.  Plus I'm sharing the research I did with the person at my presentation, so I'm adding to his knowledge of his family.

That's one of the really cool aspects of genealogy:  helping other people find more information about their families.  It just makes you feel good.

The Gregorian Calendar Enters Use in Russia

Pope Gregory XIII

On my mother's side of the family, I am (as far as I know and have been able to verify through research) 100% Jewish.  All of my Jewish immigrant ancestors and most of my Jewish immigrant relatives within memory (and based on research) lived in the Russian Empire.  A small number of those relatives remained within the empire long enough also to live in the Soviet Union.

And that means that all of those ancestors and collateral relatives lived with the Julian calendar.  You know, the calendar that was corrected and improved upon by Pope Gregory XIII (lucky 13?), thereby giving the world the Gregorian calendar.

The Julian calendar dates back to the days of Julius Caesar, from whom it takes its name.  It had a 365-day year with a leap day added every fourth year.

The Julian calendar was a little longer than the actual solar year — .0078 days per year.  That doesn't sound like much, but over time — 1,628 years — this created a problem with when the seasons began and, more importantly, with determining when Easter began.  That then became a problem for the Catholic church, which is when Pope Gregory enters the picture.

Pope Gregory commissioned a new, more accurate calendar and declared on February 25, 1582 that the day after October 4, 1582 would be October 15, 1582, correcting for this mistake by dropping ten days.  But he did not rule the world, only the church, so at first only the Papal States and the church itself enacted the change.  Not long after, many Catholic countries switched over.  Protestant countries took longer, because they didn't want to be following the edict of the Catholic church, but eventually most of them made the change also (Great Britain and its colonies, including what would become the United States of America, corrected the calendar in 1752, dropping eleven days).

But many parts of the world didn't change until the 20th century, including the Russian Empire.  In fact, the Russian Empire never did make the change.  The Russian Revolution occurred, the Russian Empire was dissolved, and the brand-spanking new Russian Soviet Socialist Republic, which became part of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), declared that the country would switch to the Gregorian calendar.  January 31, 1918 was followed by February 14, 1918, dropping thirteen days to bring the calendar into compliance (because those additional centuries of extra leap days added up!).  So today is the 107th anniversary of the Russian change to the Gregorian calendar.  I love the fact that, once you took into account the changes in dates, the October Revolution actually took place in November.

All of my ancestors who were still alive left the Russian Empire before the October Revolution.  Most of my other relatives did also.

But a few were not able to leave quite that early and did live in the Soviet Union for some amount of time.

My great-grandfather's older sister, Etta Gorodetsky, married Dovid Kardish in the Russian Empire, and they had at least eight children there.  One child died in Europe, but Dovid, Etta, and the other seven children immigrated to Canada in 1927.

Dovid is probably my cousin, based on information I have found and been told, although I have not determined exactly how. But that makes everyone else in his family my cousins.  He had eleven known siblings.  Dovid's father and four of the siblings died in Europe, but his mother and six of his siblings were living in the Soviet Union before they left for Canada.  And one of Dovid's sisters never left; she married in the Russian Empire in what is now Ukraine, was still there during the transition to the Soviet Union, and eventually went to Uzbekistan, dying there before it became independent.

So all of those who did not leave before the fall of the Russian Empire went through the calendar transition from Julian to Gregorian.

The records I find for my relatives before the switch to the Gregorian calendar have dates based on the Julian calendar.

So I need to note in some way in my family tree that those dates are Julian, to make sure I'm accurately recording events.

I would prefer to enter the dates per the Julian calendar, because that's how they were originally recorded, and that's the logic I use for entering locations.  What it was called when the event happened is what I enter, and then I make a note that the location is now called something else.

But my computer program isn't able to handle dates that way.  When I put in a Julian date, it wants to interpret it as a Gregorian date, like all the other dates in the database.

What I eventually decided was to record the dates per the Gregorian calendar and then to make a note for each one of what the original Julian date was.  That way, the computer doesn't get confused, I still have the information about the date as originally recorded, and everyone is happy.  And I want to keep my computer happy.

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun: Do You Have Any Ancestors from Whom You Descend Two (or more) Times?

I wish I could answer the question from this week's Saturday Night Genealogy Fun challenge in detail.

Come on, everybody, join in and accept the mission and execute it with precision.

1.  Do you have any ancestors from which you descend two (or more) times?

2.  Tell us how you descend from these ancestors on your own blog post, in a comment here, or on your Facebook page.  Be sure to leave a link to your report in a comment on this post.

[Thank you to Linda Stufflebean for suggesting this topic!]

On my mother's side of the family, I am (as far as I know) 100% Ashkenazi Jewish.  Which means that it's highly likely that I have ancestors from whom I descend two or more times.

But because that side of my family is Ashkenazi Jewish, I don't have the documentation to show that.  And my DNA research is hampered by endogamy caused by the high likelihood that I have ancestors from whom I descend two or more times.

So to question 1, I say, "Hell, yes!"

And to question 2, I say, "I wish I could!"

But I can provide an example of this from my family.  My granduncle's wife filled out her Social Security application and listed the same surname for her father and her mother.  Apparently the person accepting the form commented that she was supposed to provide her mother's maiden name, because in the upper right corner of the SS-5, Beaty wrote a note:  "My mother and father were first cousins and had the same last name."

Seeking Assistance with a Hyena, a Shipwreck, Woodbine, and Route 66

This year National Volunteer Week runs from April 21 through 27.  The week, observed in Canada and the United States, is designed to honor volunteers and the contributions they make.  I use it to highlight the work that volunteers do within the family history world and projects that can currently use their assistance.  And I know about a few projects right now that would like your help, if you have the information they're looking for.

Judith A. Yates is a criminologist who is writing an all-encompassing book on Irma Grese, the "Hyena of Auschwitz."  She is seeking people to interview who came into contact with Grese, who was employed at:

• Ravensbruck, July 1942 to March 1943
• Auschwitz, March 1943 to January 1945 (mostly at Bergen-Belsen)
• Belsen, March 1945

Yates would also like to interview:

• people who attended the Belsen trials
• people who know about Grese's home town, Wrechen (Neubrandenburg County), North Germany
• people who can discuss the general life of female guards at either camp (behavior, where they lived, how they lived, etc.)
• people who did not have personal dealings with Grese but knew "of" her personally
• family members of survivors
• anyone who can provide information, including photos and documents

You may contact Yates at truecrimebook@yahoo.com.  Her site is http://www.judithayates.com/.

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Descendants of victims from an Australian shipwreck are being sought to share their stories.

The SS Nemesis disappeared in 1904 on its way from Newcastle, New South Wales to Melbourne, Victoria.  Thirty-two crew members were on board the ship, and they left behind more than 40 children.

The ship's wreckage was found in 2022 and confirmed to be the Nemesis this year.  After the first call for descendants, twenty grandchildren and great-grandchildren, from almost every Australian state, came forward, including relatives of the ship's captain.  Heritage NSW is asking more relatives to share their stories so they can be saved and archived.

An article about this story has more details and includes contact information for Heritage NSW.

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Do you remember Route 66?  (I don't, I'm too young!)  Have any great stories?  The National Trust for Historic Preservation wants you to share those stories so they won't be forgotten!

Leading up to Route 66's centennial in 2026, the National Trust is hoping to receive (at least) 2,026 stories to celebrate the famous highway, and it's asking community members, travelers, historians, and everyone else to contribute.  More details and a link to the submission form can be found here, along with many stories and photos that have already been shared.

[I just discovered by reading the Wikipedia page about Route 66 that it was established on November 11, 1926.  Although this was commemorated as Armistice Day, it was not yet a holiday (that didn't happen until 1938).  And November 11 is a special day in my family because it was my mother's birthday.]

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Stephen A. Diamond, Ph.D. of New York City is in the planning stages to film a documentary about the Jewish Agricultural Colony of Woodbine, New Jersey.  The filming is likely to happen this summer, but the exact scope and content are still under discussion.  He is looking for descendants and others from the extended Woodbine family who have anecdotal information or memorabilia related to the colony to share that information and/or to participate in the documentary.  You may contact him at diamondesllc@gmail.com.

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun: What Memories Do You Have of Family Sickness or Deaths?

We're thinking about more serious subjects this week for Saturday Night Genealogy Fun with Randy Seaver.

Here is your assignment, if you choose to play along (cue the Mission:  Impossible! music):

(1) What memories do you have of family sickness or death?  Tell us about one or more of them and how the family dealt with it.

(2) Tell us in your own blog post, in a comment to this blog post, or on Facebook.  Be sure to leave a comment with a link to your blog post on this post.

This is a subject I have thought about before, primarily because it wasn't something my family appeared to have dealt with while I was a child.  I don't remember hearing about any deaths when I was young.  I used to think that we hadn't had any family members who had died during that period.

After I started doing more family history research, I learned that two of my maternal grandfather's brothers died in 1968, when I was 6 years old.  My father's paternal grandmother died in 1970, when I was 8.  I never heard about the deaths when they occurred.

The first death I remember hearing about in my family was when my paternal grandfather's brother died.  I think that was in 1975, after my family had moved back to the United States and was living near my grandfather.  One day my mother told me that Grampa would be out of town for a few days.  When I asked why, she told me it was because his brother had died.  My reaction?  "Grampa has a brother?"  I had never heard of the brother!  And that was all I heard about him then.  Grampa came back home and didn't say anything about him or whatever memorial service might have been held.

The next death in my family, which had an illness preceding it, didn't occur until 1989.  My maternal grandfather had leukemia (which I didn't find out until some years later was caused by a blood tranfusion he received during his heart surgery, which had taken place years earlier and which also had not been talked about) and had been slowly losing ground.  My grandparents' 50th wedding anniversary celebration was scheduled to be held in 1989, and I think Zadie held on long enough to be able to attend.  He died a couple of months after it took place.  At least that I heard about when it happened.  I also heard about when family members went to the cemetery a year later for his unveiling, a Jewish tradition.  So there was certainly more communication than had previously occurred.  But other than that we didn't talk about it a lot.

I don't really know if my famly was just that pragmatic or if these things weren't discussed in front of children.  But it has been interesting to learn about some of these events so long after the fact.

Abraham Meckler, July 23, 1912–December 10, 1989

Today is the 102nd anniversary of the birth of my maternal grandfather.  Abraham Meckler (or possibly just Abe) was born in Brooklyn, Kings County, New York to Morris (sometimes Max) Meckler (later Mackler) and Minnie (originally Mushe) Zelda Nowicki.  I don't know the specific location because the lovely City of New York won't release birth records after 1909, even though it has been more than 100 years.  I read a statement once where someone from the city declared that as far as they were concerned, these are not public records in any way.

Meckler family in 1915 New York State census; next to last is "Abie"

From what I was told, Zadie (Yiddish for "grandfather") grew up in a very conservative, traditional Orthodox family.  The two photos I have of his grandparents bear that out, but the one photo I have of his father shows a man with short hair and no head covering.  I don't know if that photo was taken in Europe or in the United States, so maybe the photo was taken here and he became less observant once he immigrated.

I do not have nearly the number of photos of my grandfather that I do of my grandmother.  The earliest one is from his bar mitzvah, which presumably took place in 1925, when he turned 13.

Later in life Zadie had heart problems.  He contracted leukemia from a blood tranfusion he received after a heart attack.  His health slowly worsened, but he held on until he and my grandmother had celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary, with a big family reunion in Las Vegas, where Bubbie and Zadie had lived for many years.  He passed away about a month later.

Telling Part of My Story: My Tattoo

It's my birthday today!  Yes, I have survived one more revolution around the sun and am now 58 years old.  Not the oldest person around, certainly, but since I had some people predict I wouldn't make it past 30, a lot better than it could have been.

One of the recurring themes for family history during the past few years has been that along with documenting all of those ancestors, the family genealogist should also remember to document his own life.  So starting today I decided I will write something about myself for my blog on my birthday.

After such a momentous decision, however, comes the next one:  what to write about?  What is interesting about me or my life?  Or interesting to me about my life?

I finally settled on a topic that in some ways is intrinsic to my identity, or at least to identifying me, but which for years my family knew nothing about.

I have a tattoo.  Meet Dart.

My inspiration for having a tattoo started when I was very young:  My father had a tattoo, and I loved it.  (It occurs to me now that I don't know if we have any photographs of it.  My sister and I think it was on his left arm.)  It was of Quetzalcoatl, the Aztec god of wind, air, and learning.  And I thought it was so cool, I wanted a tattoo also.

Actually following through on that took a long time.  I had to work myself up to it.  I found someone to do the artwork about 1983.  I wanted a dragon for strength.  I don't remember the name of the guy who did the drawing (which I admit is bad), but he let me have the artwork to take somewhere else.  My roommate at the time got a tattoo the day before she was going to be commissioned as an officer in the U.S. Navy (because you're not supposed to get tattoos after you've become an officer) and vetted the tattoo artist as doing clean work.  (It used to be you worried about getting hepatitis from an artist who didn't use clean needles, but by this time you had to worry about AIDS.)

The artist was Bob, and the place was Spotlight Tattoo on Melrose Boulevard in Los Angeles (and they're still there!).  I remember it cost $75 and took one hour for the tattoo.  But during that hour Bob asked me something like four or five times if I was okay.  He finally said he had never seen anyone stay so white for so long.  (Um, yeah, low pain threshhold, sorry, dude.)

So I finally had my tattoo!  And I loved it!

I named the dragon Dart after the dragon in the Roger Zelazny short story "The George Business" (I'm sure this transcription of the story violates copyright), which I read in the anthology Dragons of Light, edited by Orson Scott Card.  Dart was strong and intelligent, which I thought was a great combination.

And no one in my family knew about him until about 2007.

See, my maternal grandmother was Jewish.  And Jews traditionally aren't supposed to get tattoos.  I've always been told that you can't be buried in a Jewish cemetery if you have a tattoo.  And I didn't want my grandmother to know that I couldn't be buried in a Jewish cemetery, because I was the grandchild the most interested in our Jewish history.

So to make sure that Bubbie (my grandmother) wouldn't know, I figured the safest thing to do was not to let anyone in the family know, just in case it might somehow accidentally come up in conversation sometime.  I never wore anything sleeveless around family members.

And I managed to keep that secret.  Bubbie died in 2006.  At that point I had conditioned myself so well that it still didn't occur to me to mention it to family.

Until I watched a program that explained how a body was identified because of the tattoo the person had.  Investigators publicized the tattoo, and someone who recognized it was able to identify the deceased person.

I realized it was unlikely, but it occurred to me that if something similar were to happen to me, investigators could publicize the tattoo all they wanted, and no one in my family would know it was me.  Because they didn't know about the tattoo.

So I told them.  And I stopped worrying about being an unidentified body.

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun: Accentuate the Positive Geneameme 2019

I always have fun with lists of questions for Saturday Night Genealogy Fun, but I have to admit I've never heard of the word "geneameme" before.

Here is your assignment, should you decide to accept it (you ARE reading this, so I assume that you really want to play along; cue the Mission:  Impossible! music!):

(1) Jill Ball reconstituted her "Accentuate the Positive Geneameme 2019" on 30 December 2019 and invited readers to participate.  

(2) This week, let's contribute our answers to her questions about our genealogy accomplishments in 2019.  Copy the questions below and add your own responses.

(3) Share your responses on your own blog, in comments on this blog, or on Facebook.  Please leave a comment on this post so readers can find your post, and please let Jill know about your efforts by e-mailing her at jillballau@gmail.com.

Here are mine.

1.  An elusive ancestor I found was:

I did not discover the names of any unknown ancestors in 2019.

2.  A great newspaper article I found was:

I found several interesting newspaper articles about my cousin Sam Brainin on Newspapers.com, including one about a bad car accident he was in as a child.

3.  A geneajourney I took was:

I took three geneajourneys, to RootsTech, the Ohio Genealogical Society conference, and the IAJGS International Conference on Jewish Genealogy.

4.  I located an important record:

Yes!  I found the passenger list for my great-great-grandmother Ruchel Dwoire (Jaffe) Brainin immigrating to the Untied States with four of her children.

5.  A newly found family member shared:

A cousin I discovered through a DNA match shared lots of information on his branch of the family, plus a photograph of my great-great-grandparents Gershon Itzhak Nowicki and Dube (Yelsky) Nowicki from about 1915, while they were still in Russia.

6.  A geneasurprise I received was:

When I posted a family photograph that I love but didn't know who was in it, one of my cousins recognized her grandmother and grandaunt, which was totally unexpected.  Plus the photo is probably of her father's bris!

7.  My 2019 social media post that I was particularly proud of was:

I am glad I took the time to write up all my family connections in "Now That's What I Call a Blended Family!"  It takes a genealogist to keep track of a family as complicated as mine.

8.  I made a new genimate who:

I've gotten to be friends with someone who comes regularly to the African American Special Interest Group at the Genealogical Forum of Oregon.  We're even working toether on a few genealogy projects.

9.  A new piece of technology or skill I mastered was:

Well, not quite mastered, but for the first time I was the speaker for a Webinar, and I did all the computer stuff for it.

10.  I joined:

Well, I rejoined the Jewish Genealogical Society of Oregon.

11.  A genealogy education session or event from which I learnt something new was:

I always learn something from every conference and Webinar, but one of the standouts last year was Judy Baston's presentation on the Vilna Ghetto Library, which I attended at the IAJGS conference.  It was fascinating to see the kinds of documentation that have survived.

12.  A blog post that taught me something new was:

Jennifer Mendelsohn's "No, You Don't Really Have 7,900 4th Cousins:  Some DNA Basics for Those with Jewish Heritage" has incredibly useful information on how to work around the overabundance of matches that endogamy produces.

13.  A DNA discovery I made was:

For the first time, a DNA match connected me with someone on the Jewish side of my family I was able to place in my family tree immediately but didn't know already.

14.  I taught a genimate how to:

I did 25 presentations at conferences and genealogical societies, in addition to my volunteer work at the Gresham Family History Center and "Helping Hands" sessions for the Jewish Genealogical Society of Oregon.  I think I taught several "genimates" how to do a lot of things.

15.  A brick wall I demolished was:

I had been looking for my great-great-grandmother's arrival into this country for about 20 years (see #4).

16.  A great site I visited was:

"Old Photographs of African Americans" is a site that displays unidentified photographs for free.  People have been able to find their relatives' photos, which is wonderful.

17.  A new genealogy/history book I enjoyed was:

I found a copy of London:  Then and Now by Diane Burstein at a thrift store, and it was a bargain.

18.  It was exciting to finally meet:

Like Randy, I also can't think of someone new and exciting I met in 2019.  I'm sure there was someone, but my memory is blanking.

19.  I am excited for 2020 because:

I am really looking forward to working more on figuring out who my paternal great-grandfather Mr. X was.

20.  Another positive I would like to share is:

I'm always excited about a new year of opportunities to learn about and share genealogy!

Wonder of Wonders, Miracle of Miracles: A DNA Match on My Jewish Side Whom I Didn't Already Know!

A couple of months ago I logged into my Ancestry.com account to check out my DNA matches.  I don't do this often (probably not as often as I should), mostly because I've gotten used to finding no useful information.  The close matches are all relatives I know already, the distant matches are too far away to be viable at the moment, and most of the in-between matches are on my Jewish side, which means they are actually distant anyway.

This time I saw a person estimated to be a 1st–2nd cousin.  The last name was Novick, a known Americanized version of Nowicki/Novitsky, one of my Jewish family names.  I think a 1st–2nd cousin match is the closest I've ever had on my Jewish side for someone I didn't already know, so it definitely got my attention.  I sent a message with some basic information about the family including the name of my great-great-grandfather Gershon Itzhak Nowicki and hoped for the best.

He actually responded!  And we are related!  In a definable, trackable way!

My great-great-grandfather was his grandfather.  What AncestryDNA had estimated as a 1st–2nd cousin relationship is actually 1st cousin twice removed.

His branch of the family is one for which I had almost no information.  I had his father's name with approximate birth and death years and the name of one child, whom I have learned is the oldest in the family (and she's 98 and still alive!).

We batted e-mail messages back and forth with names and dates and other tidbits about family members.  Then out of the blue my phone rang.  He had found my phone number and decided to call!  So then we spent a couple of hours on the phone talking more about family.

I've learned lots more about his branch of the family.  He sent some photographs, too, includng the one above, which is of his grandparents (my great-great-grandparents) and his father in 1915, still in Russia.  Previously the only photo I had of my great-great-grandparents was this one:

where they look quite a bit older.  I had not considered where this photo had been taken, but now I'm thinking it might have been in the United States.  If that's the case, I can bracket it between 1922, when Gershon and Dube arrived in New York, and 1936, when Dube died in Brooklyn.

And now I want to meet my newfound cousin in person.  I would have loved to try to travel over the holidays, but who wants to visit Long Island in the winter?

IAJGS Cleveland: Wrapping Up and Heading Home

By the time Thursday rolled around at this year's IAJGS conference, the temperatures in Cleveland had taken a serious dip, and it didn't get over 79° for the rest of my visit.  I wasn't quite happy enough to go dancing in the streets, because that would have gotten me overheated again, but it was a great relief.

The first session on Thursday was my third and final presentation of the conference.  My talk about finding the maiden names in your family is one of my most popular, and the room was pretty full.  Near the end of the talk, one of the suggestions I make as to why people change their names is to gain an inheritance.  A gentleman in attendance actually had an example of that from his own family, where the man writing the will included a provision requiring potential heirs to change their name to his if they wanted the bequest.  I asked him to contact me after the conference, because I would love to have an image of that will to include for the future.

Since none of the topics in the second time slot really grabbed my interest, I headed back to the Resource Room to see what other goodies I could find.  Along with being able to use ProQuest databases, several genealogical societies provide access to resources that are normally behind password-protected member areas.  I took advantage of the opportunity to obtain copies of several society journals/newsletters that I didn't have.  I left with a loaded flash drive and a satisfied smile.

Thursday was also my last volunteer mentoring session.  I was surprised and happy to see that someone who had been in my maiden names session actually followed through on her statement that she would see me later.  I helped her with several questions and then stayed an extra hour to be available, because for a while there was a back-up of people wanting assistance.

I did drag myself away for Alex Denysenko's talk about "Alternative Sources for Jewish Genealogy."  Even though he was approaching the idea from a Russian/Ukrainian perspective, it turned out that a lot of his "alternative" sources are the same types we use here in the United States, such as land records, passports and visas, voter registration lists, school records, and newspapers (hooray for newspapers!).  Some that were different were notary records (common in many locations in Europe), work registrations, Judenrat records, Extraordinary Commission records (unique to the former Soviet Union, I believe), land distribution in Poland, and debtors' lists.

The last session I attended on Thursday was Jane Neff Rollins' discussion of "Translation Tips for Foreign-language Documents."  Jane and I were both members of a short-lived APG special interest group for translators, and I definitely wanted to see her presentation and show support.  She provided a lot of good resources and discussed the pros and cons of using volunteer translators, trying to do it yourself, and paying for a professional.

Friday is the short day of the conference, with the "afterthought" sessions.  I've been scheduled in the last time slot, and I know what it's like to look at an empty room, so I make an effort to find talks to go to on the last day.  I lucked out and again was able to attend a talk that will be presented later this year for the San Francisco Bay Area Jewish Genealogical Society.  Robinn Magid, an SFBAJGS member and the chair of next year's conference in San Diego, spoke about "American Jewish Family Clubs and Family Circles."  The impression I got was that most of these didn't have lots of documentation, but some of them are goldmines of genealogy information.  I know my family members used to get together, but I don't know if it was a formal "family club."  I doubt there's any paperwork to find, unfortunately.

And then I couldn't resist the siren call of the Resource Room and went back one more time to see what else I could discover.  This time I visited a different genealogical society's site and found several pieces of information about family members in its member area.  Another successful foray!

I had allowed some free time after the conference ended in case I found someone to talk with before I left for home.  I ran into a man who had gone to two of my talks, and we had a lively discussion about families and research for about an hour before he headed off to find lunch and then drive to Fort Wayne, Indiana for even more genealogy.  And as a coda to the conference, when my airport shuttle arrived, I was amazed to discover that the two people with whom I was riding recognized me because they had also gone to my presentations, each of them a different one.  So we talked even more about genealogy the entire way to Hopkins, barely letting the driver get a word in edgewise to ask us which airlines we were flying on.

I really love going to these conferences.  As the SFBAJGS president likes to say, who wouldn't want to be stuck in a hotel for a week with 1,000 other people equally obsessed about genealogy?  I can hardly wait until next year's conference, especially since I don't have to go east of the Rockies.  It isn't Cleveland's fault, but San Diego will probably have weather more to my liking.  And I won't even have to change time zones!

IAJGS International Conference on Jewish Genealogy in Cleveland, Ohio

So here I am in lovely Cleveland, Ohio.  I think it hit 89° today, with something like 90% humidity.  I really, really hate weather like this.  Then why have I come to Cleveland in July?  For genealogy, obviously!

Yesterday (Sunday) was the first day of this year's IAJGS International Conference on Jewish Genealogy.  It is the 39th conference, although it hasn't been held every year.  Even though it is Cleveland in July, I can deal with that more than I could the expense of last year's conference in Warsaw, so I'm glad I am able to attend.

I unfortunately had a late start on Sunday, so I missed both of the morning sessions, which was very disappointing.  I had particularly been looking forward to hearing Vivian Kahn's talk about Hungarian Jewish immigration into Cleveland, especially since both sides of her family lived there.  I did have an enjoyable time walking through the exhibitor hall, visiting vendors and many research groups that had tables for the afternoon.  The highlight of the day was the keynote address by Daniel Goldmark, Director of the Center for Popular Music Studies at Case Western Reserve University.  His presentation was about Jews in popular music, ranging from Sophie Tucker and Al Jolson to the Beastie Boys, Gene Simmons, and more.  He sometimes regretted playing snippets of songs, as most people in the audience started singing along almost immediately.  It might not have been the most genealogically oriented keynote I've heard at a conference, but it sure was fun!

I wrapped up the day with a meeting of Jewish genealogical society newsletter and journal editors.  I always try to schedule one for the conferences I attend.  This year we had six people representing five societies (and two people were unable to attend but spoke to me about the meeting).  As usual, it was a combination of networking, brainstorming, and kvetching.  There's still one society that does print only, with no electronic version of their publication.

Monday began with the first of my three presentations.  I was so happy that the first session of the day began at 9:15, instead of 7:30, as it was at one conference!  The topic was "Jewish Genealogy:  How Is This Research Different from All Other Research?"  Rather than being an introduction to genealogy, it focuses on the aspects of Jewish research that are unique and different from researching other groups.  About 50 people were in attendance, which was nice to see.  One of the attendees was a lovely woman who has been researching her family for 40 years but only recently discovered she has a Jewish line.  She and several others told me at the end that the talk was very helpful and informative, which I am always gratified to hear.

I went to the Belarus Special Interest Group meeting because the well known Miriam Weiner was scheduled to be the presenter.  I've never heard her speak before, so I don't know if today was surprising or not, but all she did was show how to use the Routes to Roots site.  On the positive side, I did get a copy of a 1937 map of Grodno, which will be helpful for research.

IAJGS offered its mentoring program again this year, where they ask speakers to volunteer some time to help attendees with research questions.  The mentoring area is really cramped this year, with a small number of tables and lots of volunteers, but I found a table with two attendees who came up with lots of questions for me.  They have several new avenues of research to work on now.

I was able to fit one DNA talk into my schedule.  It's the first time I've heard Bennett Greenspan of Family Tree DNA talk.  He is an entertaining speaker, even on the (somewhat boring) technical aspects of Y-DNA that were his topic.  I'm not sure if what I learned is going to necessarily help me in my research, but I do understand how the matches work much better.

For some local flavor (since I missed Vivian's talk), I next went to a session on the Jewish presence in central Ohio.  The presenters discussed Jewish immigration into the area beginning in the 1830's and going through Soviet Jewish immigration late in the 20th century, and showed images of many documents and artifacts held at Ohio History Connection and the Columbus Jewish Historical Society, including a mohel's record book covering 1873 to 1904.  Both repositories hold a wide range of items that would be helpful and beneficial to many genealogists researching their families.

Today ended with a get-together of professional genealogists who are at the conference.  We introduced ourselves, talked about our research specialties, and did a lot of networking.  One of the few (I think there are two?) Jewish Certified Genealogists was actually in attendance.  One topic that came up was how it would be beneficial for attendees at the IAJGS conference if there were more sessions on methods and foundational topics, rather than everthing being focused on Jewish genealogical topics.  It has been learned over the years that few people who attend IAJGS go to general conferences where they would learn more about those other topics.

My commentary on days 3 and 4 of the conference is here, and that on days 5 and 6 here.