"Bad Indians" at California Historical Society

The California Historical Society will host another interesting speaker on Thursday, January 17, 2013, at 6:00 p.m.  Deborah A. Miranda is an associate professor of English at Washington and Lee University.  She is an enrolled member of the Ohlone Costanoan Esselen Nation of California and also has Chumash, French, and Jewish ancestry.  Her new book, Bad Indians:  A Tribal Memoir (Heyday Books, 2012), the focus of the evening, is about her Ohlone family and the experience of California Indians as told through oral histories, newspaper stories, anthropological recordings, and more.  Miranda has published two poetry collections and has a forthcoming collection of essays.

"An Evening with Deborah Miranda" will take place at the California Historical Society, 678 Mission Street, San Francisco.  Make your reservation at mirandaatchs.eventbrite.com.

New Volunteer Position

The official announcement has been made, so I can now say that I have been elected to a two-year term as a board member at large for the California State Genealogical Alliance.  The purpose of CSGA is to serve as an information and communication source for the genealogical community in California, to preserve state genealogical sources, and to promote genealogy.  One thing I particularly hope to focus on is being a liaison to the ethnic genealogical societies we have here.  I think they are a great resource that more people need to know about.  I'm looking forward to working with the other board members during the next two years.  It should be an interesting and educational adventure!

Audio Tour of London Cemetery

Hampstead Graveyard

A cemetery in London now has an Internet supplement -- audio recordings of stories related to several of the people buried there.  The Hampstead Parish Churchyard in Camden is the oldest surviving original churchyard in the center of Greater London.  Saint-John-at-Hampstead has burials dating from about 1745 to at least World War II.  The "Life and Death in Hampstead Sound Trail", conceived of as a way to interest people in local history, has extracts from 44 interviews with descendants, family members, academics, and experts.  There are transcripts of the recordings and an additional 21 texts with information about other burials and topics.

Some of the more famous burials in the churchyard are painter John Constable, comedian Peter Cook, and George and Gerald Du Maurier (grandfather and father of Daphne Du Maurier).  The Web site includes interviews about Constable and the Du Mauriers.  An article about the Sound Trail is available on the BBC Web site.

My thanks to Jeremy Frankel for telling me about this interesting story.

Learn How to Use the Bilingual Search Engine for IGRA's Database

The Israel Genealogy Research Association (IGRA) has an All Israel Database (AID) section of its site with information from the Ottoman, British, and Israeli administrations.  Most databases are in Hebrew, some are in English, and a few are in other languages.  Records are presented in their original languages.

In July, at the IAJGS International Conference in Paris, IGRA was awarded a Stern Grant to develop a bilingual search engine for its Web site to improve access to the databases.  The new search engine was announced on December 15.  The search engine can understand both English and Hebrew and will show matches in both languages even if you enter the name in only one language.  All material has been transliterated so that the search engine can identify results.  There is even a virtual keyboard if you do not have a Hebrew keyboard.

The search has several filter options, including record type, database, source, repository, and administration era.  The default language for the page is Hebrew, but you can click on the "English" button at the top right and it is immediately translated.  Different databases have different permission levels.  Some are available to everyone, while some are only for paid IGRA members.  More records are still being digitized and added to the databases.

Obviously, there's a lot to learn here.  Luckily, IGRA is offering a free Webinar, "Navigating the All Israel Database Search Engine", in English (which is good for me, because I don't understand Hebrew!).  The Webinar will be broadcast January 13, 2013 at 10:00 a.m. PST/1:00 p.m. EST/8:00 p.m. Israel.  Register at https://www3.gotomeeting.com/register/180663814.

My thanks to Garri Regev, IGRA president, for posting this information.

Wordless Wednesday

Another Issue of The Galitzianer

Whew!  I'm finally back on schedule . . . well, mostly.  I finished this issue of The Galitzianer on time, and it's ready for the printer, but it has to wait to go out until some administrative paperwork has been taken care of.  That's a huge improvement, though, and I think the March issue will actually come out in March!

So what's in this issue?  There's somewhat of a "black gold" theme going on.  The main article (a translation of a French article) discusses the history of oil exploration in Galicia, which had the first oil refinery in the world.  A short article about Neudorf and a review of a book about East Galicia and Bukovina also discuss the oil industry in Galicia and how it affected residents.  Then a memoir by one of the co-authors of Our Bodies, Ourselves, who is a Holocaust survivor born in Przemyślany, relates her life journey.  And almost 30,000 names from 269 Viennese families have been entered into Geni.com.

The Galitzianer is sent to members of Gesher Galicia, a nonprofit organization focused on researching Jews and Jewish life in the former Austro-Hungarian province of Galicia.  Articles are accepted from both members and nonmembers.  If you submit an article that is published, you will receive a copy of the issue with your article even if you are not a member.  Submissions may be articles and/or graphics, both original and previously published, and must be relevant to Galician Jewish genealogical research:  articles about recent trips to Galicia, reports on your own research, historical and recent pictures relevant to these matters, etc.  Electronic submissions are preferred, though not required.

If you wish to submit material for consideration, please contact me at janicemsj@gmail.com.  We accept submissions year-round, but the deadline for the March 2013 issue is February 15.

New Links on Online Newspaper Archives Page

I am a huge fan of newspapers for family history research.  Newspapers can give you information on births, marriages, divorces, deaths, jobs, military service, court cases, and more.  I have been teaching classes on using online newspapers for a few years now, and one of my favorite resources to tell people about is the Wikipedia page for online newspaper archives.  This page is a portal with links to other sites with digitized newspapers, abstracts, and indices.  The links are sorted by country (and in some cases are broken down further by state or province), and there are also links to multicountry and informational sites.  And most of the sites are free!  This is one of the first places you should look when you are checking to see if newspapers in a given area are available online.

Because the page is on Wikipedia, everyone can contribute links to new resources when you find them.  I add information on a regular basis.  The latest links I added are:
• Australia: Police Gazette of Western Australia from 1876-1900
• Cyprus: American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee archive of newspapers published between 1947-1949 by Holocaust survivors detained on Cyprus
• Scotland: Word on the Street, broadsides from 1650-1910
• Worldwide: Newspaper Abstracts, abstracts and extracts from eight countries

Check for the area you're researching and see what's available online!

Seeking Passengers on the SS Marine Jumper

On March 3, 1949, the SS Marine Jumper left Hamburg for the United States with European refugees, primarily Jewish survivors from displaced persons (DP) camps.  Janette Silverman is looking for people who were on that specific sailing, or their descendants, for research on a new book project.  If you or your ancestors were on the Marine Jumper, please contact Janette directly at janette.silverman@gmail.com.  If you know someone who was on that sailing, please give them her e-mail address and ask them to contact her.

Wordless Wednesday