IAJGS2013 Conference - Day 4, Part 1

Day 4 of the International Conference on Jewish Genealogy.  My entire summary, day by day, here.

The day started with my listening to Alex Dunai talking about shtetl travel in the Ukraine.

Alex stresed that success depends on personal goals and interests of travel.

Planning a trip in advance helps to fully enjoy the trip. He recommends that people research ahead of the trip--this will save money and time. He also advised against doing research yourself on the trip rather than having someone else do it for you.  The time you will require, plus having to hire a translator will cost more than doing through researchers and may take more time than expected. Research may uncover more towns of interest, and it is hard to readjust to add more towns when you are already on the road.

Yehoshua Zev Lefand - Ancestor Deep Dive

Now time for a break from conference recaps--so back to the regularly scheduled blog!

My great-great-great grandfather Yehoshua Zev Lefand was born around 1851.  As his family was registered in Nezhin, Russian Empire (now Ukraine) and he was married there, he was likely born in Nezhin as well.  His father was named Ber; unfortunately there were several Ber Lefands living in Nezhin at this time, so other than a hypothesis, I'm not completely certain of Yehoshua Zev's mother's name.

On April 28, 1871, Yehoshua Zev married Mira Halperin.

Marriage Record for Yehoshua Zev and Mira (Halperin) Lefand, Nezhin, Ukraine, 1871

IAJGS2013 Conference - Day 3

Day 3 of the International Conference on Jewish Genealogy.  My entire summary, day by day, can be seen here.

I started out early with a Ukraine Breakfast with the Experts. Miriam Weiner and Olga M from the Ukraine archives answered questions. There were no huge insights, and much of what was asked had been answered at talks I attended yesterday. It was still goo to have it reinforced, and the hot breakfast was a nice start to another long day.

I then took full advantage of today's free access to ProQuest. I searched a lot of family names and downloaded a ton of articles to go through later. ProQuest has many newspapers which are searchable. While they didn't include Maryland- or Pittsburgh-based papers, those are available online elsewhere, and I've already searched through them. This helped me to pick up articles on other lines that lived elsewhere.

IAJGS2013 Day 2, Part 2

Day 2 of the International Conference on Jewish Genealogy continued.  As the conference progresses, you'll be able to see my entire summary, day by day, here.

Next I heard a speech by Alex Dunai, a Ukrainian research expert (who has helped trace my Zutelmans back to Muravitsa).  He spoke on records from the interwar years in Western Ukraine--the time and place in which both my paternal grandparents were born.

This talk was great. It covered records that exist from between 1918 and 1939.  Between 1918 and 1923 a Polish republic was created out of what had been the Russian and Austrian empires. The former Galicia and Volhynia became part of this republic.  Poland was divided into provinces. Lutsk was the Capitol of Wolyn province, which is the area covered by this talk.  The provinces were divided into counties; Wolyn had 11 counties.

IAJGS2013 Conference - Day 2, Part 1

Day 2 of the International Conference on Jewish Genealogy.  As the conference progresses, you'll be able to see my entire summary, day by day, here.

I started my morning in the conference hotel's presidential suite. Much better view than from my room!

IAJGS people brought together people from across the US and the world (including Japan and Brazil) with no local Jewish Genealogical Society (JGS). Baltimore doesn't have an active one, and three of us were at the (early) morning meeting.  We are going to try to reconstitute the society. Anyone from the Baltimore area interested?  Please let me know in the comments. 

Then I attended a very interesting (and applicable for me) talk by Olga Muzychuk who is the deputy director of the state archives in Ukraine.

IAJGS2013 Day 1, part 2

Day 4 of the International Conference on Jewish Genealogy.  (Note to bad people: no, my house is not empty, so don't bother.)  As the conference progresses, you'll be able to see my entire summary, day by day, here.

Last night was the opening session of the conference!  There are over 1200 people registered, and there are also people attending a selection of the presentations online!  It was announced that next year's conference will take place in Salt Lake City during the last week of July; then the 2015 conference will be in Israel beginning July 6; and the 2016 conference will take place on Seattle.

Aaron Lansky of the Yiddish Book Center gave the keynote address. I almost didn't go since the topic didn't sound very interesting, but I'm very glad I went.  Not only was he an entertaining speaker, but he has an important story to tell.

IAJGS2013 Conference - Day 1

I'm currently up in Boston at the International Conference on Jewish Genealogy.  (Note to bad people: no, my house is not empty, so don't bother.)  As the conference progresses, you'll be able to see my entire summary, day by day, here.

I arrived in Boston early this morning and went straight to the conference hotel, which is just across from Boston Public Gardens, a perfect place for lunch:

I then walked around the vendor area, which was an eclectic mix of DNA-testing companies, book sales, judaica, and online genealogy site organizations.