Using FamilySearch.org for Jewish Research

Speaker: Todd Knowles Co-sponsored by Ackman & Ziff Family Genealogy Institute  We live in a time when the availability of genealogical records appears to be almost endless. Every day, a new database becomes available or new records are added to an existing database. This growth has enabled people worldwide to make large strides in searching for their ancestors from the comfort of their own homes. FamilySearch.org is one of the leading online providers of free international genealogical records, but its vast website can be difficult to navigate. In this presentation, Todd Knowles, FamilySearch's Deputy Chief Genealogical Officer, will provide an overview of ...

What’s in a Name? A Case Study of (Re)discovering Jewish Identity on (and off) an Unlikely African Archipelago

Speaker: Alma Gottlieb  Co-Sponsored with the American Sephardi Federation   From Poland to Brazil to New Mexico, many individuals, families, and communities around the world are discovering that they have Jewish ancestors who renounced and/or suppressed their religious identity. What happens when Christians today learn that some of their long-ago relatives were Jewish? The West African island nation of Cabo Verde offers an especially compelling place from which to explore this intriguing process because of the unexpected convergence of Jews and Africans on a remote archipelago in the North Atlantic. In this talk, Professor Gottlieb will discuss her research with Cabo Verdeans on and off the ...

Death Records for Genealogical Research

Speaker: Phyllis Kramer   Certainly a great resource for the family genealogist are the records generated when a person dies. This presentation will cover in depth each type of record beginning with the death certificates and continuing with cemeteries, landsmanshaftn, gravestones, social security, medical records, undertakers, newspaper obituaries and probate. The presenter will strive to shed light on this dark topic. Phyllis Kramer is a practicing genealogist, with primary interest in Eastern European Jewish research. She has an MBA from Fordham University and a B.S. from Cornell. She retired from IBM as one of their first Business Consultants, designing and implementing client image processing ...

Searching for Paterson Roots Remembered and Forgotten in Heritage Tourism Abroad

SPEAKER: DANIEL WALKOWITZ   The extended Walkowitz family arrived in Paterson from Lodz, Poland, as early as 1910.  They worked in the textile mills, department stores and shops of the city while taking an active role in Yiddish theater, the Paterson Folk Chorus, and labor politics. It was a Jewish World of Yiddishkeit in which the author was raised and participated. As a radical student activist in the late 1950s and 1960s, he subsequently imagined himself walking in the footsteps of his Paterson grandparents who fought to improve the living and working conditions in the Lodz and Paterson mills. The author recounts ...