Past Meetings

Interested to know what has happened in past meetings? Here is a taste.

2023 was our move into hybrid meetings (in person and Zoom), including the following:

  • January 16 – Todd Knowles, Jews of the Caribbean
  • February 27 – Daniel Horowitz, Why is My Grandmother’s Record Private?
  • April 17 – Roundtable – our latest projects and questions!
  • May 15 – Janette Silverman from Ancestry ProGenealogists, In the Aftermath
  • June 26 – Tracy Zappala from Ancestry ProGenealogists  on Danish Jewish research.
  • July 17 – Kathy Kirkpatrick, Italian Concentration Camps in World War II.
  • August 21 – Ken Bravo, a former president of IAJGS, about IAJGS.
  • September 19 – Kory Meyerink will speak to us about Professional Genealogy.
  • October 17 – Paula Paradise will speak on “Breaking through the Brick wall of John Paradise: Utah to Prussia”
  • November 21 – Elections! Michael Strauss from Ancestry ProGenealogists on ICAPGen.

2022 was another year of webinars and featured some of the following speakers and presentations:

  • Rabbi Barbara Aiello, Heritage Hiding in Plain Sight
  • Rabbi Samuel Spector of Congregation Kol Ami
  • Adam Cherson, Cultural Genography, Rabbinical Lineages Index, Levi-Cohen Tribal Tree
  • Janette Silverman, Illegitimacy in the Jewish Communities of Galicia
  • Tina LaFreniere, Connecting Faces Through Time – How to Use Related Faces for Identifying Unknown People in Photos
  • Anna Fechter, Ancestry’s World Archives Project
  • Jane Neff Rollins, “American Warp, Jewish Weft

2021 was entirely by webinar and included some of the following speakers and presentations:

  • Janette Silverman, Lost in the Shoah: the Rescuing Power of Genealogy
  • Brian Schellenberg, Introduction to German Paleography
  • Kathy Kirkpatrick, The Hidden Jewish Heritage of a Catholic Italian-American Family
  • Jonathan Friedmann, Jewish Museum of the American West
  • Angie Bush, Endogamy and Your DNA Matches
  • Chuck Weinstein, The Three Great Myths of Jewish Genealogy
  • Schelly Talalay Dardashti and Maria Apodaca, Conversos and Crypto Jews
  • Erika Manternach, Conducting an Effective Oral History Interview
  • Paul Graham, Genealogical Source Citations
  • Todd Knowles, Virtual Tour of the Family History Library

2020 featured mostly webinars, which were usually very well attended:

  • Daniel Horowitz, Israeli and European Records Available on MyHeritage
  • Janette Silverman, Researching in Eastern European Archives
  • Brian Podoll, Other German Record Sources, Beyond the Vitals
  • Emily Garber, Learning Our Craft: Online Opportunities for Improving Our Research Skills
  • Todd Knowles, What’s New at FamilySearch
  • Brooke Shreier Ganz, Reclaim the Records

2019 featured many of our own members, including the following speakers and presentations:

  • Daniel Horowitz, 10 Things You May Not Want To Know About MyHeritage
  • Todd Knowles, The Knowles Collection
  • Joshua Perlman and Banai Feldstein teamed up for a presentation about reading Jewish Gravestones
  • Joshua Perlman conducted An Introduction to Jewish Genealogy at the JCC
  • Joshua Perlman taught us about his former employment, The Daughters of the American Revolution Library: What’s Available & How To Use It
  • Banai Feldstein, Lesser Known Online Resources
  • Kathy Kirkpatrick, Jewish Military Burials in Europe and the US
  • Lindsay Levine, Eastern European Research in the Austro-Hungarian Empire

Thanks to a new Activities Chair, 2018 featured many new speakers from AncestryProGenealogists, among others:

  • Daniel Horowitz started off the year with how to Prepare for a Cemetery Trip.
  • Lindsay Levine shared Tips and Tricks for Immigration Research.
  • Nathan Machula, just before DNA day, presented Genetic Genealogy 101.
  • Brian Schellenberg presented Eretz Ashkenaz: A History of Germany and It’s Jewish Population.
  • Banai Feldstein previewed her new presentation, Three Adoptions and an Ethical Dilemma.
  • Marek Koblanski taught us about Polish Research.
  • Gordon Remington spoke about New York City Research.

2017 featured the following speakers and presentations:

  • We watched the IAJGS Keynote presented by Dr. Devin Naar.
  • An impromptu presentation from Orly Ardon about tracing her family in Italy and Croatia.
  • Banai Lynn Feldstein previewed her IAJGS lecture about her program CSI: Crowd Sourced Indexing
  • Joshua Perlman, of AncestryProGenealogists, taught us Tips for Using Ancestry
  • Paradise on the Prairie, a documentary about Clarion, the Jewish agricultural community

2016 featured the following speakers and presentations:

  • Endogamy: One Family, One People by Israel Pickholtz
  • Use FamilySearch for Finding Our Jewish Ancestry by Todd Knowles
  • Banai Lynn Feldstein shared information about many of the tools at Steve Morse’s web site.
  • Barry Mann discussed Lithuanian and South African records.
  • Proving the Jewish Heritage of a Catholic Sicilian Family by Kathy Kirkpatrick

In 2015, we attempted a themed year, each meeting teaching about a different record type:

  • Todd Knowles presented several times throughout the year on topics such as Immigration Records and Passport Records.
  • Banai Lynn Feldstein presented a few of the topics as well. Many meetings turned into brick wall sessions, helping with the specific research troubles of our members and guests.

2014 featured the following speakers and presentations:

  • Plan Your Roots Trip to Eastern Europe Effectively by Daniel Horowitz and Banai Lynn Feldstein
  • The rest of the meetings in 2014 were focused on the IAJGS annual conference; UJGS was the co-host.

UJGS Meeting, 2010-04-272013 featured the following speakers and presentations:

  • Where I’ve Been and What I’ve Found presented by Jeanette R. Rosenberg
  • Genealogy in the Round: Everybody shares their research, stories, and brick walls
  • Secrets of Jewish Genealogy Research at the Family History Library presented by Banai Lynn Feldstein

2012 featured the following speakers and presentations:

  • What’s New in UJGS and the 1940 US Census presented by Banai Lynn Feldstein
  • The Hidden Treasures of FamilySearch.org presented by Todd Knowles
  • Jewish Research in Vienna and its Surroundings presented by Heidi Sugden

UJGS Meeting - 2010-10-192011 featured the following speakers and presentations:

  • Research Genealogical Resources in Israel From Your Couch presented by Daniel Horowitz
  • A Hebrew Crash Course: Reading Gravestones presented by Banai Lynn Feldstein
  • Genealogy in the Round: Everybody shares their research, stories, and brick walls
  • IAJGS Annual Conference Review: Banai, Kahlile Mehr, and Todd Knowles discuss the conference
  • Russian Empire Genealogical Primer presented by Kahlile Mehr

2010 featured the following speakers and presentations:

  • Social Networking: Facebook and Twitter and Their Genealogy Uses presented by Banai Lynn Feldstein
  • Genealogy in the Round: Everybody shares their research, stories, and brick walls
  • MyHeritage SmartMatching Technology presented by Daniel Horowitz
  • Poland Online Databases presented by Kahlile Mehr
  • The Paternal Genealogy of Bernie Madoff presented by Gary Mokotoff
  • Find Your Jewish Ancestors presented by Todd Knowles