Jewish Genealogy Society of Cleveland Latest News

January 2025 RTOM: How Many Sources are Needed for Each Event?

Fri, 10 Jan 2025 19:20:30 GMT

Vol. VIII, No. 1

Contributor: Jennie Algee

The number of sources needed depends on what you are trying to prove.

The Genealogy Proof Standard says to make “reasonably exhaustive research,” meaning that we find all available records for the person. This is being as thorough and accurate as possible and is a goal toward which we should all aspire in our genealogical research.

If you are trying to join a lineage society, there are certain requirements...

CLICK HERE TO READ COMPLETE TIP (Requires member login to view. Please consider joining JGSC to see all member resources.)

December 2024 RTOM: Questions I Wish I Had Asked

Tue, 10 Dec 2024 21:27:40 GMT

Vol. VII, No. 12

Contributor: Barbara Sloan

It's too late for me now that all the elder generation is gone, but these questions may help you in your genealogy research before it's too late. Perhaps others will add to my list. These questions are in no particular order.

~ Who were you named for? Who were your parents named for?

~ Names of grandparents and great grandparents and their dates and places of birth, death and burial.

~ Names of your parents' siblings and extended family and their location(s), plus spouses and children, including births, deaths, burials if applicable.

CLICK HERE TO READ COMPLETE TIP (Requires member login to view. Please consider joining JGSC to see all member resources.)

November 2024 RTOM: Trying to find a ship manifest or any useful info on a great-grandfather.

Fri, 08 Nov 2024 15:03:11 GMT

Vol. VII, No. 11

Contributor: Ted Gostin

A query was posted about a great grandfather’s travels. The poster could not find the ship and records.

The process of finding this manifest may help others. I was able to find the arrival in less than five minutes with the information that was posted, using search utilities posted by Steve Morse and the flexibility of the search engine on Ancestry.com.

I first tried to identify the ship using the Steve Morse utility "Ship Lists: Searching for Ships in the Ellis Island Microfilms in One Step"...

CLICK HERE TO READ COMPLETE TIP (Requires member login to view. Please consider joining JGSC to see all member resources.)

October 2024 RTOM: Organize Family History Objects

Thu, 10 Oct 2024 21:33:39 GMT

Vol. VII, No. 10

Contributor: Andrea Matthews

There's a lot you will need to do yourself even if you hire someone, and if you start with that, you might find you can save a lot of effort and money of having someone else do what you can do for free. In doing this housekeeping, you'll get more ideas about presenting and preserving the collection as well. Take your time with these tasks!!

First, start writing up the stories that go with the objects before they get lost/forgotten, and store a copy of each with the object/group.

CLICK HERE TO READ COMPLETE TIP (Requires member login to view. Please consider joining JGSC to see all member resources.)

NEOGRT Discover! Thursday evening, 9/26 (tonight!)

Jane Rothstein — Thu, 26 Sep 2024 12:51:31 GMT

JGSC members and friends are invited to the next NEOGRT Discover! free and open discussion session via Zoom on Thursday 26 September 2024 at 7:00 PM EDT. Please spread the word!

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/7981051246?pwd=eHdhM3RZcThHWVJmNWdTOW9kUVdzQT09&omn=83658074081

NEOGRT, The North East Ohio Genealogy Round Table, an undertaking of the Ohio Genealogical Society, is composed of some 50 NEO organizations interested in genealogy. The website https://neogrt.org attempts to list events of interest in NEO and wider, along with a curated list of links of genealogical interest.

NEOGRT Discover! is a monthly hour of freewheeling, informative, and helpful discussion on any and all matters genealogical and related technical. Anyone is welcome to come with their questions, brick walls, announcements, and answers. Often there will be a short presentation of recent news at the beginning. Guaranteed to last one hour, no more!

September 2024 RTOM: Finding a Father’s Hebrew Name

Wed, 11 Sep 2024 16:29:39 GMT

Vol. VII, No. 9

Contributor: Harvey Somers

I became more active in Judaism when I retired to Ann Arbor and began to regularly attend services at the Beth Israel Congregation. One “loose end,” however, was never volunteering for an Aliyah, partly because I did not know my Father’s Hebrew name. I knew I was “Chaim” – but I was looking for “Chaim Ben ______.”

CLICK HERE TO READ COMPLETE TIP (Requires member login to view. Please consider joining JGSC to see all member resources.)

Fall Cemetery Cleanup at Lansing Cemetery

Jane Rothstein — Sun, 01 Sep 2024 15:05:25 GMT

Fall Cemetery Cleanup, sponsored by Federation's Cemetery Preservation Campaign

When: Sunday, September 22, 10am-12pm

Where: Lansing Cemetery, 3933 E. 57th St., Cleveland, OH 44105

Contact: Aviva Roland at aroland@jewishcleveland.org, or (216) 593-2626

Description

Bring your weed trimmers, shovels, clippers, hedgers, gloves, wheelbarrows, and other gardening tools. Together, we’ll rake, prune, and spruce up Lansing Avenue Cemetery in preparation for the High Holidays. Project will include physical labor.

Register Here:
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/fall-cemetery-cleanup-at-lansing-cemetery-tickets-991162251977?aff=websiteevent

Address

Lansing Cemetery

3933 E. 57th St.

Cleveland, OH 44105

DIRECTIONS

https://maps.app.goo.gl/oLxoLc5DPcsjzRhv9

More about Lansing Cemetery:

https://www.accessjewishcleveland.org/organizations/lansing-cemetery/

COMING SOON - Family Discover Day 2024

Tue, 27 Aug 2024 16:36:01 GMT

CLICK HERE for full details and to register

August 2024 RTOM: Visiting Jewish Cemeteries in Cleveland

Thu, 08 Aug 2024 17:55:25 GMT

Vol. VII, No. 8

Contributor: Cynthia Spikell (JGSC member)

Soon it will be the traditional time to visit cemeteries. Perhaps when you visit the graves of loved ones, you might want to see the graves of other relatives in the same cemetery. There are aids to help you find graves whose location you do not know.

For Cleveland Jewish graves, you can consult...

CLICK HERE TO READ COMPLETE TIP (Requires member login to view. Please consider joining JGSC to see all member resources.)

July 2024 RTOM: What Is the IAJGS?

Thu, 11 Jul 2024 15:21:17 GMT

Vol. VII, No. 7

Contributor: Ken Bravo (Past President of the Jewish Genealogy Society of Cleveland)

Member Ken Bravo is the Immediate Past President of the IAJGS, and a past president of the Jewish Genealogy Society of Cleveland. He is a retired attorney who has been researching his family since the mid-1970’s.

You may have heard the name “IAJGS” and you may know that the Cleveland Jewish Genealogy Society is a member of the IAJGS, but what is the IAJGS? It’s an acronym for the International Association of Jewish Genealogical Societies. Your next question is probably what does the IAJGS do?

The IAJGS is the umbrella organization for approximately 90 JGSs around the world. It was, according to its web page (iajgs.org) “…formed in 1988 to provide a common voice for issues of significance to its members, to advance our genealogical avocation and to coordinate items such as our annual International Conference on Jewish Genealogy.” Its members include...

CLICK HERE TO READ COMPLETE TIP (Requires member login to view. Please consider joining to see all member resources.)

June 2024 RTOM: Cleveland Jewish History

Wed, 12 Jun 2024 19:24:26 GMT

Vol. VII, No. 6

Genealogy is more than names and dates. Suppose you find that your grandfather was a member of the Workmen’s Circle and attended the 1927 convention in Cleveland. How can you find out more about your grandfather’s participation?

Arnie Berger’s website ClevelandJewishHistory.net has information that will add to the understanding of your Cleveland ancestors. The 1927 Workmen’s Circle Convention in Cleveland is described in the Site Map section of the website. Besides that article and a clipping from the daily newspaper Yiddishe Velt (Jewish World) there is also an attendees’ photograph preserved by Mitchell Rose.

CLICK HERE TO READ COMPLETE TIP (Requires member login to view. Please consider joining to see all member resources.)

MCDL Zoom Program: Lineage Legacies, June 5, 6:30 ET

Mon, 03 Jun 2024 13:35:18 GMT

Lineage Legacies: Connecting your Ancestors to America's History

Do you have a relative who lived in Cuyahoga County before 1923? Before 1881? Before 1851? Your ancestor may be eligible for induction into the Cuyahoga County Lineage Society as a Centurion, Pioneer, or Settler. This free program by the Medina County District Library Genealogy Team guides you through applying to a lineage society of your choice. It covers filling out forms, paying fees, meeting deadlines, and includes a personal example of the process. Available in-person and on Zoom. The Lineage societies are a great way to honor your ancestors' accomplishments. A recording will be made available on YouTube as a helpful resource. Click HERE to register.

Family History & Genealogy Open House Rescheduled: August 11, 11-2

Thu, 30 May 2024 11:52:30 GMT

Mark your calendars for the Family History & Genealogy Open House: Our Food, Celebrations, and Stories rescheduled for Sunday, August 11, 11am-2pm. Sponsored by JGS Cleveland and Congregation Mishkan Or (the merger of The Temple-Tifereth Israel and Anshe Chesed Fairmount Temple on July 1), we look forward to seeing you at 26000 Shaker Blvd in Beachwood. More information to come …

May 2024 RTOM: Genealogy Resources for Texas

Mon, 13 May 2024 14:23:02 GMT

Vol. VII, No. 5

Contributor: Ivan HURWITZ

You might be researching out-of-state. Ivan’s article gives you an idea of state resources available, with Texas as the example. The Perry-Castañeda map collection is valuable for worldwide research. Ivan is a JGSC member who lives in Texas.

~ A map collection is at The Perry-Castañeda Library, the main library at The University of Texas.

~ The Texas General Land Office has maps online and free.

~ Other places in Austin are: Texas State Library Many of their frequently requested resources are highlighted below. Please use the Library Catalog to determine the catalogued titles in their collections.

-- Vital statistics indexes are an important part of the genealogical resources available at the library. They do not have access to the certificates themselves, but the library does own selected indexes to Texas births, deaths, marriages and divorces. The indexes are available for on-site use...

CLICK HERE TO READ COMPLETE TIP (Requires member login to view. Please consider joining to see all member resources.)

April 2024 RTOM: Got Litvak?

Mon, 15 Apr 2024 14:07:12 GMT

Vol. VII, No. 4

Contributor: Russ Maurer, JGSC member and Records Acquisition & Translation Coordinator for LitvakSIG

If you are a Litvak, that is, for the purpose of this article, if your family traces back to the area that today is Lithuania, including adjoining areas of Belarus and Poland, LitvakSIG is an essential resource for your research. In this RTOM, I will explain what LitvakSIG is and how you can use it.

The name LitvakSIG expands to Litvak Special Interest Group. It is an independent organization with its own Board of Directors, funds, and website. Its mission since its founding about 25 years ago has been to translate Litvak genealogical records into English and make the translations readily available to English-speaking researchers.

CLICK HERE TO READ COMPLETE TIP (Requires member login to view. Please consider joining to see all member resources.)

Reminder: JGSC New Mailing Address and Library Collection.

Thu, 28 Mar 2024 15:16:08 GMT

Our new MAILING ADDRESS and LIBRARY COLLECTION are located at The Temple-Tifereth Israel:

Jewish Genealogy Society of Cleveland
26000 Shaker Blvd
Beachwood, Ohio 44122

Mar 2024 RTOM: But I don’t speak the language...

Mon, 11 Mar 2024 14:44:45 GMT

Vol. VII, No. 3

Contributor: Marlene Englander

Thanks to companies like ancestry.com, myheritage.com, familysearch.org and jewishgen.org (to name just a few), options for finding data from non-English speaking countries is much better, and easier, than when I started my genealogy journey 30 years ago. But, where else might you find useful information? These are a few sources that helped me. While these exact resources may not help you, hopefully it will give you some ideas of comparable places to look and the encouragement to look at foreign language documents, manuscripts, and books which can often be quickly translated by cutting/pasting into a translation program, such as Google Translate.

1. Ghetto census books. Although there are other ways to find names of ghetto prisoners, The Ghettos of Oshmyany, Svir, Švenčionys Regions: Lists of Prisoners. 1942 ^a helped me. Published in English, Lithuanian and Russian, this book not only lists ghetto inmates, but it also includes information and pictures about people in those regions. I found a class picture from Widze (Vidzy) which included my...

CLICK HERE TO READ COMPLETE TIP (Requires member login to view. Please consider joining to see all member resources.)

Feb 2024 RTOM: Writing Your Own Obituary

Sat, 10 Feb 2024 15:44:43 GMT

Vol. VII, No. 2

Contributor: Stewart Hoicowitz / Immediate Past President

The most precious items we leave behind when we depart are not necessarily our material possessions but what lies in our hearts and minds. I’m struck by the words of writer and commentator Ellen Goodman that inspired me to pursue genealogical research and write about my ancestral heritage. “What the next generation will value most is not what we owned but the evidence of who we were and the tales of how we lived and loved.”

How do you sum up your life and the values you stand for? Who is better than yourself, a close friend or family member to write this story in advance. You control the narrative and have the final word. Though unorthodox, authoring your own obituary eliminates stress for grieving family members and ensures the deceased will be remembered in a way they’d want to be remembered...

CLICK HERE TO READ COMPLETE TIP (Requires member login to view. Please consider joining to see all member resources.)

New Vice President for Membership

Wed, 07 Feb 2024 14:47:17 GMT

Congratulations to Jane Rothstein, Librarian and Archivist at The Temple-Tifereth Israel and our new vice president for membership. Learn more about Jane and our board HERE.

Jan 2024 RTOM: Protect Your Research

Tue, 16 Jan 2024 15:46:43 GMT

Vol. VII, No. 1

Contributor: Susan Greenberg, JGSC Member

Where is your tree and research? Is it just on Ancestry, Family Search or one of the other platforms? If so, do you have a separate copy of your updated trees and documents you discovered? How secure are these platforms? I have heard stories that some platforms let trees be manipulated and changed by other people besides the originator. Each platform has its own rules so be sure to learn the rules before you start your tree.

CLICK HERE TO READ COMPLETE TIP (Requires member login to view. Please consider joining to see all member resources.)

Dec 2023 RTOM: Finding Ancestors through Newspaper Social Announcements & Feature Articles

Rick Smith — Sun, 17 Dec 2023 21:27:21 GMT

Vol. VI, No. 12

Contributor: Sylvia Abrams, PhD, JGSC Past President

Many newspapers have digitized their back issues into searchable archives that are aggregated into databases. The best known is newspapers.com, owned by Ancestry and requiring a paid subscription. A free site for historical newspapers is fultonhistory.com, a searchable repository of historic newspapers published in New York State and the United States between 1795 and 2007, frequently updated. It also includes a handful of international newspapers. The Library of Congress' Chronicling America is another free resource that provides historical newspapers.

Those who live in Northeast Ohio can access newspapers through the Cuyahoga County Library system using their library cards. Currently available are the historical Plain Dealer, historical NYTimes among others. The Cleveland Memory Project at Cleveland State University houses the Cleveland Press Collection.

The Cleveland Jewish News Digital Archive includes not only all the CJN papers since its founding in 1964, but also all its predecessor papers:

• The Hebrew Observer
• The Jewish Independent
• The Jewish Review
• The Jewish Review and Observer
• The Jewish World

I’ve been fortunate to have located family information from several of these sites.

Imagine my surprise to find a feature article in the April 2, 1907 Plain Dealer about my husband’s great grandfather, Jacob Green, noting that he was naturalized that day! The article provided us with a date for locating his missing naturalization, date of arrival (which was 1879) and town of origin in Hungary.

As part of my research on this family branch, I located an article in the July 31,1931 Jewish Independent about the 50^th wedding anniversary of Ignatz Green, Jacob’s brother. It provided not only his marriage date of 1881, but also his arrival date of 1883 and the names of all his children as adults, including the married names of his daughters.

I used newspapers.com to search the Buffalo, NY papers for information on my maternal family.

I knew that my mother’s birth name in English was Nita, and that she was listed as Annie on the ship manifest when she came to the US as a toddler from England. I had no idea that she was called Anna in school until I came across a Hutschinson High school honor roll list from the December 14,1923 Buffalo Courier. This discovery helped explain why she used the more American sounding first name Ann as an adult, which I found on her engagement announcement in the October 10,1940 Buffalo Evening News.

I also had been told that my maternal grandfather, Benjamin Hanf, had died in the flu epidemic. I was able to confirm this fact through an article in the December 5,1920 Buffalo Times that listed his name as one of those being remembered in an Elks lodge memorial program.

You may have luck confirming family names or stories through newspapers. With patient searching you can fill out genealogical facts to make ancestors feel more real than a line on a census or a name on a manifest.

Nov 2023 Research Tip of the Month: Morse One-Step: Treasures Hidden In Plain Sight by Richard Spector

Fri, 10 Nov 2023 17:22:58 GMT

Vol. VI, No. 11

Contributor: Richard Spector, JGSC Past President

Most experienced genealogists are familiar with Steve Morse’s one-step website: www.stevemorse.org. It is a gold mine of links to valuable resources like the Ellis Island database and U.S. census records. Morse’s site is known for providing access to the data in such sources in ways that are more varied than the search functions of the sites themselves. (Steve gave in-person talks to JGSC on June 6, 2007 and June 4, 2008 and remotely on November 14, 2021).

The Morse one-step home page has 19 folders...

CLICK HERE TO READ COMPLETE TIP (Requires member login to view. Please consider joining to see all member resources.)

Thank you to our latest Lifetime Member, Carolyn Javitch!

Fri, 10 Nov 2023 15:35:59 GMT

A special thank you to our latest Lifetime Member! Carolyn Javitch

Smoke and water damage from a fire leaves Western Reserve Historical Society library closed for 6-9 months

Fri, 20 Oct 2023 15:21:40 GMT

cleveland.com

Updated: Oct. 18, 2023, 2:14 pm - Published: Oct. 16, 2023, 12:26 pm

By Steven Litt, cleveland.com

CLEVELAND, Ohio — The library at the Western Reserve Historical Society library remains closed after a fire late last month left archival materials in the basement damaged by water and other parts of the four-story brick building affected by smoke and soot.

READ THE ARTICLE

October 2023 Research Tip of the Month: NAMES IN TRANSLITERATION: Why might I suspect that this is my ancestor?

Thu, 12 Oct 2023 14:24:07 GMT

October 2023 Research Tip of the Month

TOPIC: NAMES IN TRANSLITERATION: Why might I suspect that this is my ancestor?

Vol. VI, No. 10 – October 2023

Contributor: Elise Norman Cundiff, JGSC Member

Transliteration is a more complex task than translation. It involves rendering records from both another language and another writing system into a different language and system (example: Russian/Cyrillic letters into English/Roman letters). If you throw in the likelihood that the translator is a native speaker of a third language, with its own unique customs (such as adding endings to names to indicate sex or marital status), it can become even more challenging to determine if a record is that of the person you seek.

CLICK HERE TO READ COMPLETE TIP (Requires member login to view. Please consider joining to see all member resources.)

Reminder: Program Recordings and Handouts available in Member Section

Fri, 06 Oct 2023 15:02:24 GMT

JGS Cleveland posts the zoom recording and handout of any program if permitted by the speaker. Check the Member section of the website for details within a few days after a program for the post. The recording and handout for Hal Bookbinder’s “Why did our Jewish Ancestors Leave a Great Place Like the Pale? is now available HERE. You can also watch Hal’s JewishGen presentation of “The Ships of Our Ancestors” on YouTube.

September 2023 Research Tip of the Month: Simple Merging Not Working on Ancestry tree

Tue, 05 Sep 2023 15:14:43 GMT

September 2023 Research Tip of the Month

TOPIC: Simple Merging Not Working on Ancestry tree

Vol. VI, No. 9 – September, 2023

Contributor: Susan Greenberg, JGSC Member

I keep 10 trees, instead of one large tree on Ancestry. One day I opened one of my trees and was shocked that this small tree, with only 110 people listed, had grown by about 25 more individuals! When looking at a tree on Ancestry, one can obviously find duplicate names added. This can happen easily when accepting hints, no matter how careful. To remedy this issue, Ancestry has a feature to merge people with the same name, same parents, so you do not lose any facts...

CLICK HERE TO READ COMPLETE TIP (Requires member login to view. Please consider joining to see all member resources.)

August 2023 Research Tip of the Month: City Directories, Part II

Mon, 07 Aug 2023 23:23:38 GMT

August 2023 Research Tip of the Month

Vol. VI, No. 8 - August, 2023 by Marlene Englander (JGSC member & frequent research tip author)

TOPIC: City Directories, Part II

A recent column described what City Directories can do. After decades of primarily doing genealogy research on what is quick, easy, and on the internet, I decided to take a step back and work on a project just using City Directories.

While results from searches on various genealogy databases might include information from City Directories, what else might I find if I went “page by page,” which you can now also do online?

Here are some questions I hoped these directories could help me answer...

CLICK HERE TO READ COMPLETE TIP (Requires member login to view. Please consider joining to see all member resources.)

July 2023 Research Tip of the Month: City Directories, Part I: What ChatGPT Has to Say

Wed, 12 Jul 2023 19:38:52 GMT

July 2023 Research Tip of the Month

Vol. VI, No. 7 - July, 2023 by Marlene Englander (JGSC member & frequent research tip author)

TOPIC: City Directories, Part I: What ChatGPT Has to Say

Have you tried using ChatGPT yet? Were you successful? Were your results accurate? My experience has been mixed so I thought it would be fun to try it again. I asked ChatGPT “How can I use City Directories to find information about my Jewish family?” Here’s what it said:

“City directories can be a valuable resource for finding information about your Jewish family. Here are some steps you can take to use city directories effectively...

CLICK HERE TO READ COMPLETE TIP (Requires member login to view. Please consider joining to see all member resources.)

CLEVELAND SCHMOOZE Podcast: EPISODE 52: GENEALOGIST DANIEL HOROWITZ

Thu, 22 Jun 2023 13:29:19 GMT

EPISODE 52: GENEALOGIST DANIEL HOROWITZ

Check out this podcast produced by the CLEVELAND SCHMOOZE!

This week, we are talking to Daniel Horowitz, a genealogy expert at MyHeritage. He lives in Israel but was recently in town as a speaker for the Jewish Genealogy Society of Cleveland's 40th anniversary kick-off event. We recorded this conversation with Daniel Horowitz at the Orange Branch of the Cuyahoga County Public Library.

CLICK HERE to listen to this podcast.

June 2023 Research Tip of the Month: Why I Love Genealogy

Wed, 14 Jun 2023 14:14:55 GMT

June 2023 Research Tip of the Month

TOPIC: Why I Love Genealogy

Vol. VI, No. 6 - June, 2023

Contributor: Feige Stern (JGSC board member & frequent Research Tip author)

Why do I love genealogy? Let me count the ways……

When I began my genealogy journey 25 years ago, it was in an effort to learn more about my grandparents and their families. My father had just died and I felt a huge sense of the loss of my best source of information.

In the days before the internet made genealogy so much easier, I drove to the Kirtland Family History Center to search the records available, and ordered promising ones that had to be shipped from Salt Lake City. When each arrived, they notified me by postcard and I’d drive back to Kirtland.

I also spent time at other archives including...

CLICK HERE TO READ COMPLETE TIP (Requires member login to view. Please consider joining to see all member resources.)

Researcher examines Jewish communities in small Ohio towns

Thu, 25 May 2023 13:11:44 GMT

Researcher examines Jewish communities in small Ohio towns

Charita M. Goshay

The Repository

May 23, 2023

Steubenville, OH once included a community of more than 1,000 Jewish people. Chillicothe and New Philadelphia also had thriving Jewish communities. Researcher and Lancaster-native Austin David Reid is exploring the history of Ohio's Jewish communities in 16 small towns across the state. Check out the Canton Repository's coverage of his research, and learn more about these Jewish communities and why many have disappeared.

May 2023 Research Tip of the Month: Solving Photo Mysteries

Mon, 15 May 2023 14:51:52 GMT

Topic: Solving Photo Mysteries

Vol. VI, No. 5 - May, 2023

Contributor: Robin Selinger, PhD (JGSC Board Member & Zoom Host)

A common problem: You’ve inherited a historic family photo portrait that has no caption. How can you figure out who is pictured? Or you have only one precious photo of a beloved relative. Can you use it to find others in historical collections?

CLICK HERE TO READ COMPLETE TIP (Requires member login to view. Please consider joining to see all member resources.)

Cleveland.com Article: Jewish Genealogy Society welcomes Hall of Fame members.

Thu, 27 Apr 2023 20:25:17 GMT

COMMUNITY NEWS on Cleveland.com

Jewish Genealogy Society welcomes Hall of Fame members.

Published: Apr. 27, 2023

CLICK HERE to read full article

CJN article: Jewish Genealogy Society of Cleveland announces inaugural hall of fame class

Tue, 25 Apr 2023 21:20:51 GMT

The Jewish Genealogy Society of Cleveland named its inaugural class of hall of fame and honorees will be celebrated with the kickoff of the organization’s 40th anniversary.

READ FULL ARTICLE

IAJGS Calls for Grant Nominations

Fri, 14 Apr 2023 12:54:04 GMT

The International Association of Jewish Genealogical Societies (IAJGS) established its 2023 Stern/Stedman Grant Committee and issued a call for nominations. The purpose of the Rabbi Malcolm Stern Grant and John Stedman Memorial Grant is to encourage institutions or organizations, Jewish or not, to pursue projects, activities, and acquisitions that provide new or enhanced resources to benefit Jewish genealogists. For further information about the awards, please refer to the following pages on the IAJGS website:

Award Rules and Criteria

Stern/Stedman Award Criteria

Grant Nomination Form

The deadline for submission of the grant Nomination Form and supporting documentation is May 15, 2023, 7:00 pm EDT (US).

CJN article: Jewish Genealogy Society of Cleveland marks 40th year

Tue, 11 Apr 2023 18:08:03 GMT

The Jewish Genealogy Society of Cleveland will ring in its 40th year with a celebration honoring its historical foundations while looking to the future. The event will highlight longtime volunteers and honorary co-chairs Russ Maurer and Amy Wachs.

Read Full Article

April 2023 Research Tip of the Month: The 1950 Census

Sat, 01 Apr 2023 14:04:15 GMT

TOPIC: The 1950 Census

April 2023 (Vol. VI, No. 4)

Contributor: Ken Bravo, JGSC Past President and IAJGS Past President

The 1950 Census

The US Census has its origins in Article I, Section 2 of the US Constitution which mandates an enumeration of the population every 10 years in order to determine the apportionment of members in the House of Representatives. The first census took place in 1790 and has been taken every decade since. Due to privacy concerns, federal law restricts the availability of census records for 72 years.

CLICK HERE TO READ COMPLETE TIP (Requires member login to view. Please consider joining to see all member resources.)

Cleveland.com Article: Jewish Genealogy Society of Cleveland kicks off 40th anniversary

Mon, 20 Mar 2023 17:16:01 GMT

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- The Jewish Genealogy Society of Cleveland was founded in 1983 and is marking its 40th anniversary April 22 and 23.

Society President, Deborah Katz, is pleased to announce that long-time JGSC volunteers Russ Maurer and Amy Wachs will serve as the 40th anniversary honorary co-chairs.

The JGSC is working in partnership with the Cuyahoga West Chapter, Ohio Genealogy Society; the Cuyahoga Valley Chapter, OGS; and the North East Ohio Genealogy Round Table, which is a cooperative group of the leadership of societies and organizations interested in family history and genealogy including the counties of Ashtabula, Columbiana, Cuyahoga, Geauga, Lake, Lorain, Mahoning, Medina, Portage, Summit and Trumbull. The collaboration will make hybrid presentations available to members and the public at no charge.

READ FULL ARTICLE

March 2023 Research Tip of the Month: The Memory Lab at CCPL

Mon, 06 Mar 2023 22:40:40 GMT

March 2023 Research Tip of the Month

TOPIC: The Memory Lab at CCPL

March 2023 (Vol. VI, No. 3)

As genealogists we all know how family stories can get lost over time and the importance of preserving our precious photos, documents, films, audio recordings and artifacts. That’s why having a resource like the Memory Lab housed at the South Euclid-Lyndhurst Branch of the Cuyahoga County Library is so invaluable.

CLICK HERE TO VIEW (Requires member login to view. Please consider joining to see all member resources.)

February 2023 Research Tip of the Month: Ports of Entry to the United States

Mon, 06 Feb 2023 19:24:29 GMT

February 2023 Research Tip of the Month

TOPIC: Ports of Entry to the United States

February 2023 (Vol. VI, No. 2)

This month’s tip examines how to use ports of entry to locate a ship manifest. Two common myths of Jewish genealogy are that the family name was changed at Ellis Island and that “all of my relatives came through Ellis Island.” Names were not changed at Ellis Island and all immigrants did not arrive at Ellis Island.

CLICK HERE TO VIEW (Requires member login to view. Please consider joining to see all member resources.)

January 2023: Research Tip of the Month - Using Social Media To Solve Genealogical Puzzles

Fri, 06 Jan 2023 17:33:58 GMT

January 2023: Research Tip of the Month

TOPIC: Using Social Media To Solve Genealogical Puzzles

January 2023 (Vol. VI, No. 1)

Information about our ancestors can often be found by connecting to living relatives, especially more distant ones. Using social media is a good way to find and make these connections...

CLICK HERE TO VIEW (Requires member login to view. Please consider joining to see all member resources.)

Finding Your Roots January 3rd Premiere and Casting Call

Mon, 02 Jan 2023 23:25:49 GMT

The 9th season of “Finding Your Roots” premieres January 3 at 8 pm ET on PBS. Celebrities including Carol Burnett, Jeff Daniels, and Julia Roberts will uncover family secrets and lost ancestors during shows led by renowned scholar, Dr. Henry Louis Gates. At the same time, Season 10 production is underway and is looking for a non-celebrity viewer to feature. The show is seeking applicants who are 21 or older, reside in the United States, and have a family mystery for the Finding Your Roots team to solve. To be considered, visit http://findingyourrootscasting.com/index.html, read the “Casting Terms,” and complete the online application.

New Food and Recipes section!

Tue, 27 Dec 2022 20:57:10 GMT

Please note, we have added a new "Food and Recipes" section in our website. We just made the first post... a tasty latke recipe from Deb's cousin, Chef Doug Katz. Check it out here.

Research Tip of the Month: Changes in JewishGen.org: The Global Home for Jewish Genealogy by Sylvia Abrams (Dec 2022)

Mon, 12 Dec 2022 15:15:22 GMT

We hope you will find the December Research Tip of the Month, “Changes in JewishGen.org: The Global Home for Jewish Genealogy” by Sylvia Abrams helpful in your genealogy research.

CLICK HERE TO VIEW (Requires member login to view. Please consider joining to see all member resources.)

PBS's Applause features Andy Warhol's "The Ten Portraits of Jews of the 20th Century"

Sat, 10 Dec 2022 23:42:40 GMT

Visit “The Ten Portraits of Jews of the 20^th Century” by Andy Warhol at The Temple Tiffereth Israel in Beachwood, OH. For a sneak peak, check out the Dec 9, 2022 episode of PBS's Applause that featured the exhibit in the first 8 minutes of the show.

Meeting Video: December 7, 2022 Annual Meeting Now Available to Members

Fri, 09 Dec 2022 16:12:56 GMT

The December 7, 2022 Annual Meeting recording is now available to Members Only.

Annual Meeting: Help Us Kickoff our 2023 Membership Drive and Take a Quick Tour of Our Online Home

CLICK HERE to login and view the recording.

Happy Hanukkah!

Wed, 07 Dec 2022 03:34:50 GMT

Jeanette Kuvin Oren, designer and artist of this year's USPS Hanukkah stamp, has provided her artwork as a zoom background to the Jewish Genealogy Society of Cleveland. You can show your Hanukkah spirit and download it now. Jeanette is also offering a promo code, HANUKKAH, to get 18% off any project on her website page: https://www.kuvinoren.com/kits. Read this Cleveland Jewish News article for some background information on Jeanette and this project.

Nov 13, 2022 Program Recording: Exploring DNA Testing for Genealogy Research

Tue, 22 Nov 2022 16:20:20 GMT

The recording of the Nov 13, 2022 2-part hybrid program, “Exploring DNA Testing for Genealogy Research” with Gil Bardige is now available for viewing by members along with Gil's two handouts. Click here.

Free Access to Fold3® on Veterans Day Weekend

Thu, 10 Nov 2022 23:17:19 GMT

Take advantage of free access to Fold3® records collections this Veterans Day and explore nearly 600 million records from the Revolutionary War, Civil War, WWI, WWII, and more. Members, refer to Ben Kempner's October program on researching military records for tips on using Fold3®.

*Access to the records on Fold3® will be free until 13 Nov 2022 at 11:59 p.m. MT. Registration required. After the free access period ends, you will only be able to view records using a paid Fold3® membership.

Search Fold3®

2023 JGSC Membership Drive Begins

Fri, 04 Nov 2022 14:23:02 GMT

JGSC can accept memberships and credit card payment through our new website. NEW members: sign up and start your 2023 membership now. RENEWING members: please click here to renew today. Thank you for your patience and understanding as we roll out our new website and tweak the system.

Announcing Our New Logo

Mon, 31 Oct 2022 12:30:00 GMT

JGSC proudly unveils its new logo in recognition of our ancestors who braved the journey to Cleveland, created their own Jewish lives, and thrived in the city on the lake. Many thanks to Doc Loomis at 100 Dollar Logos for his creativity and vision.

Oct 2022 Research Tip of the Month: Using Consistent Terminology

Fri, 28 Oct 2022 18:21:18 GMT

Topic: Using Consistent Terminology

2022, October (Vol. V, No. 9)

Contributor: Marlene Englander, JGSC Member

If you are like I am, you are thrilled when you find information from an online resource relevant to someone on your tree. With enhancements to technology, combined with the fact that most of us likely are keeping our trees somewhere on a computer, the thrill of just clicking the information right into our tree can be exhilarating. How often, after you do that, do you look to see exactly where that information went? Did the resource from which you took this information put the important details in the same place where you would want them? Did they spell, or otherwise name or abbreviate, information the same way you do? It's always good practice to slow down and see what happened and to make any editing changes at that time. Also, if you are syncing your tree to another place, you may want to see how it looks there, too (e.g., Syncing a desktop Family Tree Maker tree to Ancestry.com)

Whether you are copy/pasting data into your tree, merging, or uploading someone else's tree into yours, you want to be sure your data is consistent. If you find you later want to run a report on a specific detail, you will be happy you took the time to do this. As good as "googling" is, results are usually better if you have used controlled terminology.

For example, how do you cite Cleveland? I have seen many variations, including:

Cleveland, OH
Cleveland, Ohio
Cleveland, Cuyahoga County, Ohio, United States of America
Cleveland, Cuyahoga, Ohio, USA, etc.

Which one are you using? Do you check that newly entered data matches your preferences?

I recently visited a cemetery and wanted to bring a list of everyone in my tree who was buried there. Since my burial terminology is consistently formatted, I was able to create a list and further sort it by Section, Row and Grave number so I could easily find the graves I was interested in. Without this consistency, my family tree program would not have been able to create a list quite as precisely.

Take a step back from entering data, and “clean up” your fields. You will be glad you did, and people who later use your information will be glad you did, too!

Next month's tip: Finding a Lost Branch of the Family

Want more information? info@jgscleveland.org

KOL Winter 2021 - Spring 2022 issue now available

Thu, 20 Oct 2022 16:49:01 GMT

The Winter 2021 - Spring 2022 double issue of the KOL is now available for download here.

Oct 12, 2022 Program Recording: Get Ready for Veterans Day: Tips and Tools to Explore Military History and Make Family Connections

Mon, 17 Oct 2022 19:12:51 GMT

The recording of the October 12 webinar, "Get Ready for Veterans Day: Tips and Tools to Explore Military History and Make Family Connections" presented by Ben Kempner is now available for viewing by members. Click Here

Sep 7, 2022 Program Recording: Secrets, Lies, and Families … Let’s Talk!

Fri, 07 Oct 2022 21:07:09 GMT

The recording of the September 7, 2022 webinar, "Secrets, Lies, and Families … Let’s Talk!" with Julie Klam and Diane Cole is now available for viewing by members. Click here

The recording is about 1 hour and 15 minutes in length.

Aug 3, 2022 Program Recording: Caring For Family Treasures

Wed, 03 Aug 2022 16:37:06 GMT

NEW: A Recording of the August webinar, "Caring For Family Treasures" presented by Holly Witchey is now available for viewing by members here.

A series of documents with information on how to care for various objects and materials can be downloaded by clicking here.