Conference taveng::bagels

Shalom David,

Have you asked in CLT::GENEALOGY?  Do you subscribe to soc.roots from the
USENET?  I think I saw something in the latter and I don't remember on the
former.  I have a pretty large archive of soc.roots.  I will send you what
I find via email.

L'hit,
Gavriel

    The Va'ad HaRabanim in Boston helped me when I had to do an extensive
    geneology search several years ago.  The hardest problem was that
    some of the initial information I had from my family was wrong.
    The other problem was that the 19th century birth certificates did
    not include enough information.  The reference librarian at the
    Boston Public Library also helped me find addresses where I should
    send away for birth, marriage and death certificates.   
     
    Good luck.  The process is slow but exciting.          
    
    Yours,
    Meredith Malmberg

    The Diaspora museum at Tel Aviv University has an electronic database
    useful in finding family name origins or location information. 
    I think they accept requests by mail too.  Can anyone elaborate
    on this?

    The data you can get out is only as good as the data in the database;
    Paul and I spent a couple of hours playing with it (admittedly, this
    was six years ago; things may have improved since then).  it was much
    better on providing information about towns your ancestors came from
    than on specific names.  I remember being horrified by the graphic
    descriptions of what had become of those towns since, too (of course,
    we were mostly querying about places that are in
    Poland/Russia/Prussia/Germany, depending on what year you are asking
    about, so it was mostly bad).
    
    I think you can send in mail queries, but we have never tried to do so.
    Playing with the thing was sort of an interesting and necessary break
    after speding hours looking at things like Torah scroll finials
    salvaged from Eastern European synagogues, and similar depressing
    stuff.

    Hello,
    
    I played two years ago with this database and it was unfortunaly
    not rich of information.
    
    The bad point is that this database is certainly the best and updated
    database we can find about European jewish community.
    
    
    Chalom
    
    SERGE.R

While I don't have the article from Hadassah mentioned
in the earlier note, I do have a copy of an article that
appeared in a Tidewater, VA Jewish publication called _Renewal_.

Written by Miriam Weiner, the article mentions several addresses.
I will also provide copies of this article upon request by mail
to BINKLY::LEVITIN.

You can find out about Jewish genealogical societies by sending
a self-addressed stamped envelope to 
	JGS, Inc, 1485 Teaneck Road, Teaneck, NJ  07666.

Information about Southern Jews is available from
	Southern Jewish Historical Society
	Valdosta State College
	c/o Louis Schmier
	POBox 179 
	Valdosta, GA  31698

Miriam will send you a beginner's Kit for $10 if you write to her at
	Miriam Weiner
	136 Sandpiper Key
	Secaucus, NJ  07094.

Note: I am not affiliated with or related (to my knowledge)
to any of these individuals; I have not tried out any of these
addresed; I do not endorse their wares.

Sam Levitin	POTAK::LEVITIN	DTN 225-4135	HLO2-3/J03

    The first thing you should do is pick up a book called "From Generation
    to Generation; finding your Jewish Roots". I can't remember the author's
    name at the moment, but it is a paperback book put out by Shocken
    Publishers. I'm sure the Israel Book store has it, and probably
    most other good Jewish (or even non-Jewish) book stores.
    
    I just remembered, the author's name is Kurzweil. He spoke at our
    synagogue a year or two ago. He described in great detail how to
    go about finding your roots. He was able to trace his genealogy
    back many generations. Their is still a great deal of information
    one can obtain, even though your family cam from Europe, and records
    supposedly no longer exist.
    
    I strongly recommend the book to any doing Jewish genealogy.

    Jack

Re: .7:  I second Jack's recommendation of _From Generation to Generation_ by
Arthur Kurzweil.  A related book is _Finding Our Fathers_ by Dan Rottenberg.
These books are full of general suggestions on how to proceed in a search for
your ancestors.

Re: previous reply on the Diaspora Museum database:  Last fall, there was
a collection of Israeli exhibits at the Jordan Marsh department store in
downtown Boston.  One display featured online access to this database.
They had a limited set of surnames available, as well as a listing of
Eastern European home-towns.  The information I retrieved was too superficial
to be of much help to me.

Recently, the weekly _Jewish Advocate_ newspaper printed a short article that
as part of _glasnost_, the Soviet Union will be opening up to answer
genealogical inquiries, which they had been routinely refusing for many years.
Some records that supposedly no longer exist may yet surface!