Jewish Genealogy calender

Jewish Genealogical Society of Oregon

2007 - 2008 Calendar of Events

embroidery by Polina Olsen

General Meeting

	3rd Wednesday each month Sept - June 7:30 PM.
	Each meeting begins with a thirty minute schmooze session.
	Free to members
	$2.00 for non-members to defray costs.

Exploring Your Roots: In the U.S. Court House

County court houses are treasure stores for your family history. It is almost impossible for individuals and families to live in a place for a period of time without leaving some record in the local court house. Learn about these original records.

Our speaker will also take time to describe the Genealogical Forum of Oregon and the resources it provides to its members and the public.

Speaker: Gerald S. Lenzen

Gerald is a native of Wisconsin and lives in Portland. He graduated from Portland State U. He retired from the Bonneville Power Admin. after 32 years of service. Gerry Lenzen has been conducting historical and family research since 1963. He researched and co-authored several volumes of family history with his wife, a professional genealogist, Connie Miller Lenzen. Mr. Lenzen has traveled and researched extensively throughout the USA, and has done on-site research in Prussia and Bavaria. He teaches and lectures at local, state and national seminars and conferences on general family history including introduction to genealogy, census, court and land records, and French Canadian Settlement in the Willamette Valley. He has served as a board member of the St. Paul Mission (Oregon) Historical Society, the Archdiocesan Historical Commission of Portland, Oregon, the statewide Genealogical Council of Oregon, and on committees of the Genealogical Forum of Oregon. He holds current, past and life memberships in many historical, family history, and genealogical societies throughout the U.S.

Ahavath Achim Synagogue, 3225 SW Barbur Blvd, Portland Tues., Dec 18, 2007 7:00pm to 9:00pm For more info call Sandra Shapiro at 503-694-5646	You DO Have Family in Israel: Now Let's Find Them Over the last century, the extended mishpocha of Jews everywhere has often included a relative-close or distant-who lives in Israel. Today, modern communication has brought us all closer, yet technical, language and cultural barriers may significantly block researchers from "connecting" with their Israeli relations. This program will assist genealogists to bridge the miles, locate family members, and develop a relationship with the Israeli relative who may provide invaluable information on family data and experiences. You will learn the how-tos of locating your Israeli family member and how to proceed once you make contact. We shall explore prevalent cultural and language differences, and how to understand and overcome the common reluctance of the Israeli to cooperate on genealogical pursuits. Speaker: Michael Goldstein, born in Canada, is a Jerusalem-based genealogist who researches, mentors, lectures, coaches and conducts workshops in Israel and North America. He carries out worldwide Jewish research and guides North Americans in locating and connecting with their Israeli family, facilitating the use of local Israeli research sources. He has enjoyed particular success in tracing Israelis whose testimonies are found in Yad Vashem records. Michael Goldstein holds a BA from Concordia University and an MSW from Yeshiva University. He is a member of the Association of ProfessionalGenealogists, the Israel Genealogical Society and Jewish Genealogy Society of Montreal.
January 15, 2008 Where: Ahavath Achim Synagogue, 3225 SW Barbur Blvd,Portland Time: Program will begin at 7:30pm with doors open at 7:00 for schmoozing, sharing genealogy resources and mutual problem-solving of research challenges. free for members. $2.00 at the door for non-members.	Documenting Immigrants to America, 1882-1954 The lecture will focus on immigration and naturalization records of a typical late 19th and early 20th century immigrant. Records in the custody of both U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS, formerly INS) and the National Archives will be discussed, including ship passenger lists, Board of Special Inquiry records, land border arrival records, visa files, legalization records, Alien Registration, and naturalization and citizenship records. The presentation will conclude with a lively Q&A session. Speaker: Marian L. Smith is the Senior Historian at U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, Department of Homeland Security. She regularly lectures at national and international genealogy conferences on the history and uses of immigration and naturalization records. Her articles appear in the National Archives journal Prologue, the FGS Forum, and other publications. Her research focus primarily involves official immigration agency records held in the National Archives in downtown Washington, D.C. click *here* for Documenting Immigrants to America Handouts
February 19, 2008 Where: Ahavath Achim Synagogue, 3225 SW Barbur Blvd,Portland Time: 7:00pm free for members. $2.00 at the door for non-members.	Exploring Your Roots: In the U.S. Court House County court houses are treasure stores for your family history. It is almost impossible for individuals and families to live in a place for a period of time without leaving some record in the local court house. Learn about these original records. Our speaker will also take time to describe the Genealogical Forum of Oregon and the resources it provides to its members and the public. Speaker: Gerald S. Lenzen Gerald is a native of Wisconsin and lives in Portland. He graduated from Portland State U. He retired from the Bonneville Power Admin. after 32 years of service. Gerry Lenzen has been conducting historical and family research since 1963. He researched and co-authored several volumes of family history with his wife, a professional genealogist, Connie Miller Lenzen. Mr. Lenzen has traveled and researched extensively throughout the USA, and has done on-site research in Prussia and Bavaria. He teaches and lectures at local, state and national seminars and conferences on general family history including introduction to genealogy, census, court and land records, and French Canadian Settlement in the Willamette Valley. He has served as a board member of the St. Paul Mission (Oregon) Historical Society, the Archdiocesan Historical Commission of Portland, Oregon, the statewide Genealogical Council of Oregon, and on committees of the Genealogical Forum of Oregon. He holds current, past and life memberships in many historical, family history, and genealogical societies throughout the U.S.
March 18, 2008 Where: Ahavath Achim Synagogue, 3225 SW Barbur Blvd,Portland Time: 7:00pm free for members. $2 at the door for non-members.	Mining the Genealogical Resources at your Public Library We've often heard of people using special internet websites through the public library system, along with finding many of the books referred to holding genealogy information about people we are researching. Our speakers will enlighten us to the available materials that are awaiting us. Speakers: Janet Irwin and Michael Constan, Multnomah County Library Personnel Janet Irwin, who is a librarian for Multnomah County, will speak on available resources at the public library.She was born in Vancouver, WA though her parents lived in Milwaukie, OR. Both facts are listed on her Washington Birth Certificate, making her a native of both states. She volunteered to take care of the first version of the Genealogy portion of the Library's Homepage. She later volunteered to learn more about genealogy so the library could offer public classes about the genealogy collection and using internet resources. She is active in the Genealogical Forum of Oregon and as a librarian participates in the Association of Professional Genealogists (APG). She and her brother Tim work together on the family genealogy. Tim, living in Michigan, does much of the research of the mid-western and east coast family genealogy. He has a well documented family tree, and Janet fills in with stories connected with family members. Michael Constan, who received his MA in Libary Science from the U. of Arizona in 1993, was born in Detroit, Michigan and raised in Oak Park, where till the age of 8 years, his bubbe babysat him and his sisters, and baked lots of challah and cookies. For the past 10 years he has worked for the central libary in the Periodicals and Humanities sections. His experience involves his maternal grandparents who were born in Prszka and Koniecpol, Poland, and he has explored their roots. He researched family records through the Family History Center's microfilm and has had the please of finding family records online through JewishGen's Jewish Records Indexing-Poland. He even found the e-mail and contact information for relatives in the UK through JewishGen's Family Finder.
April 15, 2008 Where: Ahavath Achim Synagogue, 3225 SW Barbur Blvd,Portland Time: 7:00pm free for members. $2.00 at the door for non-members.	Somehow We'll Survive: A story of a Jewish childhood in WWII era Japan Speaker: George Sidline George Sidline, the second of two sons, was born in Japan before World War II, of Eastern European Jewish parents. When war broke out, the family remained in Kobe, Japan, where his father ran an import/export business. After the war the family stayed in Japan, eventually immigrating to Canada in 1954. In 1962, George moved to the US where he worked in California's Silicon Valley. George was urged to write a book of his war time experiences by many people who were unaware of the existence of a foreign population living in Japan during that time. He finally published his book in 2007, chronicling some of the harrowing events that engulfed the family. A retired engineer, he now lives with his wife in Portland, Oregon, where his children and grandchildren also reside.
May 13, 2008	Sephardic Genealogy: unique features, tools and resources An overview that includes a little of everything: similarities and differences between Sephardic and Ashkenazi genealogy, Sephardic cursive script, rapid overview of how Sephardic surnames evolved and why they are helpful in Sephardic genealogy, discussion of archives in Spain (notarial, inquisition, passenger records from Spain to the New world 1500-1900), books, etc. Dr. Malka promises to provide information of interest to everyone doing Jewish genealogical research regardless of whether your ancestors are Ashkenzi or Sephardim. Speaker: Jeffrey Malka Jeffrey Malka is a retired professor of orthopaedic surgery. He is the author of the prize-winning book "Sephardic Genealogy: Discovering your Sephardic Ancestors and their World" (Avotaynu, 2002) and the creator of JewishGen's Sephardic SIG website based on his own popular Sephardic Genealogy Resources website. Descended from a long line of Sephardic rabbis going back to 14th century cabbalists and authors (as well as Catalan blacksmiths and money lenders), he is one of the pioneers of Sephardic genealogy in the United States and a well known lecturer on the subject. Dr. Malka has been an invited lecturer at the Library of Congress, several International Association of Jewish Genealogical Societies annual conferences, Washington Jewish Historical Society, and numerous Jewish Genealogy Societies in the U.S., Canada, and Spain
June 2008	Annual Brunch (Time and location TBA) Speaker: Stephen Morse One-Step Webpages: A Potpourri of Genealogical Search Tools The One-Step website started out as an aid for finding passengers in the Ellis Island database. Shortly afterwards it was expanded to help with searching in the 1930 census. Over the years it has continued to evolve and today includes over 100 web-based tools divided into 13 separate categories ranging from genealogical searches to astronomical calculations to last-minute bidding on e-bay. This presentation will describe the range of tools available and give the highlights of each one. Jewish Calendar Demystified The Jewish calendar is important to genealogists because Jewish vital records use the Jewish dates. This includes not only birth, marriage, and death certificates, but tombstone inscriptions as well.The Jewish calendar is both a solar and lunar calendar, with the months being synchronized to the moon and years to the sun. As such, the rules governing the calendar can be a bit daunting. This talk presents the calendar in an easy-to-understand -- and sometimes tongue-in-cheek -- fashion. The aim is not to make you an expert in computing Jewish dates (we have programs that do that) but rather to give you an appreciation for what's involved in such calculations. Topics covered include the 19-year calendar cycle, the origin of time, errors in the Jewish and secular calendars, and the use of Hebrew letters to represent dates on tombstones. Stephen Morse is an amateur genealogist who has been researching his Russian-Jewish origins. Several years ago he developed some web-based searching aids which, much to his surprise, have attracted attention worldwide. He has received both the Outstanding Contribution Award and the Lifetime Achievement Award from the International Association of Jewish Genealogical Societies, the Award of Merit from the National Genealogical Society, and the first ever Excellence Award from the Association of Professional Genealogists. In his other life Morse is a computer professional with a doctorate degree in electrical engineering from New York University. He has held research positions at Bell Labs, IBM Watson Research, GE Corporate R&D, and Compagnie Internationale pour l'Informatique in France. He has been involved in development at Intel Corp, Alsys Inc, and Netscape. He has taught at CCNY, Pratt Institute, UC Berkeley, SUNY Albany, Stanford University, and San Francisco State. He has authored numerous technical papers, written four textbooks, and holds four patents. He is best known as the architect of the Intel 8086 (the granddaddy of today's pentium processor), which sparked the PC revolution 25 years ago.