LOOKING BACK - Newsletter of the Jewish Genealogical Society of Tampa Bay - First Quarter 2005
LOOKING BACK
The Newsletter of The Jewish Genealogical Society of Tampa Bay (JGSTB)
Volume 1, Issue 1
January - March, 2005
William E. Israel, Editor

Welcome to a brand new newsletter!  No, that title, "Looking Back" does not refer to rear view mirrors, and it is not necessarily a permanent name of this publication, but this first effort at a newsletter for the JGS of Tampa Bay needed to be called something, and "Looking Back" seemed to me to describe just what it is we genealogists do.  I am wide open for suggestions for a better title for this genealogy newsletter – one that is not already being used for some other publication.  Please send your ideas to me.

At this embryonic stage of a newsletter, I am aiming for simplicity and relevancy – not fancy formatting.  That may come later, but for now, I will focus on just getting information to you that I hope will be useful and/or interesting.  My intent is to publish quarterly and to use email for distribution.  At this same time we are also trying to get a web page up and running, and that may be a way to get the news out on a more timely basis than quarterly and also to be an archive of past newsletters.  But for now, this is it!  

I welcome your thoughts on how to make this newsletter something you will look forward to receiving each quarter.  I especially welcome any articles, information, tips and ideas that you wish to contribute.  Don't make me write it all, and don't be bashful!

P.S.  If you wish to be removed from this mailing list, or if you wish to add someone to this mailing list, let me know by email at <[email protected]>.


February and March Programs

What:  SEMINAR ON NATURALIZATION RESEARCH
When:  Part 1: Sunday, February 13, 2005 at 2:00 P.M. (1:30 Registration)
       Part 2: Sunday, March 13, 2005 at 2:00 P.M. (1:30 Registration)
Where: Gulf Coast Jewish Family Services, 14041 Icot Blvd., Clearwater, Florida
Cost:  Members free; Non-members $25; Members of other JGS's $15
       Membership dues waived if you become a member when you register for the seminar. 
       $10 charged per course booklet (One booklet can be shared by a couple)

This two-part seminar is a continuation of our annual seminar series by our resident expert, Dr. Emil Isaacson.  Emil is a capable and experienced genealogical researcher who puts a great deal of time and effort into preparing his very comprehensive presentations.  This one will consist of approximately 200 slides (that are included in the course booklet).  This seminar is aimed at an intermediate level, but beginners are welcome and will benefit from the presentation.  If you really want to know how to research naturalization records, this is a must-attend seminar.

The naturalization records of your ancestors can help in establishing their roots in the old country.  Unfortunately the tangled web of naturalization laws, the multitude of judicial jurisdictions, and the scattered location of germane records make the search for these documents difficult and frustrating.  This two-part course is designed to reduce the mystery and confusion and to improve the chances of a successful search. A brief history of the laws and of governmental entities involved in naturalization processes will be presented, and a logical progression for finding actual records of interest will be demonstrated.  Special emphasis will be given to the use of Internet resources and to those available in the JGSTB library.

To register, or for more information, call Sally Israel at 727-343-1652 or Mark Baron at 727-842-5789.  Advance registration will ensure that sufficient books are printed and available at the seminar. Paid members and those pre-registered will have first priority. 


JANUARY PROGRAM REVIEW



Emily Rose

On January 9, 2005 National Jewish Book Awards Finalist Emily Rose captivated an audience of more than 40 JGSTB members and guests with stories of her ancestors' Eastern European small town experiences.  Emily described her personal genealogical journey to learn about her ancestors that she knew only as centuries old portraits in her grandparents' home.  Her curiosity led  her to five years of research in German archives where she discovered over 2,600 documents that describe the life and times of the more than 90% of the Jews who lived in villages and small towns of southern Germany until the 1870s.  She used overhead transparencies to illustrate her talk and to share her personal adventures of researching in German archives and of the expertise she gained on extracting information from vintage German language documents.  Her findings are depicted in her book, Portraits of Our Past: Jews of the German Countryside.  Emily was most helpful and gracious is answering questions from the audience and in offering help and advice beyond her talk.  If you have questions falling within her area of expertise, she will be happy to reply to e-mail requests at <[email protected]>.  Her web sites are:
<http://members.authorsguild.net/erose/work2.htm>
<http://members.authorsguild.net/erose/>
<http://portraitsofourpast.com/awards.htm>
<http://portraitsofourpast.com/presentations.htm>



Some of the Members and Guests at the January Meeting


MEET YOUR 2005 JGSTB OFFICERS AND COMMITTEE WORKERS

President.................Bill Israel..... [email protected]     
First Vice President......Mark Baron...... [email protected]
Second Vice President.....Emil Isaacson... [email protected]
Secretary.................Bettylou Rosen.. [email protected]
Treasurer.................Larry Blum...... [email protected]

Committees:
----------
Membership & Hospitality..Al Koenig....... [email protected]
Programs..................Mark Baron...... [email protected]
                          Debbe Hagner.... [email protected]
Publicity.................Sally Israel.... [email protected]
Web Master................Clint Elbow..... [email protected]
Library...................Emil Isaacson... [email protected]
                          Florence Blum... [email protected]

We can always use more committee help.  You pick where you'd like to work, or we will find a place for you.  Call Bill Israel at 727-343-1652, or email him at <[email protected]>  to volunteer.  Volunteers will surely be rewarded in heaven!


WELCOME NEW MEMBERS (January 2005)
 
     Mel & Elsie Estroff
     Paul & Ruth Weitzenkorn


WEB SITES OF GENEALOGICAL INTEREST
---------------------------------------------------------------

Free Genealogy Search Help for Google:
http://www.genealogy-search-help.com/

Google, the world's most widely used search engine now has a specialized genealogical searching aid.  It puts some advanced Google features on one page with suggested key words and advice about how each feature is useful for genealogists.  Just fill in the blanks for a small famly tree, and this site will try to set up the best searches for you, based on what you enter.  This free site will help you use Google™ to research your genealogy. It will create a series of different searches using tips or "tricks" that will likely improve your results. The different searches will give you many different ways of using Google to find ancestry information on the Internet.  You might need to play around with this one a little to get the hang of it, but it just might create some efficient searches for you.


Babel Fish Translation
http://world.altavista.com

This amazing site will give you a half-way decent translation between almost any two languages – either a word, a phrase, a whole article, or even a web page.  Enter a German or Russian web page address, and bingo! – there it is in English.  It works for most languages, including even Chinese and Japanese, but unfortunately no Hebrew.  Still, this is a handy translator for most European languages.


NATIONAL HISTORICAL ARCHIVES OF BELARUS (NIAB)
http://archives.gov.by/EArh/E_naz_ist.htm

If your ancestry goes back to the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, Rzecz Pospolita, the Byelorussian, Vitebsk, Minsk, Polotsk and Mogilev gubernias (provinces) of the Russian Empire, this English language web site for the National Historical Archives of Belarus is worth considering.  The archive has 19 collectons of microfilm containing more than a million file units covering from the 14th to the early 20th centuries, plus a large collection of original documents.

Historical documents held in the Archives can be divided into two parts:
- documents dating back to the 16C - late 18C, which cover the whole territory of present-day Belarus;
- documents dating back to the late 18C- early 20C (through 1917) - for the Vitebsk, Minsk and Mogilev gubernias of the Russian Empire.

Instrucitons are given for how to make inquires and what the fees are for archival services – also how much time you can expect a search to take.


Here are a variety of Internet genealogy search aids (in no particular order)

Look this list over, and pick out a few sites to explore.  There are some good ones here.  We may feature some of them in future issues.

Ellis Island: http://www.ellisisland.org
Family Search http://www.familysearch.org/
Ancestry.com: http://www.ancestry.com/search/
GenSource – I found it: http://www.gensource.com/ifoundit/
GenSource: http://www.gensource.com/
RootsWeb.com: http://searches.rootsweb.com/
NedGen ancestry search engine: http://www.nedgen.com/
GenealogySearch.com: http://www.genealogysearch.com/
Surname Web: http://www.surnameweb.org/
MyTrees.com: http://www.kindredkonnections.com/
Genealogy.org: http://www.genealogy.org/
Free Genealogy Search Help for Google: http://www.genealogy-search-help.com/
I Dream of Genealogy: http://www.idreamof.com
/FreeSurnameSearch.com: http://www.freesurnamesearch.com/
Genealogy on the Web: http://genealogy.freewebsitehosting.com/links/searchsites.html
Ancestor Search: http://www.searchforancestors.com/
Genealogy Searches: http://www.cyberpursuits.com/gen/gen-srch.asp
About: http://genealogy.about.com/
One-step Web Pages by Stephen P. Morse: http://stevemorse.org/
Babel Fish Translation: http://babelfish.altavista.com/
Cyndi’s List: http://www.cyndislist.com/
JewishGen: http://www.jewishgen.org/
Maritime Timetable Images: http://www.timetableimages.com/maritime/
NAGARA member websites: http://www.nagara.org/websites.html
NARA Genealogy: http://www.archives.gov/research_room/genealogy
The USGenWeb Project: http://www.usgenweb.com/
YIVO Institute for Jewish Research: http://www.yivo.org/
Census Tools: http://censustools.com/
CIMO – Cimorelli Immigration Manifests Online: http://www.cimorelli.com/safe/shipmenu.htm



International Association of Jewish Genealogical Societies (IAJGS) Conference
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

The 25th IAJGS Conference on Jewish Genealogy will be held at the Flamingo Hotel is Las Vegas from July 10-15.  The conference web site for information and registration is: http://www.jewishgen.org/jgs/jgs-southernnevada/Shelley/index.htm

We understand that several members of the JGSTB are planning to attend.  If you are one of those who has at least a strong interest in attending this grandaddy of all Jewish Genealogical Conferences, please let us know so we can let each of you know who else might be going too.  Call Bill or Sally Israel at 727-343-1652, or email to Sally at <[email protected]> to let us know of your plans.


Jewish Genealogical Society of Tampa Bay

 MEMBERSHIP APPLICATION

Annual dues - $25 individual or family - make check payable to JGSTB
Mail check and application information to:
William Israel, President JGSTB
2015 Dolphin Blvd. S.
St. Petersburg, FL 33707
Please include the following information with your membership dues:
YOUR NAME(S):  
MAILING ADDRESS (street, city, zip):    
HOME TELEPHONE:    
BUSINESS TELEPHONE:    
E-MAIL:    


JGSTB LIBRARY DATABASE sort by author

Following is a listing of the current library holdings of the Jewish Genealogy Society of Tampa Bay.  Library holding are available for use and review during meetings by anyone attending.  They are available for checkout and home use by members only.


ID No
Type
Author
Title
BK038

Arthur, Stephan & Julia
Your Life & Times
MP001
MAP
Avotaynu
Baltic States 1845
MP003

Avotaynu
Poland 1799
MP002
MAP
Avotaynu
Russia in Europe 1845 (2 sheets)
BK084

Barnavi, Eli ed.
A Historical Atlas of the Jewish People
BK036

Beider, Alexander
Dictionary of Ashkenazic Given Names, A
BK092

Beider, Alexander
Dictionary of Jewish Surnames from Galicia, A
BK002

Beider, Alexander
Dictionary of Jewish Surnames from the Kingdom of Poland, A
BK003

Beider, Alexander
Dictionary of Jewish Surnames from the Russian Empire, A
BK004

Blatt, Warren
Resources for Jewish Genealogy in the Boston Area
BK091

Chamberlin, David C.
The Conceptual Approach to Genealogy
BK005

Cohen, Chester
Shtetl Finder
BK010

Colletta, John P.
They Came in Ships 3rd ed.
BK065

Croom, Emily Anne
Essential Guide to Unpuzzling Your Past, A
BK079

Doctor, Ron (from JGSO CD)
Getting Started in Jewish Genealogy
BK081

Eichholz, Alice ed.
Redbook: American State, County, & Town Sources 3rd ed
BK042

Everton Publishers
Handybook for Genealogists, The (8th ed)
BK085

Feldblyum, Boris
Russian-Jewish Given Names
BK023

Frazin, Judith
Translation Guide to 19th-century Polish-language Civil-registration Documents, A
BK007

Gorr, Rabbi Schmuel
Jewish Personal Names
BK008

Grayzel, Solomon
A History of the Jews
BK058

Guzik, Estelle
Genealogical Resources in New York
BK043

Howells, Cyndi
Cyndi's List
BK009

Howells, Cyndi
Netting Your Ancestors
BK074

IAJGS
22nd IAJGS International Conference on Jewish Genealogy Sylabus 2002
BK073

IAJGS
23rd IAJGS International Conference on Jewish Genealogy Sylabus 2003
CD002
CD-ROM
IAJGS
Family Tree of the Jewish People
BK088

Inskeep, Carolee
The Graveyard Shift: A Family Historian's Guide to New York City Cemetaries
BK044

Isaacson, Emil
2001 Beginner's Guide to Jewish Genealogy in the Tampa Bay Area, The
BK045

Isaacson, Emil
2002 Beginner's Guide to Jewish Genealogy in the Tampa Bay Area, The
BK072

Isaacson, Emil
2003 JGSTB Guide to Immigration Research in the Tampa Bay Area, The
BK075

Isaacson, Emil
2004 JGSTB Guide to Jewish Genealogy
BK087

Jenson, Howard M (comp.)
Aid to Finding Addresses in the 1890 New York City Police Census
BK061

Jewish Genealogical Soc.of Great Britain
Beginner's Guide to Jewish Genenalogy in Great Britain, A
BK062

Jewish Genealogical Soc.of Great Britain
Guide to Jewish Genealogy in Germany & Austria, A
BK063

Jewish Genealogical Soc.of Great Britain
Guide to Jewish Genealogy in Latvia & Estonia, A
BK064

Jewish Genealogical Soc.of Great Britain
Guide to Organising your Family History Records, A
CD003
CD-ROM
JGSO
JGS Oregon CD-ROM
BK011

Johnson, Paul
History of the Jews, A
BK086

Knox, Debra Johnson
World War II Military Records: A Family Historian's Guide
BK012

Krasner-Khait, Barbara
Discovering your Jewish Ancestors
BK013

Krasner-Khait, Barbara
Discovering Your Jewish Ancestors
BK014

Kurzweil, Arthur
From Generation to Generation (1st ed)
BK080

Kurzweil, Arthur
From Generation to Generation (2004)
BK015

Kurzweil, Arthur & Weiner, Miriam
Encyclopedia of Jewish Genealogy Vol. 1 (Copy 1)
BK016

Kurzweil, Arthur & Weiner, Miriam
Encyclopedia of Jewish Genealogy Vol. 1 (Copy 2)
BK069

Lackey, Richard S.
Cite Your Sources
BK006

Lainhart, Ann S.
State Census Records
CD001
CD-ROM
LDS
Family History Library Catalog
VT001
VHS TAPE
LDS
How to Use the Family History Catalog
BK076

Libo, Kenneth & Howe, Irving
We Lived There Too
BK017

Luebking, S.H. & Szucs,L.D.
The Source
BK093

Meshenberg, Michael J.
Documents of our Ancestors: A Selection of Reproducible Genealogy Forms and Tips for Using Them
BK070

Mills, Elizabeth Shown
Evidence! Citation & Analysis for the Family Historian
BK046

Mokatoff, Gary & Sack, Sallyann
Where Once We Walked-Revised Edition
BK018

Mokotoff, Gary
How to Document Victims and Locate Survivors of the Holocaust
BK039

Mokotoff, Gary & Blatt, Warren
Getting Started in Jewish Genealogy
BK052

NARA
1790-1890 Federal Population Censuses, The
BK053

NARA
1900 Federal Population Census
BK054

NARA
1910 Federal Population Census
BK055

NARA
1920 Federal Population Census
BK056

NARA
1930 Federal Population Census
BK051

NARA
Immigrant & Passenger Arrivals 2nd Edition
BK057

NARA
Microfilm Resouces for Research
BK033

NARA
Military Service Records a NARA publication
BK050

NARA Eales, B.E & Kvasnicka, R.M. ed.
Guide to Genealogical Research at the National Archives of the U.S. 3rd ed
BK094

Neagles, James C. & Lila Lee
Locating Your Immigrant Ancestor
BK047

Nelson-Anderson D.& Waters, C.
Genetic Connections
BK083

Newman, John J.
American Naturalization Records 1790-1990
BK089

Newman, John J.
Uncle, We Are Ready! Registering America's Men 1917-1918
BK041

Oldfield, Jim Jr.
Your Family Tree using Your PC
BK040

Richley, Pat
Everything Online Genealogy Book, The
BK092

Rose,Emily C.
Protraits of Our Past: Jews of the German Countryside
BK019

Rottenberg, Dan
Finding Our Fathers (Copy 1)
BK020

Rottenberg, Dan
Finding Our Fathers (Copy 2)
BK035

Rottenberg, Dan
Finding Our Fathers (Copy 3)
BK021

Rubin, Steven J.
Writing Our Lives, Autobiographies of American Jews, 1890-1990
BK082

Sack, Sally Amdur & Mokatoff, Gary
Avotaynu Guide to Jewish Genealogy
BK022

Schaefer, Christina K.
Guide to Naturalization Records of the United States
BK078

Schloff, Linda Mack
"And Prarie Dogs Weren't Kosher" Jewish Women in the Upper Midwest since 1855
BK001

Schoenburg, Nancy & Stuart
Lithuanian Jewish Communities
BK024

Shea, Jonathon & Hoffman William
Following the Paper Trail : a multilingual translation guide
BK048

Shea, Jonathon & Hoffman, William
In Their Words Volume 1; Polish
BK049

Shea, Jonathon & Hoffman, William
In Their Words Volume 2; Russian
BK059

Silicon Valley PAF Users Group
Family History Documentation Guidelines
BK066

Spector, Samuel ed.
Encyclopedia of Jewish Life Before and During the Holocaust, The Vol 1
BK067

Spector, Samuel ed.
Encyclopedia of Jewish Life Before and During the Holocaust, The Vol 2
BK068

Spector, Samuel ed.
Encyclopedia of Jewish Life Before and During the Holocaust, The Vol 3
BK060

Szucs, Loretto & Wright, Matthew
Finding Answers in U.S. Census Records
BK037

Szucs, Loretto Dennis
Ellis Island
BK025

Szucs, Loretto Dennis
They Became Americans: finding naturalization records
BK077

Tepper, Michael
American Passenger Arrival Records
BK026

Warren & Warren
Your Guide to the Family History Library
BK027

Weiner, Miriam
Jewish Roots in Poland (Copy 1)
BK028

Weiner, Miriam
Jewish Roots in Poland (Copy 2)
BK029

Weiner, Miriam
Jewish Roots in Ukraine and Modova (Copy 1)
BK030

Weiner, Miriam
Jewish Roots in Ukraine and Modova (Copy 2)
BK031

Westin, Jeanne Eddy
Finding Your Roots
BK090

Young, Robert
A personal Tour of Ellis Island How it Was
BK032


Back to Basics...in the beginning, 18th Annual Conference of the Florida Genealogical Soc. Inc.
BK034


Morton Allen Directory of European Passenger Steamship Arrivals
BK071


New Port Richey FHC Permanent Microfilm/fiche Holdings - 2003