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1:30pm-4:00pm (program begins at 2pm) Park Heights JCC, 5700 Park Heights Avenue, Baltimore You've located someone across the country, or even halfway across the planet, who has the same surname as you. You attempt to find a connection between the two families by spending months or years searching for documents and contacting all your relatives who might remember that one important piece of information to tie the families together. We all know this as traditional genealogy research. Now imagine that both families can give a sample of their DNA to scientists and within weeks they can tell you if the families are related. A paternity test? No, not quite. This DNA test can tell you if the two families shared a common ancestor generations ago. Science fiction, right? Actually, it's not science fiction at all -- it's very real and it's called Genetic Genealogy. In recent years, scientists have discovered that part of our DNA can be used to both discover our ancestral origins and supplement our genealogy research. Although Genetic Genealogy has been around for quite a few years now, there's been a recent surge in awareness and participation. This is partly due to increased publicity and media about genealogical DNA testing. It's also partly due to National Geographic's 2005 launch of the Genographic Project -- a 5-year landmark study of the origins and migrations of the human race. Please join us to learn more about the Genographic Project and Genetic Genealogy. We'll show a video called "The Journey of Man" which gives a great background about the Genographic Project. We'll then give a presentation about how you can apply DNA testing to your genealogy research. We'll also have flyers, order forms and a demo kit available from Family Tree DNA, the company that pioneered using DNA testing for genealogy. Also, in December 2006, the Baltimore Jewish Times did a cover story on this topic and interviewed three JGSMD members. For those who didn't see the story in December, you can still read it online: http://www.jewishtimes.com/scripts/edition.pl?SubSectionID=48&ID=3011
1:30pm-4:00pm (program begins at 2pm) Park Heights JCC JGS Maryland member Bob Jacobson will present an interactive discussion about Jewish Surnames and Jewish History. Bob will discuss how and when our ancestors adopted their surnames. To what extent was this a choice or were names forced upon them? How are Jewish surnames like or unlike other ethnic groups? What do Jewish surnames tell us about our history, both before immigration to the U.S. and since? What do our own family surnames mean? Were surnames changed by American immigration officials? Attendees will learn how to decipher the meanings of Jewish surnames from their endings. Attendees will also have an opportunity to talk about their own surnames and surname change stories.
1:30pm-4:00pm (program begins at 2pm) Park Heights JCC Guest speaker Logan Kleinwaks will tell us about several historical directories, such as Polish business directories from the 1920s and 1930s, that have been scanned and placed on the internet at different websites. He'll also speak about his search engine that he developed to take advantage of OCR (optical character recognition) technology to enable text-based searching of these scanned directories.
Read the complete story online. There's also a Letter to the Editor that was published in response to this article.
JGS Maryland has many volunteer opportunities available! If you're interested
in getting involved behind the scenes, please be sure to let us know!
The 27th IAJGS Conference on Jewish Genealogy will be held in Salt Lake City on
July 15-20, 2007. Click the logo below to visit the SLC2007 website for more information.
New York City Vital Records
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