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Welcome to the Jewish Genealogy Society
of Long Island (JGSLI)!

JGSLI was founded in 1985 to encourage and assist the pursuit of Jewish family history. Our goal is to bring together people interested in tracing their Jewish family roots.

We are a non-profit organization, operating through member efforts. We work to educate members and the public regarding the “how to” of finding one’s roots.  See the future meetings tab below for dates, speakers and topics.

JGSLI MEMBERS-ONLY BENEFITS
Current members can now access our 1988 - 2023 LIneage newsletter issues, featured lectures and speaker handouts. Visit our members-only section to find out more. To join JGSLI visit our Membership page.

JEWISHGEN MEMORIAL PLAQUES DATABASE
Join our efforts to grow the JewishGen Memorial Plaques Database. Find out how you can help here.

Next JGSLI Meetings

For full details of the meetings and the Zoom registration links please click on the Details links.

  • Wednesday April 3, 2024: 7PM: It's Hard to Say Goodbye by Emily Garber

    "It's Hard to Say, 'Good-by' - Challenges Faced by Eastern European Emigrants" There were times when it was more difficult for many Jews to leave eastern Europe than to enter the United States. What were the requirements for emigration? How did they know what to do? How did people get from their homes to ports of departure? How and where did they acquire tickets to sail? Did they have help along the way? This presentation takes emigrants, 1880-1914, from their homes to ports of departure.

    Details about 7PM: It's Hard to Say Goodbye by Emily Garber

 

Please watch our emails, Facebook page, and website for further details.

Events in January–June 2024

  • Wednesday January 3, 2024 - 7PM: Getting the Most Out of Your Ukrainian Genealogy in 2024 by Vera Miller
    7PM: Getting the Most Out of Your Ukrainian Genealogy in 2024 by Vera Miller

    7PM: Getting the Most Out of Your Ukrainian Genealogy in 2024 by Vera Miller


    Wednesday January 3, 2024

    FamilySearch has been digitizing Ukrainian archive records, opening the door to new possibilities in Ukrainian genealogy. Archives were slow to post records online until FamilySearch returned for its project in 2022. Vera Ivanova Miller will detail the free records and databases being posted online by FamilySearch, archives, organizations and activists and the tools, including Google Translate, that help make Ukrainian genealogy an easier experience for those unfamiliar with Ukrainian.

  • Sunday January 21, 2024 - 2PM: The Meaning Behind Common Jewish Names by Daniel Horowitz
    2PM: The Meaning Behind Common Jewish Names by Daniel Horowitz

    Category: General 2PM: The Meaning Behind Common Jewish Names by Daniel Horowitz


    Sunday January 21, 2024

    Where do Jewish surnames come from? The history of Jewish surnames is complex, owing in part to the fact that Jews have lived in a very wide range of geographical locations throughout history. In this lecture, Daniel Horowitz will explore the origins and meanings of some of the most common last names found across different Jewish communities from around the globe, and discuss how these names became adopted across the Jewish world. He will also teach you some tips and tricks for researching ancestors who bore these names.

  • Wednesday February 7, 2024 - 7PM: The Fluidity of Names by Susan Weinberg
    7PM: The Fluidity of Names by Susan Weinberg

    Category: General 7PM: The Fluidity of Names by Susan Weinberg


    Wednesday February 7, 2024

    Given names have a much longer history than surnames in Jewish history and often contain significant family history due to naming patterns. So how do you work back to their original name to find them in their ancestral town and how do you identify the names they took in the country to which they immigrated? Then how do you use that information to build out your tree? Could that name be hiding in plain sight? Join Susan in an exploration of the nuances of Jewish given names, how to find them, trace them, and use them to expand your genealogy. She will present sources of information and methods in a variety of cases to make sense of this often-puzzling subject!

  • Sunday February 25, 2024 - 2PM: Canceled
    2PM: Canceled

    Category: General 2PM: Canceled


    Sunday February 25, 2024

  • Wednesday March 6, 2024 - 7 PM: Litvak SIG by Judy Baston
    7 PM: Litvak SIG by Judy Baston

    Category: General 7 PM: Litvak SIG by Judy Baston


    Wednesday March 6, 2024

  • Sunday March 17, 2024 - 2PM: There Are No Brick Walls in Genealogy Research by Judy Golan
    2PM: There Are No Brick Walls in Genealogy Research by Judy Golan

    Category: General 2PM: There Are No Brick Walls in Genealogy Research by Judy Golan


    Sunday March 17, 2024

    Well, of course there are brick walls. But there are a number of search techniques and resources to check before you give up finding your great-grandfather’s birth record. This session reviews how to approach your search to discover records of elusive ancestors. Vital detail clues can be found in an array of archive resources, from primary Birth-Marriage-Death records to more esoteric documents. Examples are illustrated from the JRI-Poland.org massive collection of archival records in the Kielce-Radom-Sandomierz region of Poland, but the methodology can be mapped onto other resources in other lands.

  • Wednesday April 3, 2024 - 7PM: It's Hard to Say Goodbye by Emily Garber
    7PM: It's Hard to Say Goodbye by Emily Garber

    Category: General 7PM: It's Hard to Say Goodbye by Emily Garber


    Wednesday April 3, 2024

    "It's Hard to Say, 'Good-by' - Challenges Faced by Eastern European Emigrants" There were times when it was more difficult for many Jews to leave eastern Europe than to enter the United States. What were the requirements for emigration? How did they know what to do? How did people get from their homes to ports of departure? How and where did they acquire tickets to sail? Did they have help along the way? This presentation takes emigrants, 1880-1914, from their homes to ports of departure.

Join the Jewish Genealogy Society of Long Island!

Membership Benefits Include:

Free Admission to monthly meetings
Receive periodic Lineage Newsletter
Receive JGSLI Online. A Monthly digital publication with tips and links to online resources
Opportunity to Network with other people and experts in Jewish Genealogy
Advanced notice of our Family Workshop and other special events.
Click here for more information!

The 2023 event was held on Sunday, November 5, 2023, 12:30 - 5:00 PM via Zoom.

Jewish Genealogy 101: Four Hours+ to Your Family Roots: JGSLI’s 33rd Annual Family History Workshop

A review of the fundamentals of Jewish genealogy. Topics include interviewing relatives; identifying ancestral towns; Holocaust research; using censuses, city directories, ship's manifests, naturalizations, vital records, and other U.S. sources; European records; and internet resources. The annual beginner's workshop is generally held on the first Sunday in November. See full details at https://jgsli.org/jgsli-workshop/.

CONGRATULATIONS!
JGSLI was again named Member of the Year for 2021 by IAJGS. In addition, JGSLI'S past president and long-time board member, Nolan Altman, received the IAJGS Lifetime Achievement Award. View both acceptance speeches below.

CoverImage Jewish Community of Long Island, a publication in honor of the 30th anniversary of the Jewish Genealogy Society of Long Island, is available from major online booksellers and in many Long Island bookstores. For further information, click YouTube Overview to see how this book can help your genealogy research, a name-index supplement to the book, and a Press Release.  JGSLI Board Member Rhoda Miller was interviewed by Radio Sefarad. Listen here.

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