News Archive

Here's another project based on records available via familysearch.org.

The NALDEX project has indexed/transcribed the contents of surname-adoption registers from Prussia and Lippe-Detmold, and more such will be added soon. These registers had one line for each household, though they sometimes mentioned more than one person.

In what's today's Germany west of the Rhine, Jewish surname adoption took place in 1808 following Napoleon's Decree of Bayonne. The records of these events are scattered all over the region, many of them still in the local registry offices that have maintained civil registration since 1798.

Fortunately, several thousand of them are preserved on films that familysearch.org has put on line. They differ from other surname-adoption lists in several ways:

1) There is an entry for each person in a family.

2) They are written out instead of being in printed tables.

3) They often contain the dates and places of birth for children.

4) They are usually in French.

So, for those of you who would help out were it not for the difficulty of German language and script, here's your chance! Most of these records are fairly legible and in handwriting that anyone would recognize today.

If you'd like to help out, please write to me at this email address. Please let me know if there's a particular region you'd like to work on.

Also: if you have copies of *other* lists of this type, please let me know. They, too, should be transcribed and indexed. What's on film is a fraction of the whole.

I look forward to hearing from you!

Roger Lustig Princeton, NJ USA research coordinator, GerSIG

Dear All,

It's been too long since this group undertook a new project, and I, as your research coordinator, apologize for that. Here is the first of several projects that you're invited to take part in.

https://tinyurl.com/GatermannEast is a spreadsheet listing the contents of the East German Gatermann films. These films display Jewish vital records and similar documents. The originals are lost, so in most cases these films are all we have left.

They cover Jewish communities from the territory of the former German Democratic Republic (except for Berlin). Over 100 localities are represented, from Annaberg to Zerbst. Many of these communities were very small; others, such as Dresden, had a Jewish population that peaked above 5,000.

About 60% of these records are available to anyone via familysearch.org. Just go to the catalog and enter the film number. When you get to the page that describes your records of interest, scroll down and then click on the camera icon to view the records directly.

The ones that are not available for home viewing are shaded grey in the spreadsheet. Their availability depends on the age and type of the youngest records on them. If they are not freely available under German privacy laws, you have to look at the microfilms the old-fashioned way. Alas, one protected record takes the whole reel of film out of distribution.

Please email me at this address if you're interested in indexing one or more localities. Some of the contents of these files are very easy to read; others, nearly impossible. Since each case is different, we'll have to develop a strategy for dealing with each one.

Those of you who don't read German (or old German handwriting) can be of great assistance too. As with the Hessen Gatermann project, participants can contribute by setting up the entry framework: item numbers, page numbers, etc.

Thanks in advance to all of you!

Roger Lustig, Princeton, NJ USA research coordinator, GerSIG

We are now getting closer to the forthcoming IAJGS Conference in Warsaw and I am delighted to say that so far, well over 50 GerSIG members have registered to attend.

This year, our GerSIG Sponsored Guest Speaker at conference is Malgorzata Ploszaj, an independent researcher and educator who has been working on the history of Jews in Upper Silesia for over a decade, with particular emphasis on the city of Rybnik.

At the GerSIG Sponsored luncheon, Malgorzata will discuss An Amateur Genealogist's Story: From Internet Searching to a Book about the Mannebergs of Upper Silesia. She describes a genealogical search for descendants and relatives of one of the most significant citizens of Rybnik - Josef Manneberg. He and his family were German Jews, mostof whom lived in Rybnik, which was Prussian, then German, then Polish. The Mannebergs, as German Jews with Polish citizenship, left Poland for Palestine in May 1939. We do hope that you will be able to join us at the luncheon for what will be a really interesting presentation.

Jeanette R Rosenberg OBE
GerSIG Director for Conference Arrangements
Conference website

I am delighted to tell you that this summer our GerSIG Invited Guest Speaker is Dr Bettina Joergens from the Landesarchiv Nordrhein-Westfalen in Detmold. She will be speaking to conference twice, sharing with us information about the ways we can find out about our families from records in German Archives.

I'm also very happy to note that GerSIG's good friend Gerhard Buck will also be speaking at Conference this summer. Gerhard has helped many GerSIG members with with their research.

GerSIG Day at Conference this year is on Wednesday, and we have a full program from 7am to 2pm that day. There are also talks of GerSIG interest on both Monday and Tuesday. I have included a summary of the GerSIG interest sessions below - If I've missed something, please let me know.

On Sunday: Visit us at the Share Fair - Come to see us at the GerSIG Table and to collect your GerSIG ribbon!

*** On Monday: Individual Features of German Handwriting in the 19th century by Gerhard Buck

Learn how my German-Jewish genealogy case study can help you with your own family history by Jeanette Rosenberg

*** On Tuesday: 'Protected Jews' A Misleading Translation of Schutzjuden by Gerhard Buck A Headstone, a Plate, a Strange Pedigree: Researching German Jewish Families in the 1700s by Gerhard Buck

*** On Wednesday: $$$ Breakfast Q&A with the German Research Experts with Alex Calzareth, Roger Lustig & Jeanette Rosenberg

How to find ancestors in German archives - and why? By Dr Bettina Joergens

The Gatermann and RSA Films: A Tragic Treasure by Roger Lustig

GerSIG Business Meeting - come to hear what your Directors have been doing over the last year and to hear news about our future plans

$$$ German SIG Luncheon A: Dr. Bettina Joergens, archivist at Stadtarchiv Detmold by Dr Bettina Joergens,

Jeanette R Rosenberg OBE
GerSIG Director for Conference Arrangements
Conference website

Here is a quick note from the GerSIG Business Meeting which took place last week during the IAJGS Conference in Seattle.
Please refer to the slides from this meeting that were posted here

Around 55 Members of GerSIG attended the meeting.

Introduction:
Jeanette Rosenberg introduced all of the GerSIG Directors to the meeting:
John Lowens, the Moderator of the GerSIG List, Roger Lustig, the
GerSIG Research Coordinator, Nancy Adelson, the Volunteers
Coordinator, and Jeanette, who leads for GerSIG on Conference Matters.

Guest Speaker
GerSIG's Invited Guest Speaker to conference, Stephen Falk, was
introduced to the meeting. He would be giving us 2 talks: Firstly, at the GerSIG Luncheon: The Three Cemeteries of the Breslau Jewish
Community, then later about Archival Resources on the Jewish Community of Breslau 1791-1941 (Breslau, Germany, now Wroclaw, Poland).

Dr Arthur Obermayer and the Obermayer German Jewish History Awards
Former GerSIG Director, and Co-Founder Karen Franklin was introduced to the meeting, she spoke about the late Dr Arthur Obermayer. Giving a tribute to him on behalf of GerSIG. Karen also spoke about the Obermayer German Jewish History Awards. We heard about how these would work in future, that the deadline for nomination for 2017 is September 21 2016, and also about the awards given in January 2016 in Berlin.

Discussion List & Moderation Update
This was given by John Lowens who explained his role and encouraged
people to post messages, and to join, if not already a member of the SIG. He explained how to look for previous messages in the SIG
message archives.

Data Projects Update
Roger Lustig spoke about the status of GerSIG's current projects and previewed some that are forthcoming. In particular he mentioned the Hessen Gatermann Index where Phase 1 is complete and a forthcoming translation project for Die Geschichte der Juden in Jebenhausen & Göppingen by Aron Tänzer which has been sponsored by GerSIG member Steve Weil.

A New Webmaster & A New Website for GerSIG

Following the death of our previous webmaster, Arthur Obermayer,
GerSIG needs both a new webmaster and a new Website. Alex Calzareth was welcomed to this role by acclaim. He was also appointed a Director of GerSIG.

Alex has started work on the new website which will have a different page for each town and will shortly be seeking volunteers for their town. More information will be posted once the website is ready, and after the first few towns have been put online as prototypes.

The new website will not take over any existing websites (apart from the current GerSIG one) but will link to them. It will also be a home to many databases and small data sets. We promise Peter Lande that his databases will be included.

Forthcoming new project for Westfalia and GerSIG Guest Speaker for 2017

The meeting heard about the placing online of the Jewish registers for Arnsberg and Detmold. We hope to undertake a project to make a
database of the records in these registers, working with the local
archive at Detmold. GerSIG intends inviting Dr Bettina Joergens from the archive at Detmold to be the GerSIG invited Guest Speaker to our conference in 2017 which will take place in Orlando, Florida.

Volunteering to Help with New GerSIG projects
If you are able to help, please get in contact with Jeanette Rosenberg.

Thank You to GerSIG Donors
On behalf of the GerSIG Directors, Jeanette thanked donors to both the General Fund and the Speaker Bureau. We are grateful for your
donations, particularly to the Speaker Bureau, which help us to bring you great speakers at IAJGS Conference each year. Donations can be made here.

News, Updates & Announcements
Mention was made of the German-Jewish DNA projects being run by Janet Akaha and Rachel Unkefer. Those interested were encouraged to contact them for more information.

Mention was made of the German-Jewish Sig of JGSGB - those interested to find out more were encouraged to contact Jeanette.

There is an International Germanic Genealogy Conference taking place from July 28-29, 2017 in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Gunnar Pudlatz was looking to find names of the German Jews hidden by her Grandparents. She had sent us some photos to share.

Nancy Adelson stood down from being a Director of GerSIG, with effect from the end of the conference in Seattle. Those present thanked Nancy for her work.

There were no items of Any Other Business.

The GerSIG Directors thanked everyone for attending the meeting and
look forward to meeting everyone again at Conference in Orlando, from July 23-28, 2017.

Jeanette R Rosenberg OBE