The Jewish Genealogical Society of Oregon invites you, your family and friends to its upcoming program on two topics – Ellis Island Name Change Myth & “Finding “Waldo” At Ellis Island presented by Joel Weintraub
Ellis Island Name Change Myth
The idea that inspectors at Ellis Island regularly Americanized immigrant names is a persistent myth. We will investigate the evidence that should exist (it doesn’t) to confirm the story as fact, and why name changing at the station was improbable given how immigrants were processed. The history of this immigration station, the types of people who passed through their doors, the legal documents (including their name) they came with, and station detention documents generated for about 1/6 of them, will be discussed with actual examples. Note: be prepared to avoid deportation by Inspector Weintraub.
Finding “Waldo” At Ellis Island
Using a case study, we will show how nine different strategies can be used to find the immigration record of an elusive immigrant to Ellis Island. For those who still cannot locate Ellis Island immigration records of their ancestors, this talk may provide some approaches you might not have tried. The difficulty of providing accurate indexes from transcriptions of ship manifests is a major problem associated with many of these strategies. We will see how well you do as a transcriber of manifest names.
Bio: Joel, a New Yorker by birth, is an emeritus Professor at California State University Fullerton and won awards for his science teaching. He volunteered for nine years at the National Archives and Records Administration. Joel created search tools for the U.S. and New York City censuses that are freely available on the Steve Morse “One-Step” website. He and Steve are currently developing locational tools for the 2022 release of the 1950 federal census. Joel has written and talked on NYC and Federal census research, immigration and naturalization, Ellis Island, biographical research, and Jewish genealogy topics.
The Jewish Genealogical Society of Oregon invites you, your family and friends to its upcoming program “Read All About It!: Using Online Newspapers For Genealogical Research” by Janice M. Sellers
Description: Newspapers are valuable in genealogical research because you can find information about births, marriages, deaths, moves, business, naturalizations, court cases, and more. Millions of pages of the world’s newspapers are now accessible online, but there is no one place to find them all. This class provides an overview of what is available online and techniques to help improve your chances of finding information about your relatives.
Bio: Janice M. Sellers is a professional genealogist specializing in Jewish, black, forensic, and newspaper research. She edits three genealogy publications and serves on the boards of San Francisco Bay Area Jewish Genealogical Society, African American Genealogical Society of Northern California, and Council for the Advancement of Forensic Genealogy. She is also a member of Association of Professional Genealogists, Genealogical Speakers Guild, and California Genealogical Society. Before becoming a professional genealogist, she worked in publishing for many years as an editor, indexer, translator, and compositor. Her web site is ancestraldiscoveries.com.
A Conversation with Professor Steven Wasserstrom, Moe & Izetta Tonkon Professor of Judaic Studies and Humanities, Reed College about Holocaust denial and the limits of free speech.
The OJMCHE series of informal lunchtime conversations with scholars, museum professionals, historians, and others. Bring a lunch or buy a brown bag lunch in Lefty’s Cafe and join us in the museum’s auditorium for a lively give and take as we share and explore ideas, experience, and expertise.
Join photographer Elliot Burg as we discusses his photographs on view in the East Gallery (starting Oct 4). In early 2017, photographer Elliot Burg decided to seek out and capture images of the place in Eastern Europe where his Jewish grandfather and namesake Eli (pronounced “Ellie”) had come from. The exhibition is the story of that journey.
OJMCHE kicks off a series of informal lunchtime conversations with scholars, museum professionals, historians, and others. Bring a lunch or buy a brown bag lunch in Lefty’s Cafe and join us in the museum’s auditorium for a lively give and take as we share and explore ideas, experience, and expertise.
The Jewish Genealogical Society of Oregon invites you, your family and friends to its upcoming program “Jewish Life in Poland” by Avraham Groll.
Description: Part 1 (10th-15th centuries) will explore patterns of Jewish migration to Poland between the 10th-15th centuries. We will discuss when and why the major shifts happened, where the Jews settled and their involvement in the Poland’s development. This presentation is designed for beginners, and is not a workshop. Maps, pictures, and documents will be displayed. Handouts with further information and a bibliography will also be distributed.
Part 2 (16th-18th centuries) will explore patterns of Jewish migration to Poland between the 16th-18th centuries. We will discuss the “Golden Age of Polish Jewry,” the reaction to Shabtai Tzvi, and how the Jewish experience in Poland helped set the stage, in part, for the eventual rise of the Hasidic movement. This presentation is designed for beginners, and is not a workshop. Maps, pictures, and documents will be displayed. Handouts
Bio: Avraham Groll, the Director of JewishGen.org, is passionate about connecting people with their Jewish roots, and helping them experience what it means to be part of the Jewish people. Avraham holds an MBA from Montclair State University, an MA in Judaic Studies from Touro College, and a BS in Business Administration from Ramapo college, and spent two years studying at Yeshiva Ohr Yeruslahayim in Israel. He is a frequent lecturer on a variety of Jewish genealogical and historical topics.
PDX Business Breakfast Series: Blockchain and Bitcoin… the Future?
Join us for a discussion of blockchain, its business applications, and whether it is the next “big thing.”
PSU – Native American Student & Community Center
7:15 – 8:00 am: Networking + Breakfast
8:00 – 9:15 am: Program
FEATURING:
Dr. Joe Kiniry of Galois and Free & Fair
Rob La Forte of Columbia Fresh Transportation Services
Jeff Mazer of moovel North America
Moderator: Joey Fishman of Ritholtz Wealth Management
For more details and to register: oregonjcc.org/pdxbiz
This month featuring Speaker’s Bureau member Rosalyn Kliot, who will share her story, from origins in Vilna and Lodz, to life in Oregon today. This event is part of the 2018 Portland Jewish Book Month series on David Fishman’s The Book Smugglers: Partisans, Poets, and the Race to Save Jewish Treasures from the Nazis.
The OJMCHE series of informal lunchtime conversations. Bring a lunch or buy a brown bag lunch in Lefty’s Cafe and join us in the museum’s auditorium for a lively give and take as we share and explore ideas, experience, and expertise.
The OJMCHE series of informal lunchtime conversations. Bring a lunch or buy a brown bag lunch in Lefty’s Cafe and join us in the museum’s auditorium for a lively give and take as we share and explore ideas, experience, and expertise.
Join Kenneth Helphand, Philip H. Knight Professor of Landscape Architecture Emeritus University of Oregon, for a talk on Ghetto Gardens in conjunction with our current exhibition. The Last Journey of the Jews of Lodz offers an extraordinary rare glimpse of life inside the Lodz Ghetto through the lens of Polish Jewish photojournalist Henryk Ross.
It seems improbable, but gardens were made in the ghettos of Lodz, Warsaw, Kovno and more. Based on research in Poland, Israel and the US this illustrated talk speaks about the creation and meaning of these gardens based on the first person accounts of their creators and witnesses. The talk is based on material in Helphand’s award winning book Defiant Gardens: Making Gardens in Wartime. The OJMCHE Brown Bag lunch is a series of informal lunchtime conversations. Bring a lunch or buy a brown bag lunch in Lefty’s Cafe and join us in the museum’s auditorium for a lively give and take as we share and explore ideas, experience, and expertise.
June’s JGSO meeting will be a research session providing one-on-one support. Bring your research materials and your personal laptops or tablets. Some computers with internet access will be available for those without. While you work with our Mavens/Experts, take advantage of some of the resources that are available within the library.
Set aside a few hours each month to work on your family tree. Redefine your research goals. Get help with the endless supply of genealogical websites. Exchange knowledge and ideas with others who have similar interests. Help others and be prepared to learn something new as you listen to other people’s questions and the processes used in finding their answers.
You’ve done your DNA, gotten your results, but don’t recognize any names and don’t know what to do next? Or have you been working on building out your family tree but need help to research your family? Where do you begin? How to get additional information if you’ve hit that brick wall? This will be geared to help both newbies and those who have been working to build their family tree for many years.
Laurel Smith, past president of the Genealogy Forum of Oregon will present a mini “boot camp” to get everyone started. Contact: 503-997-1685, jgsoregon@gmail.com.
Cost: The program is free to JGSO members. We request a $5 contribution from non-members. That fee can be applied to a membership should you decide to join JGSO at this meeting.
Please come early if you would like help from other genealogists.