Nu? What's New? Vol. 14 No. 24

ITS Publishes General Inventory Online
The International Tracing Service (ITS) in Bad Arolsen, Germany, has published a general inventory on its website. It catalogues the archival collections and provides for the first time detailed information about the scope of the different sub-fonds. In addition, it offers short explanations about the type, background and origin of some of the documents. The inventory is available in three languages: German, English and French. This general inventory can be found at http://tinyurl.com/ITSGenInv.

The International Tracing Service is the largest archives for information about individuals persecuted by the Nazi government. As a consequence, it has millions of records of Jews during the Holocaust period. In November 2007, ITS ended a 60-year ban on public access to their records.

France To Allow FamilySearch To Publish Images Online

France has been absent from the list of countries in the Continental Europe collection of FamilySearch for a number of months, because the agreement between the Mormon Church and Archives France predated the Internet, and the French government requested that their records not be online until there were discussions about the matter. These discussions apparently have concluded, and FamilySearch has permission to publish the images online with certain conditions. One condition is that the person had to have been born more that 120 years ago. Also certain information may not be included for privacy reasons even though the person is no longer alive. One item mentioned was “religion.”

More Cemeteries Online
Steve Lasky, creator of the website Museum of (Jewish) Family History, notes that burials at Jewish cemeteries in the area of New Haven, Connecticut, are online at http://yeshivanewhavensynagogue.org/cemetery.asp?cookiecheck=yes&. He also states that two more New York City cemeteries, both located in Brooklyn and non-sectarian, have online databases. They are Evergreens Cemetery and Green-Wood Cemetery. Lasky has a list of searchable cemetery databases both in the U.S. and elsewhere at http://tinyurl.com/MFHCems.

JRI-Poland To Add Images from Lublin Branch of Polish State Archives

Jewish Records Indexing–Poland plans to have images of all Jewish vital records located at the Lublin regional archives linked to the JRI-Poland online index by the end of this year. The actual schedule is 48 towns (Annopol to Lubartow) by the end of June; October, 36 towns (Lukow to Zolkiewka); and December, Lublin itself. The group estimates there are a total of 300,000 images. When the project is completed, it will be possible for researchers to click on the image icon associated with a record found and immediately view the actual record.

Towns are Annopol, Baranow, Belzyce, Biala Podlaska, Bilgoraj, Biskupice, Bobrowniki, Bychawa, Chelm, Chodel, Czemierniki, Dubienka, Firlej, Frampol, Glusk, Goraj, Gorzkow, Grabowiec, Horodlo, Hrubieszow, Irena, Izbica, Janow Podlaski, Janowiec, Jarczow, Jeziorzany, Jozefow, Jozefow nad Wislą, Kamionka, Kazimierz Dolny, Kock, Koden, Komarow-Osada, Konskowola, Konstantynow, Krasniczyn, Krasnik, Krasnobrod, Krasnystaw, Krylow, Krzeszow, Kurow, Laszczow, Leczna, Lomazy, Losice, Lubartow, Lublin, Lukow, Markuszow, Michow, Miedzyrzec Podlaski, Opole Lubelskie, Parczew, Piaski, Piszczac, Pulawy, Radzyn Podlaski, Rejowiec, Ryki, Sarnaki, Sawin, Siedliszcze, Slawatycze, Swierze, Szczebrzeszyn, Tarnogora, Tarnogrod, Terespol, Tomaszow Lubelski, Turobin, Tyszowce, Uchanie, Wąwolnica, Wieniawa, Wisznice, Wlodawa, Wohyn, Wojslawice, Wysokie, Zaklikow, Zakrzowek, Zamosc and Zolkiewka.

Virtual Shtetl Is Now Four Years Old

Today, June 16, 2013, is the fourth anniversary of launching Virtual Shtetl located at http://www.sztetl.org.pl/en/. The creators state that the site now consists of more than 34,500 text pages about Polish-Jewish history in 2,333 places throughout contemporary Poland and within Poland’s pre-war borders. Their site includes more than 80,000 contemporary and archival photographs and more than 1,000 audiovisual recordings. In addition, they publish daily news about the heritage and culture of Polish Jews. They claim to have more than 120,000 hits a month.

Websites for 14 Jewish Towns in Southern Poland
Aaron Biterman of the Washington, DC, area has created websites for the Jewish presence in 14 towns in southern Poland. They are Chelm, Czemierniki, Dubienka, Grabowiec (near Zamosc), Hrubieszow, Krasnik, Krasnystaw, Krylow, Lublin, Piaski (near Lublin), Sawin (near Chelm), Swierze, Tyszowce and Zamosc. Each site contains a history of the Jews and links to other websites that can help in family history research including JewishGen, Sztetl.org, Wikipedia and e-mail addresses of people researching specific surnames from the town. There are other town-specific resources. The Chelm site also includes photographs. To access information about a specific town, go to the Chelm link at http://chelm.freeyellow.com/chelm.html and there are links at the top of the page.

U.K. Version of Who Do You Think You Are? Reveals 2013 Celebrities
The U.K. ersion of the television program Who Do You Think You Are? has identified the celebrities who will be featured in the new season's program. They are footballer Gary Lineke, screen and stage star Lesley Sharp, Sir Alan Sugar's right-hand man Nick Hewer, South Shields comedian Sarah Millican, actor Nigel Havers, television actor Una Stubbs, Kenyan-born “EastEnders” Nitin Ganatra, actor Minnie Driver, BBC news reporter and World Affairs Editor John Simpson, and singer and 1960s pop star Marianne Faithfull. The program is set to return to BBC One next month.

FamilySearch Additions for the Week
Recent additions to FamilySearch, both indexes and browseable images, can be found at https://www.familysearch.org/node/2230. This site provides direct links to the individual collections. They include records from BillionGraves, Canada, Colombia, Ireland, Mexico, Philippines, Portugal, Spain, and the U.S. states of Colorado, Idaho, Montana, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Washington. Notable collection updates include the 731,428 index records and images from the BillionGraves.com and 452,357 index records from the Colorado Statewide Marriage Index, 1900–1939.

Note that at the website announced collections may not be complete for the dates specified and will be added at some later date. Also note that counts shown are the number added, not the total number available in the collection.

Recent Ancestry.com Additions

Alabama Naturalizations, 1909–1991 (48,000 records). Anne Rabinowitz of Florida notes that there were military bases in Alabama during World War II from which Jewish immigrants stationed in the state may have applied for naturalization.

Kansas, Enrollment of WWI Veterans (34,000 records), contains forms used to enroll eligible Kansans in 1930 for World War I veterans’ benefits. Forms were to be filled out by anyone who had served in any branch of service during World War I or by a widow or child under sixteen whose deceased husband or father had served. The forms asked for the following details: name, branch of service, address, widow’s name (if applicable), names and addresses of orphan children under 16, rank at discharge, whether wounded or injured (in service) or deceased, if a member of an American Legion post.

Attention Gmail Users
As frequently as once or twice a week, I get mail from gmail users saying that they realize they have not been getting all issues of Nu? What’s New? This is a problem unique to gmail. I tell them to look in their spam folder and invariably the missing editions are there. To solve this problem, hopefully, check off the box next to one or all of the Nu? What’s New? entries in the spam folder and click the button “This is not spam.” Also recommended is click the “Labels” drop-down box, unclick “Promotions” and click “Forums.”

Contribute to the Success of the International Institute for Jewish Genealogy

Help support a dynamic institution that in its brief existence already has been the catalyst for such benefits to Jewish genealogy as the Beider-Morse Phonetic Matching System, Sephardic DNA and Migration project, inventorying the Paul Jacobi Collection of 400 prominent Ashkenazic lineages, the Proposed Standard for Names, Dates and Places in a Genealogical Database, and a system for Integrating Genealogical Datasets.

Visit the IIJG website at http://iijg.org and read about these developments, as well as ongoing and proposed projects.

Make your tax-deductible contribution by credit card or PayPal at http://iijg.org. Click the Donate link. If you prefer, mail it to the Friends of the International Institute for Jewish Genealogy, 155 N. Washington Ave., Bergenfield, NJ 07621. Make the check payable to “Friends of the International Institute for Jewish Genealogy.” Donations are tax deductible for U.S. taxpayers.