Nu? What's New? The E-zine of Jewish Genealogy From Avotaynu Gary Mokotoff, Editor Volume 21, Number 5 | February 2, 2020 Every government puts value on preserving its history. That is why we have national archives. Genealogy preserves history; the history of a family. It cannot be done without access to records, just as historians cannot preserve a nation's history without access to records. It is a greater good than the right to privacy. It is a greater good than the risk of identity theft. Past issues of Nu? What's New? are archived at http://www.avotaynu.com/nu.htm

Underlined words are links to sites with additional information. Arolsen Archives Places DP Registration Cards for 1.7M People Online Arolsen Archives has placed online a collection of documents containing registration cards for 1.7M Displaced Persons. The Archives states, “These cards contain a wealth of information about these people’s backgrounds and paths of persecution as well as about their situation after 1945: Where did these people want to emigrate to? Where were their temporary places to stay in the meantime?” Their collection can be searched at https://arolsen-archives.org/en/search-explore/ search-online-archive/. MyHeritage Plans 24-Hour Genealogy Webinar Marathon MyHeritage, in conjunction with Legacy Family Tree Webinars, will present 24 consecutive webinars in a 24-hour genealogy webinar marathon starting March 12 at 5pm Eastern U.S. time. This session is open to all and free of charge. Some of the sessions are on general topics and, therefore, of interest to many. They include:    • How Do I Know It's Correct: Evidence and Proof    • Advanced Googling for Your Grandma    • Emigration via Hamburg    • The Coded Census: Deciphering U.S. Census    • Advanced Features of MyHeritage.com Additional information is available at https://familytreewebinars.com/intermediate_page. php?diply_nm=24. It includes a link to the registration page. New Book: Getting Started in Jewish Genealogy: 2020 Edition Avotaynu has just published the 2020 version of Getting Started in Jewish Genealogy. The book has been regularly updated since 2010 because of the dynamic growth of Jewish genealogy research. It is not a beginner’s guide, but a primer to demonstrate that there is a world of records and resources to help you to trace your Jewish family history. The book is only 104 pages, making it quick reading, yet it holds a wealth of information. An appendix includes a case study to demonstrate that tracing your Jewish ancestry can be done. The appendix documents how the book’s author traced the ancestry of the notorious Bernie Madoff back six generations using only internet resources. It includes the challenge that the name was changed to Madoff “at Ellis Island.” Additional information, including the Table of Contents, is available at http://www.avotaynu.com/books/GettingStarted.htm. The price is $16.50 plus shipping. Avotaynu offers the book to Jewish genealogical societies at half price when at least 20 copies are ordered. Some societies distribute the book at no charge to new members who are starting to research their Jewish roots. Others use it as part of beginners’ workshops. 14 Ways to Find Your Ancestors Address Trying to locate the exact address where a person lived at a certain time? The Ancestor Hunt has published an essay titled “14 Ways to Find Your Ancestors Address” that might be of assistance. It is oriented toward American research, but many of the suggestions apply to any country. The article can be found at https://tinyurl.com/AH14Ways. RootsTech 2020 Announces Its Free Online Streaming Schedule RootsTech 2020 has announced its free online streaming schedule. Starting February 26 at 8am MDT, a select number of classes and events, including the daily keynote speakers, will be broadcast live at RootsTech.org. Sessions will be available to view on-demand after the livestream ends. Interested parties can also purchase or add on a Virtual Pass to get access to 30 recorded classes from the event. These add-on classes will not be livestreamed but will be recorded and published 15 to 20 days following the end of the conference and will be available only to Virtual Pass holders. View the streaming schedule at https://www.rootstech.org/salt-lake/live-stream-schedule. Information about the Virtual Pass can be found at https://www.rootstech.org/salt-lake/virtual-pass. RootsTech will be held February 26–February 29 at the Salt Palace Convention Center in Salt Lake City, Utah. In 2019, the event attracted more than 20,000 attendees from all 50 U.S. states and 38 different countries. The conference will feature more than 300 sessions, including hands-on computer workshops taught by industry professionals; interactive activities and helpful exhibitors in the expo hall; and entertaining events. RootsTech is hosted by FamilySearch. New Feature: Central Database of Shoah Victims' Names Database Now Clusters Records for Same Individual === The Central Database of Shoah Victims' Names at https://yvng.yadvashem.org/ documents some 4.8 million Holocaust victims. Sometimes it has more than one record for the same person. Yad Vashem has upgraded their site so that now it can graphically show together name records referring to the same victim/individual (a cluster). Next to each cluster a number indicates how many name records are included; each record can then be viewed separately. The new interface allows toggling between two views of the same database: one showing, when relevant, the records grouped/clustered together under the name of a specific victim, and one showing the view of every record separately as in the previous interface. The new interface was also designed to allow users of the Names Database to notify of additional cases of multiple records that were not yet identified. A more detailed description, with illustrations, will appear in the Winter issue of AVOTAYNU which will be published in about two weeks. Amazing NARA Statistics To understand the enormity of the collection at the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), the institution recently published some statistics about its holdings. As of January 2020, NARA has 96,520,910 scans online representing 0.841% of the estimated total number of textual pages in its holdings. They estimate their holdings are 11,473,770,573 total textual pages. (I claim it is more likely to be 11,473,770,574.) Learn more about these numbers at https://www.archives.gov/findingaid/explorer#rgnumbers. FamilySearch Adds 9.5 Million Records This Week A list of recent additions to FamilySearch, 9.5 million index records, can be found at https://tinyurl.com/FamilySearch012720. This site provides direct links to the individual collections. They include records from American Samoa, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Denmark, England, Guatemala, Iceland, Peru, Puerto Rico, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Spain, Sweden and the United States. Included are:    • more than 3.9M records from North Carolina marriages, deaths and burials (1759-1994)    • 1M Massachusetts marriage records (1695-1910)    • 1.9M New Jersey birth, marriage, and naturalization records    • 570,349 Illinois marriages (1815–1935)    • 1.25M New Jersey deaths and burials (1720–1988), marriages, (1678–1985), naturalization records, (1796–1991). 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 in the announcement are the number added, not the total number available in the collection, which can be greater. New Collections at Ancestry.com Ancestry has added/updated the following record groups at their site. The list with links to individual collections can be found at https://www.ancestry.com/cs/recent-collections. Announced collections may not be complete for the dates specified and will be added at some later date. There is also no indication of how many records were added to the updated collections. New Collections Florida, Voter Registration Rolls, 1867–1868 UK, Register of Duties Paid for Apprentices' Indentures, 1710–1811 Victoria, Australia, Coroner Inquest Deposition Files, 1840–1925 Updated Collections Find A Grave Index for various countries Getting Started in Jewish Genealogy: 2020 Edition More a getting started guide than a beginner’s guide, it is meant to convince the reader that tracing one’s Jewish ancestry can be done. The resources described are primarily Internet resources. The Internet has revolutionized family history research. What used to take days or weeks now takes minutes or hours because of the wealth of resources on the Internet. It describes in detail such resources as JewishGen, Morse One-Step site, FamilySearch, Ancestry.com, MyHeritage and many more sites. It alerts the readers to what types of documents of their ancestors will aid in their research—such records as birth, marriage, death, Immigration, census and naturalization records. Cost is only $16.50 plus shippng. Addtional informaton, including the Table of Contents, can be found at http://www.avotaynu.com/books/GettingStarted.htm.

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