Nu? What's New? Vol. 22 No 10

Underlined words are links to sites with additional information.

Registration Now Open for the 41st IAJGS International Conference on Jewish Genealogy

Registration is now open for the 41st Annual IAJGS (International Association of Jewish Genealogical Societies) International Conference on Jewish Genealogy which will take place in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Aug. 2–5. There will be a virtual component as well.

The conference will feature more than 100 speakers, with more than 250 sessions covering virtually every aspect of Jewish genealogy. “Based on the successful full virtual format last year, there will again be a virtual component,” said Judi Missel, lead co-chair. “We are also planning our usual in-person conference with all its benefits, dependent on the situation with COVID.”

Early Bird registration will continue until May 31. Due to social distancing restrictions, attendance to the Conference will be limited; therefore, a Wait List will be created. Registration for all meals and computer labs is expected to open soon. Registration and conference program details are posted on the conference website: http://www.iajgs2021.org. Ongoing information and questions will also be posted on the IAJGS Conference Discussion Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/groups/IAJGS.

Additional information is available at https://wwweogncom.wildapricot.org/page-18080/10164623.

Report on RootsTech 2021

Jan Meisels Allen, Chairperson of IAJGS Public Records Access Monitoring Committee, submitted the following report on the recently completed RootsTech.

RootsTech 2021 was held 25–27 February 2021. If you missed RootsTech, or had more sessions to attend and the time ran out, don’t fret! While RootsTech 2021 is over, their programs are available online for one year. There were more than 1.2 million people worldwide who participated. It was the world’s largest family history event. More than 35 languages were available.

There were 1,000 breakout sessions across eight different tracks which included: keynotes, connecting with family, finding ancestors, DNA, places, records and research, memories-stories, photos and video, traditions and heritage and website, tools and apps. This includes several Jewish-specific topics: “Hebrew Naming” and “How to Read Hebrew Headstones” with Nolan Altman, “Landsmanshaftn: What Are They and How Can They Help My Research” with Nolan Altman, “Using the JewishGen Discussion Group and Jewish Genealogy Portal” with Avraham Groll, “Explore Jewish Genealogical Societies” with Marlis Humphrey, “How I Found My Crypto-Jewish Grandmothers” and “How Crypto-Jewish Genealogy is Different” both with Genie Milgrom. Also, “Mexican Genealogy: Jewish Origin of Three Families in Jalisco” with Nefi Arenas Salazar and “Shining a Light on Jewish Genealogy” with Liba Casson-Nudell. “The Soil from Which They Grew: The Alliance Colony” with Jared Ross about the first Jewish agricultural colony in America (Vineland, NJ). Of course, there are sessions on different ethnicities, researching, documents and DNA and much more.

The virtual exhibit hall had many different organizations with “booths” https://www.familysearch.org/rootstech/rtc2021/expohall. The IAJGS booth is available to view at https://www.familysearch.org/rootstech/rtc2021/expohall/iajgs.

Go to https://www.familysearch.org/rootstech/rtc2021/. You must be registered at FamilySearch to access the conference and registration is free. They require your name and email address.

The list of sessions is at https://tinyurl.com/ee98y78m.

There Will Be No Fee Hike by USCIS

The planned major fee hike by the United States Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS) has been put on hold according to the ad hoc group “Records Not Revenue.” In December 2019, the department announced that they intended to substantially increase fees they charge for providing immigration records.

The service is invariably a two-step process. First you make a request and they search their index to determine the case number. Then you request the case file providing the index number. The cost to search the index would have gone from $65 to $240. To then get the actual records would have cost $385 instead of $65. USCIS claimed the increase is based on projected costs.

Last October, a U.S. District Court judge stayed the fee increases. Last month, President Biden’s Executive Order specifically called out the fee rule and asked for alternative steps to be taken in its place.

Additional information is at https://www.legalgenealogist.com/2021/02/08/cautious-good-news/.

Daniel H. Wagner Is the New Chairman of International Institute for Jewish Genealogy

The International Institute for Jewish Genealogy (IIJG) has announced the appointment of Prof. Daniel H. Wagner as its new chairman. Prof. Wagner succeeds Dr. Neville Lamdan, a Founding Member of the Institute, who was its Executive Director from 2006–2012 and its Chairman since 2013.

Prof. Wagner is professor of Materials Science at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, Israel. He is a long-standing member of the IIJG Board and has taken the lead in several of its activities, most notably in organizing the first international conference on “Genealogy and the Sciences” at the Weizmann Institute in 2018, which IIJG co-sponsored.

A veteran genealogist, he has researched his Polish roots since 1995. He is a member of the JRI-Poland Board, Coordinator of the Grodzisk Mazowiecki Archive Project and the Zdunska Wola JRI Shtetl CO-OP Coordinator and Town Leader. He was a co-chairman of the 24th Annual Conference of IAJGS (International Association of Jewish Genealogical Societies) held in Jerusalem in 2004; and has more than 30 genealogical publications to his name.

In his acceptance remarks, Prof. Wagner said, “I would like to express my gratitude to Dr. Lamdan for all the years he has dedicated to IIJG in particular and in bringing academic recognition to the field of genealogy in general. Under his leadership, IIJG scored significant achievements in scholarly Jewish genealogical research. It now becomes my task to continue moving the Institute forward into new and dynamic directions. I look forward to working with the IIJG Board to reach these new goals.”

IIJG is committed to developing Jewish genealogy into a recognized field of academic investigation based on an inter-disciplinary approach. It promotes this goal by conducting groundbreaking academic research on all aspects of genealogy, encouraging the teaching of Jewish Genealogy at the university level, participating in and holding international conferences, publishing scholarly works and conducting outreach programs.
Learn more about IIJG at http://www.iijg.org.

Yad Vashem Open to the Public

Yad Vashem, Israel's official memorial to the Holocaust, is open to visitors in compliance with Israeli Health Ministry regulations. All visitors are required to wear face masks for the duration of their stay, maintain social distancing and have their temperature taken prior to entry. All visits to Yad Vashem (individuals and groups) must be reserved in advance via their Online Reservation System. Opening hours of the Holocaust History Museum are Sunday – Thursday 9:00–16:00, Fridays and holiday eves 9:00–13:00. There is no charge for entrance to the Holocaust History Museum and all other sites.

Their website is at http://yadvashem.org.

DNA Testing: What Would We Do Without Holidays?
What would we do without holidays? Answer: Pay list price for DNA testing kits. In recognition of St. Patrick’s Day, Ancestry is offering its DNA test for $59. Offer ends March 17—St. Patrick’s Day. Order at https://www.ancestry.com/.

FamilySearch Adds More Than 3M Records This Week

A list of recent additions to FamilySearch, more than 3M index records and images, can be found at https://tinyurl.com/tx4xtzm6. This site provides direct links to the individual collections. They include records from Argentina, Australia, Austria, Brazil, Canada, Denmark, El Salvador, England, Finland, France, Germany, Jamaica, New Zealand, Norway, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Puerto Rico, Samoa, South Africa, Sweden, United Kingdom, United States, Uruguay and Venezuela.

Two major updates are:
New Zealand, Electoral Rolls, 1865–1957, 444,014 records
United States, New York Land Records, 1630–1975, 1,736,246 records

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
Illinois, Mildred Hooper Obituary Collection, 1959–1981
Illinois, Civil Marriages, 1833–1889
Adams County, Illinois, Card Index to Deaths, 1877–1990
Cedarville, Stephenson County, Illinois, Cedarville Cemetery Record, 1850–2007
Cook County, Illinois, Obituaries, 1970–1990
DeKalb County, Illinois, Land Records, 1838–1927
Maywood, Cook County, Illinois, Maywood Herald Obituary Card Index, 1885–2002

Attend the 41st IAJGS International Conference on Jewish Genealogy

Visit the website at http://iajgs2021.org