Steve’s Genealogy Blog

Today, Paula Stuart Warren presented four lectures at the Fall Seminar of the San Mateo County Genealogical Society. This was my first opportunity to meet Paula in person, although I’ve enjoyed reading her articles and she is familiar with my blog. Paula is a wonderful lecturer. She has an easy-going style and it was clear during her presentations that she was well prepared, indeed.

Paula Stuart Warren

SOURCE: Paula Stuart Warren (San Mateo, San Mateo County, California). Photographed by Stephen J. Danko on 15 Nov 2008.

The Three Rs: Reading, ‘Riting, and Research in School Records

Paula’s first lecture on “The Three Rs: Reading, ‘Riting, and Research in School Records” discussed the variety of school records available to the researcher. These include student records, minutes of meetings, registers of receipts and disbursements, teachers’ certificated, teachers’ contracts, related associations, school bulletins, school censuses, yearbooks, school newspapers, lists of course textbooks, grades, attendance registers, diaries and journals, scrapbooks, and library books purchased and checked out.

The information on students included in these records include ages and birth dates, names of parents, grades received, days attended, previous schools, and conduct.

Information on teachers includes where they were educated, degrees and certificates attained, amounts they were paid, previous assignments, and information about conduct/warnings. Researchers may also find brochures from events, architectural drawings, oral histories, artifacts, photos of events, building, and people, and athletic equipments.

Repositories of school information include state and local archives, state and local historical societies, online catalogs, school offices, special collections, the Family History Centers, ArchiveGrid, and the National Union Catalog of Manuscript Collections (NUCMC).

Tho’ They Were Poor, They May Have Been Rich in Records

Paula’s second lecture was “Tho’ They Were Poor, They May Have Been Rich in Records” in which she discussed the records that may have been left by those who were poor, experienced disaster in their lives, or may have sought assistance in their lifetimes.

Crop failures, divorce, desertion, or death may have convinced people to swallow their pride and get help from churches, charities, wealthier citizens, settlement houses, or the government.

Sources such as census records, school records, military records, naturalization records, land records, court records, and tax lists may provide information on the poor and indigent.

The 1880 US Federal Census includes supplementary schedules of the Defective, Dependent, and Delinquent. Records of widows’ homes, orphanages, Home Children, guardianships, commitments, and pensions may all include information on the poor.

Many of the poor may have chosen military service as a way to find relief. Records such as pension applications, applications for support of wives and children, and records from soldiers’ homes may supplement service records for those in the military.

Historic city directories may include information about the societies and charitable organizations in a locality and may, in turn, lead to other records.

The WPA Era: What It Created for Genealogists

In her third lecture, “The WPA Era: What It Created for Genealogists”, Paula discussed the records generated by the WPA in the 1930s and 1940s.

The Works Progress Administration (1935) and the Work Projects Administration (1939), together referred to the as WPA, was a New Deal Era program to provide government-sponsored jobs in post-depression America. The Administration involved various levels of government to provide records of immense value to genealogists.

The records created include oral interviews, census indexes, ward maps, passenger arrival indexes, family histories, indexes to county histories, and indexes to birth, marriage, and death records. In addition, the WPA generated lists of manuscripts at libraries, cemetery information, newspaper indexes, newspaper clippings, and inventories of records at county courthouses and churches.

Where Are Those Records They Told Me to Check?

Paula’s final lecture was entitled “Where Are Those Records They Told Me to Check?” but, unfortunately, I had to miss this lecture due to other commitments.

Fortunately, Paula provided a detailed syllabus for all her lectures and, later this evening, I will study the portion of the syllabus for this lecture.

I’m sorry I missed it, because this lecture dealt with a common situation - a researcher hears or reads about an exciting new source of information that may help break down brick walls - only to realize that he or she has no idea where to find or how to obtain those records.

Copyright © 2008 by Stephen J. Danko

I attended four lectures on this second and final day of the annual conference of the Polish Genealogical Society of America.

Pommerania, Pommern or Pomorze

Orvill Paller from the Family History Library in Salt Lake City presented a lecture on Pomerania, known in German as Pommern and in Polish as Pomorze.

The northern European area known as the Province of Pomerania was created by the Congress of Vienna and existed as a province of the Prussian Empire from 1815 until 1871 when it joined the newly formed German Empire.

After World War II, the Oder Neisse Line divided Pomerania in half, leaving West Pomerania in Germany and East Pomerania in Poland.

To find villages, parishes, and civil registration locations in Pomerania, a number of gazetteers are helpful. These include: Meyers Orts- und Verkehrs-Lexikon des Deutschen Reichs, Gemeindelexikon für das Königreich Preussen, Müllers Verzeichnis der jenseits der Oder-Neiße gelegenen, unter fremder Verwaltung stehenden Ortschaften, Amtliches Gemeinde- und Ortsnamenverzeichnis der deutschen Ostgebiete unter fremder Verwaltung, Spis miejscowości Polskiej Rzeczypospolitej Ludowej, and http://www.kartenmeister.com/ .

Sources for maps of Pomerania include Landkarten von Pommern, Karte des Deutchen Reiches, Mapa topograficzna z serii Messtischblätter, and the Duke Philipp II Map of the Duchy of Pomerania-Stettin (1619).

Inventories of church records in Pomerania may be found in Die Kirchenbücher in Pommern, Atlas der Kirchenprovinz Pommern 1931, Das Evanfelische Pommern, and Verzeichnis Pommerscher Kirchenbücher in Polen.

Vital Records of Galicia

Matthew Bielawa presented a lecture on finding, reading, and understanding the vital records of Galicia.

Vital records in Galicia may have been microfilmed, not microfilmed but in a church or archive, or lost to disaster.

Today, records could be located at any of a number of archives in Poland and Ukraine. There are several places to search for records, and the records may be located at one, several, or none of those places. In Poland, these places include the State Archives, the Zabużański Collection, Archdiocesan/Diocesan Archives, the Department of Civil Records, or the Parish Church. In Ukraine, these places include the Central State Historical Archives of Ukraine, the Provincial Archives, the Civil Status Registry Office, and the Parish Church.

Galician records were most often maintained in a columnar format and were usually written in Latin. For a certain period of time, two copies of Galician records were maintained.

Understanding Polish & Russian Documents

Jonathan Shea presented a lecture on the Polish and Russian languages, two important languages in the genealogical records of Poland. He stressed that one must learn to pronounce Polish words correctly and that, unlike English, each Polish letter has a single sound.

Like Latin, both Polish and Russian are inflected languages. Nouns and adjectives have case endings attached to each word. These case endings tell the reader the part of speech to which each noun (and adjective) belongs. Verbs also have endings that identify number, gender, and tense.

Polish names are also accompanied by endings. Surnames ending in -ski are treated like adjectives; surnames ending in -wicz are treated like nouns.

Polish documents were written in either a columnar or paragraph form. In addition, vital registration certificates were issued that were forms into which information from the original records was transcribed. Other records that may be available include population registers (recording when people moved), coroner’s reports, premarital examination records, court records (probate, guardianship), military records, guild records, and Easter Duty registers.

In general, alphabetization of records in indexes will follow the Polish alphabet (where letters with diacritical marks follow those without) or the Russian alphabet (which differs considerably from the Latin alphabet).

The Holdings of American Roman Catholic Archives

Jonathan Shea’s final talk of the conference was on Roman Catholic Church records in America.

To find the churches of Polish ancestors in America, researchers need to identify the ethnic parish to which ancestors belonged. Catholic churches have registers of sacramental events in either pre-printed books or plain, lined ledgers. These records were maintained in Latin until 1964.

In addition to records of Baptism, First Communion, Confirmation, and Marriage, other records were kept by Roman Catholic parishes.

Parishes sometimes had to prove there were enough people to support an ethno-centric parish and a parish census for the locality may still exist. 

Sick call records, burial and interment records, premarital examination records, dues books, records of those who kept their Easter duty, Jubilee books, dispensation books, and records of clubs and church societies may have been maintained.

No bishop’s copies of records were made in the United States. Some records have been microfilmed and are available at the Family History Library.

Copyright © 2008 by Stephen J. Danko

Today was the first day of the annual conference of the Polish Genealogical Society of America.

In the morning I attended two lectures by Jonathan Shea, and in the afternoon I attended two lectures by Matthew Bielawa.

Beginner’s Workshop

The two lectures by Jonathan Shea were devoted to a Beginner’s Workshop. Despite the title, the lectures were useful for genealogists at any level researching Polish ancestry.

Jonathan stressed that to research one’s ancestry in Poland, a researcher must know the ancestor’s names in their native language and must know the exact location of the vital events.

Polish names were often anglicized, and researchers must learn to convert the anglicized names back to the original spelling. Often, this process requires that the researcher know how to properly pronounce the letters in the Polish language.

Genealogists in the United States should begin Polish research with American records: Birth, Marriage, and Death records using civil records and church records; obituaries; city directories; cemetery records; probate records; parish histories; fraternal societies; labor union records; consular records; census records (both federal and state); passenger lists; naturalization records; draft cards from World War I and World War II; U.S. passport applications; and alien registration records.

For the most part, immigrants from the Prussian partition of Poland settled in the midwest, those from the Russian partition settled in the northeast, and those from the Austrian partition settled in both areas.

To find the village of your ancestors, gazetteers specific for the partition in which one’s Polish ancestors lived are invaluable to find the locations of the parishes and civil registration offices for the village.

Records in Poland may be found in the parishes, the diocesan archives, the civil registry, or the state archives. Frequently, only one set of records was maintained, but the common assumption that the records were destroyed is usually incorrect.

Gazetteers

Matthew Bielawa’s first lecture was on gazetteers.

He described the Słownik geograficzny Królestwa Polskiego i innych krajów slowiańskich, the Genealogical Gazeteer of Galicia, the Gemeindelexikon der im Reichsrate vertretenen Königreiche und Länder, Gemeindelexikon fur das Konigreich Preussen, Meyers Orts und Verkehrs - Lexikon des Deutschen Reichs, http://www.kartenmeister.com/, Spiski naselennyh mest Rossiiskoi imperii, Skorowidz miejscowosci rzecrypospolitej polskiej, Spis Miejscowosci Polskiej Rzeczypospolitej Ludowej, among others.

Galicia: A Historical and Cultural Perspective

Matthew’s second lecture was an overview of the history, politics, and religious culture of Poland with an emphasis on Galicia.

Galicia itself was an invention of the Austrian Empire (note: the Austrian Empire was more properly known as the Kingdoms and Lands Represented in the Imperial Council and the Lands of the Crown of St. Stephen) and was created as a result of the partition of Poland. The area of Galicia included those who considered themselves Polish, Ukrainian, and Jewish (among others) with Catholics belonging to either the Roman Catholic Church or the Greek Catholic Church.

In general, western Galicia was mainly populated by Polish Roman Catholics, and eastern Galicia was mainly populated by Ukrainian Greek Catholics.

Politically, life was better for Poles in the Austrian partition than in other partitions. In fact, after the Russian crackdown in the Congress Kingdom of Poland, Galicia became a center of “Polishness”.

Matthew also provided insight into certain aspects of Polish peasant life using examples from Stauter-Halsted, Keely. 2001. The nation in the village: the genesis of peasant national identity in Austrian Poland, 1848-1914. Ithaca [N.Y.]: Cornell University Press.

Sales of alcohol sales were frequently designated to the Jewish population. Peasants were required to purchase a minimum amount of alcohol (whether or not they actually wanted it) from that produced by the manors.

In 1848, the Spring of Nations provided emancipation of the Polish peasants but resulted in few real changes. Before the Spring of Nations, peasants worked in servitude on common lands. After emancipation, peasants were unable to pay new imperial taxes and so had to work on manorial estates.

World War I resulted in the creation of the Second Polish Republic and World War II resulted in massive border changes and ethnic cleansings that forced many to leave behind their homes and move to new ones within the restructured borders.

Copyright © 2008 by Stephen J. Danko

San Francisco Bay Area genealogists who attended Saturday’s meeting at the California Genealogical Society and Library were treated to a lively and informative presentation on Breaking Down Brick Walls. The Sherman Room at the Society’s facility in Oakland was filled to capacity for the event.

Lavinia Schwarz, Nancy Peterson, and Jane Hufft

SOURCE: Lavinia Schwarz, Nancy Peterson, and Jane Hufft (Oakland, Alameda Co., California). Photographed by Stephen J. Danko on 12 Jul 2008.

Although billed as a panel discussion, Jane Hufft, Lavinia Schwarz, and Nancy Peterson presented a well-integrated series of three lectures that provided a new way to look at brick walls.

The session opened with a discussion of three big problems in genealogy: finding parents, spouse, and location. The approach to breaking through brick walls that Jane, Lavinia, and Nancy discussed is to Review, Reach Out, and Reframe.

REVIEW

What source types are essential to your problem and what sources have you failed to examine? Have you cited all sources so you know where you are? Keep a search record and construct a bibliography.

What needs a second look? Review census records (including neighbors). Reexamine surnames, including possible variations and misspellings. Read about the history for the region and the era. Evaluate family stories.

Are there sources and methods you haven’t yet examined? Think about maps, tax records, land records, scholarly journals, bibliographies in the backs of sources, military records, passport records, church records, and newspapers.

Is it time to start researching every relative and hanger-on? Research collateral lines: siblings with different surnames, all children descending from the relative in question, all brothers and sisters of the ancestor and the ancestor’s spouse.

Look for sources in other libraries (regional, university, local, historical, state). Ask the librarian for help. Are any applicable vertical files or manuscripts available?

How can you expand your search? Search newspapers in city, local library, and university archives. Visit the locale, set up contacts, find out whom else is buried at the local cemetery. Remember to search county-level records, land, probate, chancery court, and poorhouse records.

Consider hiring a professional researcher. A local person may be able to uncover information you can’t. Locate other researchers working on this line. consult with others, including friends and other genealogists, about your brick wall.

Evaluate your time. Is this problem keeping you from completing other research? Sometimes you need to accept the fact that certain information may simply not be there.

Use the Internet efficiently. Try multiple search engines including Google, Dogpile, Yahoo, Ask, Metacrawler, AltaVista, and LiveSearch. Review popular websites and databases such as Ancestry, NewspaperArchives, Footnote, etc.

REACH OUT

Network with others. Who knows more than you? Question family members, including extended family.

Search and post on RootsWeb message boards. Join a mailing list. Search and post on Genforum. Be prepared to wait a long time before someone posts a reply to your message.

Learn more as the brick wall tumbles. Build upon what you have learned.

Visit the area of your search. Visit the courthouse, libraries, genealogical societies, and historical societies. If you can’t go in person, join online groups, join a genealogical society in the location, or hire a local researcher.

REFRAME

State the problem in simple terms, gather all your notes that apply to the problem, and arrange the facts chronologically.

Prepare a timeline. Is the timeline continuous or are there gaps in it? What can you do to fill in these gaps?

Analyze the reliability, timeliness, and credibility of each source. Was the conclusion you reached about this source justified, or do you need to reconsider?

Is the source an original source or a derivative source? How close in time to the event was the source created? Was the preparer of the source in a position to know about the event?

Do the ages make sense? Could you be looking at two different people with the same name? Do the occupations make sense? Are you basing conclusions on unfounded assumptions?

Is there information missing when you expected to find it?

REST!

New sources and new contacts may come along. Working on another problem may give you fresh insights into this one.

Copyright © 2008 by Stephen J. Danko

In my effort to learn more about the various genealogy software packages currently on the market, I attended Geoff Rasmussen’s lecture “Overview of Legacy Family Tree 7″ at the Southern California Genealogy Jamboree 2008.

Geoff Rasmussen at the Southern California Genealogy Jamboree 2008

SOURCE: Geoff Rasmussen at the Southern California Genealogy Jamboree 2008 (Burbank, Los Angeles Co., California). Photographed by Stephen J. Danko on 27 Jun 2008.

The lecture I attended was a basic introduction to Legacy Family Tree 2008 and included discussions of older features, features new to version 7, and features to be added in the future.

As with many other genealogy programs, Legacy Family Tree can calculate relationships between people in the database. However, Legacy can calculate non-blood relationships and additional relationships if two people are related in two or more ways. Legacy can also set bookmarks for specific individuals that appear as tabs at the bottom of the screen.

Legacy can check the entire database for errors in place names. Specifically, the USA County Verifier will check to see if the county included in a place name is correct for the time period.

The main screen of Legacy includes events of birth, christening, death, and burial, allowing the user to quickly enter christening and burial information at the same time the user adds birth and death information.

Legacy’s privacy settings allow the user to mark entries as private or as invisible on reports and exports.

The new Source Writer in Legacy will create source citations according to the standards in Elizabeth Shown Mills’ book Evidence Explained by guiding the user through a series of questions. Sources can be formatted as footnotes, endnotes, or bibliographies and are automatically created as the user types. Subsequent citations of a previously cited source are also properly created. Geoff explained that Legacy will be adding a utility to help the user convert existing source formats to current standards.

Legacy provides research guidance, suggesting sources for given events. The user can click “plan to search’ to add a source to the “to do” list.

For mapping locations, Legacy uses Microsoft Virtual Earth, allowing the user to see locations in a variety of views, including a “bird’s eye” view.

Legacy Family Tree can produce many types of books on the user’s desktop, and can include both maiden and married names in the index.

Legacy includes many charts including many new to version 7. Geoff mentioned DNA charts and “Males Only” charts as examples. In the charts, the user can move boxes around and add backgrounds. Printouts of charts can be ordered directly from within the program.

Geoff presented a second lecture on Saturday entitled “Legacy Family Tree: Why Even Professionals Use It”. Unfortunately, I was not able to hear his second lecture because it conflicted with another lecture I wanted to attend.

At present, I have not tried Legacy Family Tree 7. While Legacy offers a free version of its software, the free version does not include many of the features I would like to try out, including the new Source Writer, Wall Charts, and Mapping utilities.

Copyright © 2008 by Stephen J. Danko

While at Jamboree, I had the pleasure of participating in the Genealogy Blogger Summit with Megan Smolenyak and hearing her two presentations on DNA entitled Trace Your Roots with DNA and Beyond Y-DNA: Your Genetic Genealogy Options.

Megan Smolenyak and Steve Danko at Jamboree 2008

SOURCE: Megan Smolenyak and Steve Danko at Jamboree 2008 (Burbank, Los Angeles Co., California). Photographed by Marcy Brown 29 Jun 2008.

Megan defined genetic genealogy as DNA testing for the purpose of learning about one’s heritage and described it as a complement to traditional genealogy.

Of all the DNA tests available, the Y chromosome tests are the most popular. These tests include the test for short tandem repeats (STRs) and the test for single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) on the Y chromosome. The STR test looks for the number of times a particular DNA pattern is repeated at places on the Y chromosome called markers. The results of this test defines a man’s Y chromosomal haplotype.

Since only men have a Y chromosome, women can only participate in this test by proxy, meaning that women must find a male relative (father, brother, uncle, male cousin) to be tested in her place. The Y chromosome is passed on from father to son, and can be used to trace a man’s ancestry from his father’s father’s father’s father. Because the Y chromosome is inherited in this way, analysis of the Y chromosome can be used either to support or disprove relationships.

A second Y-DNA test examines SNPs, mutations in the DNA that are so rare that they are assumed to have occurred only once in human history. The result of SNP tests define a man’s Y chromosomal haplogroup. The haplotype, identified by STR analysis, can be used to predict the haplogroup, and the SNP test can be used to confirm the haplogroup and provide additional details about the haplogroup.

Although only men have a Y chromosome, both men and women have mitochondrial DNA which they inherited from their mothers. Although men have mitochondrial DNA, they do not pass it on to their children. Thus, analysis of the mitochondrial DNA provides a test for one’s mother’s mother’s mother’s mother. Because mitochondrial DNA changes very slowly, it is not quite as useful as Y-DNA to examine relationships among people. Nonetheless, mitochondrial DNA can still be used to support or disprove proposed relationships.

Other DNA tests available to both men and women include tests for ethnic and biogeographic origins. Some of these tests provide percentages of different geographical groups such as Indo-European, Sub-Saharan African, Native American, and East Asian, while others are designed to provide details about African and Native American ancestries.

Still other DNA tests can provide information about inherited medical conditions and physical traits.

Megan pointed out that those who participate in DNA tests often have a specific purpose in mind. Some wish to learn if two people have common origins, while others may wish to uncover connections that paper trails can’t. DNA analysis can help solve personal history mysteries, including cases of uncertain parentage.

Copyright © 2008 by Stephen J. Danko

I haven’t had a spare moment at Jamboree, but I wanted to post this photo taken at the Genealogy Blogger Summit.

Some of the Genealogy Bloggers at Jamboree

SOURCE: Some of the Genealogy Bloggers at Jamboree (Burbank, Los Angeles Co., California). Photographed by Linda Seaver 28 Jun 2008.

Linda Seaver was kind enough to take photos of this group of genealogy bloggers including: seated, from left: Kathryn Doyle, Dick Eastman, George Morgan, Steve Danko; standing, from left: Leland Meitzler, Schelly Talalay Dardashti, Randy Seaver, Craig Manson, and Elizabeth O’Neal. Other genelaogy bloggers were in attendance but, unfortunately, weren’t present for this photo.

The Genealogy Blogger Summit was great fun with Leland Meitzler hosting bloggers Megan Smolenyak Smolenyak, George Morgan, Steve Danko, Schelly Talalay Dardashti, and Randy Seaver. Leland skillfully kept the discussion moving for over an hour and a half and then opened the discussion to questions from the audience.

As you may have already heard, audience member (and author of Little Bytes of Life) Elizabeth O’Neal stole the show by moblogging from her cell phone and posting the first picture from the summit, LIVE!

Thanks to Paula Hinkel of the Southern California Genealogical Society for organizing this great event.

Copyright © 2008 by Stephen J. Danko

Today’s GuestBlog is written by Paula Hinkel of the Southern California Genealogical Society.

Deadline Alert
Southern California Genealogical Society Jamboree 2008
June 27, 28, 29 at the Burbank Airport Marriott

There’s still time to join us for Jamboree!  Don’t miss the largest genealogy conference on the West Coast.  Advance registration closes 15.  Of course you’ll be able to register at the door, but why not make life
easy and register in advance?

–The registration process will be a breeze.  You won’t have to wait in line to have your registration processed.  –You get to wear an official printed name tag. 
–You can purchase tickets for the special events.  These will not be available after June 15.

Seats are still available for all of the special events, including the Friday night banquet with Megan Smolenyak Smolenyak; Saturday Effective Society Management breakfast and panel discussion; Saturday evening’s  dinner with Dick Eastman; and the Sunday morning Presidential Genealogy with Chris Child and Gary Boyd Roberts of NEHGS.  Reservations for the meals will close on June 15. 

Don’t forget to register for the newly added events:
 - Hollywood Forever Cemetery, bus transportation and guided tour by cemetery historian Karie Bible. 8:30am-12noon on Friday, June 27.  Cost $30.
 - FREE Introduction to Genealogy taught by Beverly Truesdale 9:00am-12noon Friday, June 27.
 - FREE Kids Genealogy Camp taught by Starr Campbell, Hailey J. Campbell and Michael Melendez from 9:00am-12noon Friday, June 27.

In addition, we have arranged with Lockett Tours for a “Slice of the City” tourist bus trip on Thursday afternoon, June 26.  The tour is $30. Find all the details at http://tinyurl.com/59xjqd.

This year, the program will include speakers and lectures of particular interest to those researching German, Eastern European, and Jewish roots. These include John T. Humphrey on German records,  Peter Lande on “Holocaust Records as a Source for All Genealogists,” which includes how to obtain records from Bad Arolsen; Steve Morse on “One-Step Webpages”  and several others. 

Many well-known professional genealogists, among them Dick Eastman, Tom Underhill, Arlene Eakle, and Megan Smolenyak Smolenyak, will speak about online and traditional resources, tech applications for genealogy, including several DNA talks, German ancestry, genealogy applications for today, such as family health histories, dealing with family secrets and black sheep, finding living relatives, and more.

A featured session will be the first-ever Blogger Summit, which will feature seven of the leading genealogy bloggers:  Dick Eastman of Eastman’s Online Genealogy Newsletter; Steve Danko of Steve’s Genealogy Blog; George G. Morgan, Megan Smolenyak Smolenyak of Megan’s Roots World and RootsTelevision, Schelly Talalay Dardashti of Tracing the Tribe, Randy Seaver of Genea-Musings. Moderating the panel discussion will be Leland Meitzler of GenealogyBlog.com.

Why not take the train to Jamboree and avoid $4 per gallon gas, traffic and parking?  For those coming from the San Diego area, The San Diego Genealogical Society has organized a group trip on the Pacific Surfliner. Contact Phyllis Quarg [phylbq@cox.net] for information on their group tour. The Burbank Airport Train Station is directly across the street from the Marriott, and the shuttle will pick you up at no charge.  Check out your transportation alternatives!

You can find full descriptions of speakers, lectures, evening events, and you can pre-register at this website: www.scgsgenealogy.com and the Jamboree blog at www.genealogyjamboree.blogspot.com

Save the Dates:  Woohoo!!  We are thrilled to announce that dates have been locked in for the next two years at the Burbank Airport Marriott Hotel and Convention Center in Burbank. Save the dates now for June 12-14, 2009, and June 11-13, 2010. How’s that for planning ahead?

Paula Hinkel
Co-Chair
Southern California Genealogy Jamboree
Southern California Genealogical Society

The California Genealogical Society held a membership meeting on Saturday, May 10 at the Society’s library in Oakland, California.

Jane Lindsey, President of the Society, began the meeting with a discussion of upcoming Society activities, including a Workshop on Scandinavian Research on June 14, four classes on Irish Research by Nora Hickey on July 9, a panel discussion on Breaking Down Brick Walls on July 12, a Workshop on Publishing Your Family History on August 9, and a Society research trip to Boston from September 21-28.

Steve Harris, collector of City Directories and Phone Books, announced that he has acquired 1000 new directories, including 600 for California cities. His collection is located across the hall from the California Genealogical Society Library and is open on the second Saturday and third Friday of each month (or by appointment).

The featured speaker for the day was Steve Morse, creator of the One-Step Webpages, who presented two lectures: “The Jewish Calendar Demystified” and “What Color Ellis Island Search Form Should I Use?”.

The Jewish Calendar Demystified

Various calendars have been developed throughout history to mark the passage of time and are commonly based on the solar calendar (the secular calendar), the lunar calendar (the Muslim calendar), or a combination of the two (the Jewish calendar).

Molad, the new moon, defines the start of the new month. A lunar month lasts 29 days, 12 hours, 44 minutes, and 3 1/3 seconds, or 29 days, 12 hours, 793 halaqim. There are between 12 and 13 lunar months in a solar year.

Because 19 years encompass almost exactly 235 months, the Jewish calendar employs a cycle of 19 years, as do the Chinese calendar and the Ancient Greek calendar. In a cycle of 19 years, the Jewish calendar includes 12 common years of 12 months, and 7 leap years of 13 months. Leap years occur in years 3, 6, 8, 11, 14, 17, and 19 of each 19 year cycle.

The months in the Jewish calendar are:

• Tishri -30 days
• Heshvan - 29 days
• Kislev - 30 days
• Tevret - 29 days
• Shevat - 30 days
• Adar 1 - 30 days (Adar 1 occurs only in leap years)
• Adar 2 - 29 days
• Nisan - 30 days
• Iyyar - 29 days
• Sivan - 30 days
• Tamuz - 29 days
• Ab - 30 days
• Elul - 29 days

However, a common year is 8 hours, 876 halaqim too short and a leap year is 2 hours, 491 halaqim too long.

Thus, the first day of Tishri will drift from the molad of Tishri (the new moon that marks the beginning of the month of Tishri). If the molad falls on the first day of Tishri, everything is fine. If the first of Tishri arrives too soon, the Jewish calendar adds one day to the preceding month of Heshvan (this is called a complete year). If the first day of Tishri arrives too late, the Jewish calendar subtracts a day from the preceding month of Kislev (this is called a defective year).

• In a defective year, Heshvan is 29 days, Kislev is 29 days, a common year is 353 days, and a leap year is 383 days.
• In a normal year, Heshvan is 29 days, Kislev is 30 days, a common year is 354 days, and a leap year is 384 days.
• In a complete year, Heshvan is 30 days, Kislev is 30 days, a common year is 355 days, and a leap year is 385 days.

But here is where things get more complicated. There are four rules that further govern the Jewish calendar.

1. If molad Tishri falls on a Sunday, Wednesday, or Friday, the first day of Tishri must be delayed by one day. If Tishri begins on a Wednesday or Friday, Yom Kippur would fall on a Friday or a Sunday, making it impossible to prepare food for the day after the Yom Kippur fast, due to Sabbath restrictions. if Tishri begins on a Sunday, the seventh day of Succoth would fall on the Sabbath.
2. If molad Tishri occurs at noon or later, the first day of Tishri must be delayed by one day in order to ensure that the new crescent moon is visible during the first day of the year.
3. If molad Tishri falls on a Tuesday at 3:11:20 AM or later, then the first of Tishri is delayed by one day, otherwise both rules 1 and 2 will be invoked, making the previous year too long (356 days).
4. If molad Tishri after a leap year falls on Monday at 9:32:43 1/3 AM or after, then the first of Tishri is delayed by one day, otherwise the previous leap year would have been delayed by both rules 1 and 2, making the previous leap year too short (382 days).

Biblical creation began on the 25th of Elul in year 1 and ended on the 1st of Tishri in year 2. Today, May 11, 2008 is the 6th of Iyyar in the year 5768. The conversion from the Gregorian calendar which we use today to the Jewish calendar can be computed on Steve’s One-Step Webpage for Jewish Calendar Conversions.

The Jewish calendar slowly creeps forward compared to the astronomical year since a year lasts 365.2422 days, but the Jewish calendar, on average, lasts 365.2468 days. Thus, the Jewish calendar will creep one day forward every 217 years. The Gregorian calendar which is in common use today is also subject to calendar creep, but the Gregorian calendar creeps forward only 1 day every 3333 years. By comparison, the Julian calendar which was replaced by the Gregorian calendar crept forward 1 day every 128 years.

What Color Ellis Island Search Form Should I Use?

Steve’s second lecture described how and why he developed his One-Step Webpages. In short, he began development of his webpages because he realized that the Ellis Island database search form often required multiple steps in order to find an entry, but the Ellis Island search engine itself was capable of performing several of these steps with a single command. And so, Steve developed a search form (the White Form) to search the Ellis Island database in one step, using the search engine at the Ellis Island site.

As time passed, and Steve continued to develop his webpages, he entered into collaborations with others who had the necessary expertise to further improve the search form. Soon, the Blue Form was developed that employed an independent search engine that would search the data from the Ellis Island site. The Blue Form searched only Jewish records. The Blue Form could perform a Soundex search, it could search by town, year of birth, partial ship names, by arrival month & day, and marital status. The Ellis Island search engine could not search by these parameters.

The Blue Form was followed by the Grey Form, which could search by the same parameters as the Blue Form, but the Grey Form could search non-Jewish records.

In November 2006, Steve released the Gold Form. The Gold Form uses its own search engine and can search all Ellis Island records by all parameters that were transcribed. The Gold Form replaces both the Blue Form and the Grey Form.

Now, users of Steve Morse’s One-Step Webpages can use the Gold Form as their first choice, enabling them to use the most powerful search engine and the most complete search form available for the Ellis Island database. The White Form is still available for those who may wish to employ an alternate search using the search engine at Ellis Island, but with a more complete search form than is available at Ellis Island.

Copyright © 2008 by Stephen J. Danko

Today’s UPGS 2008 program was largely devoted to research in the Family History Library.

The International Floor was buzzing with activity as Polish researchers swarmed the microfilm readers. Unused readers were hard to find.

I heard several people speak of successes. I had an unexpected success today as I reviewed the microfilms for my Niedziałkowski ancestors from the Szwelice parish in Poland. I had decided to carefully review the films for this parish to try to catch anything I’ve missed before and to try to find a connection between my Niedziałkowski ancestors and the other Niedziałkowskis in the Szwelice records.

In doing so, I found a marriage record for Adam Bonislawski and Petronella Niedziałkowska. Seeing this marriage record rang a bell in my head: where had I seen those names before?

Then it struck me - those were the parents of Czeslawa Bonislawska, the wife of my Great Grand Uncle, Franciszek Niedzialkoski! I have a record of them in the 1900 US Federal Census with their three children who were born in Poland: Czeslawa, Jan, and Władysław. I also have the marriage record of Franciszek Niedzialkoski and Czeslawa Bonislawska who were married in Massachusetts in 1904.

And, there’s more! Petronella’s parents were Ludwik Niedziałkowski and Józefa Pomaska, who were already in my database. Even if Franciszek and Czeslawa had not married, I’d be related to them both!

The UPGS 2008 conference held its closing banquet this evening after the Family History Library closed. The keynote speaker was Steve Morse who spoke on his “One-Step” WebPages. It seems that my path keeps crossing that of Steve Morse, but that’s really not surprising. Steve is a very popular speaker. His keynote address at UPGS 2008 was his 100th speaking engagement, an occasion he celebrated by showing a picture of a 100 złoty Polish banknote!

I have one more day of research at the Family History Library before I return to San Francisco. Wish me luck for my last day in Salt Lake City!

Copyright © 2008 by Stephen J. Danko