Sunday, February 23, 1 pm Pacific
Speaker: Sunny Morton, Professional Genealogist
Comparing the U.S. Newspaper Giants: What Jewish Content Do They Have?
Description: Over a billion digitized newspaper pages are now searchable at online historical newspaper archives such as Chronicling America, Fulton History, GenealogyBank, Storied.com (formerly NewspaperArchive) and Newspapers.com. But which should you use? Is it worth subscribing to one of the premium sites?
Learn how they stack up for total amount of digitized content (including Jewish newspapers); geographic coverage; unique features and tools; and subscription options.
Learn how Goldie May can help you find newspaper collections across many websites. My tips, encouragement, and comparative analyses will help you more confidently choose and use newspaper websites.
About Sunny Morton
Sunny Jane Morton is a Contributing Editor at Family Tree Magazine and the Content Director at YourDNAGuide.com. She is past Editor of Ohio Genealogy News. She has twice received awards from the National Genealogical Society, most recently for her book How to Find Your Family History in U.S. Church Records, co-authored with Harold Henderson, CG.
Her other book, Story of My Life: A Workbook for Preserving Your Legacy, is now in its 2nd edition. She coordinated a course for the GRIP Genealogy Institute in 2024, and in 2025 will be an instructor for GRIP and the Salt Lake Institute of Genealogy (SLIG).
Non-members pay $5.00 Zoom link will be sent the week of the event. Members automatically receive a Zoom link.
Sunday, March 9, 1 pm Pacific (1.5 hrs)
Speakers:
Ellie Vance, Russian Genealogy Specialist
Alex Krakovsky, Jewish-Ukrainian Genea
A Case Study Workshop: Ukrainian Jewish Genealogy with a Special Q&A by Alex Krakovsky
Description: Not sure where to start researching your Jewish ancestors from Ukraine? Or, are you looking to advance your research skills in Ukrainian research? Whether you are a beginner or a more experienced researcher, you’ll be sure to learn something new in this case study and Q&A.
Working with genealogist Ellie Vance, you’ll be guided through each step along the research journey in a case study beginning with an immigrant ancestor. Along the way, you will learn how to find and navigate records and helpful hints to trace your family in Ukraine. This case study will help you learn both methodology and familiarity with records and resources for research. You will also receive an extensive Survival Guide to Jewish Research in Ukraine handout to use in your own genealogical research.
Following the case study workshop, join us for a Q&A with Alex Krakovsky, a Jewish-Ukrainian archivist, activist, and genealogist. Since 2017, Alex has archived thousands of Jewish-Ukrainian genealogical documents and uploaded them to an open-access database on the Ukrainian WikiSource. Alex is a wealth of knowledge when it comes to records and locations in Ukraine, so be sure to come with plenty of questions!
About Ellie Vance and Alex Krakovsky
Ellie Vance graduated from Brigham Young University with degrees in Russian and Family History and Genealogy. She worked as the Slavic research specialist for the FamilySearch Library and currently works as a technical historical records expert at FamilySearch. Ellie enjoys helping others trace their roots in the former Russian Empire.
Alex Krakovsky is a Jewish-Ukrainian archivist, activist, and genealogist. He is a leader in the Jewish genealogical community in efforts to legalize the digitization of Jewish records from Ukrainian historical government archives. He has led an effort in archiving over 3,000 Jewish metric books, revision lists, and other historical records contained in Ukrainian archives by digitally scanning them and uploading them to an open-access database on the Ukrainian Wikisource.
Non-members pay $5.00 Zoom link will be sent the week of the event. Members automatically receive a Zoom link.
Sunday, April 6, 1 pm Pacific
Speaker: Michelle Tucker Chubenko, Professional Genealogist
Piecing Together History: Using Maps and Gazetteers to Rediscover Eastern European Towns
Description: Our ancestor’s lives were more than the life events of birth, marriage and death. Yet, finding already constructed historical vignettes for where they lived aren’t always readily available. During the presentation, Michelle will share how to use published materials such as gazetteers, schematisms, directories and maps, to build the historical image of your ancestral town/village. She will demonstrate how to use the statistical data and incorporate visual details using a variety of examples from locations across Central and Eastern Europe.
About Michelle Chubenko
Michelle Tucker Chubenko, AG®, AGL™ is accredited in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States through the International Commission for the Accreditation of Professional Genealogists (ICAPGen) and specializes in the Mid-Atlantic region and Eastern European research. She is a founding member with the “Nashi Predky/Our Ancestors” Family History Group at the Ukrainian History and Education Center (Somerset, New Jersey) and in 2023, coordinated the institute course Researching Your Ancestry in the Crownland of Galicia, Austria-Hungary. Since 2021, she has hosted a monthly Q&A Zoom session Have Questions? Get Answers for Research in Galicia.
Non-members pay $5.00 Zoom link will be sent the week of the event. Members automatically receive a Zoom link.
Sunday, April 27, 1 pm Pacific
Speaker: Jan Gronski, DoJR AI Lab Director & Technology Advisor
Unlock Your Family History with Transkribus, a Powerful AI Tool for Genealogists
Description: Dive into the world of automated text recognition with Transkribus, a powerful AI tool for genealogists working with historical documents in key languages which are important to the Jewish community such as Polish, Russian, German, Yiddish, Hebrew, and more. This hands-on workshop will guide participants through the essential steps of using existing language models to transcribe paragraph-based materials accurately. Learn the differences between transcription and translation, discover why Transkribus outshines other AI tools, and explore best practices for achieving high-quality results. Whether you’re a beginner or looking to refine your skills, this workshop will equip you with the knowledge and confidence to unlock the past and preserve your family’s legacy. Note: Participants will receive prerequisite study materials to prepare for this workshop.
About Jan Gronski
Jan Gronski is L’Dor V’Dor Foundation’s DoJR AI Lab Director and Technology Advisor building upon more than 25 years of experience in the networking industry as a hands-on developer and an engineering executive. Over five years, Gronski has garnered considerable hands-on experience creating AI models for automatic handwriting recognition while leading the most extensive and advanced project of its kind for processing historical records in the languages of the Jewish Diaspora. Gronski is multilingual: fluent in English, Polish, and Chinese and conversational in Russian, German, Spanish, French, and Turkish. Gronski is a key volunteer for Jewish Records Indexing – Poland. Gronski earned his undergraduate degree in mathematics at the University of Warsaw and PhD in mathematics at University of Illinois.
Non-members pay $5.00 Zoom link will be sent the week of the event. Members automatically receive a Zoom link.
Tuesday, May 6, 4 pm
Pacific
Speaker: Hailey Thompson, Accredited Genealogist and Eastern European Expert
Navigating Revision Lists, a Hands-on Workshop
Description: Join us for this unique opportunity to learn, strategize and study how to effectively read, locate, translate and summarize the contents of these important documents.
The Ревизские сказки Reviska Skazka (“Revision Lists”) are some of the most important records for Jewish Russian genealogical research beginning in 1719 through 1858. These lists, used to levy taxes, contain the names of all taxable persons from each city, town, village or estate arranged by household and provide the relationship to the head of house and ages over time.
Please note: Participants will receive prerequisite study materials to prepare for this workshop. Participants will have the opportunity to submit documents prior to the workshop. We will use some document examples in real-time.
About Hailey Thompson
Hailey Thompson (nee Wentz) is an Accredited Genealogist (AG®) with an emphasis in Eastern European genealogy. She dedicated a portion of her studies to the linguistics field, which led her to develop skills in a variety of languages. She currently works as a Slavic research specialist at the FamilySearch Library in Salt Lake City.
One of Hailey’s passions is teaching genealogical principles in a way that empowers others and helps them to have the confidence to continue their research.
Non-members pay $5.00 Zoom link will be sent the week of the event. Members automatically receive a Zoom link.
Sunday, May 18, 1 pm Pacific
Speaker: Megan Lewis, Reference and Research Specialist
In-Depth Research Guide of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Digital Collections
Description: This is a unique opportunity to submit your questions, documents, and ancestral locations/surname pairs.
Megan will review advanced search techniques and main tools to access the Holocaust Survivors and Victims Database (HSV:name index) and the Collections Search catalog all from your home.
Collections include photographs, oral histories, artifacts, historic films collections 1930-1950, all with built-in place name thesaurus. Interwar materials from Galicia and Lithuania, records from the aftermath of the 1920s pogroms in Kiev and pre-Holocaust history books of various places will also be reviewed. Access to the full Arolsen Archives containing DP camp materials, personal DP camp records from survivors and workers, refugee materials from various countries, YIVO archives and records of Polish Jews who were repatriated from the Soviet Union. Some digitized unindexed records are included.
Megan will point out how finding aids/inventories for archival collections often include names of individuals or families, so are de facto names lists. An in-depth handout will accompany this presentation.
About Megan Lewis
Megan Lewis has worked at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum since 1998, where she is currently a reference librarian. She has spoken to many genealogy groups over the years about the Museum’s rich resources. Megan has a BA in History and a Masters in Library Science. She is currently doing post-graduate work in digital curation.
Non-members pay $5.00 Zoom link will be sent the week of the event. Members automatically receive a Zoom link.
