Jewish Genealogical Society Meeting

Jewish Genealogical Society of Illinois (JGSI)
Next Meeting will be held on SUNDAY JULY 25
Temple Beth Israel - 3601 W. Dempster Street in Skokie.

TEVYE, the 1939 full-length Yiddish (with subtitles) film from the National Center for Jewish Film will be shown. This is a less sentimental version of Shalom Aleichem's story than Fiddler on the Roof.

12:30 The temple will open to members interested in library materials and for those needing help with genealogical sites on the internet or having genealogical related questions.

DATES OF SPECIAL UPCOMING EVENTS
International Conference on Jewish Genealogy Hosted by the Jewish Genealogical Society of Los Angeles JULY 11-16 2010

AUGUST 29, 2010
JGSI - Temple Beth Israel - 3601 W. Dempster Street in Skokie
Program: Kvell with us on your genealogy breakthroughs. This program will be an information sharing session where member researchers will have the opportunity to report on significant discoveries they have made in their family research and how they were able to achieve these successes, with input from our Ask the Experts panel as well. Bring a success story with you and briefly tell us about it.

Relationship Calculator

Wolfram Alpha is so much easier to use than a relationship chart!

Figuring out the precise relationship (which kind of cousin? how many times removed?) between yourself and your relative can be confusing. But this online calculator not only identifies the relationship, but show it visually in a chart as well..

For example, if you enter the words "my cousin's son" ...or, "my mother's cousin"...the answer is "first cousin once removed" and the chart shows in what way you are related.

Digital Past Images

The Illinois fincnial crisis has had a negative effect on library systems in Illinois, including our own North Suburban Library System (NSLS).

NSLS can not maintain the Digital Past website. a magnificent collection of historic images submitted by libraries, museums, and other educationasl and cultural organizations in northeastern Illinois.

Thankfully, the Illinois Sate Library has announced that the Digital Past collections have been migrated to the Illinois Digital Archives (IDA).

The Glenview Area History images are now available to the public through the IDA.

Researching Aids for Foreign Countries

The FamilySearch website includes a Research Wiki containing more than 37,000 educational articles abour various aspects of genealogy.

On the Research Wiki page, you can browse by the country from which your ancestor came.

Clicking on the name of a country takes you to a Portal Page containing basic information, resources, and strategies for successful genealogical research in that country. In addition, a Topics section lists specific essential information and tools for each topic.

Irish Genealogy

Irish Genealogy contains over 1.3 million pre-1900 baptismal, marriage and death church records from Dublin City and Kerry. It is made available by the Department of Tourism, Culture and Sport through the work of the Dublin Heritage Group and Kerry Genealogical Research Centre.

Updates about this and other Irish genealogical resources are at ProGenealogists.

Census Enumeration Districts

Census enumeration districts are geographic areas assigned to each census taker, usually representing a specific portion of a city or county. Enumeration districts (EDs) may not be hard to identify in smaller communities. But identifying them in large cities like Chicago can be daunting.

If you want to browse the census pages in Ancestry Library Edition for your family, you need too know in which ED they lived. A Look At Cook can make this task much easier for EDs in Chicago or Cook County Townships.


Click on the census year you are researching. Yoou need to have a general idea of the neighborhood in which they lived.


For Chicago, select a ward, and click on the interactive map. Within each ward, the EDs are mapped and identified by number. Browse Ancestry Library Edition for that ED.




For large cities other than Chicago, try the Steve Morse web site.

Excel, Word and Powerpoint For Genealogists

The North Suburban Genealogical Society (NSGS) will present a 2-hour session on sharing computer use in genealogy.

Tom Van Heule, past president of NSGS, volunteer at Winnetka Library Genealogical room, and his able partner Jim Boyle, past publicity chair of NSGS, will show you how they use Excel, Word and Powerpoint as they do research and prepare presentations. Learn methods for better organization, better presentations, and systemic methods of research using programs common to many computers.

Attendees can share tips, ask questions or just listen. Bring your own laptop, a memory stick, or cd/dvd if you want to show how you use your computer.

Date: July 17, 2010
Time: 1 p.m. to 3 p.m.
Where: Northbrook Historical Society 1776 Walter Ave. Northbrook, IL 60062
Subject: Sharing Tips on Computer Use in Genealogy
Contact: Jim Boyle 847 401 2579 or NSGS at NSGenSoc@gmail.com

Open to anyone interested in genealogical research. Free Admission

Locating Old Newspapers

Often, obituaries of our immigrant ancestors will be found in ethnic newspapers.

One way to locate microfilm of old newspapers is by using WorldCat.. through the Library's website.

Search for the name of a town as a subject, and the keywords newspapers and the name of an ethnic group. Remember to click on limit type to "serial publications."

Here is the result of a sample search for Chicago (Ill.) Polish newspapers.

Click on Libraries Worldwide to see which libraries have the newspaper you need.