Jewish Genealogy Society of Greater Washington, Inc.
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Personalizing the Shoah: Finding your Broken Branches
Sunday, May 5
Personalizing the Shoah: Finding your Broken Branches  (Society Meetings)
1:30 pm
Zoom meeting, free for members of JGSGW. Nonmembers may register to attend for a fee of $5.
This presentation in honor of Yom HaShoah will show you how to find your family (victims, survivors and heroes) to personalize the Shoah, as it relates to you as a member of the Jewish Community. We will explore research tools available from Yad Vashem, the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, Yizkor Books, and others online.
I. Michael Snyder’s four grandparents immigrated to the U.S. between 1900 and 1917, and at first he believed his family was not victimized by the Holocaust. During the Holocaust genocide, 40% of all Jews worldwide perished. As Jews, we ALL experienced loss, whether it is known or not. With very little effort, he found 20 family members who perished and began honoring them over 10 years ago. Over the last few years he was inspired to dive a little deeper and organize his list, now grown to 210 people aged 1 to 90, into family groups. His goal is to create a memorial book to share with his family and community.
 
This one-hour program, conducted over Zoom at 1:30 PM Eastern Time, is free for members. This is one of the many activities that is a benefit of JGSGW membership. Instructions for joining the online meeting will be placed under Meeting Info & Links in the Members Only Files. (These files become visible on this website after members sign in.) Nonmembers may register to attend for a fee of $5.
 
Speaker: I. Michael Snyder is a member of JGSGW. He has been working on his family history for over 20 years beginning with resources inherited from other family members. When he got started he knew of 14 ancestors going back only four generations. Now he’s confirmed over 90 ancestors going back nine generations, with a tree numbering over 3,800 individuals. He got started in genealogy thanks to his wife, Phyllis English, who wanted to validate her ancestry through the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR). Michael and his wife foster beagles through B.R.E.W. and have had over 300 dogs come through their home. Yes, they have done DNA analysis on a number of their fosters.


Stuck: Immigration, Naturalization and Repatriation in the WWI Era
Sunday, June 23
Stuck: Immigration, Naturalization and Repatriation in the WWI Era  (Society Meetings)
1:30 pm
Zoom meeting for members of JGSGW only.
Stolen passports, pleading letters and fake visas all appear in the US State Department’s Records of Foreign Service Posts. These documents tell harrowing tales of families separated by WWI, and the incredible lengths people went to in order to leave war-torn Europe and reunite with relatives in America.
In the years before WWI, husbands immigrated to the USA, intending to send for their family after getting settled, but the outbreak of war turned temporary situations into lengthy separations. Other cases illustrate a short visit to see family in the Old Country morphing into a years-long ordeal.
Both during and particularly after the war, the emergence of new European countries meant new rules and regulations controlling movement and emigration. Simultaneously, panic over an assumed mass influx of war refugees spurred the US Congress to pass restrictive laws that imposed quotas on would-be immigrants. 
This presentation highlights some of the incredible experiences families endured during this era and explains the records used to recount their stories.
 
This one-hour program, conducted over Zoom at 1:30 PM Eastern Time, is free and for JGSGW members only. This is one of the many activities that is a benefit of JGSGW membership. Instructions for joining the online meeting will be placed under Meeting Info & Links in the Members Only Files. (These files become visible on this website after members sign in.)
 
Speaker: Renée Carl is a professional genealogist and advocate for historic preservation and records access. She previously worked in public policy, until realizing that researching dead people is easier than working with Congress. Her background in government and cultural anthropology brings an unique perspective to locating and interpreting records.
Renée is a member of the Association of Professional Genealogists, the Jewish Genealogy Society of Greater Washington, and the JewishGen Latvia Research Group. She also serves as a member of the Association of Professional Genealogists Advocacy Committee and as policy advisor to the RecordsNotRevenue.com campaign.
Renée worked as a researcher for Season 2 of PBS’ Genealogy Roadshow and served as lead researcher for Season 3. She regularly researches at the National Archives, Library of Congress, and U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum. You can find Renée online at EasternEuropeanMutt.com.