Joel Ratner <joelrat1@hotmail.com> recommended using the American Jewish
Year Book,which is available in pdf files online at www.ajcarchives.org,
as a source for historical information.

I second that endorsement, and would add a brief explanation of a somewhat
tedious, but potentially productive way of using this source of Jewish and
family history information.

After accessing this site, click on the link at the top of the home page to
get to the "American Jewish Yearbooks, 1899-present" page. This will display
a list of the yearbooks in chronological order.

Click on the yearbook of interest to you. That will open the pdf file of
that particular volume.

Next, click on the search icon, which looks like a pair of binoculars, at
the top left of the window. In the "What word or phrase?" box on the right,
type your area of interest, perhaps Lithuania, or a specific shtetl or city,
or a specific surname. Click on search, then be patient because the first
time you search a particular volume in a session it may take two or three
minutes.

In the 1917-1918 volume, for example, a search for the word Lithuania brings
up nine occurrences of the word in that volume. Then, one at a time,
clicking on each item listed in the results box displays the page on which
Lithuania is mentioned. Each page of interest can be printed out, and you
can navigate to the preceding or following page if necessary.

I have used this process to find some brief mentions of some of my ancestors
who were active in various Jewish communal or fraternal organizations in the
U.S. in the early 20th Century.

As I said, this can be rather time-consuming and tedious. I would be
interested in hearing if someone has developed a more convenient or more
useful way of searching through these yearbooks.

Martin Fischer
Oak Park Illinois, USA

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The Fischer and Levin family history Web site is at:
http://mefischer1.home.comcast.net/