Dear Galitzianers:

If you are attending the IAJGS conference in Philadelphia in
August, make sure to attend our SIG meeting on Monday, August 3rd,

from 2:00PM. - 3:15PM. Our program will consist of:

- Introducing our new Board of Directors and Gesher Galicia's
plans for the future.

- Update on the Cadastral Map & Landowner Records Project.

- A Castle in the Shtetl: Scenes and recollections >from a Polish
magnate landowner's family album.

- Highlights of Galician research in Vienna.

- JRI-Poland vital records news >from Mark Halpern.

- A special presentation by Roma Baran on her journey of
discovering, as an adult, her previously unknown Jewish roots in
Galicia.

Roma's journey is a wonderful example of how a chance encounter
can propel one on a search of unimaginable proportions,
challenging one’s ideas about identity, religion and the very
truth about one’s existence. She is a New York-based engineer,
musician, attorney and filmmaker who grew up in Montreal. About
a year ago, when a genealogical researcher contacted Roma,
searching for family connections, she realized, for the first
time, that her parents had been Jews who had hidden this fact

from her. In her presentation she'll describe -- with photos,

documents and maps -- how she has systematically reconstructed
her past, piecing together the story of a large family >from Skole,
Radautz, Brody and Lwow >from the 19th century through the
Holocaust. Her search -- a quest, really -- is ongoing... as she
returns to Warsaw this fall.

Later that afternoon, >from 5:00PM - 6:15PM, Gesher Galicia will
host our "Market Square: Birds-of-a-Feather & Ask the Experts,"
an informal fair where you can browse >from cart to cart
(metaphorically speaking) to learn more about your town or
village and get assistance with your research questions.GG’s town
and regional leaders will facilitate the exchange of names and
places, so you can network and make connections. Explore cadastral
maps, gazetteers, landowner records, business directories,
cemetery and school records, tabula registers and more. A variety
of experts will be on hand to answer your research questions and
offer suggestions on overcoming brick walls and dead ends.

Pamela Weisberger
President, Gesher Galicia