Because of weather related postponements we are holding our April meeting on
**May 1, 2016** (our actual May meeting will held on May 22, 2016)

Date: May 1, 2016
Time: 1:30 PM
Place: Temple Adath Israel
250 No. Highland Avenue
Merion Station, PA
Speaker: Tammy A. Hepps, founder of Treelines.com, a family story sharing
website
Topic: Reconstructing Small-Town Jewish Communities in America: A Case Study

Tammy A. Hepps is a past winner of the RootsTech Developer Challenge. With
fifteen years of experience in digital media and more than two decades in
genealogy, she brings a fresh perspective on combining creative research,
cutting-edge technology, and meaningful storytelling to make family history
more engaging. This past spring she presented her current research into the
Jewish community of one of her ancestral towns, documented at
HomesteadHebrews.com, at the Library of Congress.

While the history of the American Jewish community remains largely an urban
one, most of us have at least one branch >from a small town. Though these
places may seem harder to research for being relatively unknown, they
actually pose a unique opportunity for family historians to understand our
ancestors in the context of their communities. This talk will review research
approaches for understanding your ancestral small town, as well as concrete
steps descendants can take to ensure these communities aren't lost to history.
Along the way you'll hear lots of memorable and surprising stories of what
life was like for the minority of Jewish immigrants who became Americans far

from the safety of the urban cultural centers.

Mentors will be available >from 1:00-1:30 PM to help with your research efforts.

JGSGP website http://www.jgsgp.org is now available with latest news, upcoming
meeting notices, and links to Philadelphia resources.

We can also be found on Facebook.

Please note that JGSGP has a Speaker's Bureau which is available to local groups
on the various subjects concerning genealogy.

Lois Sernoff [JGS Greater Philadelphia]
<JGLois@...>