Jewish Genealogy Society of Maryland

Speaker: Israel Pickholtz
Title: "Why Did My Father Know That His Grandfather Had an Uncle Selig?"
Date and Time: Sunday, January 22, 2017, 1:30 p.m.
Location: Pikesville Library'?s meeting room, 1301 Reisterstown Rd,
Pikesville, MD

Please join us for our next program: "Why Did My Father Know That His
Grandfather Had an Uncle Selig?" presented by Israel Pickholtz.

More than 20 years before Israel Pickholtz began doing serious
genealogy, his father sent him a postcard with three bits of family
information. One of those was that Israel's great-grandfather Hersch
Pikholz had an uncle Zelig. That information was very important in
Israel's research over the past two decades, research that was helped
along by traditional sources and more recently by genetic genealogy.

But even as he was progressing in his research, Israel could not shake
the question, "Why did my father know this?" Israel says, "My father
was 8 years old when his grandfather Hersch Pikholz died, and they
never had any real conversation. None of the cousins knew about Uncle
Zelig, even the older one who lived in the same house as my
great-grandfather. My father himself did not recall why he knew this."
And did it even matter? Israel tells the story of his
great-great-great-uncle, what he learned about his family, and why now
he thinks he knows how his father knew. And yes, it matters.

Israel Pickholtz, a native of Pittsburgh, made aliyah in 1973 from
Chicago and now lives in Jerusalem. He has done serious family
research for 20 years. His flagship work is the Pikholz Project, a
single-surname project to identify and reconnect all Pikholz
descendants. Alongside his work as a professional genealogist, taking
clients in Israel and abroad, he became heavily involved in genetic
genealogy in 2013. He manages test kits of more than 80 family
members, at last count. He recently published a book, Endogamy: One
Family, One People (available at www.endogamy-one-family.com). He
blogs at http://allmyforeparents.blogspot.com.

The program is free for paid members and $5 for non-members (applied
to membership fee when a visitor joins JGSMD) after their first
meeting. Refreshments will be available. Please check our web site at
www.jgsmd.org for late updates and for the time, location, and program
of future meetings.

Susan Steeble
JGSMD Public Relations