Dear Fellow ROM-SIGgers,

For those of you who were not present in Las vegas, here is a summary of
our ROM-SIG meeting there, as well as some important announcements!

We had a good turnout, and enjoyed the Power Point display, and report
of the latest visit to Bukovina by Bruce Reisch, given by Merle Kastner,
as Bruce was unable to come to La Vegas. Many thanks to Merle for an
excellent presentation!

Paula and I were able to update those in attendance on the ongoing
efforts to get the Director General of the National Archives of Romania
to open up their arhcives to individual research. I have been
conducting an intensive letter writing campaign over the last year or
so, with the Human Rights Commission of the EU, the US Embassy, and
other US agencies, guided by the head of the ADL affiliate in Buchrest,
MCA Romania! I have spoken with Radu Ioanid of the USHMM to seek his
advice as to how best to proceed. Finally, after letters to the new
government of Romania I received a message >from Dr. LUNGU, head of the
Archives, which while self-justifying to his superiors, gave the
following advice::

<>The Director General of the Romanian Nataional Archives in Bucharest
states that anyone interested in obtaining copies of civil records >from
Romania should send a request, either by air mail or fax to:
<>Arhivele Nationale
B-dul Regina Elisabeta nr.49
Sector 5
050013 - Bucuresti
ROMANIA
Fax#:( +4021)-312 58 41
Those writing via mail should also enclose 2 International Reply
Coupons, asking for a
response via Air Mail<> . You may write in English.

This request should include the following information :
- Name of person who is the object of request
- Date and place of birth, marriage or death
- Religious affiliation<>

The civil records in the National Archives are arranged chronologically,
by name of town/village and religion, not by individual names. Without
the information mentioned above it will be impossible for them to do any
genealogical research. However, they do stress that the civil records
are incomplete, and many documents are missing for long time periods. <>

For fuller information about the holdings of the Romanian archives
please see the chapter on Romania, in the "Avotaynu Guide to Jewish
Genealogy" by Sack & Mokotoff.

Should you decide to write we would appreciate hearing back >from you as
to the responses that you receive.

MORE NEWS!

We have just received >from the LDS 23 more CD-ROM containing vital
records >from Kishinev, and also Herta (Dorohoi). These records contain
at first glance, the following:

Balti: KIshinev:
Births 14,033 Divorces 885
Deaths 4,197 Marriages 1,708
Marriages 2,347

Bender: Herta:
Births 703 Births & deaths 5,076
Divorces 30
Marriages 95

So you can see that we are going to need many more of you to volunteer, if we are
to get this valuable information online! If you are interested in helping please
contact the Project Coordinator, Robert Wascou at: RobertW252@aol.com
He will be eagerly waiting to hear >from you! Remember this is an all-volunteer
organization. Without your help nothing new will happen.

AND MORE VOLUNTEERS NEEDED!

Your worthy Moderators of the ROM-SIG List have been at the task for 5 years now.
Both Moderate several lists on JewishGen, and are most desirous of finding
replacements for themselves. It is not a difficult job, as ours is not one of the
"busy" lists. JewishGen staff will train you, and the two current Moderators will
stay on board till you are firmly in control. But, it is time for some relief...;-D!
Please let Paula and me know if you are interested.

And finally, JewishGen has told us that we need to have a Research Coordinator!
It is now a requirement for all of the SIGs. It requires someone with good
managerial skills. You do not have to do the work on each project, but the idea is
that there is to be one person who will coordinate with all of the various Project
Coordinators (we will need some of those, too) and be the Liaison person with the
JG staff.

And with all of the new files coming our way at last, we will need Project
Coordinators to direct those volunteers doing the translation, data entry and
validation for each of the new databases. Again, this is matter of record keeping
- who has what, and how long have they had it, etc. Here Robert Wascou can give
you the best input as to what the job entails!

And finally, a plea >from Terry Lasky, the Project Coordinator for the Orhei Yiskor
Book project. They are still in need of funding to get this project finished.
If you feel that you cannot give the time, or have the skills, to work on the
project, your donations to the ROM-SIG Orhei Yiskor book project would be most
gratefully received. Go to:
http://www.jewishgen.org/JewishGen-erosity/projectdesc/YB_Orhei.html
and read all about this project, and the probable cost! There are 45 of you who
are researching family in Orhei. This will be a memorable book for you all.
Any amount that you can spare will be gratefully appreciated!

All in all, a successful meeting, and busy times coming for us all on ROM-SIG.

Rosanne Leeson
Paula Zieselman
Your Co-Coordinators