The Phoenix Jewish Genealogy Group, a committee of the Arizona Jewish Historical Society, will hold its next meeting on Sunday, January 26, 2020 at 1:00 P.M. at The New Shul, 7825 E Paradise Ln, Scottsdale, AZ 85260. The meeting is free of charge and open to all.

Dr. Janette Silverman will present " 'A' My name is Alice - What's in a Name?"

Our immigrant ancestors left behind many questions after they arrived in their new home, some of which can be answered by finding records and carefully examining them. This discussion will focus on the mysteries of first names. Did Yetta Trachtenberg really have two brothers both named Samuel? What are the research techniques that can be used to unravel the mysteries of names? What tools can we use to perform an exhaustive search as genealogy research standards require?

Dr. Janette Silverman is a Senior Genealogist, Research Team Manager at AncestryProGenealogists®. Her team of 10 researchers specializes in Eastern European and Jewish research. She recently traveled to England, Poland and Lithuania doing research in various archival repositories.  When she travels she maintains a blog at RelativaTree.wordpress.com .

Janette is a member of the Board of IAJGS. She was the JewishGen Ukraine SIG Coordinator for 6 years, 2017 JewishGen Volunteer of the Year, the 2016 Chair of the IAJGS conference in Seattle, and was, for many years, the Chair of the Phoenix JGS. Janette speaks at conferences and groups worldwide, most recently presenting at RootsTech London. Upcoming presentations include Limud Arizona 2020, Rootstech 2020, the National Genealogical Society, US Holocaust Memorial Museum and, with Emily Garber and Lara Diamond, a week of study about Jewish Genealogy at the Genealogy Research Institute of Pittsburgh (GRIP).

Janette has been involved in Jewish and Eastern European genealogical research for almost 40 years. It began as a hobby with her dad and became a career. Her doctoral dissertation, In Living Memory describes the origins and immigration of four branches of her family, contextualizing their lives from their European origins to their lives in the United States.

For further information about the Phoenix Jewish Genealogy Group, see our web page at https://azjhs.org/Genealogy.html

Emily Garber

“Family History Resources from the Library of Congress” will be the topic of a presentation by genealogist Tina Beaird at the Sunday, Jan. 26, 2020, meeting of the Jewish Genealogical Society of Illinois. Her presentation will begin at 2 p.m. at Temple Beth-El, 3610 Dundee Road, Northbrook, Illinois.

Our speaker, Tina Beaird, is the owner of Tamarack Genealogy and is a genealogy and local history librarian at the Plainfield Public Library. She holds a Master of Library and Information Science degree with a specialization in archives/preservation from Dominican University. She has won multiple research and digitization grants to preserve and digitize historic documents and photographs.

Currently, she is a board director of the Illinois State Genealogical Society, the Northern Illinois Historic League and the Illinois State Historic Records Advisory Board as well as a commissioner for the Illinois World War One Centennial Commission. Tina is also an active member of the Society of American Archivists and the American Library Association. She volunteers, as time permits, for Illinois history and genealogical societies.

Tina Beaird lectures at the national, state and local levels on topics including genealogical methodology, military records and archival preservation. She has offered assistance to researchers for over 15 years and occasionally still finds time to conduct her own family research, which she has been pursuing for over 20 years.

At each regular JGSI monthly meeting, a “help desk” operates from 12:30 to 1:55 p.m. Expert member volunteers access online databases and answer genealogical questions one-on-one for members and visitors as time allows.

The JGSI library has more than 800 volumes of interest to Jewish family historians. Many are available for borrowing by JGSI members for a limited time. All are available for perusing from 12:30 to 1:55 p.m. at each regular monthly meeting.