June 24, 2017 Save the Date!!

The full arrangements are still to be made.  But the Immigrant Genealogical Society is proud to announce that it will hold an all-day workshop featuring Fritz Juengling, Ph.D., AG®.  This IGS workshop will be held on Saturday, June 24, 2017 at the Los Angeles FamilySearch Library.  They have a classroom that will accommodate the audience we hope to attract.  The workshop will have four lectures, two in the morning and two in the afternoon, as follows:

  • Some Tips for Genealogical Research
  • Historical Events that Affect German Genealogical Research
  • Using Meyer’s Gazetteer
  • Beyond the Obvious Reasons:  Practical and Social Decisions for Emigration to America.

You’ll want to reserve this date on your calendar NOW, while you’re thinking about it!!

March 2017 newsletter

The March newsletter will arrive late this month.  There has been simply too much going on for it to be produced according to the regular schedule.

And, while we’re at it, that schedule now will be that the monthly newsletter will appear on the third Wednesday of each month unless announced otherwise.  That would be today, if the schedule could be followed….

JGSLA Program Tonite at AJU

The Jewish Gen. Soc. of L.A. sent an email this morning (!) about the program they’re hosting tonight at American Jewish University’s Sperber Library at 7:30 p.m.  The title of the talk is: “Why Did My Father Know His Grandfather Had An Uncle Selig?” and the speaker is Israel Pickholtz.  Members attend free; guests pay $5 to attend.  Here’s the official description…

More than twenty years before Israel Pickholtz began doing serious genealogy, his father sent him a postcard with three bits of family information. One israel-pikholtz-2016of those was that Israel’s great-grandfather Hersch Pikholz had an uncle Zelig. That information was very important in Israel’s research over the last 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 eight 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 this family and why now he thinks he knows how his father knew.   And yes, it matters.

Israel Pickholtz has lived in Israel since 1973 and now lives in Jerusalem. He has done serious family research for nearly twenty 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 over ninety family members at last count.
In August 2015 he published a book “ENDOGAMY: One Family, One People,” available at www.endogamy-one-family.com
He blogs at http://allmyforeparents.blogspot.com and receives mail at IsraelP@pikholz.org

A German discussion of Ancestry.com

I haven’t investigated what I’ve read in a German mailing list, but it sure is interesting (and I’ve seen similar comments before):

(translated) “In the collection Rheinland are hidden, among other things, military church books from East Prussia, church books from Leipzig and much more….”

Germans are divided on Ancestry.com, with several being critical of transcription errors by persons unfamiliar with the locality of the documents, and (of course) of errors in family trees that are then perpetuated by others.  Generally, however, they recognize that using it with care is far preferable than having to travel to read documents the old way.

Moral of the story:  It’s always good to explore online resources thoroughly!

International German Genealogy ‘Connections’ Conference in July

Here is a summary of developments:

Early, discounted registration runs through March: $225 for individuals belonging to organizations that are members of the International German Genealogy Partnership (formerly German-American Genealogical Partnership), and $250 for all others. If you’re a member in good standing of the IGS, then you qualify for the discount.  Regular registration begins April 1 at the standard rate, $299.  The general conference information is here.

Hotel rooms at the Minneapolis Marriott Northwest Hotel in Brooklyn Park, Minn., venue for the conference, sold out in December. Additional nearby hotels are offering special rates for conference attendees. Go here for hotel information and room reservations, and find the link to the hotels at the very bottom of the page.

“This may be one of the largest German genealogy events ever held in the United States,” said officials of the Minnesota-based Germanic Genealogy Society, host of conference and a co-founder of the Partnership, which is organizing the conference.

Irish Family Research — Online Workbook (FREE)

“Upfront with NGS” is the blog for the National Genealogical Society.  Every so often they post something that really gets a person to sit up and take notice.  Such is the case with an offering today on an online Irish Family Research Workbook.  This has been produced by the National Archives of Ireland, and their link to the Workbook is on the “Upfront” page that you’ll get when you click the line above….

If you’re not a member of NGS, please consider joining!  They help keep us connected.

News you can use….

The International German Genealogy Partnership (IGGP) is now online, and while it is still new and undergoing modifications you’ll want to bookmark it and refer to it often.

When you’re at the IGGP homepage, don’t overlook the information available in the sidebar with reference to our 2017 Conference.  Brochures are available for download here, or you may pick up a paper copy at the IGS Library in Burbank.

Lastly, the IGGP has a booth in the Exhibit Hall for RootsTech in Salt Lake City this week.  The purpose is to promote the Partnership — now at 32 organizational members & growing — and to make attendees aware of the upcoming conference.  Societies that will staff this booth for the three days (Thursday through Saturday) are the DAGV, the Germanic Genealogy Society (of Minnesota), the Sacramento German Genealogy Society, the Ostfriesen Genealogical Society of America, and your Immigrant Genealogical Society.