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Sunday, November 17
Defying Expectations: The Story of a Jewish Woman Who Took on the Russian Empire (Society Meetings)
1:30 pm Beth El Hebrew Congregation 3830 Seminary Road, Alexandria, VA or on Zoom @1:30PM EST
Chava Lefand (1797-1884) lived in a time when we'd expect a woman to not be well-represented in documentation. And in fact, looking at traditional genealogical documents gives little information about Chava and the life she lived. But Chava's story shows how much can be learned by looking at non-traditional documentation to learn about an individual and the context in which they lived. Chava had already lost two children to mandatory conscription into the Russian Empire, and she refused to lose another. The widowed mother filed a series of petitions throughout the 1850s which went as high as two Czars and the Governing Senate (the Russian Empire's Supreme Court equivalent). In doing this, she generated a genealogical gold mine (telling of secret marriages and where various relatives were living or hiding from the draft) and gave her perspective on family and community gossip and conflict.
While this is the talk about one woman (the speaker's 5th great grandmother), her hundreds of pages of petitions and appeals tell her perspective of how Jewish families dealt with mandatory conscription of their young children, how conscription caused strife within the Jewish community and formed a hierarchy (she felt she wasn't part of the cool kids' clique), and how relatively simple Jewish families were able to generate a significant amount of documentation in the mid-1800s.
This is a Hybrid Meeting! Join us In Person or via Zoom at 1:30 PM EST. Be there in person for snacks and schmoozing or join on Zoom from wherever you are. This program is free to JGSGW members. Non-members may attend for $5 either in person or via Zoom. Guests may register through the link marked GUEST Event Registration. The Zoom link will be posted in the Members Only Files under Meeting Info & Links. (These files become visible on this website after members sign in.)
Speaker: Lara Diamond has been researching her family for more than 25 years, since she was too young to have a driver's license and had to rely on her mother as a chauffeur. She has traced all branches of her family back to Europe and most multiple generations back in Europe using Russian Empire-era and Austria-Hungarian Empire records. Most of her research is in modern-day Ukraine, with a smattering of Belarus and Poland. She is president of the Jewish Genealogy Society of Maryland, leads JewishGen's Subcarpathian SIG, is on Ukraine SIG's board of directors, and runs several town-focused projects to collect documentation to assist all those researching ancestors from common towns. She blogs about her mostly Eastern European research at http://larasgenealogy.blogspot.com. |
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Sunday, December 8
The Future of USCIS Records: The Record Destruction Clock is Ticking (Society Meetings)
1:30 pm Zoom meeting, free for members of JGSGW. Nonmembers may register to attend for a fee of $5.
US Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS) maintains millions of priceless historical documents, some of which can be accessed via the troubled Genealogy Program, while others require FOIA requests, or remain out of reach entirely. Panelists will provide a brief background on some of the record sets; why the documents are vital to knowing 19th and 20th Century US Immigration history; and what lies ahead.
Panelists will:
- Update participants on advocacy efforts to push USCIS to transfer historical records in its custody to the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA);
- Discuss C-Files and the urgency of needing USCIS to change their status from temporary to permanent (destruction date: 2056);
- Discuss P-Files and explain that while their status has changed from temporary to permanent, P-Files are still all but inaccessible; and
- Explain how legislative advocacy is necessary to implement these changes, and how JGSGW members can play an important role in this, given the influence their federal elected officials play in oversight for USCIS (MD-Raskin; MD-Mfume; VA-Connolly) and funding for NARA (MD-Van Hollen; MD-Harris; MD-Hoyer; MD-Ruppersberger VA-Cline; VA-Wexton)
Participation of genealogists and genealogy societies in advocating for better Federal records management is essential to ensure access to records now and in the future. The future of USCIS-held records remains in jeopardy if the community does not work to protect them.
This one-hour program, conducted over Zoom at 1:30 PM Eastern Time, is free for members. This is one of the many activities that is a benefit of JGSGW membership. Instructions for joining the online meeting will be placed under Meeting Info & Links in the Members Only Files. (These files become visible on this website after members sign in.) Nonmembers may register to attend for a fee of $5.
Panelists
Rich Venezia is a New Jersey native who now calls Philadelphia home. He founded Rich Roots Genealogy in 2013. He was a member of the research team of Genealogy Roadshow (PBS) for two seasons, and also consulted on Follow Your Past (Travel Channel). He is an expert in the research of 20th-century immigrant ancestors, especially underutilized record sources and federal records. He also specializes in Italian and Irish research. Additionally, he assists clients with dual citizenship applications for Ireland and Italy, and is a proud Italian dual citizen. He holds a Certificate in Genealogical Research from Boston University. He lectures nationwide, and spoke about "How to Grow Empathy From Uncovering Your Roots" at TEDx Pittsburgh 2017. Rich is the founder of RecordsNotRevenue.com, which he co-leads with Renée K. Carl and Marian Smith.
Renée K. Carl left the public policy world for professional genealogy, finding that researching dead people is easier than working with Congress. Her background in government and cultural anthropology brings an unique perspective to locating and interpreting records. Renée is a member of the Association of Professional Genealogists, the Jewish Genealogy Society of Greater Washington, and the JewishGen Latvia Research Group. Renée passionately advocates for historic preservation and records access. To that end, she is a member of the Association of Professional Genealogists Advocacy Committee and serves as co-leader and policy advisor to the RecordsNotRevenue.com campaign. You can find Renée online at EasternEuropeanMutt.com.
Alec Ferretti is a New-York-City-based professional genealogist, who has worked for the Wells Fargo Family & Business History Center, researching family histories for high net worth clients. Alec specializes in the genealogy of 20th century immigrants to the United States. He is a regular lecturer at genealogical societies and conferences. He serves as the President of the New York Genealogy & Technology Group, serves actively on the Board of Directors of the Association of Professional Genealogists, and on the Board of Reclaim the Records, a nonprofit dedicated to wrangling public records from obstinate government agencies.
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