Oct 30 2005 Mtg


	Assisted Research Day at the LDS Family History Center

Sunday, October 30, 2005, 11:30 AM to 5:00 PM, LDS Family History Center
(for directions)

This meeting is open to JGSLA members only, but you may join at the door. (Membership is $25.00; $30.00 for two in a family, and will extend through 2006)

11:30AM - 1:00PM: Special Presentation - LDS Visitor's Center, Theatre 1.
Please enter through the Visitor's Center, to the left of the Family History Center.

"The Nine Most Important Words to Learn Before Making a Visit to Your Ancestral Shtetl"

Sol Sylvan, JGSWS member, has just returned from his fourth visit to Ukraine in three years and will show his short film: "An Ancestral Visit to The Western Ukraine," along with discussing how travelers can personalize this type of journey by researching the social pressures and political events surrounding their ancestors' lives, making history come alive and the geography real.

1:00PM - 5:00PM - Assisted Research in the Family History Center
Enter through the Family History Center main doors.

Knowledgeable JGLSA members will assist you in the FHC microfilm and computer rooms. In addition to providing four hours of exclusive research access to the FHC for JGSLA members, we are also offering an extended schedule, with an early lecture on shtetl travel, special class offerings, and translation assistance.

Schedule of Afternoon Classes

1:15PM - 2:15PM - "Introduction to the Resources of the Family History Center"
JGSLA Librarian, Barbara Algaze, will provide techniques for making your research cay more productive by explaining the Center's vast resources, including JGSLA's reference library, the LDS microfilm collection, and computer database subscriptions, which you can use to search for naturalization, census, immigration and vital records. (FHC Classroom)

1:30PM - 4:30PM - Translations
JGSLA member Ann Harris will translate your Hebrew or Yiddish cemetery/headstone inscriptions from photographs or rubbings. Skirball docent, Alex Lauterbach, will provide Polish translations for vital records or letters. (Main library - Starting at 1PM a sign-up sheet will be available at the front desk. Fifteen minutes allotted per translation request)

1:15PM - 2:15PM and 3:30 - 4:30PM - "Ancestry.com Tutorials"
JGSLA volunteers and Family History Center staff will provide computer station tutorials on how to use Ancestry.com. Only 12 computer terminals are available (two people can share one terminal) so advance sign up is required. Email: pweisberger@hotmail.com or phone the JGSLA answering machine at: (818) 771-5554 with your time preferences. Please leave your name, phone number and email and you will receive a confirmation.

2:30PM - 4:00PM - "How I Found My Roots"

Arnie Schwartz will teach you how to begin your genealogical research. Topics include: internet resources such as Steve Morse's one-step search tools, the Ellis Island and Castle Garden web sites, Ancestry.com, and Yad Vashem-along with strategies for obtaining vital records, naturalization papers, census and ship's passenger records, cemetery research, how to use old coins and post cards as a research tool, and how to choose a software program to create your own family tree. (FHC Classroom)

Speakers for this special event:

Sol Sylvan earned a B.A. in History from Wayne University, Detroit, and did his graduate work in Anthropology at University of Michigan. He is actively involved in family research. Beginning in 2002, he has made four visits to Poland (Warsaw/Krakow) and Western Ukraine, including Lviv, Lanovtsy, where his father lived for the first 23 years of his life, and Volyn in the Ternopil Oblast.

Arnie Schwartz, JGSLA member, is a retired educator, having taught for 30 years for the Los Angeles Unified School District, and a retired Naval Reserve Officer of 21 years. Since Mr. Schwartz's retirement, he has worked for Elkins Marine Training International as a presenter and is an amateur genealogist.

Barbara Algaze, JGSLA Librarian, has been researching her own German-Jewish and her husband's Sephardic roots since 1983. She is a member of JewishGen's German and Sephardic on-line special interest groups, and a volunteer at the Los Angeles Branch of the Family History Library where she teaches regularly. Her research articles can be found on various web sites, including an article entitled "A Genealogist's Research Trip to Istanbul." She has also appeared on Cable T.V. on the Greg Mantell Show, being interviewed about her work in genealogy.

Lunch at the FHC: food and drinks CAN be brought to the Family History Center and you will be able to take a lunch break at assigned tables in the main section of the reading room. There is also a microwave at your disposal and one vending machine with snack items and drinks.