International Jewish Genealogy Month

The International Jewish Genealogy (IJG) month is celebrated on the Hebrew month of Cheshvan - Oct 29 to Nov 26, 2011.

The press release says that the “International Jewish Genealogy Month honors our Jewish ancestors through the pursuit of Jewish family history research".

To read more about the IJG go to http://www.iajgs.org/jgmonth.html

To mark the International Jewish Genealogy Month, the Jewish Genealogical Society of Canada at http://www.jgstoronto.ca/content/view/448/30 is also celebrating the 25th Anniversary of the organization.

They have published a book called Tracing Our Roots - Telling Our Story. As the website says “It is an anthology of over over 45 compelling and entertaining contributions, written by members of our society”.

Also, on Sunday, September 18, 2011 from 10:00 am to 12:00 pm Stanley Diamond from Montreal will be in the Toronto area to give a workshop on what is new at the Jewish Records Indexing – Poland.

The website is http://www.jgsh.org/Events.php

Four other societies in Canada are -

Jewish Genealogical Society – Hamilton & Area http://www.jgsh.org/About.php

Genealogical Institute of the Jewish Heritage Centre of Western Canada Inc http://www.jhcwc.org

Jewish Genealogical Institute of British Columbia http://jgibc.shutterfly.com

Jewish Genealogical Society of Montreal http://www.jgs-montreal.org

Twenty Ways to Avoid Grief When Researching

You will never know what you will find when you take a couple minutes to look around the Internet. Such was the case yesterday when I went on the British Columbia Genealogy Society website, and came across a “tips” article entitled “Twenty Ways to Avoid Grief When Researching” by Margaret M. Sharon*.

Some of the tips are -

Always note the source of any material you photocopy.

How many times have you gone to the archives, and have photocopied pages and pages from a book and then forget to mark the pages, or the source of the material?

Try not to let your research get behind.

Yes, can I tell you of the boxes, and boxes that I have of research material that has yet to be put in my genealogical family history?

Place names and boundaries have changed constantly over the years.

Even in a country like Canada with such a short history changes in place name and boundaries are everywhere. In the small village where I grew up it was known as Jordan River for many years before it was changed to Jordan Falls around 1900. Changes in place names do make a difference.

Take a minute, and read the paper in full because even though it is now somewhat “dated” having been written in 1988, there are still some genealogical truths in the paper that are still valid today.

The website is at http://www.bcgs.ca/Twenty%20Ways%20to%20Avoid%20Grief%20When%20Researching.htm

*It was originally published in The British Columbia Genealogist, March 1988, Volume 17, No. 1, pp. 4-6. © B.C.G.S.