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Yizkor (memorial) books document the history of Jewish communities destroyed in the Holocaust. Written in Yiddish, Hebrew, or both, they are a crucial resource for research in East European Jewish history, Holocaust studies, and Jewish genealogy; often, they include necrologies (lists of those who died), making them especially valuable for genealogical research. Visually, many of these books are extremely rich, featuring detailed maps, photographs, and illustrations.

Have you been confused by your ancestors’ vital records? Many birth records show the person as illegitimate, missing a surname, having a hyphenated surname, not matching their parents or siblings, or having married via a “ritual Marriage.” Janette Silverman explains some of the punitive family laws in the old Austrian Empire that led to these curiosities, how Jewish communities worked to circumvent these laws, how this is reflected in vital records, and the insight we can gain about the lives of our Galician ancestors. You may be able to apply the lessons learned to help solve confusing surnames in records of other countries as well.

“Using FamilySearch for Jewish Research”
The Family History Library has an extensive collection of Jewish records. Understanding what is there and how best to access it is vital to having a successful search, Todd says. The Jewish records in the collection of FamilySearch can best be obtained through the Family History Library Catalog. There are multiple ways to search the Family History Library catalog to find the records, and in this presentation, we will learn how best to do that.

We will be screening the classic film, Everything Is Illuminated , a 2005 American biographical comedy-drama film, written and directed by Liev Schreiber and starring Elijah Wood and Eugene Hütz. It was adapted from the novel of the same name by Jonathan Safran Foer, and was the debut film of Liev Schreiber both as a director and as a screenwriter.
Jonathan Safran Foer, a young American Jew, goes on a quest to Ukraine to find Augustine, the woman who saved his grandfather, Safran Foer, during the Holocaust. He searches for a small town called Trachimbrod that was wiped off the map when the Nazis liquidated Eastern European shtetls.
The film will resonate with you on several levels—it is about heritage travel (and how not to do it); it is about Holocaust research; and it is about finding your family’s story—the good and the bad.

Hidden in plain sight lie millions of Jewish records—military lists, synagogue ledgers, school rolls—waiting to smash your brick walls. Join LDVDF CEO Marlis?Humphrey for a fast-paced?tour of JCat’s growth, AI handwriting breakthroughs, and new researcher tools. You’ll leave knowing exactly how to: search smarter, mine NewsNosh and JDays for leads, volunteer from your laptop, and fund the next wave of discovery. Come learn how you can help unlock the missing?85?%—before it vanishes.

How do you locate distant living cousins and reach out to them? How can you expand your pedigree chart forward in time? These and other questions relating to cousins will be addressed in this interesting program You may find family treasures, photos, DNA test takers and information that will break down a brick wall. This talk will explore online trees, lineage societies, online cemetery indexes, obituaries in newspapers, living people finder websites and social media. This will be a HYBRID meeting. In-person location: Chapel Hill Library, meeting room C.