scatseeds 3rd q 09 - florida · delray beach, fl 33482-7796 our objectives • to establish a...

AN EXCITING NEW SEASON IS UNDERWAY!

SAVE THE DATES!!

MiniConference—Wednesday, December 9, 2009

9:00-4:00 p.m. Sandler Center, Boca Raton

Learn from Patricia Charpentier, Phyllis Kramer, Mona Morris, Don Jennings from the Family History Center, and others!

Annual Luncheon—Sunday, March 7, 2010

11:30 a.m. Crowne Plaza Hotel, West Palm Beach

A totally new menu to look forward to Guest speaker: John Martino, VP Special Projects

Italian Genealogical Group (Yes. This is for Jewish Genealogists)

SCATTERED SEEDS PUBLISHED FOUR TIMES PER YEAR BY THE JEWISH GENEALOGICAL SOCIETY OF PALM BEACH COUNTY, INC.

VOLUME 16 NO. 3 THIRD QUARTER 2009

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JEWISHGEN NEEDS YOUR FINANCIAL SUPPORT NOW!

Your JGSPBCI has established a Matching Fund Drive to assist Jewishgen.org which is in need of assistance to continue to provide you with genealogical assis-tance.

Please read pages 2 & 3 for complete information. Your donation, whatever the amount, from $10.00 to $200.00 will be most welcome. Thank you from your JGSPBCI Board.

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SCATTERED SEEDS THIRD QUARTER 2009

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WHAT WOULD YOUR GENEALOGY BE

WITHOUT JEWISHGEN?

With 300,000 users and 14 million records online to date, JewishGen, a non-profit organization affiliated with the Museum of Jewish Heritage – A Living Memorial to the Holocaust, is in need of your financial support to continue and expand its commitment to Jewish Genealogy. TO ASSIST JEWISHGEN,YOUR JGSPBCI BOARD HAS ESTABLISHED A MATCHING FUND DRIVE AND WILL CONTRIBUTE UP TO $1,000 TO JEWISHGEN ALONG WITH YOUR GIFT, WHETHER IT IS $10 OR $200.

Please make your check out to JGSPBCI and mail it to:

Don Hirschhorn 11053 Blue Coral Dr.

Boca Raton, FL 33498

ALL CONTRIBUTIONS ARE TAX DEDUCTIBLE

Thank you for your support

Questions?? Please contact Don Hirschhorn at [email protected] or 561 883 8566

FROM: ___________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________

________________________________Email________________________

THE FUTURE OF JEWISH GENEALOGY IS JEWISHGEN

THE FUTURE IS NOW. See next page

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Mrs. Sandra Hirschhorn, President, JGS Palm Beach County, Inc. Dear Sandy, We are grateful for your past support of our organization and thank you for your careful consideration of this new matching gifts proposal. JewishGen, a non-profit organization affiliated with the Museum of Jewish Heritage – A Living Memorial to the Holocaust, is the premier online resource for Jewish genealogy. Our mission is to obtain records and information that will be valuable to those with Jewish ancestry and place them on our free website in an easy to understand and searchable format. Currently, our website hosts more than 14 million records, and has become indispensible to family researchers throughout the world who are unable to spend countless hours in libraries and archives searching for family infor-mation.The past few years have brought tremendous growth accompanied by significant improvements in our web-site design, reliability, speed and capacity. At present, JewishGen has over 300,000 registered users utilizing the myriad resource and tools we provide and we expect continued and dramatic enlargement of our user base in the coming years. In anticipation of these increased demands on our services, we have taken steps to strengthen our operations by identifying the following critical areas that require funding:

• General Operating Support – Our dedicated staff manages the daily business operations, including general administration, development, communications and finance. In addition, our staff coordinates hun-dreds of volunteers throughout the world, allowing JewishGen to make significant inroads with archives and historical institutions in order to obtain records and information.

• Technology – In order to maintain the website, constant software updates and upgrades are necessary to keep current with emerging technologies and internet parameters. In addition, innovative technology of-fers new ways to index data (for easier web searchers) and increase the automation of various website performance analyses, which will allow our staff to focus their efforts on strategic planning, development and data acquisition.

The plan put forth by the JGS of Palm Beach County to offer initial support and match donations solicited from its members will not only help us in achieving our financial sustainability, but it will help publicize JewishGen’s ur-gent funding need in order to continue offering our essential services. Most importantly, we are delighted that your program will serve as model to other Jewish Genealogical Societies in their efforts to assist JewishGen with our important mission. We are excited about the prospect of partnering with you in this important venture and look forward to hearing from you soon. Thank you, Warren Blatt

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STATEMENT OF OWNERSHIP

Scattered Seeds is the publication of the JGSPBC, Inc., a not-for-profit educational organization. The newsletter is issued four times per year. It is a free publication distrIbuted to all paid-up members and Jewish Genea-logical Societies throughout the world in a courtesy exchange program. Back issues may be available at $3.50 (US) per issue.

REQUEST FOR ARTICLES

Contributions of articles of interest are encouraged.for possible inclusion in Scattered Seeds. Material should be e-mailed to the editor who reserves the right to accept, reject or publish in revised form. Please us MS Word. The Editor can be contacted by phone at 561.883.8566 or via e-mail at: [email protected] . If e-mail is not available, articles should be sent to: Sandra Hirschhorn, Editor, P.O. Box 7796, Delray Beach, FL 33482-7796

Our Objectives

• To establish a scholarly organization with the goal of preservation of Jewish family histories • To assist and promote the research of Jewish family history. • To encourage interested persons to pursue and preserve genealogical data. • To provide opportunities for the sharing of Jew-

ish genealogical information. • To elevate the status and role of Jewish Gene-

alogy in the Jewish community and in the aca-demic community.

• To publish material in the field of genealogy. • To engage in only those activities permitted by

organizations exempt from Federal Income as described in section 501(C)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code Permission is granted to quote, in whole or part, any original article included in this issue of Scat-

tered Seeds by the newsletter/journal of any other IAJGS member society, providing acknowledg-ment of the source is given, unless the article indi-cates it is not to be reproduced. Acknowledgment should include the title of the newsletter, the issu-ing society, its volume number or publication date. An e-mail advising us that the article is being re-produced will be appreciated.

JEWISH GENEALOGICAL SOCIETY OF PALM BEACH

COUNTY, INC. P.O. BOX 7796, DELRAY BEACH, FL 33482 -7796

561.883.8566 * [email protected]

ELECTED OFFICERS SANDRA HIRSCHHORN (President)

JOEL SISITSKY (Vice President)

CINDY POTTER TAYLOR (Vice President)

IRV SKORKA (Treasurer)

MARK JACOBSON (Secretary)

BOARD OF DIRECTORS AND COMMITTEE ASSIGNMENTS

Archivist/Sunshine. . . . . . . . . . . .` Phyllis Frank

Brick Wall/Instruction . . . . . . . . . . . . Phyllis Kramer

Directory /Membership/Records . . . Arnold Davidson

FHC/PBC Liaison/Speakers Bureau . . . Sylvia Nusinov

Library Coordinator. . . . . . . . . . . . . Irv Skorka

Librarian Emeritus. . . . . . . . . Ben Karliner

Mailing . . . . . . Joan Sarasky

Members-at-Large…. Natalie Hamburg, Arnold Sarasky

Membership Chair/ Retention…... Marilyn Newman

Newsletter Editor. . . . . . . . . . . . . . Sandra Hirschhorn

Parliamentarian. .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . Alfred M. Silberfeld

Program Chair . . . . . . . . . . . . . Helene Seaman

Publicity Chair/E-mail Coordinator. . . . . Jacqueline Fineblit,

Publicity Assistants. . . . . . . Sylvia Nusinov. Marilyn Newman

Reception. . . . . . . . . . Ben Seaman, Helene Seaman,

Bernard Berger, Joel Sisitsky, Cindy Potter Taylor

SIGS (Special Interest Groups) Marvin Lopatin

Telephone Squad. . . . . . . . . . . . . Dorothy Bernstein

Webmaster . . . . . . Gerald Naditch

Yad Vashem Coordinator. .. . . . . . . . Don Hirschhorn

PAST PRESIDENTS Mona Freedman Morris

Alfred M. Silberfeld

Sylvia Nusinov

Alfred B. Leeds (Of Blessed Memory)

Dr. Marvin Hamburg

Dennis Rice

HONORARY MEMBERS Mary Bordman

Lois Frankel

Miriam Weiner WEBSITE http://www.jgspalmbeachcounty.org

JGSPBCI MEMBERSHIP CATEGORIES

Individual Membership $25.00 Family Membership $36.00 Donor Membership $50.00

Patron Membership $100.00 Life Membership Individual $200.00 Life Membership Family $300.00

2009-2010 DUES ARE PAYABLE NOW!

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Hello Everyone, Welcome back to a great new season. I hope your Summer was wonderful and you are now energized and ready to enjoy a full year with us. We have an impres-sive set of speakers ready for you to learn from thanks to our new Program Chair, Helene Seaman.

Keep your eye out for Jackie Fineblit’s Meeting Notices to keep up to date on our monthly events. Remember, our meetings are almost always on the second Wednesday of every month, barring conflicts with holidays. Speakers for September, October and November are Jerry

Naditch, Mona Freedman Morris and Phyllis Kramer.

Unfortunately, I was unable to attend this year’s IAJGS Conference held in Philadelphia, but several of our members were there and a few of them will be telling you all about what they learned at our September 9th meeting. Molly Staub Katzman has written an article for us about the Conference which you will find further down in this issue. Molly tells me that she has an article in the September issue of ANCESTRY magazine. Congratulations, Molly.

Hal Bookbinder, a former president and member of the IAJGS Board for 16 years has retired from the Board. He will be missed but is certainly deserving of a rest. Congratulations to Mi-

chael Goldstein of Israel, the new president. Michael is the first president from outside the U.S., emphasizing the international status of the IAJGS. Congratulations as well as to the rest of the Officers and Board and many thanks to those who are retiring. In case you are wonder-ing, IAJGS is the parent organization for all Jewish Genealogical Societies worldwide.

Sandy

Sandy’s Soapbox

Welcome to our New Members

Sidney Glauser Jay Harris Susan & Manual Kiner Patti Kirk Marilyn Robinson

Many Thanks to our Contributors

Louise Snyder—Life Member Julian Falk—Donor Israel Lenzer—Donor Shirley Wiletz—Donor

IAJGS Conference in Philly a Winner By Molly Staub Katzman, Member Hebrew, Polish, Czech and Scottish-accented English words pierced the air. Young women with long dark hair, elderly men in waist-length white beards and retirees in pants suits and sneakers rushed to lectures. Almost 1,000 dele-gates from worldwide countries descended on Philadelphia to attend the 29th International Conference on Jewish Genealogy in early Au-gust. They came from far-flung states, including Ha-waii. And Europe and Israel. Our own Palm Beach County chapter was represented by 12 attendees: Cindy Gerstl, Ed Goldenberg, Marianne Gruskin, Phyllis Kramer, Marilyn Newman, Ann Rabinowitz, Carol Raspler, Arnold and Joan Sarasky, Jackie and Gary Wasserstein, and this reporter. The conference opened with a moving speech by Father Patrick Desbois, the Catholic priest who has been uncov-ering the Holocaust's mass graves in the Ukraine, as described on the National Geographic Channel. It proceeded through 275 sessions. Some were lectures, others were hands-on computer workshops. Among the 160 lecturers was our own member, expert Phyllis Kramer, who shared her knowledge on vital records. Gurus of Jewish genealogy included Stephen Morse, Warren Blatt and Miriam Weiner. Plus Jonathan Sarna, widely acknowledged as the chief expert on American Jewish history. The positive note was that much more information has become available online, as evidenced by the numerous databases represented. Even the expert from Romania urged patience, saying that its records are now open to re-searchers and will eventually be digitalized. In the Resource Room, many databases normally available only for a fee were accessible free, such as The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and Ancestry.com. For some attendees, access to a collection of books not normally available to them proved rewarding. Interpreters were busy translating words from tombstones or the backs of old photographs. Many award-winning films were also shown. Tours were conducted to area Jewish cemeteries and synagogues, as well as sites of Jewish interest. Who knew, for instance, that the Liberty Bell was conveyed to Philadelphia from London in 1752 aboard the ship "Myrtilla," owned by two Jewish business partners, Nathan Levy and his nephew David Franks? And that Haym Salomon, rather than Robert Morris, is often credited by scholars as having fi-nanced the Revolutionary War? Among the vendors, representatives from the Church of the Latter Day Saints offered advice on their massive web holdings. Occasionally, a special reward occurred, as when this reporter met with a previously unknown cousin discovered through Jewish Gen or with a genner who helped uncover information about a mysterious relative. And, an exciting preview was shown of the upcoming debut of the National Museum of American Jewish History in Philadelphia in November, 2010. Finally, to cap things off, at the closing night banquet our own Carol Raspler won a door prize.


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A MODEL FAMILY

By Ann Rabinowitz, Member

It is no secret that Jews were involved in the fashion industry or “schmatte trade” from the very beginning as sweatshop workers, manufacturers and de-signers, as well as trade unionists and model agency heads, but it was Jewish fashion models who carved out an enduring special tiny niche for themselves in the industry. There have always been beautiful Jewish women and, in our era, it has been no different. The Jewish fashion models served on the fashion runways, in com-mercials, as in-house models, and in many other capacities as well. Many, never reached the fame and fortune of the supermodels of today, but never-theless, they served a vital function which kept the wheels of the fashion in-dustry turning. Later, they moved onto other careers, such as acting, or took the step to become housewives and mothers. The best-known example is well-known model and later actress, Betty Joan Per-ske, who changed her name to Lauren Bacall. At the age of 19, after a model-ing assignment in “Harpers Bazaar” brought her to the attention of Hollywood producer Howard Hawks, she was chosen to star in “To Have and Have Not” with Humphrey Bogart, a role which changed her life entirely.

Lauren Bacall

Continued on Page 8

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A MODEL FAMILY Continued from Page 7

There was also Tina Louise, originally Tatiana Josivovna Chernova Blacker, from Brooklyn, a model, who eventually portrayed the character “Ginger” in the television series “Gilligan’s Island”.

Tina Louise

Another model was Joan Hamburger Anderson Kors Krystocek, a former Revlon model, whose son became the fashion industry icon Michael Kors. More mod-ern Jewish models include Caprice Bourret, born in Whittier, CA, and now a top British fashion model.

Caprice Bourret

Continued on Page 9

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Much appreciated American model, Josie Maran, from Menlo Park, CA, has been photographed for the “Sports Illustrated” swimsuit issue.

Josie Maran

Today, there is even an Ethiopian Jewish model in Israel, Esti Mamo, who is in the process of making the transition to television or movies.

Esti Mamo

Israel has also brought us the first “shomer shabbos” model in Chava Mond, the daughter of former British Jews:

Chava Mond

Continued on Page 10

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Lastly, another Israeli addition to the modeling roster is Bar Rafaeli, who is the first to grace the “Sports Illustrated” swimsuit issue and also model for Victo-ria’s Secret.

Bar Rafaeli

Returning to the past, an interesting example of a Jewish family which had four beautiful and talented daughters, all of whom became models in the 1930’s-1940’s, is the Linsky family. It was the mother, Sophie (or Sonia) Linsky, who came to America in 1907 from Russia and married in 1908. Her husband abandoned the family and she became a single parent raising four young daughters on her own in New York. In 1930, the family lived at 1673 Fox Street in the Bronx and the children were still in school. At that point, Sophie began pushing her children to think of go-ing into modeling as a means of meeting well-heeled prospective husbands who could lift them out of the grinding poverty they were faced with. The first thing the children did when reaching working age was to change their last name from Linsky to Lynn. Actually, the original family surname had been shortened to Linsky from something akin to Chuchulinski which was totally un-pronounceable for American tastes. Thereafter, the modeling world came to know the sisters as Evelyn Lynn, Lilly Lynn, Ethel Lynn, and Esther (or Lynn) Lynn. A picture of the girls together attired in their fur coats on a country estate shows how attractive they were. Continued on Page 11

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The careers of the four sisters are shrouded in the mists of time as no one in the family bothered to collect information on where they worked, what they did and how long their careers lasted. This is a common problem with people researching their family history. Only a minor clue was given that sister Lynn used to work with Lucille Ball when she too was a model. Lucille Ball’s model-ing career can be found on the following web site: http://www.youns.com/lucy/modeling.asp, but it does little to pinpoint ex-actly where Lynn worked with her. It does give some idea of the types of work models did in high class dress salons such as Hattie Carnegie, wholesale fac-tory showrooms, and as models for illustrators of advertisements. It also men-tions several of the firms that Lucille Ball worked for and how glamorous her life was during that time. Lynn also met Lauren Bacall through Lucille Ball and they remained friends for many years. Lynn married Hy Uchitel, originally from the Ukraine, the owner (along with his brother Maurice) of the celebrated El Morocco Club and Voisin Restaurants in New York as well as the Eden Roc Hotel and the Place for Steak Restaurant, both in Miami Beach, FL. Continued on Page 12

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All that is left are a few photographs of photo shoots and evenings spent in popular night spots such as the Copacabana and El Morocco, which were taken from those days. Other photos from Evelyn Lynn’s family album show her in a glamour shot taken in Miami Beach at one of the Art Deco hotels and another of her and her husband, Oscar Reisler, in World War II military attire:

Due to the fact that not much is known of the origins of Evelyn’s family as not even her father’s first name nor her mother’s maiden name have been passed down to their descendants, efforts to flesh out the family history has been fo-cused primarily on Evelyn’s husband Oscar Reisler. Oscar was the son of Nathan Reisler and Fanny Freudenheim and he grew up with his brothers Theodore and Emanuel in New York. In 1930, they lived at the Oliver Cromwell, 12 W. 72nd Street in Manhattan, across from the Dakota. It was 30 stories tall and considered one of the more distinctive and lavish buildings in the neighborhood. The picture below shows the Reisler family. They later moved to Miami Beach, FL, sometime before the 1940’s, as their sons are listed as being drafted in Dade County, Florida, after that. They set-tled there permanently and can be found in the 1945 Florida State Census Continued on Page 13

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Reisler Family (Seated Left to Right: Nathan, Oscar, Emanuel, Standing, Left to Right: Theodore and Fann

In U.S. Census records, Nathan Reisler is listed as being from Austria, but also Rumania and his family were told he came from the town of Olmetz outside Vienna. Fanny was listed as being from Austria, but her family town of origin was shown as Drohobycz, Ukraine in other records such as her brothers’ World War I Draft Registrations. This can be accounted for as the town was then un-

der the suzerainty of the Austro-Hungarian Em-pire. Further back, the family is also found in many references for Drohobycz and surround-ing towns.

In 1940, through her marriage to Oscar Reisler in Broward County, FL fashion model Evelyn Lynn became a stylish addition to this family. A photograph of her “a la Duchess of Windsor” which was taken at the historic Blackstone Ho-tel, 800 Washington Avenue is shown below The hotel had the distinction of being the tall-est building in Miami Beach at the time.

All of the Lynn sisters eventually followed the well-worn path to marriage and family, once

Evelyn Lynn Reisler their brief and exciting careers in modeling were over. Continued on Page 14

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One sister married a dentist, another became the wife of a famous restaurateur and later the spouse of a Hollywood producer; the third married a wealthy tex-tile industrialist, who came equipped with a chauffeur; and the last, married a handsome businessman. It was a fitting finale to this exceedingly “model” family. (Ann Rabinowitz, a native of Manchester, England, now living in South Florida has been active in gene-

alogy since childhood and is a regular contributor She serves on the Board of the SA-SIG as a USA Co-

ordinator and has produced many databases for the SIG. She is the Coordinator of the Kupiskis

SIG. She was formerly the newsletter editor and a board member of the JGS of Greater Miami and is

presently a member of the JGS of Palm Beach County, Inc. and the JGS (NY). Ms. Rabinowitz is a pro-

lific writer on topics related to British, Lithuanian, and South African research as well as Jewish cul-

tural topics.)

GENEALOGY - GENEALOGY - GENEALOGY Steve Lasky advises that the Museum of Family History now has a blog. He will frequently be posting news about the Museum’s goings-on, mostly new and upcoming exhibitions. The URL is http://museumoffamilyhistory.blogspot.com. Gary Mokotoff’s wonderful free newsletter Nu? What’s New? always provides us with great information. (To be added to this mailing list, go to the Internet site http://www.avotaynu.com/nuwhatsnew.htm.) Recently Gary advised that Viewmate has returned to JewishGen. It is the tool that permits uploading images such as photos, letters, tombstone images or documents in any language and get volunteers to translate or comment on the images. Information about the service in-cluding instructions on how to upload images can be found at http://www.jewishgen.org/ViewMate.

Ancestry,com has added records of the American Jewish Historical Society to its growing collection of Jewish records. It also has acquired the Routes to Roots Foundation archival da-tabase. The Routes to Roots’ Eastern European Archival Database is the most comprehen-sive list of Jewish record holdings of Belarus, Lithuania, Moldova, Poland and Ukraine. It can also be searched at http://rtrfoundation.org/search.php. To search through all the new Jewish record collections and Ancestry.com’s entire Jewish Family History experience, visit http://www.ancestry.com/JewishFamilyHistory.

All-Hungarian Database Now Has 800,000 Records It was reported on the Hungarian Spe-cial Interest Group (SIG) Discussion Group that the All-Hungarian Database (AHD) has been updated with approximately 105,000 new vital records. The AHD, which now contains around 800,000 records, includes 180,000 birth, 45,000 death, and 25,000 marriage records. It is lo-cated at http://www.jewishgen.org/Hungary.

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It Ain’t Easy Being Green By Cindy Potter Taylor, Vice President JGSPBCI

No, I’m NOT talking about Kermit the Frog’s theme song, or the act of being a good environmentalist, but rather being, a GRASSHOPPER, which is the proposed new name for those who work on the Jew-ish Genealogy Cemetery Project of Palm Beach County. I cannot take credit for this appellation, as it belongs to our “National JOWBR Cemetery maven” Nolan (Nolie) Altman. It all came about with my/our latest cyber-space correspondence as I was trying to explain the intricacies of photographing the Jewish graves at the VA cemetery on 441 in Lake Worth. While it’s easy to document the cemetery due to the military-type organizational rows, it does pose the problem of being able to get a shot of the head stone without falling over the stone to your immediate rear. Then you also have, as with any other cemetery, the gopher holes to beware of, the relentless sun always in the wrong direction for pho-tography and a myriad of south Florida anopheles grabhamii (the newest addition “founded in 2001” in the Keys). If you’re a Latin scholar, this is easy, it translates to MOSQUITO (S). On a cool winter morning (HAH) Enid Shemper and I began to photo selected sections of the VA, and to my utter astonishment, there were hundreds of graves to be documented (all this with the blessing of the VA!). As you may or may not know, the practice of double bunking is what the government uses. First to die gets the face side of the headstone. Ergo, we always had to check the rear of the stone. We didn’t run across any Hebrew inscriptions whatsoever, pretty much the basic d-o-b and d-o-d along with rank, branch of service and war/conflict, if any. That made data entry quite easy compared with older Jewish headstones of secular and non-sectarian cemeteries. In two hours plus we managed to finish three sections of the vast grassy promontory. (Don’t get me started about FLORIDA GRASS…it’s like no other in the world. It’s coarse, broad bladed and an abso-lute “killah” to tramp through). There are several more sections which require documentation, and hopefully when the weather cools off a bit, Enid and I will tackle the remaining plots. It’s best to wait until a section is completed before try-ing to document the graves. We only ceased our duties due to heat exhaustion and old age! As a fa-mous general once remarked, “I shall return.” Sun block $7.89, Insect repellant $4.67, ice cold bottled water and the warm fuzzy feeling of doing a mitzvah..…….Priceless!

MORE GENEALOGY - Pamela Weisberger advises there are four new searchable databases which have been added to Gesher Galicia's website http://www.jewishgen.org/galicia/databases/index.php under the title: Galician Landowner and School Records Indexes * Kolomyya (Kolomea), Ukraine 1858 Homeowners Database * Sniatyn, Ukraine 1858 Homeowners Database * Sniatyn, Ukraine 1934 Boys' School Students Database * Sniatyn, Ukraine 1934 Girls' School Students' Database

GENEALOGY - GENEALOGY - GENEALOGY

More from Nu? What’s New? With Thanks—JGSLI Yearbook Project As Scattered Seeds has mentioned before, the Jewish Genealogical Society of Long Island has initiated a project where it will act as an intermediary to match researchers with yearbook owners. High school, college or other miscellaneous school yearbooks or class lists can be an interesting source of genealogical information and photographs. In addition to a graduating photo, there may be photos of a relative participating in a sports activity, school orchestra, member of a club or other activity. To date more than 900 yearbooks have been made available by volunteers through this program. Additional information can be found at http://www.jgsli.org/yearbook_project.htm. It includes the procedure for how to add yearbooks in your possession to the program. Your editor urges that you add your yearbook to this collection. (Ed. Note: Mine is there and I was recently con-tacted to try to locate a graduate of my school. It was a great experience.)

Warren Blatt advises JewishGen has re-energized its Board of Governors, whose major responsibility is the long-term planning for the organization. Honorary Chair Harvey Krueger, and Co-chairs Karen S. Franklin and Gary Mokotoff will be joined by Board Members: Stanley Diamond, Saul Issroff, Phyllis Kramer, Anne Feder Lee, Hadassah Lipsius, Howard Margol, E. Randol Schoenberg, and Walter Weiner. Ex-Officio members include Museum of Jewish Heritage Director Dr. David G. Marwell, JewishGen Managing Director Warren Blatt, JewishGen Vice-President Michael Tobias, and JewishGen Administrator Avraham Groll. The Governors hail from London, Montreal, Hawaii, Atlanta, Florida, Los Angeles, New York, and beyond. They bring with them many years of extensive knowledge about geneal-ogy, philanthropy, and Jewish history. More information can be found here: http://www.jewishgen.org/JewishGen/pr/Press_Release.2009.06.01.BoG.htm


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FROM: TRACING THE TRIBE—SCHELLY DARDASHTI’S BLOG

The 1919 Directory of the Kingdom of Bulgaria was a commercial directory, like today's Yellow Pages, arranged alphabetically by geographic locations and then by professions and oc-cupations. Jewish names from the directory have been indexed, and are now available in a searchable da-tabase at SephardicGen.com. There are some 1,350 names in 22 localities. If your ancestors lived in Bulgaria, it is a good place to search.


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GENEALOGY - GENEALOGY - GENEALOGY The IAJGS has announced that the Boards of Directors of both the Federation of Genealogical Societies (FGS) and the National Genealogy Society (NGS) have voted to make the IAJGS a member of the Re-cords Preservation and Access Committee (RPAC). Since 2004 IAJGS has been serving on this com-mittee as a non-board member. Jan Meisels Allen, IAJGS Board Member and chairperson of the IAJGS Public Records Access Monitoring Committee (PRAMC) has been and continues to serve as the IAJGS representative. The IAJGS PRAMC continues to operate independently, but cooperatively with the RPAC. The mission of the RPAC is: "To advise the genealogical community on ensuring proper access to his-torical records of genealogical value in whatever media they are recorded, on means to affect legisla-tion, and on supporting strong records preservation policies and practices." This committee was founded by the FGS and NGS. While other genealogical organizations have been non-members of the committee, until the recent action by the two boards only FGS and NGS were considered members.”

Dick Plotz, Manager of Mailing Lists for JewishGen, Inc. announced recently that Steve Morse has added a new utility called "When did...?" to the"Calendar, Maps, etc." section of his web-site, <stevemorse.org>. It allows you to answer questions relating civil and Jewish dates and days of the week as well as several major holidays. For example, when did Labor Day fall on Rosh Hashanah? When did Christmas and the first day of Hanukkah coincide? When will the first Seder again fall on Saturday evening, as it did last Pesach? For other examples of the kinds of questions you can answer with this new utility, navigate to it from the main page of Steve's site or go directly to <http://stevemorse.org/jcal/whendid. html>.

LIBRARY NEWS: Status of Re-shelving our JGSPBCI Books. Irv Skorka, Treasurer and Librarian

As mentioned at a previous General Meeting, a new Library Numbering System is being prepared. The advantage of the new system is that books of like content and subject will be gathered together to help Library users scan the book titles to help them find desired subjects.

Your Board wants our members to use our wonderful library. There is a mountain of information there that may not be available on the Internet or in other libraries. We plan to allow our members to access the Library and take out books for a period of 2 weeks.

At present, we are well into having the library ready sometime this fall. Currently the books have been re-shelved numerically and alphabetically. New labels are being added to the book edge bindings. We will soon start to add book titles and their authors’ names to cards and pockets. The pockets have been mounted on the rear inside cover of the books and other material.

We look forward to the day when all our members will fill the Library to research their trees and bor-row books for home reading and home use.


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JEWISH GENEALOGICAL SOCIETY OF PALM BEACH, COUNTY, INC. P.O. BOX 7796 DELRAY BEACH, FL 33482-7796

FIRST CLASS

'GENEALOGY E-REPORT' from Your Palm Beach County Library

The Genealogy E-Report is a monthly guide to local history and genealogical resources found at the Palm Beach County Library System (PBCLS). For additional information about our services, contact the Library System's Government Research Service (GRS) Section. E-mail Address: [email protected] .

'Library Provides Access to Digital Sanborn Maps, 1867-1970'

The Palm Beach County Library System is now providing access to ProQuest's "Digital Sanborn

Maps, 1867-1970" database collection of more than 660,000 large-scale maps of more than 12,000 American towns and cities. Sanborn maps are useful historical tools for genealogists, local historians, architects or urban planners seeking the history and development of American communities. Digital maps are available online for the Palm Beach County communities of Belle Glade, Boynton Beach, Delray Beach, Lake Worth, Pahokee, Palm Beach, and the Greater West Palm Beach area. Access to "Digital Sanborn Maps, 1867-1970" are made available to authorized users through a subscription agreement between the Library System and ProQuest, LLC. Maps are accessible by city and year via computers located 14 PBCLS branch locations. County Library cardholders also may ac-cess the database via home or office computers, using their card numbers as an access code. "Digital Sanborn Maps" is a menu option on the Library System's "Genealogy Research" web page. Address:

http://www.pbclibrary.org/genealogy.htm

NEXT YEAR IN LOS ANGELES

The 30th IAJGS International Conference on Jewish Genealogy will be held in July 2010 in Los Angeles. Watch future issues of Scattered Seeds for details. The Conference website is www.JGSLA2010.com.

scatseeds 3rd q 09 - florida · delray beach, fl 33482-7796 our objectives • to establish a...

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