IAJGS 2019
Up to this point, I have had high aspirations of being a
Jewish genealogist and blogger but very little to show in the way of accomplishments.
But, this past week, while attending the International Association of Jewish
Genealogical Societies annual conference, I was able to meet up with some
notable Jewish genealogy bloggers, such as Emily Graber, Janice Sellers and
Lara Diamond and they all assure me that this conference makes for a perfect opportunity
to jump-start my blogging activity and contribute to Emily Garber’s (going)
The Extra Yad IAJGS 2019 Blogger Compendium.
I am not going to try to summarize all the sessions I
have attended, but I do want to outline those that have made an impact on me.
Let me start with conference activities that impact my efforts
to blog. Not only did I attend the meet-up of Jewish Genealogy bloggers, but I
attended Mary-Jane Roth’s presentation, My Family History Blog: A Multi-purpose
Tool. Roth uses Blogger as her blogging platform, the platform I choose in 2017
and fortunately, not much has changed. I was also able to take advantage of a
mentoring session with her. While she was not able to help me with OpenLive
Writer, the blogging software I try to use, she did look over my first attempt and
pronounce it to be adequate. (Hope she likes this one as well). My take-away from
Roth and the bloggers' group: Keep blogging (I will get better at it) and read other
bloggers’ posts.
Next, I would like to mention Nolan Altman, speaking on patronymic
naming patterns among Jews. Altman is an excellent speaker, referencing
JewishGen’s JOWBR (JewishGen’s Online Worldwide Burial Registry) where he is the
JOWBR data coordinator. Altman’s presentation had me one step away from
volunteering to submit burial records from southeastern Michigan until I
realized that JOWBR accepts only files that represent entire cemeteries, and
this would be a task (I must admit) that I probably would not be able to
complete. My take-away from this presentation: Consider what will be written on
my own tombstone!! My husband and I will meet with our rabbi to figure out in
advance our patronymics and how we want them to be expressed when it comes time
for those things to be written in stone!
Actually, among conference speakers, JewishGen was well represented,
with Avraham Groll, JewishGen’s executive director, giving an excellent overview
of JewishGen’s recent activities, including a long-anticipated update to their
website and Phyllis Kramer, Jewish Gen’s Vice President of Education,
presenting her preferred version of a research log. Warren Blatt, Managing
Director of JewishGen presented on Jewish given names. I think I kind of
stumped him when I asked about my great-grandfather’s “Shem Ha-Kodesh”
(religious name), Hovash, as written on his tombstone. Blatt had never heard of this given name. My
take-away: JewishGen is an organization that deserves my (financial) support
and I will be donating to them.
There were several other presentations that I found very
useful and interesting as well, but in the interest of attention span (mine) I
will not try to summarize them here. Needless to say, it was a very good week. If
you have found this post in a search for Jewish ancestors, I will leave you
with a hearty endorsement of the IAJGS annual conference.
Thank you for reading! Comments, criticism, and
correction of fact always welcome.
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