Presented by Elaine Hayes & Julie Stetson

Laramie County Library System

Cheyenne, Wyoming1

Record what you already know about your family.

Start with yourself and work backwards

Talk to relatives to find out what they know.

Collect vital records

Start with the 1930 US Federal Census and work backwards in census records.

Keep a record of everywhere you search and what you find. Use genealogy forms and/or a genealogy computer program.

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Begin with yourself and work

back one generation at a time.

You are number 1.

Your father is number 2.

Father’s name on the upper line.

Your mother is number 3.

Use the woman’s maiden name.

Men always have even numbers, wives have odd numbers which are one more than their husband’s number.

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Write surnames in capital letters:William James THOMAS

Write dates military style: 10 Aug 2006

Write names of places from smallest to largest:Cheyenne, Laramie, Wyoming, USA

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A family group includes parents, children, and the spouse of each of those children.

Prepare a family group sheet for each couple, formally married or not.

Include all children alive or deceased.

Include adopted children, but indicate adopted.

Show where you found the information.6

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Use pedigree (or ancestry) charts, family group sheets, research logs, etc.

Genealogical forms are available for you to copy in the LCLS Genealogy Room or at: www.cyndislist.com/supplies.htm www.familysearch.org/eng/home/welcome/start.asp www.lclsonline.org/specialcollections/gettingstarted

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FREE: Legacy Family Tree – Standard edition www.legacyfamilytree.com

Family Tree Legends www.familytreelegends.com

Personal Ancestral File www.familysearch.org

For a small cost: Family Tree Maker – Generations

Legacy Family Tree – Deluxe edition

The Master Genealogist (TMG)

RootsMagic

For the Mac: Reunion

MacFamilyTree

Also GEDitCom, Genealogy Pro, Heredis, iFamily9

Start searching the US Federal Census with the 1930 census and then work backwards.

A census has been taken in the US every 10 years from 1790 to 1930.

Census images are available on Ancestry Library, Ancestry.com, Heritage Quest and on other databases such as familysearch.org.

Use Ancestry Library in the library building, Heritage Quest can be searched at home through lclsonline.org.

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1790-1930 Census Information are available in the library on Ancestry Library and Heritage Quest databases. Some can also be found at familysearch.org.

Heritage Quest can be searched at home with your library card # and PIN #. The default PIN is wyld.

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1900 Morris b. Mar 1864 Russia; i. 1885 m.1887

1900 Rachael b. Dec 1864 Russia; i. 1887

1910 Morris b. 1865 Russia; i. 1882

1910 Rachael b.1867 Russia; i.1882

1920 Morris b.1864 Russia; i.1884, mt. Polish; bp. Vilna

1920 Rachael b.1865 Russia; i.1886

1930 Morris b.1864 Lithuania; i. 1886

1930 Rachael b.1865; Lithuania i.1886 19

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Can be searched at home through the Laramie County Library website at lclsonline.org.

You will be asked to provide your library card number 290920... and your PIN. The default PIN is wyld.

Warning: not all census years are fully indexed in Heritage Quest.

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FamilySearch is the LDS (Mormon) Church’s genealogy website.

Search Ancestral File and the IGI, but don’t give up if you don’t find anything in these two databases.

Also search their collection of scanned original documents and their Family History Library catalog.

Visit the Family History Library in Salt Lake City ororder microfilm from the FHL through LCLS.

$5.50 per microfilm ordered (15 cents per page for microfilm) for a 60 day loan period.

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It’s an immigrant genealogy.

Eastern European Jews did not have surnames before 1800.

Jewish culture and religion can influence genealogy, especially in naming patterns.

The Holocaust. Nearly all Jewish American families have relatives killed in the Holocaust.

Some resources for Jewish genealogy exist outside of American genealogy.

Source: Gary Mokotoff of Avotaynu.com30

Almost all of the ancestors of Jewish-Americans arrived in the US within the past 120 years.

Thus it usually requires international research.

You may find yourself communicating with people (and relatives) all over the world.

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1654-1838 Colonial/Federal

1838-1880 German Emigration

1881-1924 Eastern European

1924-1944 Pre-Holocaust

1945-1960 Holocaust Survivors

Present Russian Jews and others

< 15,000

250,000

2,000,000

100,000

250,000

50,000 per year

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Many Jewish-Americans don’t know anything about where their family came from except “Russia” or “Germany” or “Austria”. Until the end of WWI these were the 3 countries that made up most of Central and Eastern Europe so this information is not very helpful.

You may be able to find the town of origin in immigration, naturalization and passenger arrival records. The spelling should be correct in passenger arrival records.

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Ancestry Library (use at the library)

Ellis Island

Castle Garden

The Immigrant Ship Transcribers Guild

US Citizenship and Immigration Service See handout for URLs.

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www.ellisisland.org

Database searches 1892-1924

You must sign in to search (but searches are free)

Also try Stephen Morse’s One Step Search website at http://stevemorse.org/

Ellis Island database features scanned passenger lists and photos of immigrant vessels.

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“Some people are living today who were born in Lemberg, Austria; bar mitzvahed in Lwow, Poland; married in L’vov, Soviet Union and reside today L’viv, Urkraine, but who have never left their home town. The names Lemberg, Lwow, L’vov and L’viv have been used for the same city in western Ukraine during the past 85 years.”

Gary Mokotoff in Avotaynu Guide to Jewish Genealogy, copyright 2004

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Few Jews had hereditary surnames prior to 1800. Which is a little later than most cultures. It is difficult to trace patronymics (i.e. Isaac ben Abraham) prior to 1800.

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Occupations: Kramer or Kauffman (merchant), Metzger, Rzeznik or Schechter (butcher), Schuster (shoemaker), Schneider (tailor), Leder (leather).

Place names (often –ski or –er); Unger (from Hungary), Warshawski (from Warsaw).

Physical Characteristics: Schwartz (black), Braun (brown), Gross (big), Klein (little), Geller (yellow or in Yiddish – redhead).

Patronymics: Mendelsohn (son of Mendel)

Pretty names: Rosenberg, Goldstein, Hirsch (deer).

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Cohanim (descendents of Aaron- high priest caste)

Surnames such as Cohen, Kagan, Kogan, Kahn, Kahan, Katz, Kaplan and Rappaport are usually Cohanim.

Leviim (descendants of Levi-keeper of the temple)

Surnames such as Levi, Levin, Segal, Landau, Horowitz and Epstein are usually Leviim.

Israelites

The majority of Jews are in the Israelite caste. 48

Ashkenazic Jews (descended from the Jews of medieval Central and Eastern Europe): normally name their children after deceased relatives (often the recently deceased).

Sephardic Jews (descended from the Jews of medieval Spain) often use this pattern: First son – father’s father

First daughter – mother’s mother

Second son – mother’s father

Second daughter – father’s mother49

50% of European Jews and 91% of Polish Jews were murdered in the Holocaust.

Most of these victims have no known gravesite and the destruction of pre-WWII European Jewish artifacts was nearly total. Many Jews believe that documenting and researching each person’s fate can function as a memorial to lost relatives.

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Shoah Victims Names Database (Yad Vashem) www.yadvashem.org/wps/portal/IY_HON_Welcome

International Tracing Service www.its-arolsen.org/en/homepage/index.html

Yizkor Books www.jewishgen.org/yizkor

Holocaust Survivors and Victims Resource Center www.ushmm.org/research/collections/resourcecenter

Footnote.com Holocaust Collection ($) http://go.footnote.com/holocaust/

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JewishGen www.jewishgen.org

Avotaynu www.avotaynu.com

Jewish Genealogical Society www.jgsny.org

SephardicGen www.sephardicgen.com

Sephardim.com www.sephardim.com

Jewish Web Index jewishwebindex.com

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Most old Jewish cemeteries in Europe still exist.

Headstones are often in Hebrew or Yiddish.

Parents names are often on headstones and thus can take you back another generation.

Symbols on tombstones can also give you some information. (i.e. two hands with thumbs touching in a priestly blessing for Cohanim families).

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Social Security Death Index

Probate (Wills)

Land records

Synagogue records

Newspapers (obituaries and news articles)

Federal & local tax

Military

City Directories

Local histories58

Cyndislist.com www.cyndislist.com

Library of Congress www.loc.gov

WorldCat www.worldcat.org

National Archives www.archives.gov

Rootsweb www.rootsweb.ancestry.com

USGenWeb www.usgenweb.org

WorldGenWeb www.worldgenweb.org

Where to write for vital records (CDC) www.cdc.gov/nchs/w2w.htm

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Consider hiring a professional genealogist: Try the Association of Professional Genealogists at

www.apgen.org.

Visit the Laramie County Library’s Special Collections department on the 3rd floor and have a volunteer help you get started: Mon-Thurs 10 am to 9 pm Fri & Sat 10am to 6 pm Sun 1 pm to 5 pm

307-634-3561

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