24:3-4 Spring-Summer 2003 - Jewish Genealogical Society

Genealogy 101: The 12-Step Approach continued
filing systems. Every time I use the microfiche machine,
I am reminded of college days and researching my thesis
on the cranky old wind-up machines. But I never experienced
the emotions then that I did when I first saw
the passenger records of my father’s trip to New York
from Bessarabia, or the death certificate of a greatgrandfather
who died on the steps of the doctor’s office
on the Lower East Side.
6. Keep everything, even dubious information. When
you find information that you think may not be useful,
follow it up anyway; make copies of the documents; note
the source and date; file them away. I noted several names
on the grooms’ register in the Municipal Archives while
looking for my grandfather’s marriage records. Although
I didn’t see his name as I knew it, months later, I discovered
he had used his Yiddish name for this application,
and I had obtained the information the first time; it had
been sitting in my files for months.
7. Be active. Join a genealogy group and attend the
meetings; make more friends. You can glean so much
information and broaden your knowledge base through
others’ experiences; if nothing else, you will realize that
no one has done this without frustration and determination.
You will be in awe of what obstacles some folks
have surmounted. And you will continue to develop a
social and working circle of people with similar interests.
The IAJGS conference in Toronto was a highlight
of my summer of 2002. The meeting in Washington, D.C.
this year would be even better!
8. Help out your genealogy buddies. It will help you.
If you live near a resource, offer to be a “research buddy”
for someone who may not have access. One of my first
contacts was an experienced genealogist searching for
his grandfather’s documents. My brother-in-law’s colleague
at Wellesley College, he was looking for a New
York-based researcher to look up something for him! So
I did that task, with great trepidation, not really thinking
of myself as a researcher. But I didn’t know how to say
no, so I quickly learned about finding naturalization
papers. The subsequent quest for my own family’s
naturalization documents was then a simple repeat of
the steps involved.
9. Surf the Web. The JewishGen website holds a
plethora of information, links and opportunities. Play
around, stumble, get up and try again. Through this trial
and error, you will learn to navigate. This website will
lead you to seemingly endless worlds of information and
articles, maps, and other touchstones. I found links to
museum exhibits in Minsk, background histories to my
grandmother’s very small town in Moldova, driving instructions
and so much more!
10. Develop a passion. Attend relevant movies, lectures,
concerts, and museums. Visit Ellis Island (perhaps
again–but with a new frame of reference) and such sites
as the Mormon Family History Centers. Read, read, read.
Start with Arthur Kurzweil’s From Generation to Generation
as an inspirational foundation, then broaden your
library. By focusing your reading about your ancestral
countries, your own family story will fall into place.
Kurzweil was just the beginning. I’ve read scores of books
about immigration, pogroms, life on the Lower East Side,
biographies, autobiographies, fictionalized accounts,
magazine articles. Each one has broadened the scope of
my understanding of the panoply of events leading to my
grandparents’ emigration to New York and what their
life was like when they arrived.
11. Don’t trust family stories alone; find the documentation
to prove the lore. Begin with what you know
and work backwards. Use any clues and any information
you remember or come across. Then go out to prove
or disprove what you think you know. At least, get documentation.
For years, my family believed that my greatgrandfather
was shot and killed, then buried as a John
Doe in a pauper’s grave. When I found his death certificate,
I discovered he died of tuberculosis and is buried
in Silver Lake Cemetery in Staten Island. From there,
with the help of the gatekeeper, I discovered where he
has reposed, unvisited and unknown, since 1908: section
5, row 8, grave 2.
12. Don’t constantly be thinking about the next steps:
Plan on Genealogy 102. Take stock after a year by rereading
your journals and notes. Where did you start?
How much have you accomplished? What do you want
to know next? Look over your files, your photos, your
family tree. How enriched your life has become from
the past year in so many ways! Now forge ahead: How
can you reach back and find those mysterious souls who
were the parents of your grandparents’ grandparents?
Who were they? What did they do? What did they face
in their lives? And what about the “old country”? What
is it like now? What resources are there for you? Do the
ghosts of your past still lurk there? Ah, but that is the
next step and the mysteries continue to unravel…
Tina Carver, a member of the Jewish Genealogical Society,
is an editorial director at a major publishing house.
✡
Dorot • Spring-Summer 2003 -21-