FEEFHS 2025 Conference Program
Classes during the 2025 FEEFHS Online Conference
All classes are presented via Zoom.
Register here.
The 2025 conference covers the following tracks:
Polish Track [10 classes]
Russian Empire / USSR Track [10 classes]
Germans from Eastern Europe [6 classes]
German Track [13 classes]
Austro-Hungarian Empire Track [12 classes]
Jewish Track [6 classes]
DNA Track [3 classes]
General Track [8 classes]
End Keynote
Polish Track
Non-Metrical Sources of Genealogy – Village Inventories, Lists of Peasant Obligations, 18th Century Galicia
(Michał Ciemała)
During the talk, I will present information regarding the use of preserved “fasja” from 1773 as well as the "description of the villages" from 1789 for genealogical purposes. These records are available for areas affected by the First Partition of Poland in 1772. They contain lists of the names of farm owners and their obligations to the feudal lords. In the absence of preserved church records, these sources can help identify potential ancestors. They also provide insights into which locations a particular surname appeared in during 1773/1789. The presentation will focus on the tax rolls from 1773, detailing their content and how to locate data related to a specific village.
German Colonists and Enclaves in Former Galicia
(Zbigniew Stettner)
The presentations starts with a brief introduction of the history and geography of Galicia. Then will be discussed earlier waves of German immigration that appeared here before Galicia even appeared on the map. Shown will be sources for finding where German colonists came to Galicia from and where they settled. It will be demonstarted how to find a village your ancestors might have lived in Galicia and where the records could be found. Finally, different kinds of records will be discussed that may contain information about our ancestors living in Galicia.
Polish State Archives: Galician Records in Kraków and Przemyśl
(Alina Khuda)
Discover the Galician-era records housed in Polish State Archives, including vital records, land registers, and census documents. Tips on accessing digitized records through platforms like Szukaj w Archiwach will also be covered.
Displaced Persons during WWII, 1939-1969
(Kathy Kirkpatrick)
Most Displaced Persons were sheltered in camps run by the UN, a camp run by the War Refugee Board was in New York. Another facility run by Quakers was in Iowa, and other camps in Tehran were run by religious groups. Polish Resettlement Camps were in the UK, while Detention Camps on Cyprus held DPs whose goal was Palestine. Some were scattered to camps in Australia, New Zealand, India, Mexico, Africa, and more. After the war, many were repatriated to their homelands. Those who couldn't (or wouldn't) be repatriated made new homes around the world. Select bibliography included.
Polish Military During WWII
(Kathy Kirkpatrick)
After the German and Soviet Invasions of Poland in 1939, soldiers in the Polish Army and civilians were sent to prison camps (gulags) in the USSR. Western Poles were conscripted into the German Army or imprisoned. Polish soldiers served in the armies of Germany, France, the US, Britain (including Palestine), and others. Those freed from the USSR in 1941 fought alongside the Allies. The Polish Army and Air Force joined the Polish Navy with British forces after fighting alongside the French. Polish units in the Soviet army were part of the Allies.
Polish Census Records - Then and Now
(Tadeusz Piłat)
[Summary will follow]
Using Online Map Resources as well as Cadastral Maps in Poland
(Tadeusz Piłat)
[Summary will follow]
Websites for Genealogical Research: FamilySearch, Szukajwarchiwach, Geneteka, & more
(Tadeusz Piłat)
[Summary will follow]
Ecclesiastical Records: Beyond Metrical Books
(Tadeusz Piłat)
[Summary will follow]
Crossing the Ocean: Finding Your European History
(Susan Weinberg)
This presentation will explore how you can use US records to locate records in Eastern Europe, connecting American family documents to parents and siblings in Europe. The talk will first explore sources to verify your ancestral town. Creating finding aids to translate Russian, it will explore useful databases such as JRI-Poland and the All-Lithuanian Database to uncover birth records and revision records. Through case studies, it will weave together records from these databases with Holocaust records, US marriage records, tombstones and immigration records to document connections between American family members and those who remained in Eastern Europe.
Russian Empire / USSR Track
Introduction to Russian Empire Records
(Thom Edlund)
[Summary will follow]
1897 Census of the Russian Empire
(Thom Edlund)
[Summary will follow]
Revision Lists of the Russian Empire
(Thom Edlund)
[Summary will follow]
Russian Empire Military Records
(Thom Edlund)
[Summary will follow]
Russian Empire Metrical Books
(Thom Edlund)
[Summary will follow]
Where did my ancestors come from Eastern Europe?
(Zbigniew Stettner)
Before moving with research to Europe, you have to know the place where your ancestors lived. Often we have just a name or rather a set of random letters found in an immigration record or an old letter. The presenter will show how to find that name, if you do not have it yet, then how to decipher it, find the proper spelling(s) and then we will discuss strategies to find the right place. Presented will be a number of services allowing you to find it in Poland, Ukraine, Belarus, or Lithuania and to determine where the records could be found.
Strategies for Searching FamilySearch’s Ukraine Collections
(Patrick Monson)
FamilySearch has digitized over 80 million images in Ukraine, including 60 million since the end of 2021. While many researchers are familiar with the FamilySearch catalog, many are unaware that new images are only available on Image Explorer, https://www.familysearch.org/records/images. This presentation will demonstrate how to navigate both systems. It will provide insights on how to find records, such as church records, revision lists, censuses, civil registration, filtration records, and many, many more.
Decoding Cyrillic Records: Essential Skills for Family Historians
(Alina Khuda)
Many Eastern European genealogical records are written in Cyrillic script. This workshop introduces attendees to basic Cyrillic reading skills, focusing on common terms, dates, and names found in vital records and church documents.
Digital Archives of Eastern Europe: Unlocking Hidden Treasures
(Alina Khuda)
This session highlights the growing availability of digitized records from Eastern Europe. Attendees will discover key online repositories, tips for effective searches, and how to access lesser-known digital archives.
Accessing Notary Records: A Guide to Russian Empire Archives
(Alina Khuda)
Explore the key repositories for notary records across the former Russian Empire, including national, regional, and local archives. Tips for navigating finding aids and digitized collections will be shared.
Germans from Eastern Europe Track
War & Immigration from Germany to Russia 1760 to 1820
(Wayne Garman)
The lives of our ancestors were greatly affected by wars that took place in the German states. War became the primary reason for many decisions to immigrate from Germany to Russia. This presentation will focus on four wars and their aftermath during the time period 1760 to 1820. They include the Napoleonic Wars, the Seven Years War, the Russo – Ottoman conflicts, and the partitions of Poland. This presentation will describe these wars and their impact on the German rural population including our ancestors. Harsh consequences of these wars motivated our ancestors to flee to newly opened Russian lands.
Who’s Your Daddy? The Hunt for Katharina Bohlander’s Father
(Carolyn Schott)
Genealogists researching German families in the Black Sea region of the former Russian Empire often despair at identifying family relationships during the earliest years of German colonization due to incomplete records. Identifying the father of Katharina Bohlander, born 1822 in a German colony near Odessa, demonstrates this challenge. No available documents name her parents. Three possible locations are identified as her birthplace—all of which had Bohlander families that originated in Erlenbach, Germany, creating an intertwined puzzle of possible connections. This presentation explores the documents available for Black Sea German research, demonstrating the power of combining traditional genealogical records with personal family documents to solve historical mysteries.
On the Move
(Edie Adam)
"On the Move" is a good way to describe our German-speaking ancestors in Europe. Over a number of centuries, they sought freedom and opportunity in places often far from their original homes. But why did they start their journeys in the first place? This presentation provides an overview of the reasons our ancestors picked up their lives and headed east and west.
Everything Old is New Again
(Edie Adam)
It's easy to get excited about all the new tools at our disposal for family research. But have you thought about going back to take another look at material that's been around for a while? "Everything Old is New Again" makes the argument that you can move your research forward by turning back to material you already have and rediscover new information.
The Geography of German Settlement in the Russian Empire
(Sandy Schilling Payne)
Presented as a timeline and illustrated with maps, this session provides a sweeping survey of the locations and history of where Germans settled and migrated within the context of the territorial evolution of Imperial Russia between 1721 and 1914.
What They Carried: Storytelling Through Objects
(Sandy Schilling Payne)
A prayer book. A gold cross. A pair of socks. A sewing basket. A scrap of paper. In this session, we will explore storytelling through the “eyes” of the treasured objects our Germans from Russia ancestors brought with them and left behind for their descendants.
German Track
Online Resources for Research in the Eastern Provinces of the German Empire
(Baerbel Johnson)
Digital record collections for Poland and neighboring states in the former Austrian Empire are introduced. The primary focus is on church records, but indexes, resources and reference tools are also discussed.
Strategies for solving German research problems
(Baerbel Johnson)
The lack of an exact birthplace, naming practices, record limitations, and other problems often make it difficult to document a German ancestor. This class explains various research principles and strategies that can be used to locate elusive family members in German records.
Solving Difficult German Emigration Problems
(Baerbel Johnson)
Sometimes it takes “thinking outside the box” to solve tough research problems. In this presentation several case studies demonstrate innovative use of resources to locate German ancestors’ places of origin.
Websites for German Research, pt.1
(Fritz Juengling)
[Summary will follow]
Websites for German Research, pt.2
(Fritz Juengling)
[Summary will follow]
German Geography and Jurisdictions
(Fritz Juengling)
This presentation will focus on the many jurisdictional levels and changes that affect German genealogical research.
Confirmation records and micro-migration: why your ancestor moved around and how to track them
(Marissa Gardner)
This lecture will focus on parts of Germany where families never stayed in one village for more than a few years and the reasons for this small-scale migration pattern. It will include a discussion of how to track families across multiple parishes in the same region and how to prove it’s the same family group.
Did your Ancestors Disappear? A German Methodology Case Study
(Jalyse Ortiz)
Learn tips and tricks that help you determine where your ancestor came from or whether your ancestor moved. Learn from examples found within my own family.
1816: The Year Without a Summer and Its Impact on German Migration
(Carolyn Schott)
The eruption of Mt. Tambora in Indonesia unleashed a volcanic winter that reverberated around the globe, earning the year 1816 the name “The Year Without a Summer.” Immense quantities of volcanic ash drastically altered weather patterns and created unseasonably cold temperatures that caused crop failures and food shortages. This crisis prompted many Germans to seek new opportunities abroad, both in the U.S. and in the Russian Empire, which offered both land and religious freedom. This presentation discusses the intertwined environmental, economic, and social ramifications of the Year Without a Summer, highlighting its pivotal role in the history of German emigration.
Lost in the Text? Strategies for Decrypting Genealogical Records in German
(Charlotte Champenois)
Once a German-language record has been found, the difficulty faced is not just translating the words but figuring out the context and using it to help you decipher the old German handwriting. Attendees will learn how to determine the record type to start building much-needed context. The power of comparing the handwriting and format in a record to other records will be illustrated, as will the power of anticipating the information a record is likely to contain; anticipating the information and in which format it is likely to be presented in helps significantly narrow down the types of words (e.g., names, dates, places, relationships, occupations) that may be written in a certain part of a record. Tools will then be shared for how to determine which name, date, place, relationship, occupation, etc., a word may be.
Navigating German Town Lineage Books (OFBs)
(Charlotte Champenois)
When an OFB is available for a German town, research in that town is made much easier, as information from local records—sometimes including records that are not online—have been drawn from to create a cohesive town lineage book. But because OFBs are written in German, many people may find them difficult to decipher. Attendees will learn what OFBs are, how they are usually organized, where to look for explanations of book-specific abbreviations and symbols, and how to find many OFBs freely available online and others in various libraries.
How to find your Germanic Ancestral Hometown
(Stephen Wendt)
Discover how to search for your Germanic ancestral hometown in records where your ancestors settled.
Navigating Shifting German Surnames
(Stephen Wendt)
Learn how to better navigate the recurrent, shifting nature of German surnames on both sides of the pond.
Austro-Hungarian Empire Track
Searching for Your Ancestors before, during, and after the Austro-Hungarian Empire
(James L. Tanner)
Beginning with the collapse of the Holy Roman Empire and its dissolution in 1806, other smaller empires began forming. The empire of Austria, as an official designation of the territories ruled by the Habsburg monarchy, dates to between 1804 and 1814, when Francis II, the last of the Holy Roman emperors, proclaimed himself emperor of Austria as Francis I. Later, in 1867, the Austro-Hungarian Compromise established the dual monarchy of Austria-Hungary, a military and diplomatic alliance of two sovereign states. The Austro-Hungarian Empire collapsed in about 1918, at the end of World War I. This class will show how these changes affected your genealogical research. Topics covered will include: 1. The origin of the Austrian Empire and the countries that have the empire in their history. 2. The formation the Austro-Hungarian Empire and its effect on the countries both within the Empire and those surrounding the empire. 3. Where and in what language you can expect to find valuable genealogical records. 4. An overview of the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and the evolution of the countries that developed. The consistent boundary changes in Europe over time are a challenge to any researcher. Sometimes it is surprising to find German language records in countries such as Romania and Italy. Understanding the boundary changes that occurred in Europe is a fundamental part of the process of doing genealogical research in any of the countries.
Case Studies of Migration
(Roland Geiger)
The lecture is about „migration“ in general, shown by examples in particular. First you learn what migrations are, who migrates and how and where; all of this not just theoretically, but with examples found in lots of years of research. Some stories funny, some tragic, some sad. We’ll start in my German hometown, follow them to the east and then to North America and at the end there’ll be a story about immigration.
Researching old Hungarian maps online
(Dorottya Szabó)
The history of our ancestors is linked at many points to the areas from which they came, so the genealogist will stumble across a place names along the way. This is true whether we are researching birth, marriage or death registers, interpreting an immigration document or trying to trace the lives of generations who lived in the ancestral land.
For years now, it has been a great help to have online maps of large areas, towns and even small villages from a particular time period, regarding the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy. The vast majority of these are georeferenced maps that correspond to a 21st century landscape of the same territory. In addition, a growing number of Hungarian databases include map supplements.
I'm very happy to show you these in my presentation.
History of birth, marriage and death registration in Hungary
(Dorottya Szabó)
The history of the registration of births, marriages and deaths in Hungary dates back to the 16th century. It was the Roman Catholic Church that first started to keep records of baptisms, marriages and deaths in the Kingdom of Hungary, typically in one volume (which is why we call these volumes mixed registers). The parish registers basically built up the task of the as yet non-existent state administration, divided into ecclesiastical areas. However, the Ottoman threat and the fragmentation of the country into three parts after 1541 made it very difficult to introduce this new method generally.
From the events of the early modern period, i.e. the previously mentioned Ottoman invasion, to the spread of Protestantism, and the progressive and conservative church and state conceptions of later kings, I will show in this lecture how each of these events influenced the registration of births/baptisms, marriages and deaths. I will cover a wide time span, from the 1500s to the 20th century.
Join me on this time travel!
Genealogical Czech Grammar and Vocabulary
(Brian Béla Schellenberg)
Although Czech was only used for a relatively short time in official records of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, it is crucial to understand its grammatical forms and some key vocabulary so we can accurately document our Czech ancestors. Czech changes the spelling of names and other nouns depending on what part of the sentence that item is, which can cause the untrained eye to miss or confuse a key piece of information. This course will teach you how to recognize names, places, and professions and decipher how they fit together. Many of the things we will learn will also help you understand records in other Slavic languages.
Religion and Religious Jurisdictions in the Austro-Hungarian Empire
(Brian Béla Schellenberg)
The various lands of the Austro-Hungarian Empire were not just diverse ethnically and linguistically, but also in matters of religion. Tradition, politics, and personal preference led our ancestors to various places of worship to save their souls and record their vital events. In this presentation, I will provide an overview of the various religions found in the empire and then where, when, and why our ancestors may have belonged to these religions.
Unlocking the Secrets of Austrian Land Cadastres: A Guide for Genealogists
(Michelle Tucker Chubenko)
Discover the rich genealogical insights hidden in Austrian Land Cadastres by exploring the history and structure of these detailed property records, which provide invaluable information about land ownership, family connections, and community life under the rule of the Austrian (Habsburg) Empire. Learn how to locate and interpret tax assessments, cadastral maps, and property descriptions for the crownland of Galicia. With practical research strategies and real-life case studies, you'll gain the tools needed to incorporate these records into your own family history research. Whether you're tracing ancestors who were Polish, Ukrainian, Jewish or Germans in Galicia, this session is perfect for unlocking new paths in your genealogical journey.
Navigating German-Language Czech Church Records
(Charlotte Champenois)
This presentation will guide attendees in identifying their town’s Czech placename, parish, and relevant online regional archive. Resources for locating church records on various regional websites will be provided. Attendees will learn about navigating the organizational structure of Czech church books, including understanding the repetition of page numbers in books that contain records for multiple towns, distinguishing between each town’s records, and using handwritten indexes. Common formats (like the listing of grandparents) and the importance of house numbers in Czech research will also be explored.
Research in the former Kingdon of Hungary, Pt. 1
(Kellie Scherbel Hale)
This class focuses on understanding Hungarian church registers. We discuss who created the registers and why, what information is found in the registers, where the registers are held today, and the different ways you can access them. There will be several practice examples.
Research in the former Kingdon of Hungary, Pt. 2
(Kellie Scherbel Hale)
This class focuses on understanding Hungarian civil registration of births, marriages, and deaths. We discuss who created these records, what information is found in them, where they are held today, and the different ways you can access them. There will be several practice examples.
Beginning Romanian Research
(Vicki Albu)
Discover why it’s essential to conduct a thorough search in your home country before diving into Romanian records. Learn about the diverse ethnic groups that emigrated from modern-day Romania, the types of records and tools that can help identify your ancestral village, personal name variations and spellings, and the structure and availability of Romanian archival records.
Geo-Political Changes in the Banat
(Eileen Lund-Johnson)
As the Banat Germans, also known as Swabians, were forced to comply with Hungarian laws, their lives underwent significant changes. One of the most noticeable changes was the requirement to switch from using German language to Hungarian in schools and when dealing with government officials. This was part of a broader initiative to integrate and assimilate the Swabians into Hungarian society. By the late 1890s, many Swabians began to leave the Banat region in search of new opportunities elsewhere. This presentation will discuss these changes including emigration to Canada and the United States.
Jewish Track
Jewish Immigrants
(Janette Silverman)
Researching immigration records for Jews can be very tricky. The names they used in the US (and elsewhere) and the places they claimed to have come from may be unidentifiable. How can you find immigration records? How can you figure out the names under which the immigrants arrived and the towns where they said they were born or last lived? This class will explore records, techniques for identifying people, and look at some tools for finding place names that don’t match any resources.
Holocaust Research
(Janette Silverman)
Your research includes family stories of people who were killed during the Holocaust, and you want to identify these people and learn their stories. It’s not as straightforward as you thought it would be. We’ll take a look at a couple of short case studies to see some actual records, and then look at resources to be consulted for your own research.
Jewish Research in Galicia, Austria
(Emily H. Garber)
After the first partition of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in 1772, the Austrian Empress Theresa and her son, Joseph, were dismayed to learn that their acquisition of the region of Galicia more than doubled the Jewish population of their entire Empire. This realization was followed enactment of numerous Jewish-specific laws designed to document and control the growth of the Jewish population. This presentation will cover a variety of Jewish records that may be found in Galicia. We'll cover who was charged with keeping records, rules regarding Jewish name adoption, and restrictions on marriage, places of residence, occupations, and land ownership.
Jewish Migration in the 18th & 19th centuries: Exploring the Migratory History of Ashkenazi Jews
(Suzanne Hoffman)
Exploring the history of Ashkenazi Jews in the 18th and 19th centuries across Western and Eastern Europe, we find that they are repeatedly driven eastward towards Russia. The largest population of the Jewish faith lived in what today is Poland, until that country ceased to exist for all of the 19th century. Catherine the Great of Russia carved out the Pale of Settlement for the Jews from a vast tract of land primarily across Lithuania, Poland, Belarus, Moldova, and Ukraine. We’ll explore the history that forced the migration of the Jews.
Why is Jewish Research Different from All Other Research?
(Suzanne Hoffman)
A play on the Four Questions of the Passover Seder, we'll explore why is Jewish research so difficult. What historical and ethnic facts hinder us from linking to the past? Where can we look for the ties that bind? What are the impediments that make collaborative research a must. What are the darker elements of Jewish research.
Finding Jewish Records in Unexpected Places
(Joanne M. Sher)
When looking for records that can help you with your Jewish genealogy research don’t limit yourself to JewishGen, FamilySearch, Ancestry and MyHeritiage. Across the U.S. and Canada there are many Jewish archives and Jewish collections within larger collections in archives and libraries. Learn about some of those resources and how to search for them.
DNA Track
Ancestry Unveiled: Distinguishing Genealogy from Genetic Genealogy
(Aimee Rose-Haynes)
Discover the evolution of genealogy's significance throughout history and its transformation in the era of at-home DNA testing. Explore the emergence of genetic genealogy, its benefits, challenges, and ethical implications. Explore DNA types, documentation, accuracy, limitations, and delve into a case study comparing DNA evidence with conflicting paper trails to determine the accurate evidence.
Untangling Complex DNA: Advanced Tools for Challenging Genealogical Research
(Kate Penney Howard)
Navigating complex DNA scenarios can create difficulties in genealogical research, especially in endogamous communities. However, there are tools and techniques available to differentiate and interpret DNA data in situations where the Leeds Method and WATO do not work. We will compassionately and clearly review the various challenges, ways to identify circumstances, and discuss tools and techniques to develop a hypothesis. Attendees will learn strategies to resolve mysteries and clarify relationships even when parents are closely related or when dealing with other challenging situations in genetic genealogy.
Filling in Those Pesky Blanks: Solving Maternal Surname Mysteries with DNA
(Kate Penney Howard)
We all have that ancestor with a first name, but no family name. When traditional genealogical techniques fail to turn up an answer, we can turn to DNA to find more opportunities to discover clues. Follow along as Kate explains how she used traditional genealogy, and DNA clustering to write her ancestors’ surnames in their family tree!
General Track
AI Handwriting Recognition and Full-Text Search Opens the Flood Gates of Possible Research
(James L. Tanner)
The transcription of handwritten documents has traditionally been a tedious and time-consuming process. For the past 50 years or so, those needing and using transcriptions have been both participating in and watching the technology of handwriting recognition develop. In the past two or so years, the technology has finally matured, and computer aided handwriting recognition rivals the best human experts. This class will focus on the benefits of this advanced technology in your own genealogical research.
Topics covered will include:
1. The history of handwriting recognition and its most current advances.
2. How the use of handwriting recognition has opened the opportunity to search the content of entire documents rather than a limited number of search terms.
3. The number of documents being transcribed numbers in the millions per week.
4. The presentation will show how opening a vast new set of documents will affect how individuals participate in the research process.
If you know where to look, you can watch as artificial intelligence generates millions of indexed documents a day on FamilySearch.
Let Tech Work For You: Harnessing the Power of Artificial Intelligence, Apps and Tools
(Kate Penney Howard)
Are you encumbered with boxes of papers left to you by dear Aunt Madge? Have your grandchildren shown interest in your research, but they want to see information on their phones? Do you struggle with filling in the rest of the story ("the dash") between a person's birth and death? Not sure you're ready to trade in your pencil for a stylus, but you want to know more? You're probably already using AI and technology in your genealogical research! Explore tools that can help you improve your research, extract more data, transcribe, translate, and create text and images.
Citizen Archivists: Bringing Records to the Researcher
(Michelle Tucker Chubenko)
This presentation will highlight the transformative efforts of local citizens across Eastern Europe to digitize and make historical and genealogical records accessible to researchers worldwide. Attendees will learn about the pioneering projects and initiatives that have emerged from within these communities, overcoming challenges such as physical degradation of documents, bureaucratic hurdles and providing accessibility to others. We will explore the impact of these grassroots digitization efforts on genealogical research and the significance of digital preservation for genealogy and offer insights into how these digital archives are constructed, managed, and utilized. Come and celebrate the dedication of individuals and groups who are bridging the past Genwith the future, opening new avenues for discovering our ancestors' stories.
WWII Displaced Persons: A Stateless People
(Michelle Tucker Chubenko)
How did they become displaced? Were they forced laborers? What documents did they create as Displaced Persons? Learn the answer to these questions and more to reconstruct the journey of WWII Displaced Persons using resources of Arolsen Archives [formerly the International Tracing Service (ITS)].
Mapping your ancestors. Using free online services to build interactive maps
(Zbigniew Stettner)
The presenter will show how to join information from various sources (gedcom, locations of graves, tax records) with old and current maps to build beautiful and informative map applications for family history. He will introduce attendants to free, mostly on-line, services that are useful in mapping of places our ancestors lived and can provide us additional insights and information about their lives. Examples will be based on Galician records but the techniques can be used anywhere.
Top 10 Secrets to Using MyHeritage
(Daniel Horowitz)
MyHeritage is one of the most popular online family history platforms in the world — but there is so much more to it than meets the eye. Even if you have been using it for years, you may be surprised to discover that you have only scratched the surface of the useful features and capabilities of this site. Genealogy expert Daniel Horowitz will pull back the curtain on some of the lesser-known features and settings that will help you take your research up a level and help you make the most of the MyHeritage platform.
Getting From There to Here: Bradshaw's Railway Guide and Other Tools of Discovery
(Emily H. Garber)
How did our eastern European ancestors get from their homes to ports of embarkation? This presentation will feature resources to help us understand transmigration (European migrants' overland routes) via railways. What did emigrants know before they set off on the overland legs of their journeys? Which routes might they have taken? What did they likely experience during travel from their places of origin to European ports? Resources will include gazetteers, Bradshaw's Continental Railway Guide, immigrant guides and journals, and high-definition maps.
Morse Code: Favorite Tools on Steve Morse's Web Site
(Banai Feldstein)
Steve Morse has provided a plethora of tools on his web site to help genealogists to access the data on other web sites, including the Ellis Island searches, New York City vital records indexes, and the US Federal Census ED finder. Banai will discuss these and other tools, which ones she uses the most and why.
End Keynote
Romania: More than Dracula!
(Vicki Albu)