Please join us for a GoToWebinar-based annual meeting and election on Sunday, June 28, 2020 at 10:00 AM

Register Online: https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/6853071664762346509

Finding Jewish Records on the MyHeritage Search Engine
Special Guest Speaker: Daniel Horowitz, Genealogy Expert at MyHeritage

The MyHeritage search engine is delighting family history fans worldwide. Learn how this search engine works, and how it can benefit your Jewish research, covering billions of records and important repositories and databases, in a single search, finding the resources you need.

Slate:
Please email Adina Lipsitz if you would like to run for a board position this year. A list of positions can be found here: https://jgsmi.org/officers-committee-chairs/

About the speaker:
Daniel Horowitz is the Genealogy Expert at MyHeritage, liaising with genealogy societies and media, lecturing, and attending conferences around the world. Dedicated to genealogy since 1986, he taught and edited the family history project “Searching for My Roots” in Venezuela for 15 years. Daniel is involved in several crowdsource digitization and transcription projects and holds a board level position at the Israel Genealogy Research Association (IGRA).

2020-2021 Proposed Slate

Officers
President: David Goldis
VP, Membership: Position open
VP, Programming: Position open
VP, Publicity: Adina Lipsitz
Recording Secretary: Michelle Gettelson
Corresponding Secretary: Diane Freilich
Treasurer: Neil Goldman
Past Presidents: Adina Lipsitz, John Kovacs

Committee Chairs
Librarian: Linda Bell
Editor, Generations: Position open
Cemetery Project: Marc Manson
Constitution & By-Laws: Adina Lipsitz
Slate Committee: Adina Lipsitz
Speakers Bureau: James Grey
Webmaster: Adina Lipsitz
Members-at-Large: Irwin Alpern, Leah Bisel, Joshua Goldberg, David Sloan

Sunday, March 8, 2020 at 10:00 AM
Holocaust Memorial Center
28123 Orchard Lake Road in Farmington Hills
Light refreshments will be served
Free; Membership dues may be paid at the door (cash, check or credit card)

In this webinar from the BYU Family History Library, Todd Knowles introduces The Knowles Collection. This records-rich resource contains census records, family histories, birth, marriage, and death records, The Judah L. Magnes Museum Collection, headstone transcriptions, synagogue records, immigration records, family pedigrees and more.

The Knowles Collection is six databases that include records of the Jewish people. The six databases are:

• Jews of The British Isles
• Jews of North America
• Jews of Europe
• Jews of South America and The Caribbean
• Jews of Africa and the Orient.
• Jews of the South Pacific

The great advantage of the Knowles Collection is that it links together into family groups, thousands of individual Jews (over 1,150,000 as of Jan 2015). Until now, these records were available only at the Family History Library, or from private archives or individuals.

Current totals for the Knowles Collection (as of 1 Jan 2015)

• Africa and the Orient – 37,618 people
• British Isles – 208,349 people
• Europe – 380,637 people
• North America – 489,400 people
• South America and the Caribbean – 21,351 people
• South Pacific Islands – 21,518

Updates about the collection, and helpful clues for research can be found at knowlescollection.blogspot.com.

With Past President Jim Grey

Sunday, January 19, 2020 at 10:00 AM
Holocaust Memorial Center
28123 Orchard Lake Road in Farmington Hills
Light refreshments will be served
Free for members, $5 for guests
Fees and dues may be paid at the door

This program will discuss how to get started in genealogy and family history to solve the “genealogy jigsaw puzzle.” We’ll cover a range of topics, and the discussion will be tailored as necessary depending on audience questions and background.

Expected topics to be covered:

• Research using vital records (birth, marriage, death)
• Discussion with family members
• Research using Ancestry.com for census records, ship records, naturalization records, etc.
• Digitized newspapers, locally using the Detroit Jewish News Foundation, and hands-on discovery using old Detroit City Directories at the Burton Historical Collection.

Sunday, December 29 at 1:00 PM
Burton Historical Collection
Detroit Public Library
5201 Woodward Avenue, Detroit
Free

On December 15th, JGSMI Past President Marc Manson will have given a presentation introducing the audience to the Detroit City Directories at the Burton Historical Collection, which cover many of the years between 1837 and 1974.

This program will be a chance for you to apply what you learned at that event—it will be a hands-on program where you can do your own research and utilize all of the Burton’s genealogical resources (as well as those of the Detroit Public Library).

Breakfast option:
Meet for breakfast at 11:45 AM
Leo’s Coney Island
28595 Northwestern, Southfield (south of 12 Mile)

Car Pooling begins at Leo’s at 12:30 PM

If you prefer to skip breakfast and go directly to the event, the DPL opens at 1:00 PM. There is free parking in the employees’ parking lot South of the library. 

Call Jim Grey at 248-739-9070 if you are interested in breakfast and/or carpooling.

The Burton Collection’s city directories cover the following years:

• 1837
• 1845-1846
• 1850-1941
• 1953 (West side)
• 1954 (East side)
• 1956 (West side)
• 1957 (East side)
• 1958 (West side)
• 1963 (East side)
• 1964 (East and West side)
• 1965 (West side)
• 1967 (East side)
• 1968 (East and West side)
• 1969 (West side)
• 1970 (East and West side)
• 1973 (West side)
• 1974 (East side)

Sunday, December 15 at 10:00 AM
Holocaust Memorial Center
Refreshments will be served
Free

Please join us as JGSMI Past President Marc Manson delivers an overview of the Detroit City Directories that are available at the Burton Historical Collection at the Detroit Public Library.

Two weeks later on December 29th, we will go on a field trip to the Burton so that you can apply what you’ve learned at the Collection itself.

To learn more about the Burton Collection’s genealogical resources, follow this link: https://detroitpubliclibrary.org/research/burton-historical-collection/michigan-and-detroit-selected-genealogical-resources

The Burton Collection’s city directories cover the following years:

• 1837
• 1845-1846
• 1850-1941
• 1953 (West side)
• 1954 (East side)
• 1956 (West side)
• 1957 (East side)
• 1958 (West side)
• 1963 (East side)
• 1964 (East and West side)
• 1965 (West side)
• 1967 (East side)
• 1968 (East and West side)
• 1969 (West side)
• 1970 (East and West side)
• 1973 (West side)
• 1974 (East side)

Tuesday, November 12 at 4:00 PM
202 S. Thayer Street, Room 2022
Ann Arbor, MI

Speaker: Steve Weitzman, University of Pennsylvania

Genetic breakthroughs have created a newly scientific way to reveal one’s distant ancestors, and spawned a multi-billion dollar ancestry testing industry in the process. What does such research reveal about the origin of the Jews? Can it trace their ancestry all the way back to the biblical past? This presentation will survey recent efforts to use genetics to illumine the ancestry of the Jews, weighing its insights against the criticisms and fears of skeptics.

There is both an accessible elevator and gender-neutral restroom on the first and second floor. If you have a disability that requires an accommodation, contact judaicstudies@umich.edu or 734-763-9047.

Registration not required. Event page: https://lsa.umich.edu/judaic/news-events/all-events.detail.html/64975-16499249.html

Sunday, November 10 at 10:00 AM
B’nai David Cemetery
9535 Van Dyke Ave, Detroit

Young adults are invited to join Jewish Family Service, NEXTGen Detroit, The Well, Repair the World and Hillel of Metro Detroit for JFS’s 23rd Annual Fall Fix Up at B’nai David Cemetery.

We’ll gather at B’nai David Cemetery at 10:00am on Sunday, November 10 to give back, clean up, and help to beautify this sacred space.

What to Expect:

• Young adult crowd (for other activities, visit the JFS website.)
• Breakfast provided, with service beginning at 10:30am
• Wear clothes you don’t mind getting dirty, and layers are recommended as we’ll be outside!
• Water bottles are encouraged!

Please register through the link below, and contact Lindsay Leder at lleder@jfsdetroit.org if you have any questions.

http://www.meetyouatthewell.org/calendar/2019/9/19/23rd-annual-fall-fix-up

Sunday, September 15 at 10:00 AM
Holocaust Memorial Center
Light refreshments will be served
Free

The 39th IAJGS International Conference on Jewish Genealogy took place in Cleveland, Ohio, July 28th through August 2nd at the Hilton Cleveland Downtown hotel.

Join other JGSMI Members as they discuss their favorite seminars and their experiences at the conference. There will be plenty of time for Q&A.

The next conference will be August 9-14, 2020 in San Diego:
www.iajgs2020.org

Thursday, June 27 at 6:30 PM
Temple Beth El
7400 Telegraph Road, Bloomfield Hills
$18 — Kosher dessert reception

History Distilled: Jewish Detroit During Prohibition

The era of prohibition was a time of tremendous growth and secrets in Detroit’s Jewish community. Join archivists Robbie Terman from the Leonard N. Simons Jewish Community Archives and Laura Williams from the Rabbi Leo M. Franklin Archives of Temple Beth El as they share stories of life during prohibition, from developments in the Jewish community to bootlegging and the Purple Gang. Then, take a stroll through a display of photographs and documents and put yourself in the shoes of a Jewish Detroiter during this infamous time.

If you do not wish to pay via Eventbrite and pay the Eventbrite fee, please email Adina Lipsitz and she will manually add you to the list and you can mail in a check (payable to JGS of Michigan) for $18 per attendee.

Mail to:
JGS of Michigan
P.O. Box 251693
West Bloomfield, MI 48325