“Help! I Got My DNA Results and I’m Confused!” With Gil Bardige

Please join us IN PERSON or on Zoom for our annual meeting and election!

Sunday, June 7, 2026 at 9:45 AM
Zekelman Holocaust Center
Free
Coffee, tea, and breakfast snacks provided

Are you overwhelmed by your thousands of DNA Results?

You’re not alone. Thousands of genealogy enthusiasts receive their autosomal DNA results from testing companies like AncestryDNA, 23andMe, MyHeritage, and Family Tree DNA, only to feel completely confused by what they find.

Does This Sound Familiar?

• Tens of thousands of DNA matches who claim to be “close relatives”
• Matches with no shared surnames or geographic connections
• Ethnicity results that don’t match family stories
• Feeling stuck and not knowing where to start
• Ready to give up on genetic genealogy altogether?
• Clusters promise results and you are more confused?

Perhaps you are one of the 4000 people at JewishGen who have viewed Gil’s previous webinars.

Take a deep breath – help is here. Part 1.26 is New & Updated including AScM!

What You’ll Learn:

• Organize and prioritize your overwhelming match list
• Reduce thousands of matches to manageable, actionable research targets
• Discover proven strategies to identify key matches that will expand your family tree
• Master Gil’s updated 2026 processes for genetic genealogy success

Perfect For:

• Beginner Level
• Experienced or Intermediate researchers who feel stuck or overwhelmed
• Anyone ready for a fresh start with their genetic genealogy journey

By the End of This Session, You’ll Be Able to Say:

“Now I understand. I get it. I know what to do next.”

Gil Bardige was born & raised in Chicago and currently lives in the Columbus Ohio area. A graduate of the New York Institute of Technology, Gil retired in 2019 after a long career in air conditioning and refrigeration most recently as a National Business Development Leader for Trane Technologies.

At the “instruction” of his mother, Gil began his genealogy adventure in 1979 with 54 people in his tree. Today his family tree including Mishpocha, is over 3200 people tracing 4 branches back to his 5th great grandfathers born about 1740. His family arrived in Chicago in the early 20th century.

For over 18 years Gil has expanded his knowledge of Genetic Genealogy, testing at each of the four major DNA companies, and is Administrator of three Y-DNA projects at Family Tree DNA as a Volunteer. He loves to help people manage their expectations and begin to remove confusion from the DNA results whether it’s Y-DNA, mtDNA, or Autosomal DNA. He had spoken at dozens of local events, international webinars and conferences, including at last 10 IAJGS Conferences.

As the Chair of the Genealogy Committee of the Columbus Jewish Historical Society (JGS), Gil developed and hosts the monthly Kvell & Kvetch genealogy Q&A in Columbus. He co-hosts live Genetic Genealogy Q&A sessions at JGS Illinois and JGS Toronto. Gil is on the Advisory Board of JewishGen Ukraine Research Division. For IAJGS, Gil is on the Conference Strategic Planning Committee; he has managed the Conference Mentoring Programs; and co-hosts the Apple Users and Jewish Genealogy Facebook page plus the monthly virtual BOF (Birds of a Feather) meeting. Gil is a member of APG (Association of Professional Genealogists).

Gil is a firm believer that you can use DNA results as a tool in your genealogical research as it generates clues that can help people confirm/deny relationships. His speaking style is high energy (you won’t be bored) and he loves to take questions. People have said of his presentations, “Thank you, Gil, I am no longer confused!”

2026-2027 Proposed Slate

Officers
President – Joshua Goldberg
VP, Programming – James D. Grey
VP, Membership – Debi Acker-Zolnoski
VP, Publicity – Adina Lipsitz
Recording Secretary – Adina Lipsitz
Corresponding Secretary – Diane Freilich
Treasurer – Neil Goldman
Past President – Adina Lipsitz

Committee Chairs
Librarian – Linda Bell
Editor, Generations – Terry Kalley
Cemetery Project – Marc Manson
Constitution and By-Laws – Adina Lipsitz
Slate Committee – Adina Lipsitz
Speakers Bureau – James D. Grey
Webmaster – Adina Lipsitz
Member-at-Large – Linda Bisel
Member-at-Large – David Sloan
Member-at-Large – Rob Starkman

Sunday, May 10, 2026 from 10am – 1pm
Street parking at 9535 Van Dyke Detroit, MI.

Just two miles from the storied Beth Olem cemetery, B’nai David dates back to 1898 when the founding fathers of the then Beth David Synagogue bought a 1.6 acre plot of land in what was then Hamtramck Township for $1,800.

Please contact Ann Zaron ann.zaron@att.net for more information.

Sunday, April 12, 2026 from 10:00am to 1:00pm

Beth Olem Cemetery is scheduled to be open on Sunday, April 12, 2026 from 10AM to 1PM.

Beth Olem is the oldest Jewish cemetery in Michigan, with graves dating from the 1880s through World War I. It is located on the grounds of the GM Poletown plant in Hamtramck, Michigan, between Smith and Clay Streets. Visitors are allowed only two times per year, around Rosh Hashanah and Passover.

More information about Beth Olem can be found at the following sites:

• The History of Beth Olem Cemetery (Eric Hergenreder / eherg.com)
• A peek inside Beth Olem, the cemetery that was swallowed by a GM plant (Model D Media)
• Hidden cemetery only remnant of Poletown community (jweekly.com)
• Photos on Flickr
• Beth Olem Cemetery on FindAGrave.com

Call Clover Hill Park Cemetery for additional information: 248-723-8884.

If you plan to attend you can reach out to Jim Grey for more info or directions. He will be there in person.
Email: gentrex@aol.com
Cell: 248-739-9070

Presented by Elihu “Hugh” Baver

Sunday, March 29, 2026 at 9:45 AM
In person at The Zekelman Holocaust Center and on Zoom
28123 Orchard Lake Road
Farmington Hills, MI 48334

 FREE 

Join us for a fascinating discussion connecting baseball, the Holocaust, genealogy and current events!

Hugh Baver is best known for his long-standing involvement and subject matter expertise in preserving and advancing the legacy of Sosúa, Dominican Republic—the only Jewish refugee settlement established during World War II as a direct result of the 1938 Evian Conference.

Through on-the-ground engagement and extensive research Baver has devised dynamic public programming working to elevate Sosúa’s global historical significance as a living case story of refuge, survival, and moral courage during the Holocaust.

The central theme of the presentation is to educate people on the little known Holocaust refugee and immigration history of what occurred back in 1938, and to compare and contrast it with contemporary challenges of refugees and immigration today (ICE seizures, etc) with Sosúa being a prime example of a role model of best practices where refugees/immigrants were not only welcomed/admitted/accepted but were given a path to citizenship and they became fully adopted and productive citizens. 

Elihu “Hugh” Baver is a cultural historian, nonprofit founder, and international project leader whose work centers on Holocaust memory, Jewish refugee history, and intercultural education in the Caribbean, Europe, and the Americas.

One of the world’s foremost authorities on the topic of the “Evian to Sosúa” unique Holocaust history, over the past 10 years, Baver has given dozens of lectures and presentations, as well as being the subject of multiple TV, Radio, and print media interviews in high visibility global venues.

This is not a JGSMI program.

Sunday, October 19, 2025 at 11:00 am
Soul Cafe
5586 Drake Road (south of Walnut Lake)
West Bloomfield, MI

If you plan to attend you can reach out to Jim Grey for more info or directions.
Email: gentrex@aol.com
Cell: 248-739-9070

Sunday, October 12, 10:00 – 11:45 AM
Holocaust Memorial Center or on ZOOM
Light refreshments will be served
Free

The 45th IAJGS International Conference on Jewish Genealogy took place in Fort Wayne, Indiana, August 10-14, 2025 at the Grand Wayne Convention Center.

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 2026 conference will be held virtually. https://www.iajgs2026.org/

Please register below depending on how you wish to attend. Jim Grey can be contacted with any questions at 248-739-9070.

Please join us IN PERSON or on Zoom for our annual meeting and election!

Sunday, June 29, 2024 at 10:00 AM
Zekelman Holocaust Center
Free
Coffee, tea, and breakfast snacks provided

Oral History Essentials
Presented by Robbie Terman, Director, Leonard N. Simons Jewish Community Archives

Oral History interviews are an important part of researching your family story. But without the right techniques and equipment, you might miss out on vital information! Join Archivist Robbie Terman as she shares the essentials for taking a great oral history interview and preserving it.

Robbie Terman is the director of the Leonard N. Simons Jewish Community Archives and a partner in the Joan Meyers Jampel Center for Michigan Jewish Heritage. With a master’s degree in Library and Information Science and certificate in Archival Administration from Wayne State University, Robbie is on a mission to ensure the past is not forgotten. She brings stories of Jewish Detroit to the public through exhibits, presentations, and social media, and has contributed articles to many publications. Robbie believes that every day is a chance to make history and strives to help others contribute their own stories for the enrichment of future generations.

Please register below depending on how you wish to attend. Jim Grey can be contacted with any questions at 248-739-9070.

The program will also feature a musical interlude by David C. Sloan, of Huntington Woods, a third generation Detroiter, past president of JGS of Michigan, member of Congregation Shir Tikvah and life-long singer/ guitarist, will perform songs of family and home.

David has performed his renditions of folk and traditional songs on North American stages, including Nashville for the US Army World War II Regimental Command Team, the DIA Auditorium and in the Pontiac Theater IV’s production of “Man of La Mancha.” As a classical choral singer he has sung with many choruses including the Detroit Symphony at their home venues and at the Meadowbrook Music Festival, the Oakland University-Community Chorus for 30 years and the North Arkansas Symphony Chorus. David incorporated his guitar, singing and love of family when he taught 3rd and 4th grade religious school at Temple Emanu-El.

For David, ”a day without music and song is a day without life.”

2025-2026 Proposed Slate

Sunday, September 11, 2022 at 10am
Free

Please join David Goldman along and Jim Grey for an interactive visit to the historic B’nai David Cemetery. Just two miles from the storied Beth Olem cemetery, B’nai David dates back to 1898 when the founding fathers of the then Beth David Synagogue bought a 1.6 acre plot of land in what was then Hamtramck Township for $1,800.

Read more about David Goldman’s urban garden project from the the Jewish News.

We hope you’ll attend. Rain or shine. Street parking at 9535 Van Dyke Detroit, MI.

Sunday, October 17, 2010 at 1:00 pm

My mother was an only child. That’s what she told everyone, sometimes within minutes of meeting them. When I heard that my mother had been hiding the existence of a sister, I was bewildered. A sister? I was certain that she had no siblings, just as I knew that her name was Beth, that she had no middle name, and that she had raised her children to, above all, tell the truth.

Part memoir, part detective story, part history, Annie’s Ghosts revolves around three main characters (my mom, her sister and me as narrator/detective/son), several important secondary ones (my grandparents, my father and several relatives whom I found in the course of reporting on the book), as well as Eloise, the vast county mental hospital where my secret aunt was confined—despite her initial protestations—all of her adult life.

As I try to understand my mom’s reasons for hiding her sister’s existence, readers have a front-row seat to the reality of growing up poor in America during the 1920s and 1930s, at a time when the nation’s “asylums” had a population of 400,000 and growing. They will travel the many corridors and buildings of Eloise Hospital, a place little known outside Detroit but which housed so many mentally ill and homeless people during the Depression that it become one of the largest institutions of its kind in the nation, with 10,000 residents, 75 buildings, its own police and fire forces, even its own dairy.

Through personal letters and photographs, official records and archival documents, as well as dozens of interviews, readers will revisit my mother’s world in the 1930s and 1940s in search of how and why the secret was born. The easy answer—shame and stigma—is the one that I often heard as I pursued the story. But when it comes to secrets, there are no easy answers, and shame is only where the story begins, not ends.

Whenever the secret threatened to make its way to the surface, Mom did whatever she could to push it back underground. Just as Annie was a prisoner of her condition and of the hospital that became her home, my mother became a virtual prisoner of the secret she chose to keep. Why? Why did she want the secret to remain so deeply buried?

Employing my skills as a journalist while struggling to maintain my empathy as a son, I piece together the story of my mother’s motivations, my aunt’s unknown life, and the times in which they lived. My search takes me to imperial Russia and Depression-era Detroit, through the Holocaust in Ukraine and the Philippine war zone, and back to the hospitals where Annie and many others languished in anonymity.

For me, it was the quest of a lifetime.

Excerpt taken from http://steveluxenberg.com/content/book.asp?id=story

Location: Holocaust Memorial Center, Farmington Hills. Register below.

Monday, November 8, 2010 at 8:00 p.m. at the West Bloomfield JCC

Join us as we co-sponsor Jake Ehrenreich, author of A Jew Grows in Brooklyn: The Curious Reflections of a First-Generation American, at the 59th Annual Jewish Book Fair this November.

“Barnum” and “Dancin’” star Jake Ehrenreich takes readers on a poignant journey through the past as he tells childhood stories, coming-of-age lessons and tales from the lives of his immigrant, Holocaust survivor parents.

A companion to his popular Broadway musical comedy, A Jew Grows in Brooklyn is filled with memories of baseball, popcorn and realizing the American dream. A documentary about Ehrenreich’s life is in the works for release later this year.

Co-sponsored by the Birmingham Temple, Institute for Retired Professionals (IRP), the Jewish Genealogical Society of Michigan and ORT America-Michigan Region

About the Author

Brownsville Memoir-Growing up in Brooklyn, in the shadow of the Shoah.

When Jake Ehrenreich was growing up in Brownsville in the 1960s, he wanted nothing more than to be an American. But his Yiddish-speaking parents, who failed to understand the game of baseball or make sense of rock music, made it difficult for him to feel part of the mainstream culture. In his new one-man show, “A Jew Grows in Brooklyn,” directed by Jon Huberth, Ehrenreich explores how his family history, dominated by the shadow of the Holocaust, shaped the man he turned out to be.

Ehrenreich, 50, has appeared on Broadway in “Dancin,” “Barnum” and “They’re Playing Our Song.” He has also performed Yiddish music in two Off-Broadway productions, “Songs of Paradise” and “The Golden Land.”

His father’s Hasidic family had been one of the wealthiest in Poland, but during the war both he and his wife ended up in a work camp in Siberia, where one of their daughters was born. After spending time in a displaced persons camp, the family came to America, where they tried to give their children a life free from the taint of victimhood.

But it was not to be. Ehrenreich and his two sisters grew up feeling, as he put it, that existence was “tenuous” and that the “world could end at any moment.” Yet he also shares many wonderful memories of his youth, from playing stoop ball to attending Shea Stadium to vacationing in the Catskills, where Ehrenreich began performing in a band at the tender age of 12. Indeed, Ehrenreich tells much of his life story through music; he is backed by four instrumentalists, playing songs ranging from “Brooklyn Roads” to “Doo Wah Diddy.” One striking moment in the show occurs when Ehrenreich recalls learning that almost all of his favorite composers were Jewish like him.

“I don’t want to bring people too far into the black hole of the Holocaust,” Ehrenreich said, noting that his show is mostly upbeat and optimistic. “If people in the audience laugh,” he concluded, “it means that they trust me not just to take them to a more serious place, but to bring them out and make them joyous and grateful when they leave.”

For Ehrenreich, his show is ultimately a “celebration.” He quotes Billy Crystal, who quipped that performing a show about his life was like “a visit with my family every night.”

About the Author was taken from http://www.jakeehrenreich.com/about-the-author.html and can be attributed to The Jewish Week.