How Volunteer Genealogy Improved my Research Skills, Strengthened My Family Relations, and Created New Tools
Gary Perlman, Webmaven for JGS-Montreal.org
- Volunteer Genealogy
- Bio
- Plan for the Talk
- My Family Tree Research
- Volunteer Genealogy Sessions
- Volunteer Genealogy Products
- Family Tree Chart
- Family Tree Chart - Annotated for Me
- Family Origin Google Map
- Marriage Record - Drouin
- Canadian Jewish Review Article
- Timelines with Documents at Geni.com
- Geni.com Printed Family Tree
- Volunteer Genealogy Lessons Learned
- Volunteer Genealogy Highlights
- Volunteer Genealogy Amusements
- Harder Volunteer Genealogy Lessons
- Volunteer Genealogy Stats
- Volunteer Genealogy Workflow
- Genealogy Dashboard
- Startup Genealogy Dashboard
- Genealogy Dashboard - Filled, Census
- Genealogy Dashboard - Naturalization
- Genealogy Dashboard - Quebec & Montreal
- Genealogy Dashboard - Death & Burial
- Genealogy Dashboard - Jewish
- Genealogy Dashboard - General
- Genealogy Dashboard - Family Trees
- Genealogy Dashboard - Complete
- Genealogy Dashboard - Example
- Dashboard Example - Montreal Circuit Court Naturalizations
- Dashboard Example - Nothing Found
- Dashboard Example - Read the Pop-up Help, Truncate Search
- Dashboard Example - Eureka!? Cross-check with 1911 Census
- Dashboard Example - The Whole Mishpocha at 5 Vallee
- Dashboard Example - What was the address for Abram Perelman?
- My Cousins' Genealogy
- Family Group with Immigration Story
- Schmulick or Shmulik
- Next Generation Tools - Dashboard for Group
- Next Generation Tools - Tabular Checklist
- A Story of Synergy in Cote Saint-Luc, QC
- Synergy - Wagar Reunion in 2004
- Synergy - Beth Zion Congregation Cemetery
- Synergy - Wagar High School Yearbooks
- Synergy - Relatives at Wagar
- Acknowledgements
1. Volunteer Genealogy
I've done volunteer genealogy at a geriatric centre for a dozen residents
and their families.
The research goes in different directions for each person,
according to their life stories, interests, and abilities,
all of which can be amazing.
I'll discuss how I gather information from them,
what they generally like,
and how their families get involved.
During the process, I improved my research skills.
After a year of building family trees with many source documents,
I decided to grow my own family tree.
I researched the immigration stories of all my cousins' grandparents,
bringing us all closer.
I even developed some tools to make my research more productive,
but with less effort, which I'll share with you.
2. Bio
Gary Perlman grew up in Cote Saint-Luc,
where he attended Wagar High School,
across the street from the Maimonides Geriatric Centre,
where he now does volunteer genealogy research for its residents.
His ancestors all immigrated to Montreal and naturalized over a century ago.
Gary left Montreal to go to university in the United States,
and he lived there and worked in information technology for 30 years.
In 2003, he moved back to Montreal with his wife and two sons.
He continued to work on web-based search services until his retirement in 2013.
3. Plan for the Talk
4. My Family Tree Research
- My ancestors immigrated over 100 years ago from Russia (Belarus, Ukraine) and Romania.
All naturalized.
- An afternoon with my grandmother
- preserved online for decades before use
- Used MyHeritage family tree for years
- because it was free
- eventually subscribed to larger tree, some data
- Like Ancestry.com research
- especially when free promotion
- had Canadian subscription, later World
- Used Geni.com
- most likely to connect to family, so informally kept partial tree
- JGS-Montreal Sunday Morning Family Tree Workshops
- Learned about many more resources
- I took notes, tried resources, found family records
- I didn't do great job at organizing what I found
- Still, I learned a nice set of "tricks"
5. Volunteer Genealogy Sessions
- Start with names, dates, places
- Meet 1 hour/week, 10+ hours research (per client)
- Photograph gravestones, weather permitting
footstone inaccessible December - March
- Store info at Geni.com (free!)
- Too much information to keep in folders
- I set up email and "pose" as client
- Deliver pictures of graves, records, ...
- Started in front of computer, but stopped
- hard to see, even accommodated
- unavailable printouts frustrating
- tedious to go through results
6. Volunteer Genealogy Products
- For privacy, examples are from my family
- Two binders to hold what we find
- mine for work, theirs for delivery
- Colour printing on nice paper
- Spine with all the family names
- important for me to quickly recall family names
- difficult with two clients, but sometimes I work with four
7. Family Tree Chart
- Geni chart gives nice overview of heritage
- another good way to keep track of names
- Photos in tree come later, if at all
- I never use gravestones or documents as photos
8. Family Tree Chart - Annotated for Me
- Easy for me to forget these details
- Gravestone location, filled when photographed
- Naturalizations requested, filled when processed
- Dates - birth, marriage, death
- Siblings - how many / names
9. Family Origin Google Map
- Map of towns of origin on back of binder
- helps keep track of what is known
10. Marriage Record - Drouin
- My favourite document to find
- mini family tree on one page!
- Maybe shows age and country of origin of parties
- occupation of groom
- All four parents' birth names, living status
- Signatures of parties
- useful to check against what Rabbi wrote
- Sometimes interesting witnesses sign names
- fathers, brothers(-in-law)
- Good resolution colour available for 1898-1912
11. Canadian Jewish Review Article
- Lots of fabrics and flowers
- some clients make fun of them
- But lots of names
- many relatives
- out-of-town guests
12. Timelines with Documents at Geni.com
- Geni.com good at showing photos, fair at showing documents
- Documents, not photos, can be used as sources at Geni.com
- Gravestones are large, heavy documents
- maybe people get confused because they have a photo of a document
- I use a trick to show availability of source document:
- Describe With information available on document (e.g., Hebrew name on gravestone)
13. Geni.com Printed Family Tree
- Delivered rolled up
- Two to Ten Pages, cut & pasted (taped)
- Sometimes delivered with magnifying glass
- By far, the most popular deliverable
14. Volunteer Genealogy Lessons Learned
- Letter of introduction
- No agenda - but some preferences
- Want to capture clients' unique knowledge
- Client frailties (hearing, vision, coordination, memory)
- Everything clients say is valuable
- Never contradict (sometimes difficult)
- Your aunt was 40 years alder than your father, her brother
- Clients get verklempt
- "I never knew that name"
- "That's his signature!"
- Recent facts hard to recall, distant past easier
- many can't recall names of grandchildren, get upset
- immediate answers about addresses from 70 years ago
- Bury some details - some found, some spoken
- "She had a beautiful singing voice" - added to profile
- "What a gonnif!" - not added to profile
- I am not there to judge them or their family
- at most, I will agree
- Printed documents
- print with summary information
- Client assignments
- get birth and marriage dates, email addresses
- Family involvement - variable
- some come to interviews
- some call me at home
- most are passive
- Keeping track is hard but crucial
- sometimes working in 5+ family trees at once
- Spend pocket change on clients
- I bear cost of subscriptions, colour printing
- - largest cost is binder and naturalization file requests
15. Volunteer Genealogy Highlights
- 1500+ relatives found on Geni.com in a week, back to mid 1700s
- client appeared 3 times in tree, as her own mother!
- Scanned wedding album, tagged every person
- family with be thankful someday
- example of capturing client unique knowledge
- printed family tree has many pictures
- Phone calls to Italy; email to Israel
- Relatives phone me, 3rd/4th cousins help
- client was not interested in distant cousins
- From "very small family" to "kinda small family"
- finished research with 647 people in tree; 134 blood relatives
- we found enough family to change her opinion
- Connections to my family, friends
- Visits to the lunchroom
- where everyone knows your name
16. Volunteer Genealogy Amusements
- "Who ARE you? Reveal yourself!"
- from: "I know my mother is not doing this!"
- to: "Words cannot express my gratitude!"
- "My parents owned a candy shop"
- was a restaurant in Lovell's, maybe with candy at the cash
- "My uncle was named Peter, but we called him Passie."
- it was Paul, Jewish name Pesach (Passie)
- nothing a client says is completely wrong
- "I'm not interested in his side!"
- but your daughters are interested
- "How do you know that?"
- they wrote to you
- And you have a brother named Zurach?
- he had one brother, with Jewish name Zurach
- I thought that there were two brothers
- Do you have any other names?
- different nickname for every family member, business name
- Your aunt was forty years older than your father
- she might have been your father's aunt
- but never contradict, so we called he his aunt
- Widows in Lovell's Directory
- listed as widow, but husband is alive, so separated
- Complaints about large printed family trees
- so large, and the print is so small
17. Harder Volunteer Genealogy Lessons
- Cancellations, without notice
- only allowed 2 or 3 times, 4 tops
- Stopped due to child's privacy concerns
- after 7 naturalization files requested (delivered on CD)
- Great nephew offended by email contact instead of phone
- apologized profusely, took full responsibility
- Client's ex concerned about me contacting son
- apologized profusely, took full responsibility
- Half of couple not interested
- did what I could
- Stories, labour-intensive, not of interest, discontinued
- traced parents' immigration, lives
- Printing naturalization files, only if easy to read
- provide an extraction of the text
18. Volunteer Genealogy Stats
- 12 Clients
- Ages 49-97 (average 85)
- All but one Jewish
- Three Holocaust-related
- One married couple
- more than twice the effort of one person
- Two stopped early, others keep going
- new information comes online
- Two passed away, 4 shivas, once pallbearer
- Family Trees:
- 4576 people (385/client)
- 2016 blood relatives (168/client)
- 104 ancestors (8.6/client)
- 525 documents (44/client)
19. Volunteer Genealogy Workflow
- Start with names, parents names, dates and places
- Find documents based on dates and places
- Find proof of death for access to records
- many records only accessible 20 years after death
- gravestones are good proof and good source of information
- JOWBR records are also acceptable
- obts are acceptable and great source of information
- Request naturalization files ASAP
- they take a month to arrive via email
- Then work on filling in details
20. Genealogy Dashboard
- I started volunteer genealogy with page of resources with links
- I used a few of my own search forms (e.g., Mobile JOWBR)
- circumvent slow pages leading to form
- overcome limitations of forms (e.g., inability to edit query)
21. Startup Genealogy Dashboard
- Search syntax described in ? help notes
- More info on resources in tooltips / print preview
- Options to hide help, manage windows
22. Genealogy Dashboard - Filled, Census
- Main Idea: Enter Name Once, Search Many Databases
- Links to sections of Dashboard (Census, ..., Burial, ...)
- Each resource has link to website, cost, geographical limits, date range, ...
23. Genealogy Dashboard - Naturalization
24. Genealogy Dashboard - Quebec & Montreal
25. Genealogy Dashboard - Death & Burial
- 3 sources of obituaries (note date ranges)
- 5½ sources of burials
- JewishData.com subscription (with photos) / free (without)
26. Genealogy Dashboard - Jewish
- NEW indicator
- temporary search during transition
27. Genealogy Dashboard - General
- Google Newspapers includes Montreal Gazette (1878-2006)
- Facebook is a surprisingly useful resource
- Phone directories are often useful
28. Genealogy Dashboard - Family Trees
- Don't duplicate research that someone else has done
- Tree manager might be a relative
- Searches are done through Google, limited to website
29. Genealogy Dashboard - Complete
- 73 Resources (unless more have been added)
- Viewed sideways for your convenience
30. Genealogy Dashboard - Example
31. Dashboard Example - Montreal Circuit Court Naturalizations
32. Dashboard Example - Nothing Found
33. Dashboard Example - Read the Pop-up Help, Truncate Search
34. Dashboard Example - Eureka!? Cross-check with 1911 Census
35. Dashboard Example - The Whole Mishpocha at 5 Vallee
36. Dashboard Example - What was the address for Abram Perelman?
37. My Cousins' Genealogy
- My clients had better sources than my family, so...
- I gathered many docs (781), connected with cousins
- Date/Place of Birth/Immigration/Naturalization/Marriage/Death
- Created Family Groups with stories
38. Family Group with Immigration Story
- Note: over a dozen family groups
- Checklist of sourced info on birth, marriage, naturalization, death
- Many spellings of towns of origin
- correct answer depends on date, locale, language
- Two spellings of family name: Schmulick/Shmulik
- correct one is: either/neither → Yiddish
39. Schmulick or Shmulik
- Schmulick is on Sam's gravestone
- Children naturalized as either
- One daughter naturalized as Shmulik, then Schmulick
- Sam naturalized as Shmulik, so check signature
40. Next Generation Tools - Dashboard for Group
- Genealogy Dashboard = research one person
- Simple file of names and other info (Geni, Obit, ...)
- Generates page of links into Genealogy Dashboard
- Bulk Genealogy™
- Helps track what has been / needs to be researched
- too visually busy when tracking a lt of information, so...
41. Next Generation Tools - Tabular Checklist
- Names are indented according to generation
- Tabular display shows what is missing
- Similar to a family group display
42. A Story of Synergy in Cote Saint-Luc, QC
- I grew up in Cote Saint-Luc, went to Wagar High School
- Maimonides Geriatric Centre was across the street from Wagar
- 2004 Wagar High School Reunion
- Beth Zion Congregation cemetery
- Wagar High School Yearbooks
43. Synergy - Wagar Reunion in 2004
- Grew up in Cote Saint-Luc, went to Wagar
- Left Quebec to avoid CEGEP
- Lived in the United States for 30 years
- Moved back in time for Reunion
- Created a Website/CD-ROM
- Scanned some yearbooks
44. Synergy - Beth Zion Congregation Cemetery
- Located in the middle of Cote Saint-Luc
- Burials in Eternal Gardens, Beaconsfield, QC
- Classmates' families, even classmates
- Some volunteer genealogy clients' families
- Many Holocaust survivors
- Photographed and indexed in fall 2016 with Merle Kastner
- drove Merle a little crazy because I wanted everything perfect
45. Synergy - Wagar High School Yearbooks
- Wagar High School Facebook Group - 1611 members
- Had scanned some yearbooks for reunion; asked for more
- Someone lent me more, including 1st 4 years (1965, 66, 67, 68)
- Found a stash in the former Wagar library - scanned
- Almost all scanned (4492 pages, 8587 names)
- Indexed for display and search, PDFs indexed by Google
- Some Maimonides clients' relatives attended Wagar
- 21 of my cousins or their spouses went to Wagar
- My snowbird 2nd cousin taught at Wagar for 30 years, advised on yearbooks, has a set
- More About Wagar.ca
46. Synergy - Relatives at Wagar
. Acknowledgements
More infrormation:
Thanks to: