Jewish Genealogical Society of Toronto

JGS Toronto Central European SIG
2019-03-04 19:30 - 21:30 (America/Toronto) | Shaarei Shomayim Congregation, 470 Glencairn Ave., Toronto, Ontario, M5N 1V8, Canada
CENTRAL EUROPEAN SPECIAL INTEREST GROUP (SIG) MEETING
March 4th, 2019 at 7:30 pm
At Shaarei Shomayim, 470 Glencairn Avenue, Toronto
The Central European Special Interest Group will be meeting March 4th at Shaarei Shomayim at 7:30 pm.
We look forward to seeing you there.
For information, contact sigs@jstoronto.ca
Only JGS Toronto members may attend Special Interest Group meetings. Non-members may attend one trial SIG meeting.
Please remember that only kosher food items may be brought into Shaarei Shomayim.Also, please note that entry is through the north (parking lot) doors only.

JGS Toronto Ukraine SIG
2019-02-28 19:30 - 21:00 | Family History Centre, 24 Ferrand Drive, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Ukraine Special Interest Group (SIG) Meeting
Thursday, February 28, 2019 from 7:30 pm to 9:15 pm
Family History Centre
24 Ferrand Drive, Toronto

REVISED TOPIC: Emigration stories of our families from Ukraine.

I am looking for short presentations relating to the stories, evidence, and research materials you have collected about your family’s emigration from Ukraine.

Next steps: Please let me know by next Monday (February 25) if you wish to present your family’s emigration story at the next meeting. Your presentation should take 5 to 10 minutes, and you are free to use a short slide show (bring it on a memory stick), a handout, or simply speak about what you have learned. Please focus on tools and approaches that you have used while doing research about your family’s emigration to Canada (or other countries) from Ukraine. I will summarize our collective findings at the end of the meeting.

We will also have a short presentation by Jerry Scherer about how to become a power user of Google Translate in your research. It is very good and I’m sure we’ll all benefit from it.

Best wishes, and apologies for the confusion about our next meeting.
For information, contact Marla Waltman: mwaltman@jgstoronto.ca
Please remember that no outside foods or drinks are to be brought into the Family History Centre.
Only JGS Toronto members may attend Special Interest Group meetings. Non-members may attend one trial SIG meeting.
See you on the 28th!

Marla Waltman
Ukraine SIG Coordinator
mwaltman@jgstoronto.ca

JGS Toronto General Meeting: Workshop
2019-02-24 10:30 - 12:00 | Congregation Darchei Noam, 864 Sheppard Ave. West, Toronto, Ontario, M3H2T5, Canada
WORKSHOP
Reaching the Next Level in Your Research
Congregation Darchei Noam
864 Sheppard Avenue West
Sunday, February 24, 2019 from 10:30 am to 1:00 pm
Doors open at 10:00 am​
The workshop will include the following modules:
• How to find information using Google and other on-line tools
Example: discovering dates of border changes
• Going deeper into JRI-Poland.
• Investigating Ship Passenger Lists
• Storage of digitally obtained records on your own computer
• Finding the real family name back in Europe
• Sources for searching for Holocaust survivors
You are encouraged to bring your own laptop or tablet to the Workshop. Please charge it fully before the workshop as there are a limited number of outlets.
Please register for the workshop by e-mailing program@jgstoronto.ca Priority will be given to members of JGS Toronto (no cost) as registration is limited. Members should register by February 10, after which available spaces will be open to non-members at a registration fee of $15.00.

info@jgstoronto.ca ​ www.jgstoronto.ca​ Tel: 647-247-6414
twitter: jgsoftoronto facebook: Jewish Genealogical Society of Toronto

JGS TORONTO Lithuania, Latvia & Belarus SIG
2019-02-21 19:30 - 21:00 | Family History Centre, 24 Ferrand Drive, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
LITHUANIA-LATVIA-BELARUS SPECIAL INTEREST GROUP (SIG) MEETING
Thursday, February 21, 2019 at 7:30 pm
At the Family History Centre, 24 Ferrand Drive, Toronto
T4: The Tips, Tools, Techniques, and Technology to assist our members in their research. Bring your T4s with you and share your experience with our SIG.

We will be:
Ø Looking at Lithuanian Internal Passports.​
Ø Demonstrating the Google Translate Tool which can can be used to read Russian records and to correspond in a foreign language (e.g. Cyrillic, Polish and Hebrew).
Ø Learn how free and professional software tools are used to photo edit old, scratched photographs.
Ø Tackling PowerPoint and photo-shopping images (time permitting).

Don’t miss this your chance to learn and share your T4s: Tips, Tools, Techniques, Technology. See you on Thursday night, February 21st at 7:30 PM at the Family History Centre.
For information, contact sigs@jgstoronto.ca
Please remember that no outside foods or drinks are to be brought into the Family History Centre.
Only JGS Toronto members may attend Special Interest Group meetings. Non-membersmay attend one trial SIG meeting.

JGS Partners with Song Shul - Family History Shabbat- Song Shul
2019-02-16 09:00 - 12:30 | Bialik Hebrew Day School – Song Shul, 2760 Bathurst St., Toronto, Ontario, Canada
The Jewish Genealogical Society of Toronto partners with The Song Shul for Family History Shabbat on Saturday, February 16th, 2019. Come and experience the link between music and genealogy.
Musically inspirational Shabbat service, featuring Cantor Simon Spiro and the Toronto Festival Singers.
At Bialik Hebrew Day School, 2760 Bathurst Street, beginning at 9:00 am.
Kiddush following.

www.songshul.com

Poland SIG Meeting
2019-02-04 19:30 - 21:00 | Shaarei Shomayim Congregation, 470 Glencairn Ave., Toronto, Ontario, M5N 1V8, Canada
Venue: Shaarei Shomayim Congregation
Time: 7:30 pm
Sisterhood Hall

JGS Toronto General Meeting - DNA Ownership and privacy of genetic testing results
2019-01-27 10:30 - 12:30 | Shaarei Shomayim Congregation, 470 Glencairn Ave., Toronto, Ontario, M5N 1V8, Canada
Speaker: Julia Creet
Click on this link to see the details of Julia’s presentation
Venue: Shaarei Shomayim Congregation (see map below)
Doors Open: 10:00 a.m.
Sisterhood Hall

Ukraine SIG
2019-01-24 19:30 - 21:00 | Family History Centre, 24 Ferrand Drive, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Meeting details to follow.

Latvia, Lithuanian, Belarus SIG -Cancelled for Jan. 17th.
2019-01-17 19:30 | Family History Centre, 24 Ferrand Drive, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

DNA Special Interest Group (SIG)
2019-01-10 19:30 - 21:00, 2018-12-13 19:30 - 21:00, 2018-11-08 19:30 - 21:00 | Family History Centre, 24 Ferrand Drive, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Finding Your Roots - Season Debut
2019-01-08 20:00 - 21:00 | Ontario
Finding Your Roots, with Henry Louis Gates, begins its new season on January 8, 2019 at 8:00 PM ET on your local PBS station. Check your local station guide. This is the fifth season of the show—the episode guide may be found at:
http://www.pbs.org/weta/finding-your-roots/about/season-5-episode-guide/
The new season includes Andy Samberg, Sheryl Sandberg, Sarah Silverman and many more. The ten episodes will have 26 guests learning about their family history.
see: https://www.pbs.org/video/season-5-preview-uv6am6/

Lithuania Belarus SIG
2018-12-20 19:30 - 21:00 | Family History Centre, 24 Ferrand Drive, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

JGS General Meeting - Drowning in Data: Some Survival Techniques
2018-12-12 20:00 - 21:30 | Shaarei Shomayim Congregation, 470 Glencairn Ave., Toronto, Ontario, M5N 1V8, Canada
Speaker: Les Kelman
Click on this link to view the details of Les’ presentation
Doors open 7:30 pm
Location: Shaarei Shomayim Congregation (see map)
Sisterhood Hall

Accessing Records From Ukraine - General Meeting
2018-11-28 19:30 - 21:00 | Congregation Darchei Noam, 864 Sheppard Ave. West, Toronto, Ontario, M3H2T5, Canada
Jewish Genealogical Society of Toronto.
Challenges in Accessing Records from Ukraine
Speaker: Dr. Janette Silverman
Doors open at 7:30 pm (*Note the location – Darchei Noam Congregation – see the map)
Research and travel in Ukraine is different from traveling through Canada, the US, and many other places in Europe. Dr. Silverman will speak of some challenges for travelers and researchers and how to avoid/overcome them, and prepare for a visit.
Examples of visits to several archives in Ukraine will be discussed, and samples of documents found in the archives will be reviewed. Conditions of cemeteries will be briefly touched on, and what can be done to preserve what is still standing.Dr. Silverman will also discuss how some Ukrainian archival material can be accessed without travel to Ukraine.
Using the video conferencing technology of a GoToMeeting, Dr. Silverman will speak to us from either Utah (work) or Arizona (home) in real time via the internet (click here for full details). There will be ample opportunity for questions and answers.
Dr. Silverman holds a doctorate of Jewish Studies specializing in Jewish genealogical research from Spertus Institute in Chicago. She is a Senior Genealogist/Research Team Manager providing private client research for ProGenealogist, a division of Ancestry.com, focusing on Eastern European and Jewish research.
Janette is a volunteer JewishGen Ukraine SIG Coordinator and moderator of the JewishGen Discussion Group. In 2017 she was JewishGen Volunteer of the Year, as well as Chair of the 2016 International Association of Jewish Genealogical Societies (IAJGS) Conference in Seattle, Washington. In August 2018 she led a group of researchers to the archives in Lithuania, Ukraine Moldova, Romania and Poland.

Members: Free Guests: $5
info@jgstoronto.ca www.jgstoronto.ca Tel: 647-247-6414

Learn The Real Story - Ontario's South African Immigrants
2018-11-26 19:00 - 21:00 | Lipa Green Building, Sherman Campus, 4600 Bathurst St., Toronto, 4600 Bathurst St., Toronto, Ontario, Canada
The Ontario Jewish Archives is presenting a panel program on South Africa’s contribution to Ontario’s Jewish population. Over 500 former South Africans contributed personal materials, oral histories etc.
The event will include a lively panel discussion.
RSVP ojainquiries@ujafed.org to secure your seats

Click here for more information: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1khKpw5dWuBkKV53erMW1_1VZ2qK1IeOI/view?usp=sharing

Ukraine SIG - Tonight’s meeting has been cancelled
2018-11-22 19:30 - 21:30 | Family History Centre, 24 Ferrand Drive, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Meeting details to be announced.

Kensington Market and the Great War
2018-11-06 18:00 - 20:00 | Lillian Smith Branch, Toronto Public Library, 239 College St., Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Please mark November 6 on your calendars for our next Kensington Market Historical Society event, “100 Years Ago: Kensington Market and the Great War”.
6:00 – 8:00 pm at the Lillian H. Smith Branch, Toronto Public Library.

Click here for details

Holocaust Education Week - An Introduction of Genealogy & The SCHERER Story
2018-11-04 13:00 - 15:00 | Beth Jacob Synagogue, 161 Stirling Ave., Kitchener, Ontario, Canada
Location: Beth Jacob Synagogue (** Note: This event is in Kitchener – please see the map below)
Speaker: Jerry Scherer
Jerry Scherer, son of Holocaust survivors, was born in Siberia in 1945. He and his parents spent 3 years in a Displaced Persons camp before emigrating to Montreal in 1949.
Click here to see the details of his talk.

Cancellation Notice: Central European SIG
2018-10-29 19:30 - 21:30 | Shaarei Shomayim Congregation, 470 Glencairn Ave., Toronto, Ontario, M5N 1V8, Canada
Cancellation Notice:
The first meeting of the Fall for the Central European SIG will not be taking place as scheduled due to the illness of the speaker.
Date: Oct. 29, 2018
Start: 7:30 pm.

Limmud - Festival of Jewish Learning, Culture and the Arts
2018-10-28 | Ontario
Faculty of Law, 78 Queens Park Circle. See the Limmud website for details.
Click here to see details of JGS Toronto speakers: Debbie Sacrob and Jerry Scherer

General Meeting: The Saddest Stories in the World - Yizkor Books and How to Use Them in Genealogy
2018-10-24 20:00 - 21:30 | Shaarei Shomayim Congregation, 470 Glencairn Ave., Toronto, Ontario, M5N 1V8, Canada
Speaker: Steven Brock
Doors open at 7:30 pm
Location: Shaarei Shomayim Congregation (see map below)
Venue: Sisterhood Hall
Jewish history is filled with terrifying stories of oppression, persecution and mistreatment. Over the centuries, Jews have been subjected to libel, discrimination, pogroms, expulsions, and, in the worst cases, mass murder. In order to remember bygone communities and individuals, Jews have always kept records of these tragedies in Memorial or Yizkor books. Following the Holocaust, hundreds of Yizkor books were written and published to memorialize the thousands of European Jewish communities destroyed by the Nazis.
Join Steven Brock as he recounts the origins of Yizkor books, where to find and how to understand them, and how to use them to research your ancestral homes and the lost members of your family tree.
Steven Brock has been researching his family roots in Poland and Russia for over 20 years and has traced his ancestors back to the late 1700s. He was a member of the Montreal JGS until he moved with his family to Oakville in 1999. He has been a member of the Hamilton Jewish Genealogical Society since its inception in 2004, where he serves as Treasurer. In addition to his own research, he has been involved in several projects including the Jewish Records Indexing – Poland, The Canadian Naturalization Database Indexing, and the JewishGen Online Worldwide Burial Registry.
Click here for a more complete outline of Steven’s lecture: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1dUC26FUeSbOONhOAQ5pZ3pDKuhCJBElS/view?usp=sharing

Members: Free Guests: $5
info@jgstoronto.ca www.jgstoronto.ca Tel: 647-247-6414

Poland Special Interest Group - First Meeting of the Fall
2018-10-22 19:30 - 21:00 | Shaarei Shomayim Congregation, 470 Glencairn Ave., Toronto, Ontario, M5N 1V8, Canada
The next meeting of the Poland Special Interest Group will be held at Shaarei Shomayim Congregation on Monday Oct. 22nd
Time: 7:30 pm

Free RomWalk - Kensington
2018-10-21 15:30 - 17:00 | Ontario
Wander through what was once the old Jewish Market, past late Victorian buildings and onto the campus of the University of Toronto. Memories of times past mix with the modern life of condos, restaurants and music.
This walk is free and registration is not required – just show up.
The walk takes place rain or shine, and is approximately 90 minutes to 2 hours long.
ROMWalks is organized by the Royal Ontario Museum’s Department of Museum Volunteers to provide support for the Museum.

DNA - Special Interest Group - Meeting Cancelled
2018-10-11 19:30 - 21:00 | Family History Centre, 24 Ferrand Drive, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
The first meeting of the Fall for the DNA SIG at the Family History Centre scheduled on Oct. 11 has been cancelled. The first meeting will take place November 8th.
Eric is planning to do a follow-up of Henry Wellisch’s DNA testing results (his Y-chromosome and mitochondrial haplogroups, and his AncestryDNA results vs. FamilyTreeDNA), and a recap of the Genetic Genealogy Foundations series to refresh memories and answer new questions.

Also, instead of just going through that Foundations series again, I thought it’d be fun and timely to start a new series where we explore genetic genealogy’s legal, privacy, and related issues. I’ve done a lot of research and thinking about this, but don’t have any definitive conclusions because so much depends on personal priorities and feelings. So I’ll share what I’ve learned and we can discuss.

Rich Genealogical Resources in Toronto for Doing East European Genealogy
2018-10-09 19:00 - 21:00 | St Vladomir Institute, 620 Spadina Ave., Toronto, Ontario, Canada
The Toronto Ukrainian Genealogy Group invites you to hear Sonia Tkachuk van Heerden speak on “The Rich Genealogical Resources in Toronto for Doing East European Genealogy”
Do you need to go to Ukraine or Poland to find records of your ancestors going back ten or more generations? No you don’t!
In Toronto You can access genealogical records going back hundreds of years. This data is accessible through Institutions such as: the Family History Centre, Metro Toronto Reference Library, City of Toronto Archives, Archives of Ontario, St. Vladimir Library, the Ukrainian Canadian Research and Documentation Centre and other libraries.
You can access items such as: genealogy guidebooks, historical maps of the world, city directories, Canadian and foreign telephone directories, old country village descriptions, historical ethnic newspapers and documents, voting lists, immigration lists, ship passenger lists, census records, historical atlases and gazetteers, Ukrainian and Polish history books, digitized foreign newspapers, Displaced Persons collections, the Canadian Internment Collection, Holodomor Collection, property tax records, Ontario Vital Statistics and many, many old photos.
When: Tuesday, October 9 2018
From 7:30 – 9:30 pm
Where: St Vladimir Institute.
620 Spadina Avenue, Toronto, Ontario.
Contact: (905) 841-6707

Lithuania-Belarus-Latvia Special Interest Group
2018-10-04 19:30 - 21:00 | Family History Centre, 24 Ferrand Drive, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
The next meeting of the Lithuania SIG will be Oct. 4th.
Venue: Family History Centre
Time:7:30 pm

Ukraine SIG
2018-09-27 19:30 - 21:00 | Family History Centre, 24 Ferrand Drive, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
The next meeting of the Ukraine SIG will take place at the Family History Centre on Sept 27.
Time 7:30 pm

Finding My Potter Family
2018-09-16 10:00 - 12:00 | Shaarei Shomayim Congregation, 470 Glencairn Ave., Toronto, Ontario, M5N 1V8, Canada
O Canada!
Finding My Potter Family

Speaker: Cindy Potter Taylor

Shaarei Shomayim, 470 Glencairn Avenue, Toronto
Sunday, September 16, 2018 at 10:30 am
Doors open at 10:00 am

With Jewish Genealogy, spelling has always been, and will always be, a problem in searching for one’s mishpocha. Cindy Potter Taylor will show us step by step how she learned to spell family names in different time periods eventually leading to the discovery of her Potter family in Canada.

Cindy Potter Taylor is president of the Jewish Genealogical Society of Palm Beach County, Florida. She began her genealogy quest, in earnest, in 2003 following the untimely death of her sister. After 15 years of challenging research, she is coming to Toronto in September to meet some of her newly found Potter relatives. Cindy is eager to share her journey of discovery with JGS Toronto as it was one of our members, Neil Richler, whom she happened to find via Ancestry who assisted her in her Canadian research.

Members: Free Guests: $5
info@jgstoronto.ca www.jgstoronto.ca Tel: 647-247-6414
twitter: jgsoftoronto facebook: Jewish Genealogical Society of Toronto
