Education/Lectures

Who the Heck Is Ida Gerskill? The Challenges of Researching Jewish Names

Sunday   TIME:  1:30 pm to

While most ethnic groups deal with name changes, Jewish individuals can have multiple names, even two or three versions of personal names with spelling variations. Jewish immigrants often had a Hebrew name, a Yiddish name, and sometimes a name in the language of their native country. All of the names can have different spellings.
Upon immigration to the United States, they might Americanize their names. There are no rules for how these changes occur. The same person can show up in various records with four or five different personal names. Similar changes occurred to family names during immigration.
The speaker will “provide strategies for puzzling them out using linguistic and commonsense clues and cues” with examples. Everyone researching Jewish ancestors will benefit from attending.

Location:

Godfrey Memorial Library
134 Newfield Street
Middletown, CT 06457

Cost:

Free

Contact:

860-638-3819
http://www.jgsct-jewish-genealogy.org/JGSCT/Home.html