Super Conference 2009: A Journey of Discovery – Review Part 1

Hello,

I’d like to give an overview of the four sessions that I was able to attend this past Friday. The Super Conference 2009: A Journey of Discovery was an highly informative event. Each speaker was able to provide takeaways and new ways to approach researching Eastern European genealogy.

After my arrival and check-in, I decided to visit the research room. There were many books, maps, and other Eastern European genealogical information to search through. Here I had the opportunity to meet and talk with Richard Lach (PGSA Director/Library) and his wife Teresa Lach (PGSA Membership/Program Notice Volunteer). The Lach’s were very nice people and were able to tell me more about the workings of the PGSA. We even shared stories stories of living in Polish communities in Milwaukee and Chicago.

The first session that I attended was “How to decipher Cyrillic lettering” by Sigrid Pohl Perry. I wanted to attend this sessions because some of my ancestors immigrated from the Russian partition of Poland. Sigrid has been actively involved in the Lublin Project, which is a project sponsored by the SGGEE that has been transcribing Russian language church records from Lublin’s Trinity Evangelical Church. Everyone in attendance received a translation packet that gave examples of parish records and translation aids. Sigrid stressed the importance of repetition and the use phonetics. Overall, Sigrid did a great job demonstrating the techniques that she uses while transcribing Russian language documents.

After this session, I was able to have an extended conversation with Sigrid regarding both of our genealogical researches. I also took the opportunity to ask a question regarding a word that I was having trouble with from a Russian marriage record. I am planning on creating a post specifically for that marriage record. I now have renewed hope!

The second session that I had attended was “Strategies for locating ancestral villages” by Ceil Wendt Jensen. This is the first of two sessions that I attended that were given by Cecil. During this session, Ceil spoke of various uses of maps and gazetteers. One online Prussian gazetteer tool that is extremely useful is Stephen S. Barthel’s East and West Prussia Gazetteer
Another great tool to find German place names is called “An Atlas of the German Empire” by Ludwig Ravenstein. Ceil also pointed to Google Maps, Kartenmeister, Mapa nazwisk, and WIG Map Archive as extremely helpful map tools.

Ceil gave three tips that were new to me during this session. They are listed below:

1) U.S. Library of Congress offers free maps if you request them through their “Ask a Librarian” link. The Library on Congress will send a map upon request, but you must provide the coordinates of your ancestral village.

2) Request a Land Record Packet – If your ancestor purchased land from a state in the U.S., you can purchase a Land Record packet that contains a wealth of information about the purchase. I believe this would be purchased at the state level. More information can be found at the U.S. National Archives.

3) Request a Naturalization Packet – Each Naturalization record contains a processing serial number. This serial number leads to a complete packet of information about your ancestors naturalization processing. More information can be found at the U.S. National Archives website.

My overview of the two sessions listed above are just summaries. To learn more in detail, please attend an event that these speakers are participating in. I do not do them justice.

More information about Ceil Wendt Jensen’s Michigan Polonia website.
More information about the Super Conference 2009: A Journey of Discovery’s speakers and programs can be found at FEEFHS website.

I will post Super Conference 2009: A Journey of Discovery – Review Part 2 shortly.

Best Regards,
Al