Schedule of Upcoming Events

Please note: Meeting times, dates, locations and speakers are subject to change.

Information is regularly updated. 

Our meetings will be in-person AND online whenever possible and safe, and for members who do not live near the Philadelphia area.

 

Our events are USUALLY scheduled on the same day and time each month, e.g., first Monday for Everything Genealogy. However, they might be moved to another week to work around Jewish or national holidays or other events. Our presentations/speakers may vary depending on the speaker’s availability.

 

 

Sunday, October 19, 2025

1:30 PM (1 pm for Schmoozing and Mentoring)

Zoom Meeting

 

Speaker: Phyllis Berenson, Director of JewishGen’s Ukraine Research Division

 

Phyllis serves as JewishGen Ukraine Research Division Director, which has added 4 million records to the JewishGen database in the last 2.5 years. She founded the Mogilev Podolskiy and Shargorod town research groups and is Town Leader for both.

 

Her checkered employment history includes social worker, bookstore owner, carpenter’s assistant, professional harpist, trust, estates and tax lawyer, as well as symphony orchestra manager. She is thrilled to finally have the opportunity to use her Russian language background in her Ukraine work at JewishGen.

 

Topic: Ukraine Genealogy Research in 2025: New Sources and Tips

 

Opportunities for finding ancestral information in Ukraine records are increasing, even as war continues in Ukraine. The Ukraine Research Division of JewishGen expects to double its transcription rate and the resulting output for researchers, beginning in the second half of 2025. Phyllis Berenson, Director of the Ukraine Research Division will discuss the newly available records, how to access them, and research tips.

Sunday, November 16, 2025

1:30 PM (1 pm for Schmoozing and Mentoring)

Hybrid Meeting – In Person Venue Reform Congregation Keneseth Israel, Elkins Park, PA

 

Speaker: Sydney Cruice, Professional Genealogist

 

Sydney F. Cruice is a professional genealogy researcher, writer, teacher and international lecturer with over 25 years of experience. She has lectured at many Institutes and conferences including: IAJGS, IGGP, SLIG, IGHR, RFIPA. For over seven years she developed the curriculum and taught the genealogy courses at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania. She also served as the President of the Association of Professional Genealogists for the Greater Philadelphia Area Chapter for the past 6 years. Sydney’s article, “A Family Secret: Desertion, Scurvy, and President Lincoln” was the featured cover story for NGS Magazine in October of 2018.

 

Topic: Utilizing Probate Records to Solve Family Mysteries

 

Probate records can solve many of the toughest genealogy mysteries. They often describe family relationships and can give you clues to the relationships in multiple generations. We will discuss the probate process and the best ways to access these records. We go through case studies to show how you can maximize their information by using them with other genealogical sources.

 

 

Sunday, December 21, 2025

1:30 PM (1 pm for Schmoozing and Mentoring)

Zoom Meeting

 

Speaker: Robinn Magid, President, Jewish Records Indexing – Poland

 

Robinn Magid is the head of JRI-Poland.org and serves as the project manager of the NextGen project which has already succeeded in replacing the old website and is now focused on converting JRI-Poland to a more modern database and search results system with extended features and abilities. Robinn is a past chair of two landmark IAJGS conferences: the 2018 Warsaw Conference and 2020 First Virtual IAJGS Conference. She is a recipient of the IAJGS Lifetime Achievement Award and a member of the SFBA-JGS. Robinn lives in Berkeley, California.

 

Topic: 18th, 19th and 20th Century Research with JRI-Poland

 

The JRI-Poland data collections can help genealogists draw a more complete picture of their ancestors’ lives. Come learn how we are exploring whatever traces we can find of our ancestors’ presence in the current or former territories of Poland. This official JRI-Poland session will highlight the breadth and depth of the JRI-Poland database including vital records population and legal records surviving from the Kingdom of Poland, the Russian, Prussian and Galician Empire. Join us for a glimpse into the past! A question-and-answer session will be included in this lively session.

 

 

Sunday, January 18, 2026

1:30 PM (1 pm for Schmoozing and Mentoring)

Zoom Meeting

 

Speaker: Deborah Long, Professional Educator and Author

 

Deborah Long has been researching her family history and searching for surviving family members for more than 60 years.  She started as a ten-year-old, writing to the International Red Cross. Both of her parents were Holocaust survivors and were in some of the worst places imaginable:  Auschwitz, Bergen Belsen, Buchenwald and more. 

 

Deborah is a professional educator and speaker, though typically her audiences are licensed professionals who are required to attend real estate continuing education programs. She has written more than 20 books, including a memoir about growing up as a child of survivors titled “First Hitler, Then Your Father, and Now You.”  She earned her doctorate in adult education. She is the founder and first president of Triangle JGS of North Carolina (Chapel Hill/Durham/Raleigh).

 

Topic: Out of the Whirlwind:  Resources for Holocaust Research

 

The daughter of two Holocaust survivors, Deborah Long reviews the best (as well as some of the obscure) resources and methods for determining the fate of those involved in the Holocaust, including survivors and victims. Deborah will use examples from her own research to demonstrate the documents and artifacts she discovered to determine her family’s fate

 

 

 

SPECIAL EVENT

Sunday, February 22, 2026

9:00 AM to 5:30 PM

Zoom Session

 

A Day of Learning – In Memory of Evan Fishman Z”L

 

Speakers/Teachers: TBA

 

Topics: TBA

 

JGASGP will offer to members only at no cost a full-day virtual seminar covering two topics of great importance to members no matter their level of experience. There will be two workshops in the morning geared to less experienced genealogists, a break at mid-day, and two workshops in the afternoon geared to more experienced genealogists. Members can choose to attend any or all of these four workshops.

 

JGASGP will contract with two of the best minds in the two chosen fields.