Rabbi Mike Pertain and Toby Sanchez facilitated an informative workshop on February 15th. It was a well-received follow-up to our interfaith trip to Ellis Island on Columbus Day last fall. Through a fascinating PowerPoint presentation, Rabbi Pertain showed us how he was able to research the life of a cousin he only recently discovered when he made a cemetery visit and read the name and age of death from a tombstone. Through census records, New York Times archives, internet search engines, court records, and a death certificate, Rabbi Pertain discovered that his cousin was a boxer who lived in New York almost 100 years ago; he grew up in a reformatory, and was shot to death when he was 18 years old. He even found out who shot him and what happened to his murderer.

Toby Sanchez then shared how she has organized her research by creating an information folder for each relative she tracks. She told us about Family Tree Maker, a software program that can be an excellent tool for organizing and sharing information. It is also possible to get information from the NY Public Library's to Ancestry.com, another invaluable resource. Toby talked to us about interviewing our own relatives as a genealogy resource that we often overlook. She prepared a wonderful handout that included ways we can conduct our own interviews. Many who attended the workshop shared their own fascinating family discoveries, including Father Michael Perry from Our Lady of Refuge, who told us his father's name was not listed correctly on the ship's manifest leaving from Hamburg, Germany. Through a persistent search Father Perry was finally able to find his father's name—listed quite differently—on the manifest.

All who attended agreed that the workshop was extremely helpful for people who had no idea how to begin or for people who have already begun some research. Special thanks to Rabbi Mike Pertain and Toby Sanchez.

Sally Hipscher