Uncovering Family Roots at the Jewish Museum of Buffalo
By: Annemiek Kashindi
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| Rachel Nicolosi, director of genealogy and archives at the Jewish Museum of Buffalo |
Learning about family history can help people understand where they come from. The Jewish Museum of Buffalo is giving the public a new place to start that journey with the opening of the Stuart and Caren Shapiro Jewish Genealogy Center on Oct. 18. The center will allow people to research their family history using online databases, historical records and help from trained genealogists.
Rachel Nicolosi, director of genealogy and archives, said the center has different resources that people can use to learn more about their family history. All the resources will include Ancestry, MyHeritage, Newspapers.com, FamilySearch and JewishGen. These websites will help people find information about their relatives and learn more about their family backgrounds.
Appointments help the center prepare for people to come and connect them to the correct resources available and research needs. By scheduling an appointment it will give the center time to prepare for each person’s visit. People may come in with different questions about their family history, and some may come in with no prior knowledge of where to begin. With the information provided from visitors the center can help them find useful research options and records that will make the process easier to follow especially for those who are getting into genealogy for the first time.
“I can set up a time for them to work with one of our trained genealogists,” Nicolosi said.
The center is also preparing volunteers to assist with genealogy research. With training during the summer, a genealogist came in and helped community volunteers. This group includes retired librarians, teachers, and people who have researched their own family history. Librarians and teachers are familiar with finding information in historical records, while people who have researched their own ancestry can share what they have learned on their own journey.
With additional training, volunteers can use these skills to help the public understand the genealogy center's resources. Though some volunteers already have more experience with historical research, the training helps them develop specific skills within genealogy. With their new found knowledge it will help visitors research records and databases as they search for information.
Now opening to the public, the center welcomes anyone who is interested in learning more about their family history. With access to different resources and trained volunteers, you can begin your journey to find out more about your family.
For people interested in visiting and exploring their ancestry, the center provides a starting point for questions about genealogy and the research process which will involve tracing connections between relatives with the available databases that will help people in their search for information on their families.
For more information you can contact Nicolosi at rachel@jmbuffalo.org to ask about scheduling an appointment. More information about the center is available on the Jewish Museum of Buffalo’s website.
Additional clip: youtube.com/watch?feature=shared&v=MsKMTzmnbdQ
