JGSGO presents 'Smarter Searching on Ancestory.com'

The Jewish Genealogical Society of Greater Orlando’s next program, at 1 p.m. Sunday, June 23, will be “Smarter Searching on Ancestry.com.” An Ancestry.com expert, Crista Cowan, will be the facilitator.

Shaky leaf hints. Global searches. Database specific. Fuzzy. Exact. These are just a few of the ways to locate records on Ancestry.com. You can search by person or location. You can use the Card Catalog to discover what is online before you begin your search. You can change your collection priority to focus on records specific to your Jewish ancestry and utilize the Daitch-Mokotoff Soundex. These are just some of the tips that Cowan will share as she helps you find all of the information available about your ancestors on Ancestory.com. She will be speaking over the Internet from Ancestry.com’s headquarters in Salt Lake City, Utah.

The monthly meeting is at the social hall of Southwest Orlando Jewish Congregation in Orlando. It is open to the public. Admission is $5 for non-members. Free for members.

Cowan has been employed at Ancestry.com, the company that sponsors the popular TV series, “Who Do You Think You Are?” and is the leader in the market for online family history research with more than 2.5 million subscribers, since 2004. Her interest in family history, however, reaches all the way back to childhood.  She is a popular genealogy teacher.  You can watch her live Internet show, “The Barefoot Genealogist,” at 1 p.m. Tuesdays and Thursdays on http://livestream.com/ancestry.

Ancestry.com has partnered with JewishGen, the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC), the American Jewish Historical Society and The Miriam Weiner Routes to Roots Foundation, Inc. to create the world’s largest online collection of Jewish historical records.

Cowan’s lectures are always among the most popular lectures at the International Association of Jewish Genealogical Societies (IAJGS) annual conference. She will be a guest lecturer at this year’s IAJGS conference in Boston, Aug. 4-9. To learn more about the 250-plus lectures and workshops on Jewish genealogy at IAJGS Boston 2013, visit http://www.iajgs2013.org.

The Jewish Genealogical Society of Greater Orlando is a not for profit organization dedicated to sharing genealogical information, techniques and research tools with anyone interested in Jewish genealogy and family history. Anyone may join JGSGO. Annual dues are $25 for an individual and $30 for a family. For more information visit: http://www.jgsgo.blogspot.com and “like” us at http://www.facebook.com/jgsgreaterorlando.