Next steps

Subject: The Genealogical Next StepFrom: Phyllis Kramer Date: Thu, 22 May 2008 02:38:31 +0000X-Message-Number: 2Steven Cohen asked a great question on the Galician discussion list... what to do after gathering all the US documents and locating the former shtetl of his family... when there is no data on JRI-P and no microfilms available from the Mormons. I have two suggestions...both have worked very well for me but alas, they require lots of time and devotion.First, start a ShtetLinks page for your shtetl. It doesn't matter that you have no information from records...read the other JewishGen shtetlinks web sites and find one that you like and use that as a model...pull together the wonderful resources on JewishGen, like the 1929 and 1891 business directory entries...maps..use the discussion group archives and the sitewide search on the JewishGen main page to find references to your shtetl...find other Polish genealogy resources (many listed on the shtetlinks pages)....then comb the web and add whatever you find...then ask for help. Easy to do by placing a note on the discussion lists and emailing all the folks registered for your shtetl on JGFF and ask them to contribute whatever genealogical documents they have. You will be surprised at what will turn up at your door. By providing the shtetlink site, folks will be happy to send you photos of the town..documents they have...records they have gotten...experiences visiting...Some examples: a few months ago I got a list of families for Dubiecko that included someone I was searching for! Another sent me a hand drawn map of Rohatyn and a 1935 photo from the kehillah; a third, photos and a travelogue from a recent trip to Frysztak; a fourth lady from the area translated and sent me a 1992 booklet on the Jews from Jaslo that was the best description of shtetl life I've ever read!... and the young Poles will contact you with offers to help...really, it is an amazing experience....Next, from knowing these fellow researchers, put together a group interested in hiring a researcher...you can find out where the data is on Miriam Weiner's Routes to Routes site... a group can get many times more output from a researcher than a single person......then gather the money, find the researcher and watch the data come in! In Zmigrod and Dukla (not that far from your shtetl) five of us hired a wonderful researcher and got 1500 records for our surnames!!She got enough from us to spend a few days in the local USCs (town record offices). And then we put the data on the shtetlinks site. Five people from three countries...collaborating...it was another amazing experience!Hope this helps...and happy hunting!Phyllis phylliskramer1@att.net, NYC & PGB, FlaVP, Education, JewishGen, Inc. researching (mostly Galicia):STECHER, TRACHMAN,from Zmigrod, Dukla, Krosno KRAMER, BEIM, WISNER from JasienicaSCHEINER, KANDEL, SCHIMMEL from Strzyzow, DubieckoLINDNER, EICHEL from Rohatyn (also Iasi, Romania)