December 2013 Issue of "The Galitzianer" at the Printer

Due to delays with last-minute additions to the December issue of The Galitzianer, it isn't actually going to come out in December.  So what's a few days between friends and genealogists?  But it's at the printer now and should be mailed out to members of Gesher Galicia early next week.  The electronic edition has already been sent.

And just what is in this issue?  I ended up with two sets of complementary articles.  The first theme is censuses.  Jonathan Shea, founder of the Polish Genealogical Society of Connecticut and the Northeast, allowed us to reprint his article "Austrian Census Returns 1869–1890, with an Emphasis on Galicia", which discusses an 1853 meeting in Brussels that led to censuses being conducted in many European countries, and specifics of historic censuses in the Austro-Hungarian Empire.  Following that are an article about the Tarnopol 1910 Jewish census, which was probably an extract of information from a general census, and a list of the surnames from the census.

The second set of articles relates to online records offered by Jewish Records Indexing-Poland (JRI-Poland).  Mark Jacobson of the Jewish Genealogical Society of Palm Beach County talks about updates to JRI-Poland indices and links to online images.  Coincidentally, someone confirmed a family story that his very English-sounding surname was the original Jewish family name by finding an image of his grandfather's 1877 Galician birth record through the JRI-Poland site.

In addition, this issue has an article about a survivor of the Janowska concentration camp in Lwów, by a history professor working on a Holocaust research project focused on that camp, and the first appearance of a new column about preserving Jewish material heritage in Eastern Europe.

Members of Gesher Galicia receive The Galitzianer as a benefit of membership.  Gesher Galicia is a nonprofit organization focused on researching Jews and Jewish life in the former Austro-Hungarian province of Galicia.  Information on becoming a member is available here.

Articles for The Galitzianer are accepted from both members and nonmembers.  If you submit an article that is published, you will receive a copy of the issue with your article even if you are not a member.  Submissions may be articles and/or graphics, both original and previously published, and must be relevant to Galician Jewish genealogical research:  articles about recent trips to Galicia, reports on your own research, historical and recent pictures, etc.  Electronic submissions are preferred, though not required.  If you wish to submit material for consideration, please contact me at janicemsj@gmail.com.  I accept submissions year-round, but the deadline for the March 2014 issue is February 15.