Yitzhak Berchunsky
ca 1880 |
Welcome to the Orange County Jewish Genealogical Society! The OCJGS is your resource in Orange County, California, for all things related to finding your Jewish roots.
Whether you're a beginner or a seasoned expert, you will find our monthly meetings stimulating and informative. In addition to meetings, hands-on workshops, and special events, members also have access to an excellent library of books and magazines pertinent to Jewish genealogy. The Orange County Jewish Genealogical Society is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit. We are a member of the International Association of Jewish Genealogical Societies. Remember the Days of Old; Ask your father and he will tell you, your elders and they will explain to you. (Deut. 32:7)
זכר ימות עולם בינו שנות דור ודור שאל אביך ויגדך זקניך ויאמרו לך פרשת האזינו |
Calendar of EventsWorld-Class Speakers!We have a lineup of truly world class speakers coming to you wherever in the world you are, from wherever in the world they are. We normally meet the 4th Sunday of each month.
Virtual meetings are via Zoom. You must register in advance by clicking the link for the meeting you want to attend. Registration only takes a few seconds. Attendance at virtual meetings is free to OCJGS members. If you are not a member, please consider joining. Otherwise, the charge for non-members is $5. Please visit the Membership page to join or pay your $5 fee. October 22 at 10:00 am (Pacific time zone)
Gil Bardige: Help! I got my DNA results and I'm confused - Part 2 
Proven methodologies that allow you to prioritize your top 50 matches with the highest probability of finding a common relative on a family tree.
Did you enjoy Gil Bardige’s previous talk, Part 1? We hope that you tried his methodologies and techniques. Well, it is now time for the Next Steps. This intermediate to advanced level presentation is primarily for people with Jewish ancestry who have completed Gil’s Part 1 and have run into new brick walls or just want to be able to expand their search parameters productively. Gil will provide you with actionable processes that you can really use in your genealogy research, including new criteria for each testing company, Pileup Regions, Triangulation, and "Average Segment Theory" for those of you who have tested at Ancestry. Gil Bardige was born & raised in Chicago and currently lives in the Columbus Ohio area. Gil retired in 2019 after a long career in air conditioning and refrigeration, most recently as a National Business Development Leader for Trane. At the “instruction” of his mother, Gil began his genealogy adventure in 1979 with 54 people in his tree. Today his family tree, including Mishpocha, is over 2300 people tracing 4 branches back to his 5th great grandfathers born about 1740. His family arrived in Chicago in the early 20th century in the early 1900s. For over 15 years Gil has expanded his knowledge base to Genetic Genealogy, testing at each of the four major DNA companies, and currently manages three y-DNA projects at Family Tree DNA as a Volunteer Administrator. He loves to help people manage their expectations and begin to remove confusion from the DNA results whether it’s, Y-DNA, mtDNA, or Autosomal DNA. He had spoken at dozens of local events and international conferences, including at IAJGS in Orlando, Cleveland, Virtual San Diego, Virtual Philadelphia x2, and most recently London. Gil is the Chair of the Genealogy Committee of the Columbus Jewish Historical Society (JGS). He co-hosts live Genetic Genealogy Q&A sessions at JGS Illinois and JGS Toronto. Gil developed and hosts the monthly CJHS Kvel & Kvetch genealogy Q&A in Columbus. Gil manages the Mentoring Program for IAJGS and cohosts the Apple Users and Jewish Genealogy Facebook page and monthly virtual BOF (Birds of a Feather) meeting. Register in advance for this Zoom presentation. Click this link to register. November 19 at 10:00 am (Pacific time zone)
Schelly Talalay Dardashti: Sephardic Genealogy 
A journalist and genealogist, Schelly Talalay Dardashti is the US Genealogy Advisor for MyHeritage.com. She has been tracking her families across Spain, Eastern Europe, and Iran for more than three decades. She is the founder of “Tracing the Tribe–Jewish Genealogy on Facebook,” with some 38,000 members in 101 countries.
Register in advance for this Zoom presentation. Click this link to register. December 17 at 10:00 am (Pacific time zone)
Alexander Beider: What can we learn about our ancestors from surnames used in Eastern Europe? 
But for a few exceptions, Jews from Eastern Europe adopted their surnames at the turn of the 19th century. For this reason, names present a panorama of the Jewish life at that time: occupations, nicknames, given names used, places of origin. Yet, indirectly, surnames often point to family roots going back centuries before the 19th century.
Alexander Beider holds one doctoral degree in applied mathematics and another in Jewish Studies. He uses onomastics and linguistics as tools to unravel the history of the Jewish people. He has written a series of reference books dealing with the etymology of Ashkenazic and Sephardic surnames and Ashkenazic given names, all published by Avotaynu Inc. (1993-2019). His book Origins of Yiddish Dialects, published by Oxford University Press (2015), sheds light on the early stages of the development of Yiddish. Beider was born in Moscow (Russia) and currently lives in Paris (France). Register in advance for this Zoom presentation. Click this link to register. But wait, there's more...
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