Jewish Genealogy Society of Maryland
1:30 pm - 3:30 pm
Pikesville Library (meeting room)
1301 Reisterstown Rd
Pikesville, MD 21208
Speaker: Ken Bravo Title: �Why the New York Times Is Wrong � Using Basic Genealogical Tools to Show That Your Family Name Was Not Changed at Ellis Island� Date and Time: Sunday, March 22, 2015, 1:30 p.m. Location: Pikesville Library (meeting room) Please join us for our next program: �Why The New York Times Is Wrong � Using Basic Genealogical Tools to Show That Your Family Name Was Not Changed at Ellis Island.� Our guest speaker, Ken Bravo, will discuss the research he did after reading a 2009 New York Times obituary asserting that the deceased�s father�s name was changed at Ellis Island. Ken emailed the Times, pointing out that names were not changed at Ellis Island. He followed up with additional correspondence and, finally, did research to discover the original name of the family on their immigration documents. He shared that research with the Times. Bottom line: the Times never did correct the error. Ken then decided to search the digitized New York Times for other examples of similar reporting. That research quickly revealed four similar obituaries plus a letter to the editor in which the writer claimed that her grandfather�s name had been changed at Ellis Island. He researched each of the obituaries and the letter to the editor and was able to show that none of the names were changed at the immigration facility. His talk will detail his exchanges with the Times and how he did the research. Ken�s findings can be applied to our own research and reporting of our family histories. Ken Bravo is the Vice President of the International Association of Jewish Genealogical Societies (IAJGS) and a Past President of the Jewish Genealogy Society of Cleveland. He also served as a co-chair of the 2014 IAJGS International Conference in Salt Lake City. He has been researching his own roots and those of his family since the mid-1970s and is a frequent lecturer on a variety of genealogy subjects. He is a member of the Association of Professional Genealogists and has his own business, The Nuts & Bolts of Jewish Genealogy, to assist others in finding their family histories. The program is free for paid members and $5 for non-members (applied to membership fee when a visitor joins JGSMD) after their first meeting. Refreshments will be available. Please check our web site at www.jgsmd.org for late updates and for the time, location, and program of future meetings.