Sign-in, networking with others interested in Jewish genealogy, and the 800-volume JGSI research library and genealogy help desk will be available starting at 12:30 p.m.
Usiskin has been interested in the genealogy of the various branches of his family since he was a teenager. Over the years, he has compiled family trees on three of his four grandparents with a total of more than 4,800 named relatives. On his paternal great-grandfather’s line he has names of more than 1,000 descendants of Usiskins all over the world but has never been able to definitively verify that any are blood relatives.
Usiskin, born in Chicago, is an emeritus professor of mathematics education at the University of Chicago. In his field, he has given talks in all 50 states and 27 foreign countries and been a major speaker at national and international conferences. This will mark the fourth time that he has spoken at a JGSI meeting. In 2002, he spoke about writing and distributing a family tree book. In 2015, he described how three examples of how people arranged genealogical information into coffee table books for distribution to relatives. Last December, he delivered a presentation called “Stories about Things I’ve Learned from Doing Genealogy.”
Usiskin is a fine storyteller, and JGSI immediately invited him back when we heard that he had more stories to tell that offer research lessons or hints that might help others doing genealogy. In his new presentation, questions are raised and discussed: Who goes on a family tree? To what extent are family stories “cleansed”? How did a “black sheep” of the family turn out to be just the opposite? How did some Jews survive World War II in Europe and how might they be found even today? How did DNA help to find both biological parents of someone who was adopted? And he will explain how his wife’s heritage can be traced back to Adam and Eve. (What? You are skeptical?)
