In September 2023 Michael Waas, MA, was appointed as a scholar in residence at the NYG&B to research Jewish families in the NYG&B’s materials and produce the first-of-its-kind survey of NYG&B resources available for tracing Jewish heritage from colonial times to the present in New York State.
Under this 12-week appointment, Mr. Waas examined materials at the NYG&B headquarters and the New York Public Library as well as online—evaluating them for Jewish scholarship and producing a detailed list of resources available for tracing Jewish families in New York State. The NYG&B is creating an online guide to the materials discovered by Mr. Waas, slated to be released later in 2024. Below is a Q&A with Mr. Waas, sharing highlights of the project and what researchers can expect.
The scholar-in-residence project at the NYG&B is made possible through a generous grant from Ambassador John L. Loeb, Jr.
What drew you to this project?
I was drawn by both NYG&B’s status as one of the oldest genealogical and historical societies in the United States as well as the exciting opportunity to explore NYG&B’s vast collections to identify sources for Jewish genealogists and historians.
How did you conduct the research? Walk us through the process.
I approached this phase of the project in three stages:
- I began with the NYG&B’s online database and conducted several test searches on different Jewish families in New York’s history from the colonial period to the present day. For example, I searched historic New York families, such as Pardo/Brown and Gomes/Gomez, as well as surnames from my own genealogy in the New York City metropolitan area, such as Amdur, Reby, and Waas, to establish the value of the database for genealogists and researchers. I came up with results dating back to the very early days of NYG&B in the 1870s as well as documents and graves from the past century.
- I then progressed to cataloging and surveying the physical library at the NYG&B’s office. Its library, which had never been catalogued before, was determined to have 458 total materials (not inclusive of extra copies) comprising mainly books and periodicals but also CDs and loose papers. To determine relevance, I perused each item systematically using either an index, if available, or an exploratory search of the contents. During this survey, I determined that fully 34.9% of the library is definitely relevant to Jewish genealogists and a further 15.7% is potentially relevant. A catalog with descriptions of all of the items in the library was created in a spreadsheet. Copies of the NYG&B Record in the library were not included in the survey, as they already are documented in the online database.
- Finally, I began tackling the almost 30,000 items comprising the NYG&B archive held at New York Public Library (NYPL) today. For this stage, we started by creating an updated complete accounting of the present-day catalog. From there, I selected an initial sample set of around 2,000 items to prioritize for reviewing, including both books and mixed materials/manuscripts. There were some procedural issues beyond our control that impacted how many items I could review at this initial stage of the project. However, the priority system I developed worked very well for indicating future success in follow-up stages: 44.5% of the NYPL materials I reviewed were definitely relevant and a further 13.9% were potentially relevant but need a more thorough investigation r to determine what, if any, relevance to Jewish history and genealogy they had.
What kind of records/resources did you explore?
I explored books, handwritten family trees, loose ephemera, and copies of original archival documents like the New York, New York Independent [Masonic] Royal Arch Lodge No. 2 1813-1989 (Presented by John M. Hilliard) found in Box 26, Folder 7, of the New York Genealogical and Biographical Society Collection locale files, which can be accessed from the Milstein Genealogy Library at the NYPL on 42nd Street.
Give us a glimpse of some of your findings.
There were some pretty cool surprises in the collection. One of my favorites at the NYPL was going through a publication from the city of Brookline, MA, from 1898 that had some Jewish families documented in it—13 years prior to the formal establishment of a Jewish community there. Another was a beautiful hand-drawn family tree that had Russian, Austrian, and Hungarian (in the Old World sense; pre-1918 borders) Jewish families on it that spanned some of Ashkenazi New York City history from the 1860s to the 1970s.
What will people tracing their Jewish ancestry find? How can they go about using the NYG&B records in their research?
They will find a vast collection of both supporting materials for research, such as archival guides, gazetteers, and old genealogy society publications, as well as primary source materials like the publication from Brookline I mentioned above. And this is only scratching the surface of the entire, vast collection of the NYG&B, which is what makes doing further work a really exciting possibility for all of us!
What did you find that was particularly surprising or unexpected?
I don’t know if surprising or unexpected is the right term, but I think what actually has caught my eye is just how much diversity there is within the collection. For an organization that ostensibly is focused on New York State and the immediate surroundings, the NYG&B has materials from all over the United States that have made their way into the collection over the years as well as internationally (or from organizations with an international focus). From the Jewish genealogy and history perspective, I have been pleasantly surprised at just how much is relevant within the collection, despite its initial focus on colonial New York families.
Why was this project important to undertake?
For the Jewish genealogy and history world, it is creating a more in-depth resource and knowledge base that people can access, once we begin making the findings available. There truly is so much in the collection that more Jewish genealogists and historians should make use of and know about. Perhaps just as importantly, though, it establishes a model for the NYG&B to approach this kind of work with other communities. Genealogy and history should be accessible to all, and we should treat all histories and genealogies with the respect they deserve.
What particular skills or perspectives did you bring to the research?
For me, both as a professional historian with extensive archival work experience as well as a professional genealogist focusing on Jewish communities, I have brought a critical eye with a deep knowledge base that enabled me to evaluate and efficiently catalog findings from the NYG&B collection.
What are the key takeaways from the project? What did you learn?
The key takeaway for me is that NYG&B holds a remarkable collection that genealogists and historians of all communities in New York and the surrounding region should be able to more easily access. One thing I learned from a genealogy perspective that I hadn’t ever considered before was just how useful alumni directories could be to genealogy! In several of the alumni directories I reviewed (especially those with multiple editions), you can track people’s lives, particularly in time periods where it may be a bit more difficult to obtain information because of privacy laws.
What advice would you give other organizations looking to do something similar?
My main piece of advice is to definitely use the model we have put forth here as a starting point. The level of investment, support, and seriousness that the NYG&B has treated this project with has been a major factor in just how successful we have been with this pilot stage. Obviously, other organizations should also be working with someone capable and professional, but it really does start at the source. I have been involved with projects before where not everyone was on the same page, and the work really suffered as a result, whereas, here, we have begun to produce something truly special. I know the Jewish genealogy world is excited about this project and has already invited me to speak about it at the International Association of Jewish Genealogical Societies conference this August in Philadelphia.
What’s next for this?
Seeing how we can get the project funded to finish what we’ve started here. In addition, I am very much looking forward to speaking about this at the NYG&B at the most appropriate time for everyone’s calendar. It has been an amazing project, and I am grateful to have been entrusted with this important work!