***THE MEETING ON MARCH 8 HAS BEEN CANCELLED - WE ARE WORKING TO RESCHEDULE IT ***

Genealogists and family researchers spend most of their time investigating vital (BMD) records and other common sources of information, such as census records, address books, voter registers etc. Since many records have not survived the test of time, researchers often face challenges in constructing parts of their family tree (a.k.a. "hitting a brick wall"). This session will show that searching off the beaten path of vital records and other standard sources can open new research frontiers and provide unique breakthroughs. Examples will be given, showing how irregular records and sources, such as 19th century Austrian-Hungarian military and government reports, university files and WW1 Russian Social Aid lists, among others, can all be used to reveal new insights about otherwise-undocumented history of our ancestors.

Yaron Wolfsthal is a partner at ICI Venture Fund and a seasoned technology executive with a focus on cybersecurity and AI. He is the author of numerous publications and patents and serves as an adjunct professor at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. In parallel to his daytime technology-focused job, Yaron is a passionate genealogist, an advisory board member of Gesher Galicia, who published papers about genealogy and family roots research in international conferences and journals.