In Person at the Mid-Island Y: Bagel Brunch starts at 1 PM, Zoom starts at 2 PM

In 1939 at the beginning of WWII Germany and the Soviet Union divided Poland into Occupation Zones. Many Jews fled into the Soviet zone trying to stay a step ahead of the Germans. Life though was not easy. Many Jews were arrested and deported to labor camps in the East. Many hastily got married for various reasons and had children. Gesher Galicia has 2 projects, one of vital records and one of criminal files from the NKVD, the Soviet secret police, relating to this period. These are some of the most amazing genealogical records one will ever see with pictures, correspondence to overseas relatives and much genealogical data. I will demonstrate these records and show the researcher how to access and work with them to find precious information on their ancestors.

Steven Turner was already curious about Galicia as a small boy, when he spent the holidays davening at a Galitzianer shul with his grandparents in Brooklyn, NY. He became the President of Gesher Galicia in 2019. He started his journey into genealogy, trying to prove that his family surname was never changed. He has written about this journey as a blogger for the Times of Israel and in various genealogical publications. Steven is the founder of the Nadwórna Shtetl Research Group and is an active member of the Rohatyn and Sędziszów Małopolski Research Groups. Steven is quite devoted to preserving Jewish heritage and culture in the former lands of Galicia and partnered with the ESJF European Cemeteries Initiative to clean up,fence and now maintain the Nadworna Jewish Cemetery. He is a member of the board of the Jewish Genealogy Society of Long Island as well as being a member of the JGS of NY. Steven does research on Ashkenazi DNA and is the project administrator of several Jewish DNA projects on FamilyTreeDNA. He is also a town leader for JRI-Poland. A product of the New York City public schools, Steven has a BA in Sociology from Queens College and a D.D.S. from the NYU College of Dentistry. He is now retired from his 44 years of practice in General Dentistry and Facial Cosmetics in Howard Beach, NY.