After the Anschluss of March 1938 and then Kristallnacht in November it was very clear to the Jews of Vienna, population ~200k, that they needed to leave. Most of them put in an Emigration Application, some of which were many pages. These applications contain much genealogical information such as when the person arrived in Vienna and from where, work histories, names and dates and locations of birth of parents, children and siblings. Many of them also contain names and addresses of family overseas that the applicant would want to go to. As an example of what one can learn, I personally learned that my father was in a refugee camp in Moravia during WWI. He never told any of our family about that. These applications are a treasure of information and I will present how to access and study them.

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 Genealogical 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.