Reactions - 'I'm a genealogist'

How do people react when you say you're a genealogist?

Do they ask how many babies you've delivered - thinking you said gynecologist; what caves or oil fields you've discovered - confusing you with a geologist; or simply think you are strange for happily shlepping through cemeteries looking for dead people (which, you must admit, is a good place to find them)?

This posting is also a challenge to my gen-blogging colleagues to write an entry about the strangest, funniest or most confusing reactions to what you do. Readers are invited to share their experiences through comments below.

I was once introduced to a room full of women, members of a large Jewish organization's branch in Israel, as the "gynecology columnist for the Jerusalem Post." After the laughter quieted down, I mentioned that - if you think about it - the two fields are related. Without gynecology, there wouldn't be genealogy.

One family's food

Some time ago, two researchers who shared the same shtetl kicked around the idea of writing a shtetl cookbook together. As things go, we became sidetracked by other matters - even though we believed it would have been a wonderful project. There are only so many hours in a day!

Thus, I was delighted to learn that Judy Bart Kancigor has accomplished what many of us wish we could do if we were more focused or had more time. She's gathered more than 500 Rabinowitz family recipes into Cooking Jewish: 532 Great Recipes from the Rabinowitz Family (Workman, 2007).

Genealogy sites: 9 million visits monthly

Those of us who research our ancestry know how popular genealogy is around the world. However, it's even better when sites devoted to trends recognize and validate what we know to be true.

Genealogy was among the top 10 gaining categories by percentage change in numbers of unique US visitors, according to ComScore.com. The survey was made among home, work and university Internet users.

According to the company's press release of November 20, 2007, the number of unique visitors to genealogy sites rose from 8,265,000 in September 2007 to 8,892,00 in October 2007, with an 8% rise.

Israeli genealogy website offers major upgrade

A favorite site of mine is MyHeritage.com, based in Bnei Atarot, near Tel Aviv.

I've known its CEO, Gilad Japhet, for a number of years and have written stories on the company along the way.  He has also spoken to several Jewish genealogy groups in Israel and at the 2006 International Jewish genealogy conference in New York.

Many readers will recognize MyHeritage as the web site behind the "Find the Celebrity in You" which utilizes its rather amazing image handling capabilities.

The site has nearly 20 million members,   offers an easy-to-use online Family Tree Builder and family websites. Components are also offered in 15 different languages, as well as dual entry. In other words you can enter a tree in Hebrew and English, in English and French, in Spanish and French and many other languages, which will make it easy to share with family in different countries.