Speaker Profiles: Victoria Fisch and Jeremy Frankel

It is a pleasure to welcome Victoria Fisch and Jeremy Frankel as speakers at Family History Day at the California State Archives.

Victoria Fisch has been helping people find their family history for over twenty years. She is the president of the Jewish Genealogical Society of Sacramento, and the Northern California Editor of Western States Jewish History journal, in which her articles have also appeared. The history of the Jewish emigrant families of the California Gold Rush has been her focus of research for the last five years and she is a member of the Commission for the Preservation of Pioneer Jewish Landmarks and Cemeteries. She is currently editing a book on the Jewish community of Santa Cruz, California, scheduled to be published in 2013.

Jeremy Frankel is a professional genealogist engaged in family research for almost thirty years. His skills include expertise with internet resources and specialized library and archival holdings of world-wide information. President of the San Francisco Bay Area Jewish Genealogical Society for the last ten years, he has lectured throughout the San Francisco Bay Area and regularly helps clients who have encountered impasses in their own searches.

Jeremy has tracked his family back to Poland and Lithuania and connected with relatives all over the world. He has a broad knowledge of U.K. and U.S. documentation and draws upon his associations with experts in Eastern European Jewish ancestry.

In 2011 both Victoria and Jeremy acted as consultants for Ancestry.com at a program hosted at the Hyatt in San Francisco and that year Jeremy was involved with research for the two television series on genealogy, “Who Do You Think You Are” on NBC TV and “Finding Your Roots" with Henry Louis Gates on public television.

Need help tracing your family?  Contact family historians Victoria and Jeremy through their website, Frankel and Fisch.

Victoria and Jeremy will be co-presenters for Introduction to Jewish Genealogy.  Through discussion and examples, this knowledgeable duo will describe research methods for finding your Jewish roots and the resources available locally and overseas. 

posted by Denise Hibsch Richmond