the English comedian Jerry Hardy has said that the interesting thing about family history is that gap between the things we think we know about our families and the realities well such are the discoveries when we study our families origins and history and now imagine undertaking genealogy on a global scale as an international conference on Jewish genealogy comes to Fort Wayne in August 2025.

>> We'll talk with conference planners all about it on this week's PrimeTime.

And good evening.

I'm Bruce Haines with today is Irv Adler who is local chair for this conference and a founding member of the Northeast Indiana Jewish Genealogy Society.

And joining us live this Kurt Whicher, director of special collections and the genealogy center manager at the Allen County Public Library.

>> Irv Kurt, thank you for joining us and thank you for having us.

>> This is really something and it is quite a regional honor to have a conference of this scope and magnitude coming to our area.

>> How how special has this been?

What we have to do a genealogy to see if nothing else how this is getting to here.

>> Tell me about that.

Well, it's it was kind of a surprise and it really wasn't originally planned.

But we had a visitor give one of give a present to our society back in February twenty twenty right before covid hit and she was a former a past president of the in the International Association of Jewish Genealogy Societies which I will now say because it's a mouthful.

Yes it is Mila's Humphrey and she came in and she had been here before been to the Fort Wayne Binta genealogy conferences Newchurch and she came during the month of February and you know what the month of February is like but we had three or four the most beautiful days you can possibly think of in February.

So she was, you know, kind of amazed by everything the facility in the Grand Wayne Center in the county public library and she knew quite a bit about what the genealogy capability of Fort Wayne.

And so I the rest of the afternoon when she was heading back to the the airport I drove back to the airport and then I was talking to her and she looked at me and she said Have you and now this is only a couple of years we found it and in twenty eighteen she looks at me and she says Well have you ever thought about hosting a genealogy conference in Fort Wayne ?

And of course, you know, I kind of almost lost it.

I mean it's the last thing on my mind that somebody is going to ask us if we were interested in hosting a conference.

We'd only been around for two years and we were very formative stages.

But she then I had some other conversations with her and I also spoke to some of the people, the IGs and they suggested we consider that and I went to the board and I said well I've been hearing from people the IGs and they were interested in us considering the conference and that was and the rest is just history.

Yeah.

And it has a lot to do with the fact and Colonel, talk about this about the fantastic genealogy center world class genealogy center that we have in Fort Wayne .

It's second largest in the world other than the one in Salt Lake City but it has a lot of other advantages.

It's easier to get to it's easy to get to it's public public facility.

All the materials are available and colonel, talk about that.

But Fort Wayne is as everybody knows is an exceptionally dynamic city.

The things that have happened in this city for the last twenty years have really been quite, quite amazing.

The grand winning conference center was it was like designed for the kind of conference we're going to have.

So we're very you know, we've given the opportunity and we went to whatever we had to go through and then we were given it to give it to us officially and which is very, very excited at it the power of attraction obviously for genealogists or those of us who would like to be one in a second life to Detroit we're one of us in the family seems to always be charged with stewarding the family history but that has been a real draw for this for this region, the center and now 800 to 1000 other people are dropping by in August.

>> That's right.

That's our anticipation and that's our goal.

You're exactly right, Bruce .

And as everybody's just articulating, it's really the convergence of some really wonderful, beautiful things.

This is a great community.

I mean we here in the community you know, it's a great community but people from the outside are noticing it as well.

The genealogy center and the Allen County Public Library.

The public is a terrific institution.

Everyone who comes enjoys the facility, enjoys the service and if they're interested in family history oh my goodness.

It's like it's like they've like gone to Mecca and then the partnership we have with Visit Fort Wayne with the Grand Wayne Center in the downtown lodging properties and the library it's it's a match made in heaven.

>> Yeah.

It's people come here they can't help but be impressed.

Yeah.

And now as they say objects in the mirror are closer than they appear.

So August 14 and 15 sounds like a long time from now but to go fast very fast.

Yeah in fact there was an informational meeting or an expositional sort of gathering I believe not long ago here about learning a little bit more about the activity.

>> The conference planners did a site visit here along with their meeting planner and I always smile because they come here to Fort Wayne and I'm blown away.

They're just really positively impressed with everything with the city accessibility facilities and of course the library and its genealogy center at over forty five years of this conference there have been some large dots on a map to where this has been held and it's it's a nice company of which to be a part.

>> Yeah.

And I think that's one of the one of the key reasons for him was chosen.

It has a it's its location is is excellent and many people don't realize that probably but almost half the population of the United States is within a five hundred mile radius of Fort Wayne.

So it's a huge population to draw from and not only that that I did all the study probably about a year and a half ago and determine that there's almost a million people that identify themselves as Jewish within this five hundred mile radius.

So there's a huge population to draw from and we also find more and more that as people do DNA they find out that lo and behold they have Jewish heritage and some of them become very interested in tracing that heritage.

So this conference we're trying to reach out to these people who have never been to a genealogy conference because A it's very easy to get to Fort Wayne and it's very affordable.

We have fantastic venue and we are planning to have a fantastic conference and again the genealogy capability that exists in the county public library which is going to be very available to all the conference attendees is is fantastic.

>> And as you mentioned, those from a variety of heritages have a chance to interact and we interact with them as well.

Every day we bump into people who are similar but have their own unique stories because Kurtwood mentioned about a perfect case in point is the overview of Jewish history in our area that's been prepared for this conference.

>> It's a wonderful place to be.

Take a look.

>> Fort Wayne , Indiana, a city where history flows as richly as it's Three Rivers, the St. Joseph, St. Mary's and Miami originally the Miami village of Kikongo.

Today we dove into Fort Wayne's past highlighting the remarkable Jewish community and other fascinating tales of this vibrant Midwestern hub.

Our story begins in the 20s with the arrival of John Jacob Hayes Fort Wayne's first Jewish resident.

Hayes came here as an Indian agent and was among the early pioneers navigating life in what was then the American frontier.

Around the same time Johnny Appleseed roamed these parts.

Yes, he was real and yes, he wore a tin hat today Fort Wayne celebrates his legacy with an annual festival because who doesn't love a sticky caramel apple back to our Jewish community the mid to late eighteen hundreds saw a wave of German Jewish immigrants bringing new energy and traditions they integrated with Fort Wayne's large German population blending cultural practices and languages across the Jewish community quickly set up essential institutions like a cemetery and places of worship.

The Nordlinger House right in current day downtown Fort Wayne served as an early meeting spot for the Youth for Shulem Congregation, a congregation which is still a cornerstone of Jewish life here was founded in 1848, the same year Brooklyn's first Jewish congregation was established.

>> It's like Fort Wayne and Brooklyn are spiritual twins minus the subway delays and constant honking.

The late eighteen hundreds brought a new wave of immigrants from eastern Europe who were fleeing to escape violent anti-Semitic pogroms in 1912 the name Jacob was founded after a cemetery issue arose.

>> But let's not dig into that right now.

The Jewish community didn't just settle they thrived and contributed significantly to Fort Wayne's economic civic and philanthropic development.

They also changed Fort Wayne Skyline and Strauss, a prominent Jewish architect, designed the Lincoln Tower completed in 1930.

It was the tallest building in Indiana for decades after World War Two , Fort Wayne experienced postwar economic prosperity downtown buzzed with life featuring many thriving Jewish owned businesses.

The Jewish community continued to contribute significantly to the city's economic and philanthropic landscape a legacy that is reflected in many aspects of life in Fort Wayne today Fort Wayne is home to a congregation packed Youth for Shalem which offers both reform and traditional services as well as the Habad Jewish Center.

The city also hosts two Jewish cemeteries and the Jewish Federation of Fort Wayne, which founded Camp Joe Levy a summer camp in 1979.

>> Fort Wayne's Jewish history reflects the broader American Jewish experience standing as a testament to the resilience adaptive and community support that have defined both the Jewish community and the city of Fort Wayne, Indiana celebrating so many heritages and the cultural diversity there in all in a singular place the genealogy center at the L.A. County Public Library truly a unique resource.

>> Kurt, how did we get to be so lucky?

>> Well, it was actually the aspirations of a director back in the last century who really thought that genealogists needed to be served better in public library settings and that was just like a match to kindling.

It just it just took off so it grew from a couple of hundred volumes to one point two million physical volumes, a great collection of databases and a really great team who's really dedicated to helping people find their stories and that's just where the magic happens and that's where we're going next.

>> It is a pleasure to have Curt with us physically but to have him also in video form so we can all see more of the genealogy center at the Allen County Public Library.

We can manage that too.

Let's take the tour.

Welcome to the Allen County Public Library.

For more than one hundred and twenty five years this library has been an integral and important part of this community.

We literally are dedicated to lifelong learning and we have something for everyone here at the main library here we also find the genealogy center since nineteen sixty one.

The genealogy center has welcomed patrons who are interested in finding their stories through an amazing collection of physical materials print microtech online materials and staff expertize one can really take advantage of the world of family and local history to find one's unique story, let's take a look.

We have over one point two million print and MicroTech resources.

We license all the major databases that complement a really amazing print collection because we believe the context is so important finding our stories we subscribe to every single genealogical and historical and ethnic periodical in North America, in the British Isles and in places in Europe.

It's literally a block long here.

We're in the beginning of the state record section these are records from county archives that may not exist anywhere except in that county.

So we have nearly eighty thousand print city directories and another several thousand on microfilm that put people in a place at a time and tell you who their neighbors are.

>> Many people can find pieces of their family story in these books.

One of the biggest positives is that all of our stuff is open stacks so you don't have to make a request for something that's held offsite and then wait a week.

All of our stuff is here and ready for you to find your family story pretty organically.

We have hundreds of translated memorial books have been done by Jewish Gen. We also have hundreds of original Yizkor book.

A lot of them are in Yiddish and we'll take some assistance.

That assistance is readily available both online and in the genealogy center here we have one entire room dedicated to published family histories.

>> We have tens of thousands of family histories in this room.

Even in the less sauced family history we can help people find clues to information on their family stories no matter what you might need help with.

There is a senior librarian here to help you if you need an expert in Ukrainian research, if you need a DNA expert, we have someone here.

If there's a question there's a hole in our ancestral chart finding your Jewish family stories we can help you find the answer.

We personalize your research experience.

You really have a lot of resources right here.

We would love to help you find more of your family stories here in the genealogy center.

Enjoy your trip here because we believe you'll enjoy your experience with us and we'll share information to close of the show as well.

>> But again, if you would like to connect to see how your journey can begin, if you are interested in pursuing genealogy genealogy center R.G.

at the L.A. County Genealogy Center, is this the way to go?

And the Northeast Indiana Jewish Genealogy Society sounds like they've been involved in a project of their own to something called the Fort Wayne Jewish families.

>> All right.

Yeah, that's that's pretty fantastic.

As you heard in that one of the earlier films, The History of the Jewish Community Going goes back over 200 years and Betsy Gephart who was one of the prominent people in that genealogy center video she began this project very shortly after we started the Northeast Indiana Jewish Genealogy Society and she has a database of over thousand people that are in this database and probably close to seventy four hundred and interesting enough that today we got an email from somebody who saw our November 10th outreach and knew about it and was interested in joining the society with the colleagues and he said in his email that he his great great grandson sisters came to Fort Wayne and he wanted to get his name in that database.

So out of Hong Kong we have somebody so this is a very it's a fantastic project.

It's available through ancestry, this database that we have and said Betsy Gephart was the one that really started the project to manage the project.

And I you know, I wouldn't say with certainty that we have everybody but we have a large number and we're always looking for more people so we can put together really the Jewish history of Fort Wayne and there's the German history and the Irish history in the Scottish history and incurred it's all under one roof which seems like logistically impossible.

>> Well, that's one of the beautiful things about the genealogy center is we try to be as comprehensive as possible and what we collect in the databases that we provide access to and in the staff expertize and we really love organizations like the Northeast Indiana Jewish Genealogy Society because they help bolster our collection and our information and we don't have enough time for but I do want to have you share some of it and folks can find the article too.

But the story in your life took a turn and through your research and you and your wife Fran ultimately it leads to a book called Then and Now.

>> But this is about letters written to your mother by her mother and the inevitabilities and other relatives to share that.

>> Well, let me first start off by saying that I never knew the heritage the word genealogy before I started this and now I know quite a bit about it.

But in August 2010 my wife and I took a trip to Vienna and as part that trip we found out that my grandmother was killed in a place very bad place called threats.

And when I went home I was trying to find some more information and I remember that I had this trunk this this which is the picture on the cover of the book that I had on my mother's archives.

I pull it out and lo and behold I discover this package of letters and then I carefully went through them and I identified more than one hundred letters as very close to one hundred and ten but I used one hundred and two to put the book together and when I saw these letters I realized this was something special.

So over the years took a few years but I had them translated by a person actually two people living in Fort Wayne Jorgo Douglas who at the time was a student and later on by Carol Jackson who was a longtime resident of Fort Wayne.

And they really helped me with the translations and the transcriptions and now I'm really translating it because I improved my German by working with Dr. Sue Roberts at BFW to really improve my German so I can pretty much translate anything.

So I learned a tremendous amount about family members I never ever heard of .

About one quarter of my family my mother was never able to talk about anything so I discovered all these names in these letters and then I started researching them and that's the beginning of my genealogical journey and I've taken it back all the way to my great great great grandparents and I don't want to leave out the Israeli cousin.

Yes.

So there's one part of it is the story of the Jews and the Nazi occupation in Vienna and the second story is a it's a really serendipitous story whereas the result of a series of events I wind up finding that I have my last living relative of the last relative that actually survived the Holocaust and is still alive.

His name is Cheryl Spielman has lived in the is ninety three years old.

He has a fantastic family.

He has eighteen grandchildren and six great grandchildren.

He survived all the camps and I met him for the first time in July 2014 and a month ago he didn't know I was alive and I didn't know he was alive.

A month prior to that meeting.

>> What what do you.

You've probably heard that before and he knows about it before they really connected.

>> How does that make you feel as a genealogist?

It just points out the power of story and how important finding your story is and people's lives.

It's really important to it and we all have one and we can help give voice to that.

I'm imagining between now and again next August could be a very busy time.

What are some of the next steps for you both in the conference planning as you look ahead?

>> Well, thanks to you we're getting the opportunity to reach a lot of people are really one of the main objectives we have is to basically spread our tentacles as far as we possibly can.

As I said earlier, there's almost half to half the population United States lives within a five hundred mile radius.

There's almost a million people identify themselves Jewish who live in this.

This radius is five hundred minorities.

Many of these individuals have never attended a conference and what we were trying to do what we one of the key premises for deciding to have the conference is make a decision to have the conference in Fort Wayne was we're in a great location.

It's very affordable.

It's very easy to get there.

We have a fantastic venue and we have a fantastic genealogy center.

It's a world class we use that to leverage those capabilities to go out and reach these people.

These people who have never attended a conference and have them come to Fort Wayne intent really great attend really a great conference and work out knowing a lot more when they leave than when they came.

>> What I love Kurt please and it's really exciting for us to be able to have a research center here in the genealogy center that helps people find their stories because everyone has a story and it's conference can draw them here if they could learn from experts and then actually practice what they've learned at the conference over the genealogy center and get more assistance.

>> I mean it's really a wonderful combination and was also lovely is you not only have the vehicle but you give lessons on how to drive there.

>> I believe online there always is a program or gathering programs a week.

Yes, Online the stuff going on and for those who like myself who have that shoebox, what's my next step?

>> How do I get going?

Oh, every hour the libraries open someone can walk in with a real shoebox or a proverbial shoe box and our team will assist you and best next steps like where do I go from here?

>> How do I understand what databases do I use?

What's my strategy?

How do I need to reach out to we have someone that can walk with you through the beginning of that journey or continue on with you through the journey and just like in your case if I mean those can be life changing connections.

>> Yeah.

You discover things that you never knew when you find something that you that you never you never knew existed, it's really incredible and especially it's life changing because it you know, it's all about where you come from, where you come from has a big effect on where you're going and it's really important to know that and I think genealogy is what really helps you know, where you came from.

>> We have a chance for you to also go back to your future.

You can do it several ways.

Here's one August 10 through 14 the Jewish genealogy expertize of the forty fifth annual international conference on Jewish Genealogy coming to Fort Wayne .

>> There's the website also if you would like to be in touch on a local level to connect with friends and colleagues and making friends as well the Northeast Indiana Jewish Genealogy Society is right there as you see and then another resource always open online the genealogy center dog and Web site that oh there it is the yes and again on the conference ay ay Jay G. >> S 2025 dog Herb Adler is a founding member of the local society and also on the planning team for this gathering next year.

Kurt Whicher is a natural resource at the genealogy center at the L.A. County Library as well as director of special collections.

Thank you gentlemen.

Thank you.

I appreciate the pleasure to be here and for all of us thank you for allowing us to be a part of your evening for prime time on Bruce's Take Care.

Good night