From the Montreal Jewish Genealogical Society's LISTSERV

"Posted on JewishGen:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Dear Group

Because we were involved in a loss of power last week we were not able to
get a look at the original airing of "Who do You Think You Are? -
Lisa Kudrow ?" We did get to watch a rebroadcast on HuLu.

The show itself was touching but expanded with little information about
how those of us who don't have thousands of dollars to hire multiple
researchers to accompany us on our journeys can do research. Of course,
it was sponsored by Ancestry.

This is especially true when a lot of information is available to us
right here on Jewishgen.

When Lisa got to Ilya, the local archivist showed her a list of the
Holocaust victims of the community, with the description of the death
of Lisa's ggrandmother. The archivist told her that they had copied
the list from a list in Moscow. You don't have to be a local Belarusan
Archive to get a copy of your community's comparable list. Immediately
after the end of WW II, Russia sent teams into every community that that
Nazis had occupied which had then been liberated by the Russians.
These teams made up what was called the Russian Extraordinary Commission
Report based on evidence supplied by the local inhabitants. Originally,
only Yad Vashem had a copy. I got a copy of the portion of the report for
Voronova from Yad Vashem simply for the cost of copying and mailing..

Now, a master copy has been sent to the U. S. Holocaust Memorial Museum
in Washington D.C. and copies of the section listing victims in your
community can be obtained from them. Or you can ask for copies of just
your families surnames.

Furthermore, the archivist read her a two page note about Ilya about
the destruction of the town. It was obviously copied from the Yizkor
Book of Ilya; Kehilyet Illya Pirkei Hayim veShammad. (The Community of
Illya, Chapters of the Lives and Destruction.) Again, Lisa did not
have to travel to Illya to read that. What she did get by her visit
was an introduction to the town and the environs of her family's lives and
murders.

For those who are starting and have not done so. checking on both
of these documents for their community is a must. Many of the Yizkor
Books have been translated, and are on line (at Jewishgen.)
If this hasn't been done, you can get this going by making a contribution
into the translation fund for this purpose. In almost all of the
Yizkor Books, there is a Necrology List and virtually all of these have
been translated.

Also note, comparison of the Extraordinary Commission Report List and
the Yizkor Book Necrology list is worthwhile since both are based on
personal memories and may these may vary with different information on them.
Also remember that since these are based on memories the information might
not be accurate.

There are quantities of stuff right here supplied by our own community
efforts."