The 2026 Colorado Annual
Jewish Genealogy Seminar
Presenting Nolan Altman
In this engaging seminar, Nolan Altman will show you how to uncover Jewish family history using tools and records many researchers overlook.
You will learn:
- How patronymic naming on headstones can connect generations
- What cemetery inscriptions reveal—even if you don’t read Hebrew
- Why the belief that “all records were lost” is often not true
- How to navigate JewishGen’s powerful—and underutilized—databases
- Where new records are being added—and how to take advantage of them
- And what AI tools are available to genealogists
With millions of records already available—and more being digitized every year—there are still discoveries waiting to be made.
If you’ve ever thought, “There’s nothing left to find,” this program may change your mind.
Sunday October 18th 2026
In Person Only
Location: Denver JCC In the Social Hall
350 S. Dahlia St • Denver CO 80246
Doors open at 8:30 AM
First Session starts promtly at 9 AM
Bring your own lunch and beverage
Members $5
Non Members $20
Additional $5 for all walk-ins on day of event
Register at https:
https://www.jgsco.org/event-6677980
4 Lectures
9 -10:15 AM Session One
Unlocking Your Jewish Family History with JewishGen
Patronymic Naming and Cemetery Research – Their Importance in Jewish Genealogy and how headstones can connect generations
Discover how millions of records—many previously unknown or underutilized—can help you uncover your Jewish family history.
Description:
Headstone inscriptions provide one of the most valuable tools for researching Jewish genealogical history—patronymic naming.This presentation will familiarize the attendees with the evolution of family surnames and the practice of patronymic naming. Recognizing the components of patronymic naming, participants will learn how to take advantage of these clues to link their family through generations. I will go through an actual case study using headstone inscriptions and will show participants online resources to help find headstone information worldwide.
The next part of the presentation will show examples of headstones and what you’ll find if you take a trip to the cemetery. I’ll explain the meaning of symbols that you will find on stones. Even if you can’t read Hebrew, I will explain how you can understand the inscriptions. I will also show many examples of inscription trends, some odd inscriptions, and errors in inscriptions…even well-known ones.
With a presentation on cemetery records, you wouldn’t expect to leave laughing, but I guaranty you will.
10:30 -11:45 AM Session Two
Breaking the Myth: All Our Family Records Were Lost During the Holocaust
Think your family records were lost? Many aren’t.
Description:
It’s not unusual to hear from people that lost relatives and friends due to the Holocaust that there are no records available for them to find. Well, that isn’t always true.
With more and more archival files undergoing indexing projects, there are a significant number of resources that you should be aware of. As coordinator for JewishGen’s Holocaust Database, I’d like to show you what is available through the JewishGen site. In addition, this presentation will give you an overview of some of the other main sources of Holocaust period resources available to family historians. I’ll also include some non-traditional sources of information that might help with your family research.
Lunch 11:45 AM - 1 PM
1 - 2:15 PM Session Three
Navigating JewishGen’s Resources
Aleading resource for Jewish genealogical research
Description:
JewishGen (https://www.jewishgen.org/) is a leading resource for Jewish genealogical research. The site contains a number of award-winning databases and gives researchers access to more than 30 million records. JewishGen’s mission is “to preserve our Jewish family history and heritage for future generations.” This is accomplished through a world-wide network of contacts and volunteers.
This presentation will cover most of JewishGen’s resources, including some that I think are underutilized. You will see how to navigate the site, perform searches and hopefully find material that you didn’t know was currently available.
2:30 - 3:45 PM Session Four
What’s All This AI Stuff I Keep Hearing About?
The goals for this short presentation are to 1) inform attendees about certain tools that are available 2) highlight some of the AI (Artificial Intelligence) research tools and 3) demystify these tools for those that are somewhat reluctant to try new digital research applications.
The presentation will discuss the importance of prompts, the written instructions that when fed into these tools will return the output requested in whatever format the researcher asks for. It will also give specific examples of output using the same source material (a very legible multi-language headstone) in two different tools.
The take-aways for the presentation will be summarized in 6 “Things to Consider”. Although we are at the beginning of the AI revolution, these tools, which are regularly being updated and hopefully made better each time, are still just tools. Just like you can get different transcriptions of census reports or passenger manifests from different commercial genealogical sites, the output from these tools may also vary. It is still important to try to verify the output through different sources to try to get the most reliable information.
BIo: Nolan Altman was bit by the “genealogy bug” when he was inspired to write his family history in 1996 in memory of his mother. After making use of the valuable information on JewishGen, he volunteered to do data entry on various projects. In time, he was asked to become the Coordinator for JewishGen’s Holocaust Database and subsequently the Coordinator for the JOWBR (JewishGen’s Online Worldwide Burial Registry) project. Nolan works with volunteers from around the world helping to grow both databases for the benefit of family members and researchers. Nolan currently holds the position of JewishGen’s Director for Data Acquisition and focuses on growing the JOWBR, Holocaust and Memorial Plaques databases (https://www.jewishgen.org/). In 2021, JOWBR won the IAJGS Outstanding Project Award.
In addition, Nolan served as President and Treasurer for his local society, the Jewish Genealogy Society of Long Island (JGSLI) and still serves as an at-large board member. He created their award-winning YouTube library of instructive videos (https://tinyurl.com/y85s3v3j).
He also served in various roles, including Vice-president and Chair of the Membership Development Committee, for the International Association of Jewish Genealogical Societies (IAJGS) Board from 2009-2021.
Nolan continues to write articles and present to social groups and adult education classes. He has had articles published in Avotaynu, Dorot, Stammbaum, Shemot, LIneage, and the FEEFHS Journal.
In 2021, Nolan was recognized by the IAJGS with their Lifetime Achievement Award. In addition, the organization’s volunteer award was renamed in his honor, the Nolan Altman IAJGS Volunteer of the Year Award.
