About

Welcome to My BLOG

Beverly Margolies - site designer, blog writer

About this BLOG:
I have been researching my family history for more than 20 years.  The purpose of this blog has evolved since 2009. Initially I was experimenting with new social media platforms.  I shared my experiences starting out on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, YouTube.  I also shared my JewishGen Success Stories.

In July, 2011 my dad passed away at the age of 90, I did not blog that year. The following year, 2012, I began sharing excerpts from my dad's memoire of his life as a Jewish teenager in France during the Shoah, "In My Dad's Own Words".  In my April 2013 blog post I pay tribute to the heroic railroad worker who smuggled my family to safety, the subject of my TEDx speech.

My June 2015 post focused on a major discovery in finding lost family, through Remy, a random Twitter follower.  That was like hitting the genealogist jackpot.  July 2017 introduces Stephane Gelkopf,  another incredible connection through JewishGen.

Other topics include Holocaust books I've read, Israel, Antisemitism on college campuses, propaganda in the news, events on my college campus, and presentations I've given.  Several posts in 2016 were reviews of books I'd read.  At the end of 2016 my posts focused on the Yad Vashem ceremony honoring the town of Ceyroux and my visit to retrace my family's past.

Recently I presented Facebook for Collaborative Family History Research at the IAJGS conference. My August 2017 post highlights some of the sessions I attended.

About Beverly Margolies - BIO from IAJGS17:

Beverly is a Web Designer at Bergen Community College (BCC) where she develops websites, video tutorials and leads workshops for instructors and staff on using technology and social media in new and creative ways. She is also a member of BCC’s Center for Peace, Justice, Reconciliation where she shares her parents’ stories with students, including a TEDx talk. Her parents were Holocaust survivors who survived in hiding in Ceyroux, in the south of France. She has been an active genealogist pre-Google and active on Facebook since 2008.