Category Archives: Hugh Laurie

Hello World.

Categories: David Tennant, Doctor Who, Genealogy, Home Improvement, Hugh Laurie, IAJGS, UJGS
Estimated reading time: 1 minute, 51 seconds
1 Comment

Welcome to my blog. I am Banai. That’s pronounced like B’nai Brith, or B’nai Israel, or B’nai Torah, or if you haven’t heard of any of those or don’t know of any synagogues with those names, it rhymes with Renee.

I have been a genealogist since birth, but I got serious in 1998, moved to Salt Lake City in 2003, and soon became a professional.

I had been debating starting a blog for years. What would I write? Would anyone read it? Would I make the time to keep it up? What would I call it?

Well, the last question was answered first. I came up with the title somewhere in the middle of watching British TV shows last year. Even more recently (like, while editing this post) I added on the third word of my title, from the Ginger Jew to the Ginger Jewish Genealogist. I thought that might be going a bit too far, but I’ve decided to go with it for now. Any comments about that?

I finally decided to just go ahead and try it. So on New Years Eve, between the ball drop and midnight (’cause the ball drops in NYC two hours before midnight in SLC), I installed the blog, adjusted the design, and figured out how to use it. I have blogged every day this year so far. No, you can’t read what I wrote because I marked all the entries private. I was kind of testing the waters.

But now I’ve decided to go public with my blog. So here it is!

Just like my Twitter account, this will likely end up to be about more than just genealogy, but since that’s my profession and my hobby, I expect it to show up a lot. Other topics that will appear often will include UJGS, the Utah Jewish Genealogical Society (I am the president, newsletter editor, and webmaster); IAJGS and each annual conference; David Tennant, Doctor Who, and anyone else associated with the show; Hugh Laurie, House, and any other corresponding shows or people; any other TV show or celebrity that suits my fancy over time (those are just the current ones); and any home improvement projects that may be happening.

Let the fun begin.

In The House

Categories: Accountability, David Tennant, Genealogy, Hugh Laurie, IAJGS, JGSLA 2010, UJGS
Estimated reading time: 1 minute, 57 seconds

After yesterday’s Doctor Who marathon, today had a House marathon on USA Network. I mostly slept through it, but I had it on for a while. So now my blog has hit upon my two favorite doctors and my current favorite actors, David Tennant and Hugh Laurie.

There has also been some work accomplished. While I didn’t feel like I had done much, by the time midnight came around, I was getting some genealogy work done. I did some data entry for a client. I’m searching Polish church records for Jewish records and hoping to find more information about his family. After typing up the last batch that I had handwritten last month, I finally compared the whole file (even though I have a couple more years to look through). Sadly, I didn’t find a single record that corresponded to what I already know about his family.

And it really does make me sad when I don’t find anything. The thrill of genealogy is not just the searching, but the finding after spending so much time searching. When I don’t find anything, I feel bad. Not just for the client but for myself. All that time spent and I didn’t find a single record useful to his family research.

In addition, I finally started to plan out my lectures for the 2010 IAJGS conference in Los Angeles. I have until the 15th to submit my lectures and I hadn’t really worked on it. My plan is to sort of repeat what I did last year, but try to do it better. Next Monday, I am presenting at the UJGS meeting, and I want to submit that to the conference. Instead of doing a computer lab about Facebook, I am going to do a lecture. My other computer lab from last year was about using Microsoft Publisher, and I want to submit that possibly as two labs, beginner and intermediate levels.

Not such a useless day after all. And there’s still a few more hours to go before I fall asleep, so maybe I’ll get some more work done for my genealogy clients, or I’ll update a web site. Or maybe I’ll just waste some time.