Phyllis Kramer was a leading figure in Jewish genealogy.
Born and raised in New York City, she received a Bachelor of Science degree from Cornell University and an MBA from Fordham. After a successful career with IBM, Phyllis took early retirement in 1993, and soon began to do family research.
An early participant on JewishGen, the leading website for Jewish genealogy, Phyllis became its Vice President of Education in 2006. In 2011, she received the IAJGS Outstanding Contribution award for her work to create and grow the JewishGen Learning Center. Phyllis personally taught many of those classes, mentoring hundreds of students from around the world. She also narrated a number of short educational videos, viewable on the JewishGen Learning Center web page.
Among Phyllis's many other contributions to JewishGen were the online version of the 1891 Galician Business Directory and fifteen KehilaLinks sites for her ancestral towns, including the birth places of her four grandparents -- Jasienica Rosielna, Nowy Zmigród, and Strzyow, Poland, and Rohatyn, Ukraine. She was a regular contributor to JewishGen discussion groups, taking the time to post detailed and highly informative responses to queries; the last of her postings appeared on the Gesher Galicia mailing list four days before her death.
Smart, witty, direct, and knowledgeable, Phyllis was a popular speaker at summer genealogy conferences, at meetings of the JGS of Palm Beach County, Florida, where she was a Vice President, and in other venues. One of her last talks, ironically titled "Death Records for Genealogical Research," was presented in June 2019 to the JGS (NY); it is online on YouTube.
Not long before the 39th IAJGS Conference on Jewish Genealogy, held in late July 2019 in Cleveland, Ohio, Phyllis was diagnosed with an aggressive cancer. Nevertheless, she attended the conference as planned -- giving two talks and socializing and networking with her many long-time friends and colleagues. After the conference she continued to plan for her latest course and to actively respond to messages. On the day her course was to resume, we learned of her death.
Phyllis was survived by her husband, her sister, and a loving extended family. May her memory remain for a blessing and an inspiration to all who knew her.
Born and raised in New York City, she received a Bachelor of Science degree from Cornell University and an MBA from Fordham. After a successful career with IBM, Phyllis took early retirement in 1993, and soon began to do family research.
An early participant on JewishGen, the leading website for Jewish genealogy, Phyllis became its Vice President of Education in 2006. In 2011, she received the IAJGS Outstanding Contribution award for her work to create and grow the JewishGen Learning Center. Phyllis personally taught many of those classes, mentoring hundreds of students from around the world. She also narrated a number of short educational videos, viewable on the JewishGen Learning Center web page.
Among Phyllis's many other contributions to JewishGen were the online version of the 1891 Galician Business Directory and fifteen KehilaLinks sites for her ancestral towns, including the birth places of her four grandparents -- Jasienica Rosielna, Nowy Zmigród, and Strzyow, Poland, and Rohatyn, Ukraine. She was a regular contributor to JewishGen discussion groups, taking the time to post detailed and highly informative responses to queries; the last of her postings appeared on the Gesher Galicia mailing list four days before her death.
Smart, witty, direct, and knowledgeable, Phyllis was a popular speaker at summer genealogy conferences, at meetings of the JGS of Palm Beach County, Florida, where she was a Vice President, and in other venues. One of her last talks, ironically titled "Death Records for Genealogical Research," was presented in June 2019 to the JGS (NY); it is online on YouTube.
Not long before the 39th IAJGS Conference on Jewish Genealogy, held in late July 2019 in Cleveland, Ohio, Phyllis was diagnosed with an aggressive cancer. Nevertheless, she attended the conference as planned -- giving two talks and socializing and networking with her many long-time friends and colleagues. After the conference she continued to plan for her latest course and to actively respond to messages. On the day her course was to resume, we learned of her death.
Phyllis was survived by her husband, her sister, and a loving extended family. May her memory remain for a blessing and an inspiration to all who knew her.
Phyllis Kramer was a leading figure in Jewish genealogy.
Born and raised in New York City, she received a Bachelor of Science degree from Cornell University and an MBA from Fordham. After a successful career with IBM, Phyllis took early retirement in 1993, and soon began to do family research.
An early participant on JewishGen, the leading website for Jewish genealogy, Phyllis became its Vice President of Education in 2006. In 2011, she received the IAJGS Outstanding Contribution award for her work to create and grow the JewishGen Learning Center. Phyllis personally taught many of those classes, mentoring hundreds of students from around the world. She also narrated a number of short educational videos, viewable on the JewishGen Learning Center web page.
Among Phyllis's many other contributions to JewishGen were the online version of the 1891 Galician Business Directory and fifteen KehilaLinks sites for her ancestral towns, including the birth places of her four grandparents -- Jasienica Rosielna, Nowy Zmigród, and Strzyow, Poland, and Rohatyn, Ukraine. She was a regular contributor to JewishGen discussion groups, taking the time to post detailed and highly informative responses to queries; the last of her postings appeared on the Gesher Galicia mailing list four days before her death.
Smart, witty, direct, and knowledgeable, Phyllis was a popular speaker at summer genealogy conferences, at meetings of the JGS of Palm Beach County, Florida, where she was a Vice President, and in other venues. One of her last talks, ironically titled "Death Records for Genealogical Research," was presented in June 2019 to the JGS (NY); it is online on YouTube.
Not long before the 39th IAJGS Conference on Jewish Genealogy, held in late July 2019 in Cleveland, Ohio, Phyllis was diagnosed with an aggressive cancer. Nevertheless, she attended the conference as planned -- giving two talks and socializing and networking with her many long-time friends and colleagues. After the conference she continued to plan for her latest course and to actively respond to messages. On the day her course was to resume, we learned of her death.
Phyllis was survived by her husband, her sister, and a loving extended family. May her memory remain for a blessing and an inspiration to all who knew her.
Born and raised in New York City, she received a Bachelor of Science degree from Cornell University and an MBA from Fordham. After a successful career with IBM, Phyllis took early retirement in 1993, and soon began to do family research.
An early participant on JewishGen, the leading website for Jewish genealogy, Phyllis became its Vice President of Education in 2006. In 2011, she received the IAJGS Outstanding Contribution award for her work to create and grow the JewishGen Learning Center. Phyllis personally taught many of those classes, mentoring hundreds of students from around the world. She also narrated a number of short educational videos, viewable on the JewishGen Learning Center web page.
Among Phyllis's many other contributions to JewishGen were the online version of the 1891 Galician Business Directory and fifteen KehilaLinks sites for her ancestral towns, including the birth places of her four grandparents -- Jasienica Rosielna, Nowy Zmigród, and Strzyow, Poland, and Rohatyn, Ukraine. She was a regular contributor to JewishGen discussion groups, taking the time to post detailed and highly informative responses to queries; the last of her postings appeared on the Gesher Galicia mailing list four days before her death.
Smart, witty, direct, and knowledgeable, Phyllis was a popular speaker at summer genealogy conferences, at meetings of the JGS of Palm Beach County, Florida, where she was a Vice President, and in other venues. One of her last talks, ironically titled "Death Records for Genealogical Research," was presented in June 2019 to the JGS (NY); it is online on YouTube.
Not long before the 39th IAJGS Conference on Jewish Genealogy, held in late July 2019 in Cleveland, Ohio, Phyllis was diagnosed with an aggressive cancer. Nevertheless, she attended the conference as planned -- giving two talks and socializing and networking with her many long-time friends and colleagues. After the conference she continued to plan for her latest course and to actively respond to messages. On the day her course was to resume, we learned of her death.
Phyllis was survived by her husband, her sister, and a loving extended family. May her memory remain for a blessing and an inspiration to all who knew her.
