Currently accepting clients for...

• Family History Research
• Speaking / Presenting
• Writing /Publishing
• Other Speciality

Jane Neff Rollins works primarily, but not exclusively, with Jewish clients whose ancestors come from the former Russian Empire. She cried when she first saw her grandfather's name on the 1900 census. Jane has researched in archives in Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, Washington DC, and Jerusalem. Jane also routinely translates 19th century Russian documents into English for clients and online databases.

Jane has lectured at conferences sponsored by the National Genealogical Society, Federation of Genealogical Societies, International Association of Jewish Genealogical Societies (U.S., Paris, and Israel), Southern California Genealogical Society (Genealogy Jamboree), Stillaguamish Valley Genealogical Society (Northwest Genealogy Conference) and at society meetings across the country. Jane's genealogical writing has appeared in Avotaynu: The Journal of Jewish Genealogy, the National Genealogical Society magazine, FGS Forum [for which she won the 2020 FGS Writer’s Award], Pennsylvania Legacies, and elsewhere.
 

Geographic Specialities

• Russian Empire, especially Kherson, Kiev, and Volhynia Guberniyas (now in Ukraine); Grodno and Minsk Guberniyas (now in Belarus)
• United States, especially Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, New York (City and State), Philadelphia, San Francisco

Testimonials
*Your classes were so stimulating, excellent and WOW!. Usually I get home from a class and start trying to find the things the instructor told us about and I meet more brick walls but NOT this time... I found my Great Grandfather, Carl after listening to your talk who I have been looking for for over 10 years." Nancy Peralta " *Jane Neff Rollins gave a spellbinding talk about how to deal with sensitive and scandalous discoveries. In the course of researching her family history, Rollins has ferreted out a raft of secrets and transgressions that relatives have hidden over the years including instances of bigamy, theft, spousal abuse, suicide, homosexuality and conversion. As more and more family dirt surfaced, Rollins found herself facing the fraught ethical question of what to reveal." David Laskin, best-selling author of "The Family

Publications/Media

• Jane Neff Rollins. Researching Jewish Ancestors Who Served During the American Civil War. Avotaynu, Vol.XXXVI, No. 3, Fall, 2020, pages 28-32.
• Jane Neff Rollins and Andrea Massion, Farming in the Golden Land: Jewish Agricultural Colonies West of the Mississippi, NGS Magazine (January-March 2020, Vol. 46: No. 1): 34-40.
• Jane Neff Rollins, Labor Union Documents: Genealogically Relevant Sources, FGS Forum (Spring 2019, Vol. 31: No. 1): 1-7.
• Jane Neff Rollins, Generations: Find Out How the Spanish Flu Epidemic of 1918-19 Affected Your Pennsylvania Ancestors, Pennsylvania Legacies (Spring 2019, Vol. 19: No. 1):34-35.
• Jane Neff Rollins, The Spanish Flu Outbreak in 1918-19 and How it Affected Your Ancestors, Crossroads (Summer 2018, Vol. 13: No. 3): 6-21.

Lectures

• Jewish Genealogy 101: Fundamentals of Jewish Genealogy
• American Warp, Jewish Weft: Weaving Jewish Sources Into Genealogy Research
• I Never Heard from Them Again -- Researching Relatives Who Died in the Holocaust
• Learn Just Enough Russian for Genealogy
• From Babel to Benefit: Translation Tips for Foreign-Language Documents
• Westward Ho! The Jewish Agricultural Colony in Sanpete County, Utah
• I offer two dozen other lectures in categories such as vital records mash-up, unusual record types with genealogically-relevant data, research techniques, and storytelling. For a complete list and details about lecture topics please visit: www.sherlockcombsgenealogy.com.

Repositories

• California State University: Northridge, Special Collections
• Family History Library - West Los Angeles
• Los Angeles Public Library Genealogy Division
• Los Angeles City Archives
• Los Angeles County Superior Court Archives and Record Center
• Occidental College Mary Norton Clapp Library
• Southern California Genealogical Society Library
• Spielberg Oral History Collection/University of Southern California
• UCLA Research Library
• Woodbury University

Research Time Periods

• 21st Century
• 20th Century
• 19th Century

Languages

• Russian

Certificates

• GenFed 2018
• GenProof Study Group
• Pro-Gen 29 

Affiliations

• APG
• Genealogical Speakers Guild
• Jewish Genealogical Society of Los Angeles
• National Genealogical Society
• Southern California Genealogical Society

Degrees

• MSPH (Epidemiology), UCLA
• B.A. (French and Russian), Portland State University