The next meeting of the Genealogy Club of Newtown will be held via Zoom on Wednesday, October 11, at 7 pm.

Speaker Ron Arons will lead an exploration of “Researching Criminal Ancestors.”

For those who have ever wondered about an ancestor who is hard to find, or who seems to disappear from records, this program will appeal to you.

Arons will demonstrate how to research black sheep ancestors, those relatives who might be difficult to research for any one of a number of reasons. He will talk about using standard genealogical records (census, vital records, city directories, etc), and then expand to specific records available only for those who broke the law or came close to doing so.

Specific recommendations will be given regarding the methodology of researching such characters.

Born in New York, Arons was reared a goodie-two-shoes. Aside from five moving violations (including a “California” roll through a stop sign, doing 40 mph in a 30 mph zone, and driving with his brights on), Arons has never been afoul of the law.

He worked for many years as a marketer at many high-tech companies, including Texas Instruments, Ashton-Tate, and Sybase, before deciding to work full time on his first book, The Jews of Sing Sing.

Arons became interested in understanding his roots after he lost both his parents to cancer nearly two decades ago. In the process of researching his criminal ancestor’s past, Arons has traced his roots to England, Poland, Romania, Ukraine, Belarus, and Lithuania.

It was the completion of his family tree after his parents died that occasioned the discovery of his great-grandfather’s multiple aliases and criminal history.

“I thought I’d research my roots and find out who I am and where I came from. And in very short order, I found out my great-grandfather was behind bars in Sing Sing. My initial reaction was, ‘That can’t possibly be me, my family,’” said Arons. The evidence was overwhelming, however.

In 2005 Arons won a Hackman Research Residency Award from the New York State Archives to continue his research of New York Jewish criminals.

In January 2008, he appeared on the PBS television series The Jewish Americans as the acknowledged expert on Jewish criminals of New York’s Lower East Side.

He tours the country giving educational and entertaining presentations on Jewish criminals and Jewish genealogy.

Programs of the Genealogy Club of Newtown are co-sponsored by C.H. Booth Library, and open to anyone interested in genealogy.

To participate, send an e-mail request to genclubnewtownct.secretary@gmail.com by October 10, and include your name and contact information; the Zoom link will be sent ahead of the October 11 program.

Those planning to attend are asked to sign in around 6:45 so that everyone will be admitted before the program begins promptly at 7.