ABOUT ME
Introduction
Ellen Kowitt is founder and principal genealogist at Sole Searching Genealogy & Historical Research, specializing in American records and Jewish ancestry. She is a frequent presenter at national conferences and has published articles in Family Tree Magazine and Avotaynu: The International Journal on Jewish Genealogy. Her topics include getting started in Jewish genealogy, methodology, Jewish institutional records, comparing Jewish resources on major genealogy websites, Russian Empire research, and the Holocaust in Ukraine.
Ellen received her BA from Alfred University and spent twenty-five years working in marketing management and communications before transitioning into full-time genealogical research. She has completed the ProGen study program, attended several genealogical institutes, and is a member of the Association of Professional Genealogists. While accepting clients, she continues to volunteer, serving as JewishGen USA Research Division Director and DAR Jewish Specialty Research National Vice Chair.
In 2022, Ellen launched Shul Records America for JewishGen, a unique finding aid pointing to synagogue records in over one hundred repositories. She has studied her paternal Jewish origins in Ukraine for over thirty years, tracing them back to the mid-1700s. Ellen has organized town research projects for her ancestral shtetls of Lyubar and Chudnov and the broader Volhynia Guberniya, and partnered with scholars in five countries on Holocaust-related projects, including those focused on Babyn Yar. Originally from New York and Washington, DC, she now resides in Colorado with her Israeli-born husband and is the mother of two college students. For more information, visit www.EllenKowitt.com.