Why Cleveland? Finding Answers in the Industrial Removal Office Records
Renée K. Carl
Co-sponsored by Siegel Lifelong Learning of CWRU

About The Lecture

Wondering why your immigrant ancestor chose to live in Cleveland instead of Pittsburgh? Little Rock, not Los Angeles? Memphis, not Miami? The answers might lie in the records of the Industrial Removal Office, a scary name for a good organization. The IRO, founded in 1901, assisted immigrants in finding employment and better living conditions, and helped assimilate them into American society. IRO agents, often working in partnership with B’nai B’rith or other Jewish fraternal groups, spread around the USA securing jobs, and then immigrants would be sent to those locations to establish a new life.

Records of the IRO, housed at the American Jewish Historical Society, include ledger books, case files and correspondence, as well as reports by local agents on the newly settled immigrants. Ohio, and specifically Cleveland, played outsized roles in the history of the IRO, and the talk will provide an Ohio-focused angle.

The presentation examines the history of the IRO and its records. The presentation will, using a case study, demonstrate how to use the online index, and how to navigate to find immigrant case files, correspondence, and reports.

About Renée K. Carl

Born in St. Louis, raised in Chicago, now living in Washington, DC, Renée left the public policy world for professional genealogy, finding that researching dead people is easier than working with Congress.

Renée’s business and blog can be found at EasternEuropeanMutt.com. She serves private clients, other researchers, journalists, and others. Renée worked as a researcher for Season 2 of PBS’ Genealogy Roadshow, and served as lead researcher for Season 3. She is a regular at the National Archives, Library of Congress and US Holocaust Memorial and Museum, and partners with researchers in Europe, Australia and Israel. Renée graduated Wesleyan University with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Cultural Anthropology and is a member of the Association of Professional Genealogists, Jewish Genealogy Society of Greater Washington, the Latvia Research Group at JewishGen, and the Ukraine Research Group’s town leader for Medzhybizh.