The talk will review the research steps and analysis required to find the original Gorcey surname and Russian town of origin. The talk will also cover the persistence  required, and the research methodologies and sources used. Leo and Bernard Gorcey were famous movie and stage actors in the 1930-1950s.

Dr. David Kathan is a long-time genealogist with expertise in colonial American genealogy, Jewish genealogy, and the use of DNA in genealogy. David recently retired from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission as an economist, where he focused on the integration of distributed energy resources into the wholesale electric power system. He initially became interested in genealogy in his teens, but instead focused on schooling, career, and family. He was stricken by the genealogy bug in the early 2010s and has been actively researching his lineage along with his wife’s Ashkenazi ancestry. David has spoken to several genealogy groups, including the Jewish Genealogy Society of Washington, DC. He graduated from Grinnell College, and has a Masters and Doctorate from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania