Joel Ratner has been researching his Litvak roots since 1994. In 1997, he was recruited as the first LitvakSIG District Coordinator and formed the Vilna District Research Group. In 2004, he took over responsibility for the LitvakSIG Vital Records Translation Project and has worked on that project to see to the translation of over 500,000 vital records. In 2009, the LitvakSIG Board asked Joel to step in and fill an early vacancy on the Board. Joel regularly speaks on Litvak genealogy at his local Jewish Genealogy Society of Greater Boston (JGSGB).