| Going About Your Project, Step by Step |
| Getting Started |
If you're just getting started researching your Jewish family history, you should definitely begin by reading either of the following books:
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Kurzweil, Arthur. From Generation to Generation: How to Trace Your Jewish Genealogy and Personal History. Updated Edition. (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2004). 367 pages. ($24.95 hardcover). ISBN 0-7879-7051-4.
[First edition was: (New York: William Morrow, 1980). 353 pages. ISBN 0-8052-0706-6. Second revised edition was: (New York: Harper Collins, 1994). 388 pages. ISBN 0-06-270097-9].
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Rottenberg, Dan. Finding Our Fathers: A Guidebook to Jewish Genealogy. (New York: Random House, 1977). 401 pages. ($20). [Reprints: Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., 1986, 1995, 1998. ISBN 0-8063-1151-7].
These two were the pioneering works that helped inspire the modern Jewish genealogical movement, in the late 1970s. Both books are a great inspiration for beginners. However, some of their sources are out-of-date. Jewish genealogy has advanced a great deal in the last generation, with the advent of the Internet, regional Special Interest Groups, etc. These more recent sources are described throughout this FAQ document.
More recent guides to beginning Jewish genealogy include:
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Mokotoff, Gary, and Warren Blatt. Getting Started in Jewish Genealogy. (Bergenfield, NJ: Avotaynu, 2000). 74 pages. ($11). ISBN 1-886223-10-6. [Table of Contents].
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Krasner-Khait, Barbara. Discovering Your Jewish Ancestors. (North Salt Lake, UT: Heritage Quest, 2001). 287 pages. ($24.95). ISBN 0-944931-85-5.
Start with what you know. Work from the known to the unknown, one small step at a time. Work backwards, from the present to the past, gathering facts as you go.
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- Yad VaShem (Har Hazikaron, Jerusalem), the Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Authority, established in 1953, contains the world's largest repository of information on history of the Jewish people during the Holocaust period.
- Avotaynu (Bergenfield, NJ)) is a leading publisher of books on Jewish genealogy and products of interest to persons who are researching their Jewish roots, family history or, Jewish surnames.
Their International Review of Jewish Genealogy focuses on the USA, Canada and Central and Eastern Europe. The Consolidated Jewish Surname Index (CJSI) database is sequenced phonetically rather than alphabetically, and contains more than 7.3 million records.
- JewishGen, Inc. (League City, Texas), not-for-profit organization, offers free online access to JewishGen Family Finder (a database of 375,000 surnames and towns), the comprehensive directory of InfoFiles, ShtetLinks for over 200 communities, and databases such as the ShtetlSeeker and Jewish Records Indexing-Poland.
JewishGen's online Family Tree of the Jewish People contains data on more than three million people. The JewishGen Discussion Group is one of its most popular components.
Database
Family Finder (JGFF)
Frequently Asked Questions
InfoFile Index
Jewish Genealogical Research in Eastern Europe FAQs - records access instructions, bibliography of basic reference works, an excellent country-by-country description of resources, online maps, and a list of regions, former provinces and counties, and where they are today.
Rabbinic Genealogy(Rav-SIG) Online Discussion Group - features an Online Journal, a Bibliography of over 300 resources for rabbinic genealogical research, Infofiles for tutorials and reference information on many aspects of rabbinic genealogy, Research Groups, Links to web sites of significance to rabbinic genealogy researchers, and more.
Tools (JOS) section contains Soundex, Calendar Conversion, Jewish calendar, and Distance/Direction functions
- The Nahum Goldmann Museum of the Jewish Diaspora (Beth Hatefutsoth, Tel Aviv University, Ramat-Aviv, Israel)
The Beth Hatefutsoth's Museum of the Jewish People Online is functional since 1996 offering advice and guidance in all matters related to Jewish life and heritage.
Database of Family Names
-- Jewish Family Names - An Introduction
Jewish Genealogical Societies worldwide
Prof. Aaron Demsky coordinates this multidisciplinary onomastics study that embraces history, anthropology, linguistics, archaeology, and other disciplines.
- Medieval Names Archive: Jewish Names (Academy of Saint Gabriel and Joshua Mittleman)
Naming traditions of France, England, Italy, Spain and some Islamic countries are presented. Names of Rabbis in Pirkei Avot (2nd century), a list of Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek names from a chapter of the Mishna, and the Database of Medieval Jewish Names, a collection organized by period and location, etymological origin with glossary of titles and bynames, are also accessible. See also Jewish Names in the World of Medieval Islam about Jews of Cairo compiled by Yehoshua ben Haim haYerushalmi and Jewish Women's Names in an Arab Context: Names from the Geniza of Cairo by Juliana de Luna (Julia Smith).
Miriam Weiner, the founder of this not-for-profit organization, has worked in the archives of Poland and the former Soviet Union since 1989. Her site lists towns and repositories in Belarus, Lithuania, Moldova, Poland, Ukraine, historical changes in jurisdictions, key Russian genealogical terms, spelling advice and a list of useful links.
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The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS) or, the Mormon Church (Salt Lake City, UT) operates the Family History Library (FHL), the largest genealogical library in the world. Located in Salt Lake City, Utah, their collection contains over 2.4 million reels of microfilm, 700,000 microfiche and 300,000 books.
The Church also operates over 4,000 Family History Centers™ (FHCs) in 88 countries worldwide. Records on microfilm can be lent from Salt Lake City to any Family History Center for a small fee. The Church has made a systematic effort to microfilm any records that have genealogical value from all over the world, including Jewish records. They have microfilmed an extensive collection of 19th-century Jewish records from Poland, Germany and Hungary.
Listings of these records (over 5,000 reels microfilmed as of 1985) were published in Avotaynu and The Encyclopedia of Jewish Genealogy. New records are microfilmed and added to the collection every year. Five to six thousand reels of microfilm are added to the collection each month, so you should re-check their catalog each year. Since the fall of the Soviet Union, they have begun microfilming in the former republics (see details below), and these microfilms are now becoming available.
Search the Family History and Genealogy Records or, find the nearest Family History Center at the FamilySearch Database online.
Or, scroll down to the Family History section at the LDS Catalog Home page to select genealogical research products and order them via mail by sending your request to:
Salt Lake Distribution Center
1999 W 1700 S
Salt Lake City, UT 84104
1-800-537-5971
ldscatalog@ldschurch.org
The site allows access to databases of Ellis Island (1892-1924), Castle Garden (and earlier) (1820-1891), Ships, Ship pictures, Arrivals and NARA/FHL Roll Numbers for NY Ship Arrivals, records from Other Ports of Immigration (Baltimore, Boston, Galveston, Philadelphia, San Francisco), Holocaust and Eastern Europe (Bereza and Antopol, Belarus; Siberian Refugee Camps: Searching the Polish "Index of the Repressed"; Soviet Gulags: Searching for People Interned in Soviet Gulags in One Step (1935-1955) ), Births, Deaths, and other Vital Records, and tools such as Soundex, Census information, Calendar, Sunrise/Sunset, Maps or, how to deal with Hebrew and Russian characters in your research.
Gary Mokotoff, the first person to receive the Lifetime Achievement Award from the International Association of Jewish Genealogical Societies, is an author, lecturer, and teacher of Jewish and Eastern European genealogy. He is also the co-author of the Daitch-Mokotoff Soundex System, the standard for all Jewish genealogical databases on the Internet.
A paid DNA testing service dedicated to helping genealogists find lost relatives when the paper trail ends and the brick wall takes its place.
The genetic diseases described on Mazornet's Jewish Diseases are disorders which occur more frequently in individuals of Jewish ancestry. Most diseases are severely incapacitating and some are tragically debilitating, leading to death in infancy or early childhood. Tay-Sachs may be the most notorious of the lot, but other diseases, just as prevalent and just as devastating, shatter the lives of Jewish families.
GeneDis is a human genetic disease database with a user graphical interface to a sequence search engine. Currently it includes 12 human genetic diseases.
Créée en 1860, l’Alliance Israélite Universelle est aujourd’hui l’une des principales organisations internationales dans le domaine de l’enseignement et de la culture juive. Son objectif demeure la diffusion d’un judaïsme fidèle à la tradition, tolérant et ouvert sur le monde moderne.
An extensive list of Canadian Jewish genealogical resources.
Jewish vital records of Montreal/Quebec, 1841 - 1942 (The Drouin Microfilm Indexing Project of Jewish Vital Records of Quebec)
contains all available vital record registers of Quebec including the Jewish registers of Montreal, Quebec City and Sherbrooke, and Civil Records of Montreal, Lachine, Outremont and Westmount in which there are entries identified as Jewish. The database contains more than 75,000 entries, principally births and marriages as well as approximately 4,300 deaths. The database also includes entries from notebooks of Rabbi I. L. Colton and Cantor Nathan Mendelson.
Canadian Naturalization Records - 1914-1932, an index of 200,000 Jewish and non-Jewish people as well as the Back River Memorial Gardens Cemetery full index of burials will be available for online search soon. The full history of this JGS of Montreal led project, was published in Avotaynu's Fall 2002 edition.
On-site visits are required at most research venues in Montreal. However, the Quebec Family History Society (QFHS) will provide names of experienced researchers who can access the "open" items, newspaper announcements, etc.
The Society was formally established in 1985. As one of seven Jewish genealogical societies in Canada, and a part of the International Association of Jewish Genealogical Societies (IAJGS), it stimulates interest in the pursuit of Jewish genealogical research locally and globally.
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