Information you should (or need ...or want) ... to know ...
Some graphics are from other sites without permission but with a link to the site
This Genealogy page is a mish-mash of information that doesn't seem to fit properly within the scope of the other pages, or is so general, that I have chosen to place the information or links here. You should be able to learn a lot here - regardless of whether you are just starting your research, or are far advanced. There is something here for everyone
"If you are going to successfully pan for gold, you will need to sift a lot of sand!"
Click here > forQuestionnaire Form (How to approach a possible relative) Click here >People(information about
Jewish people)
Sharing information has a lot to do with the many successes individual genealogists have enjoyed these past years. Helping youFind good information easily on the Internet, is the main purpose of this site.
The New England Historic Genealogical Society was founded in 1845 by a group of five Boston merchants and book dealers. It was the first such family-search organization in the United States.
Genealogy has become the fastest growing hobby in the 1980s and 90s ... even more so in the new millennium. Genealogy is the collection of names, dates and progeny and it can be fascinating enough, but most people study it for family history; the stories and personalities behind the facts. Our children and grandchildren should know and remember who the members of their past extended family were and are. They should know who is who in our extended family and data pertaining to our ancestors should be searched, recorded and preserved for future generations to come after we are long forgotten of North Americans descended from European ancestors are likely desce you are either!
Now, through the miracle of computers and the Internet, you can check out the thousands of sources of information pertaining to your special needs, in order to search for your ancestors, without going through the many years of searching the thousands of web sites on your own.
There is a nominal charge to use this site, but it is a lot cheaper than traveling the world to find the information or writing many letters and spending hours on the phone. The Internet is there to help you get closer to the solution you are looking to achieve.
Various genealogical sources have emerged on the web. Some of them are especially directed to those who have Jewish roots, but there are still many that, unless actually
searched, will never be discovered to contain important Jewish
genealogical information. The breadth of the material available is enormous, and even the casual researcher can be overwhelmed. That's where my web site comes in to play.
There are many genealogical lists currently available to help research a heritage tracing it back to various European and Mediterranean countries, but none that is specifically designed to offer to display most of the important Jewish informational web sites and databases right from your friendly home computer.
When you think about it, probably one of the main reasons for the longevity of the Jewish people, is the fact that it has treasured and preserved the record of its early history. But what of the history hereafter? Books have been written and libraries have been created, but much historical material has been destroyed in wars, or simply vanished due to indifference and neglect
Books
"History of the Jewish People" Authored by Eli Birnbaum. The sisiographies and major events in Jewish life www.jewishhistory.org.il/today.htm
In time, and with your cooperation, we should be able to provide the most comprehensive Jewish genealogical informational web site --- ever! The breadth of the material now surfacing is enormous, and even the casual visitor is overwhelmed. Though the Nazis tried so desperately to annihilate our people, they exercised traditional German efficiency in seeking to rescue and preserve the written records of the very communities they were attempting to destroy. Remember, There were 9,797,000 Jews living in continental Europe in 1941!
"The Kingdom of Poland was owned by France at the beginning of the 19th century, and after Napoleon it was owned by Russia. Then it was stable for 100 years, roughly. Is 100 years a long time?
When our ancestors talked about the 'old country' when they were in the US, of course, they were talking about the time they knew. My gr-grandmother was from (the duchy of) Nassau), so you know she came over before 1871 when Germany was formed - and that is important to know (except she came in the mid-50's, which I know from other things).
Places also varied by other things than time. Many of our ancestors were Lithuanian, if you asked them, not because they came from a nation of Lithuania, but because one tradition of Judaism is Lithuanian. So don't think all Lithuanian Jews came between the World Wars from the nation of Lithuania - or since the fall of the Soviet Union.
And of course, some people were from Germany because that was 'better' than being from Poland which was 'better' than being from Russia - regardless of where they were from in that area. (You may fill in whatever your family felt the 'better' and 'worse' origins were). From a posting by Sally Bruckheimer
If you are a 'Newbie' ( one who is just starting your research of your family tree), then I haven't forgotten you. Just scroll down to the end of this page and you'll find some helpful tips. Don't be afraid. We all had to start someplace! There is also a 'Novice' page that is under development.
Someone once stated that 'statistics are like a bikini: what they reveal is suggestive, but what they conceal is vital.'
General Jewish Genealogy Information
About Judaism The starting place for exploring Judaism focusing on Jewish religion and culture www.judaism.about.com
Orthodox This is a generic term of fairly recent time describing many different groups that share certain conditional principles and practices. Chasidics was founded in the 18th century by Ukrainian born Rabbi Israel ben Eliezer, the Ba'al Shem Tov (Master of the Good Name). This umbrella term includes Blaner, Bobov, Bostoner, Breslov, Gerer, Lubavitch (Chabad), Munkacz, Puppa, Rimnitz, Satmar and Vizhnitz. Each has a different approach and attitude toward Zionism.
Conservative The conservative congregations believes that the Torah and Talmud are of divine origin, and Halacha must be followed, however they also believe that revelation continues to take place as each generation of Jews discover and responds to God's word. National organizations represented include: Rabbinical Assembly; Jewish Theological Seminary, United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism; United Synagogue Youth.
Reform Begun in the 19th century in Germany. This group believes that the written and oral laws are divinely inspired, but written by humans and therefore observance is a matter of informed individual choice. National organizations representing the Reform movement include Union for Reform Judaism; Hebrew Union College - Jewish Institute of Religion; Central Conference of American Rabbis; National Federation of Temple Youth.
Reconstructionist This was originally an offshoot of the Conservative movement. It is based on the thoughts of Rabbi Mordecai Kaplan who defined Judaism as "an evolving, religious civilization. National organizations include: Jewish Reconstructionist Federation; Reconstructionist Rabbinical College; Reconstructionist Rabbinical Association.
Traditional This group is also referred to as "Conservadox" and is also an offshoot of Conservatism and shares the Orthodox perspective on Torah and Halacha, but is somewhat more lenient in interpretation. National organization: Union for Traditional Judaism.
Renewal This is a transdenominational movement based on Judaism's prophetic and mystical traditions and Judaism's perpetual process of renewal. National organization: ALEPH: Alliance for Jewish Renewal.
Secular/Humanistic Based on Judaism's non-theistic philosophy views Judaism as the historical experience and culture of the Jewish people. It was founded in the 1960s. National organization: Society for Humanistic Judaism.
The information above was printed by the Cleveland Jewish News and written by Beth Friedman-Romell
Acronym Finder
A searchable database of 108,300 acronyms/abbreviations & their meanings http://mtnds.com/af/
Louise Wise Services (Formerly The Free Synagogue Child Adoption Committee) established in 1916, is probably the most important Jewish Adoption Agency in the world. It had a reputation as a 'fortress' against release of identifying information to adult adoptee. This agency will help arrange reunions if all 3 parties agree (Natural Parent, Adoptive Parent and Adult Adoptee)
Fort Wayne, Historical Genealogy Department has the second largest genealogy collection in the US. Sue Kaufman, the Librarian at the library, can be contacted at Historical Genealogy Department Allen County Public Library Box 2270 900 Webster St. Fort Wayne, IN 46815 e-mail: skaufman@acpl.lib.in.us Phone: (219) 421 1225
15 West 16th Street New York, NY 10011 917 606 8200 Fax: 917 606 8201 with links to their Library and Archives, Photographs, Historical Organizations, Genealogical Societies and much more to relish http://www.ajhs.org/
This site offers improved searching capabilities, five sets of revolving photographs, and lots more added features besides a list of the many Jewish communities around the world, served by a genealogy society with their addresses.
The AJHS is the world's leading institution for the preservation of original materials on Jewish life and culture in the Americas. They are located at 160 Herrick Road Newton Centre Massachusetts 02459. The Society holds more than 40 million manuscripts, 30,000 books and thousands of newspapers, magazines, paintings, photographs and other artifacts that document the growth and accomplishments of American Jewry.
AMJHistory Offers an on-line Discussion group at to subscribe, send an e-mail to: listserv@web03.jh.org with the following command in the body of the text: SUBSCRIBE AMJHISTORY(Leave the Subject Line Blank)
American Jewish History (Temple University)
The site is user friendly and offers bibliographic material related to American Jewish history as well as links to other American history and Jewish web sites. http://www.temple.edu/feinsteinctr
American Jewish Yearbooks
1918 Edition Located at the JGS Palm Beach County Judaic Library, Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton, Florida; the 1919 Edition is located at The Beerman Library, Dayton Jewish Center, Dayton, Ohio; the 1920 Edition is located at the San Diego JGS, Lawrence Jewish Center, La Jolla, Ca
Allows you to print out a form letter requesting a Social Security file. In addition, they offer over 700 databases including Vital Records, Immigration Records, Military Records, Census Records, Court & Probate Records. This commercial site allows you to search over 900 million names ... not necessarily your ancestors, however. www.ancestry.com
Military photos (vintage photos of Veterans, ships, etc. by war, last name and branch of service and a lot more of interest to a genealogist index.cfm-13842
Anusim (anousim)
A list is available for those who know/think/suspect or are interested in Spanish or Portuguese Jewish people that were forced to convert under duress but kept Jewish practices, in secret, to any extent. http://members.tripod.com/~anak/anusim.htm
"I cannot address what archivists do, but I can tell you that I buy my archival safe acid free protectors in bulk from a well-known membership club warehouse. A box of 200 costs less than $10 for the heavy duty variety. I have also bought archival-safe acid free pens and markers from them. From a well-known office supply chain, I purchased 65# card stock that is acid free and I usually insert that into the page protector to keep the document from getting damaged. I write on either the card stock or the margin of the page protector with the archival-safe pen/marker to identify the people in the picture or other information about the document. My documents are then stored by family surname in binders on bookshelves. I should also mention that archival safe tape, corners and "dots" are available in craft stores in the sections with supplies for scrapbooking. I know that there are many systems out there for filing and storage, but I thought that I would expand on the answer to address a larger audience." From a posting by Marlene Bishow
Archive Information
Archives are for the storage of information - some of which might be sensitive - and as we know even individual Census data has a date (100 years in the UK) before which it cannot be released.
has a statement "Donor Imposed Restrictions upon Materials in our Holdings" which says that dissemination of some documents found in their holdings may be restricted by donor agreement.
It is quite usual, I believe, for famous writers etc to lodge their papers with universities and I understand that they place restrictions on access to these papers. Archiving material at a reputable for posterity is not the same as publication. I am not an archivist although I did work on Freedom of Information in the UK." From a posting by Nick Landau
Links to various types of Archives, including Diplomatic, Literature and Art, Military, Municipal, Museums, National, Parliaments and Political Parties, Religious Communities, State and Regional and Universities and Research Institutions Archives http://www.unesco.org/webworld/portal_archives/pages/Archives/
TheNational Archives and Records Administration A US government agency charged with preserving historical records. You should know that the records they retain are available to the public. "A Visit to the National Archives, The American People's Library" is an article in TIME magazine dated April 19, 1999 and written by Emily Mitchell. She states: "Sooner or later, almost every genealogical hunt leads past the tall columns of the National Archives on Pennsylvania Avenue. On one side of the building are the grand documents of democracy: the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. On the other side are the commonplace but invaluable records of the 272 million people who make up that democracy: census schedules from 1790 through 1920, military records from the Revolution to the start of World War I, passport applications going back to 1795, documents from the Bureau of Indian Affairs, ships' passenger lists. Since they were created by bureaucrats for bureaucrats, cautions NARA archivist Constance Potter, "a novice can have trouble."
This site features 1,200 of the 10 billion records held in the Archive. Start by clicking on a record. You will also see related records. The records are pictures and documents. http://www.archives.gov/nae/visit/
This site discusses how to research your family, care for photos and old papers; use libraries and archives; locate missing relatives; interpret and translate documents and more at http://www.nycarchivists.org/fhf.htm
Area Code Finder includingInternational Calling Codes
The Jewish Arenda paid a fixed sum for the Arenda contract, and held the contract for a fixed duration - five years in the example discussed at http://www.ukar.org/shest01.shtml
Arrendator or lessee system "The Lords' Jews, Magnate-Jewish Relations in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth during the 18th Century" - authored by J. J. Rosman. The book details the development of the system and focuses on the Sieniawski-Czartoryski family latifundum which was the largest and best run of the estates in Poland. The Jews participated as both lessees and as administrators, with the administrator function becoming more prevalent in the 18th century.
Ashkenazi Jews
This was originally a biblical term, "Ashkenaz and came to refer first to German lands, then was applied more loosely to refer to European Jews and their culture. Yiddish, a blend of Hebrew and German is the traditional Ashkenazic vernacular. An interesting site to review is http://www.ucl.ac.uk/tcga/ashkenazim
Association of Jewish Genealogical Societies
A non-profit organization dedicated to the coordination of the activities of some 60 local Jewish genealogical societies around the world http://www.Jewishgen.org/ajgs/
Association of Professional Genealogists(NACA APG)
Promotes the highest standards of ethics and professionalism in the genealogical field at the regional level. Nearly all of our members conduct research in local repositories such as the National Archives and Library of Congress, but many have geographic and ethnic specialties outside the Capital area. http://www.apgen.org/ncac.html
Genealogy Freelancers Genealogy Freelancers is a FREE and Easy method that allows you to connect to a genealogy expert from anywhere around the world. Let our international team of professional genealogists and other ancestry experts provide you with the help you need. Just post your family history project, compare your offers and choose the best specialist for the job; it's that simple. Why spend your valuable time searching for an experienced family history expert when you can let the Pro's come to you? Our company was founded by Professional Genealogists so we understand the importance of the journey to find your roots. Find out more about all the benefits of using Genealogy Freelancers as your gateway to the past. http://www.genealogyfreelancers.com/index.php
Two other organizations which exist for professional genealogists are the Board for Certification of Genealogists (BCG) and International Commission of Accreditation of Professional Genealogists (ICAPGen). These organizations confer credentials (either certification or accreditation) with testing procedures. In addition to these groups there are organizations in England, Ireland, New Zealand, and Australia for professional genealogists.
Professional Genealogist Julian H. Preisler
Professional Researchers The Special Interest Group for Romanian Jewish Genealogy offers a wonderful informational site about dealing with professional researchers at http://www.jewishgen.org/romsig/rsdb/prof-sum.html
Avotaynu
This is a monthly publication and their offices are located in Bergenfield, New Jersey. It has a 400-book library about Jewish genealogy and the Holocaust which you can browse. Gary Mokotoff is an author, lecturer and publisher of Avotaynu. He is the author of a number of books including "Where Once We Walked" a gazetteer providing information about 22,000 towns in central and eastern Europe where Jews lived before the Holocaust. http://www.avotaynu.com
Israel Ben Eliezer (BeShT) was born on Chai (18th) Elul 5458 (1698) in Okup, a small village in Western Ukraine on the border between Podolia and Moldavia. He died on the second day of Shavuot 5520 (1760), leaving an only son Rabbi Zvi, and an only daughter, Adil, the mother of Rabbi Moshe Hayim Ephraim of Zedlikov and of Rabbi Baruch of Medzhibozh. This site is devoted to spreading the teachings of the Baal Shem Tov through stories, music and art http://www.baalshemtov.com/
Founded by B'nai B'rith in 1924. The boys' arm is known as AZA, Aleph Zadek Aleph; the girls' is BBG B'nai B'rith Girls. Today, the organization has 20,000 members and countless alumni across North America, Israel, Europe and Australia.
British users of this site should be aware that correspondents from the USA are wise to ask what information is contained on British certificates. Birth, marriage and death registrations in the USA (depending on State) give more information than English/ Welsh certificates and often provide information about the place of birth of parents. USA censuses similarly contain more information than censuses in UK and may show the place of birth and language spoken by parents of those listed. Evelyn Wilcock
Vital Check You can order birth, death and marriage certificates online from this trusted company for a variety of states. There is a reasonable charge. http://www.vitalcheck.com
Sample Letter in English
Dear Sir / Madam,
As a descendant of (name, born / married / deceased on date) (in place) at the time living in street, ___________ I would like to obtain a copy of his / her birth / marriage / death certificate.
Enclosed please find a check / money order for amount $
There are hundreds, perhaps thousands of books available on the many countries and subjects discussed on my web site. If you wish, you can use my link to amazon.com to help you research for books on any country or subject by clicking here > Jewish Genealogy
"A Student's Guide to Jewish American " Authored by Jay Schleifer
The Black Book (Chornaya Kniga) Compiled and edited by Vasily Grossman and Ilya Erenburg and published in Jerusalem by Tarbut in 1980 and Kiev: M.I.P. "Oberig", 1991 (Russian) and is available online (English translation of the table of contents) http://www.jewishgen.org/yizkor/black_book/Black_Book.html
"Hungering for America: Italian, Irish, and Jewish Foodways in the Age of Migration" Authored by Hasia R. Diner. In this fascinating survey of the eating habits and influences of Jewish, Italian and Irish immigrants, Diner, a professor of American Jewish history at New York University, charts with wit and graceful prose the similarities and differences between these three distinct groups.
Buy from Amazon.comBuy
from Amazon.comBuy
from Amazon.com
"Jewish Immigrant Associations and American Identity in New York, 1880-1939" Authored by Daniel Soyer
"Jewish Museums of North America: A Guide to collections, Artifacts, and Memorabilia" Authored by Nancy Frazier
Jewish Museum of Florida in Miami Beach Telephone: 305 672 5044; www.jewishmuseum.com
"Ketubbah: Jewish Marriage Contracts of the Hebrew Union College Skirball Museum and Klau Library"
"My Generations, a Course in Jewish Family History" Authored by Arthur Kurzwell
"Scattered Seeds: A Guide to Jewish Genealogy" Authored by Mona Freedman Morris
"Silent Places: Landscapes of Jewish Life and Loss in Eastern Europe" Authored by Dr. Jeffrey Gusky and published by Overlook, 1800 pages. A black and white photographic essay by the author of his first trip to Eastern Europe in 1995.
"Sourcebook for Jewish Genealogies and Family Histories" Authored by David S. Zubatsky & Irwin M. Berent
"Sources in the United States and Canada" (The Encyclopedia of Jewish Genealogy, Vol 1) Authored by Miriam Weiner
"WOWW Companion: A Guide to the Communities Surrounding Central & Eastern European Towns" (Avotaynu Monograph) Authored by Gary Mokotoff
A treasure trove of Jewish genealogical research www.avotaynu.com
Blogs
BlogBridge Desktop handles and keeps track of hundred of blogs that you might be subscribed to. It has great value for genealogists. http://blogbridge.com/
The anti-Zionist Jewish workers' part that upheld the integration of the Jewish proletariat in the socialist revolution, and demanded Jewish cultural autonomy in the framework of the socialist regime that would arise after the victory of the revolution in every country.
The Jewish cemetery is regarded as a "Beth Olam" i.e. "House of Eternity". Within Jewish religious law, the cemetery exists, in perpetuity, until the appearance of the messiah. The cemetery constitutes an important institution for the community. When entering a synagogue or a cemetery, one's head should be covered. On maps, Jewish cemeteries are indicated with a right-angled bracket, not a cross, depicting the headstone and grave. It is traditional custom to deposit a small stone when visiting a grave.
Burial usually takes place on the day after the death, but not on a Sabbath, or any of the other Jewish holy days. Cremation is only permitted in Reform Judaism. Those present at the burial can throw three shovels of sand onto the coffin. The Kaddish, which praises the name of God, is the most important prayer on this occasion.
The first phase of the period of mourning lasts seven days during which the mourners stay at home and do not work. This is called Shiva. The second, less intensive period of mourning (Sh(e) loshim) lasts 30 days. When one of the parents dies this is followed by a year of mourning. On the first anniversary of the death (Season), the gravestone is placed in the cemetery. During each of the following "Season" a candle is lit in memory of the deceased and a fast is observed.
Books
"Cemeteries of the U.S: A Guide To" A guide to contact information for US Cemeteries and their records and published in the US & UK by Gale Research, Inc. Call # 929,50257,CE ISBN 0 8103-9245-3 ISSN 1071-8729
"Sepulchral Portraits" Authoredby John Yang ISBN# 89102423X
Cemetery Junction Obituaries Newspapers by state with on-line obituaries. Also includes Canada and Australia with links to cemeteries www.cemeteryjunction.com/
Cemetery Transcriptions by Region (worldwide). There is a 'Special collections' section listing Veterans Cemeteries, Flooded Cemeteries and more http://www.interment.net/Default.htm
Death and Dying Through this site you can locate information on the legal, medical and consumer issues surrounding death or life-threatening illnesses. http://www.mydeath.net/
Endowed This means that annual care has been taken care of in perpetuity.
Funeral Home and Cemetery Information -US http://www.funeralhomeresource.com/
Heritage Foundation for Preservation of Jewish Cemeteries (HFPJC) A volunteer, non-profit organization dedicated to the restoration of neglected cemeteries throughout Eastern Europe. gen@jewishcemeterypreservation.org
InfoFile on NY Cemeteries a database of cemeteries and burial societies on the NYJGS website www.nyjgs.org
Name, Hebrew Name, Father's Hebrew Name, Date of birth, Date of Death, Surviving Relatives ("Beloved Husband, Father, Grandfather and Brother")
When visiting a cemetery, consider:
1. Bringing a stack of index cards to fill in the above fields that you can find
2. Bringing a camera and take a photo of the tombstone. Later, if need be, you can show the photo to have the Hebrew translated.
3. Pick up a few stones and bring along a prayer book.
4. Bring gardening gloves and pruning shears. Wear old clothes.
5. Check out the other tombstones around the one you are visiting. Once, while visiting a cemetery in Minneapolis, my wife and I found the tombstones of her great grandmother and great grandfather. She never knew that they had come to Minneapolis. She only knew that her grandmother had been buried there. You never know!
6. If there is an office on the grounds, ask for additional information if they have some available.
Cemetery Genealogy Resources At this site you will find all kinds of information dealing with obituaries, cemetery locations, history of graveyards, mailing lists and more; by state, and by many countries of the world. http://www.rootsweb.com/~jfuller/gen_mail_cemetery.html
Online resource for obituaries That have occurred within the last ten years or so, available free through local library systems, including the one in Prince George's County, Maryland at their website http://www.prge.lib.md.us/Databases/Databases.html
The database is the second listed, America's Obituaries and Death Notices, run by Newsbank.
Cemetery Records On-Line This is a site dealing with cemetery databases and articles. The staff of this resource will search the records for you in thousands of cemeteries including the U. S, Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and many other cemeteries and will do a virtual walking for you by actually visiting cemeteries http://www.interment.net/
Cemetery Tombstones with photoson headstones. They are called Sepulchral portraits. The photo is burned onto porcelain or metal tablets and then glazed. This is a practice I have personally noted in cemeteries in Europe and in the U.S.
Cemetery - Writing to one If you write a letter to any cemetery, give as much information as you can, and you probably will receive an answer. Be sure to include a stamped, self addressed envelope with your request.
"In many cases, a telephone call to a cemetery office will elicit wonderful information and frequently a member of the office staff will volunteer to take Polaroid of tombstones gratis! I would recommend however, that one offers to remunerate anyone volunteering. A pleasant approach and good manners always wins the day." Posted by Carol Raspler
Other sites that also offer similar information include:
Find A Grave Find the graves of thousands of famous people from around the world; search for a cemetery; surname index and more http://www.findagrave.com/
Hebrew Acronyms on Tombstones - "Ozar Rashei Tevot Ve-Kizurim Be-Mazevot Batei Ha-Almin" Authored by H. G. Huettenmeister and written in Hebrew - 349 pages ISBN: 3 - 922056 - 08 - 3
Hebrew Tombstone Word Meanings
Word
Meaning
Ahuvah
beloved
Avinu Hayakir
Father beloved
Bachur
unmarried male
Betulah
in most contexts essentially meaning "unmarried woman"
Chashuva (for males chashuv)
special respect, a learned person, someone active in the community
HaBahur HeHashuv
"esteemed young man"
Habetula
When a girl died before she got married, Hebrew tombstone inscription will always say: "Habetula" - that means "virgin" in the sense of "before she married" or "still single".
Haga'on
The exalted rabbi (Gaon or any rabbi held in great esteem)
Hagr'a
The Gaon R' Eliahu (of Vilna)
Hahashuva
means "the important" or "esteemed" in the sense of "beloved".
Kehillot Kodesh
Holy community
Moh'r - Moh'r -
usually a prefix for a rabbi
Moreynu haRav
Our teacher, the Rabbi
Nifterah
Died
Niktaph
"cut off". Some families use the words as an indication of their feelings towards the Dead, as being "cut off from life"
Poh nikbar/nikberah
Here lies buried ...
Poh Nitman
Here is interred ...
Rabbeinu, Rav
Our Master, Rabbi __
Reb
Mr. ben Reb - the son of Mr. ....a Yiddish honorific equivalent to Mister.
VeBa'ali He'Ahuv
And my beloved husband
Weba'aly Ha'ahuv
and my beloved husband
Yad
Hand and also means memorial or monument.
Zecher Ztadik Livracha
IAJGS (International Jewish Cemetery Project) The scope of this project is the documentation of every Jewish burial site in the world. The project does not include individual burial information, but does provide contact and other information about all organizations that are members in good standing of the IAJGS. There is an International Jewish Cemetery Project CD available with over a half a million names. http://www.jewishgen.org/cemetery
Interment. net Browse cemetery transcriptions by region and by special collections (Military, etc.) for the US, Australia, England, Ireland, Canada, New Zealand, Germany and other countries http://www.interment.net/
Jewish Funerals Burial and Mourning A comprehensive on-line resource with information on Jewish text, traditions and practices around death, burial, cemeteries, mourning and healing, consumer rights, tahara, tachrichim, organ donation and more www.jewish-funerals.org
Jewish Funeral Directors You can search for "Funeral Directors" by state or city at http://www.jfda.org/listing_state_city.html
Canadacan also be searched here (See also
Canada) Note that this site isn't comprehensive: it lists only funeral directors who are members of the organization. Another site to track down the Jewish funeral director (s) and cemeteries in smaller US cities IAJGS International Cemetery Project www.jewishgen.org/Cemetery/
and local synagogues using a search engine which you will find at my Search page.
National Cemetery Administrations Including links to Nationwide Gravesite Locator, National Cemetery Web Pages, Cemeteries, Headstones and Markers, Military Funeral Honors, State Cemetery Grants Program, Locating Veterans, Obtaining Military Records & Medals and FAQs. http://www.cem.va.gov/
The Obituary Daily Times A daily index of published obituaries that is distributed freely, often twice a day by e-mail and usually has over 2,500 entries a day. This is a searchable site http://www.rootsweb.com/~obituary/ Obituary Links Page Electric Library Newspaper Search Link - search for obituaries from thousands of publications and Census Records. The links include both Canada, Foreign and US links http://www.cyndislist.com/obits.htm
Obituary Lookup Volunteers State/Country Index The Obituary Lookup volunteers for the United States are grouped by state. On each state's web page, the volunteers are listed by county. For the rest of the world, the volunteers are grouped by country or continent, and on each web page the volunteers are listed by region. http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~obitl/ovlist.html
Obituary Network This is a network of volunteers from across the world who enter obituary data from their local newspaper or from on-line papers each day into a searchable database. http://www.they-speak.com/obits/ Obituary Collection - text link Obituary Web Site Groups States in the USA according to location-----Northeast, Southeast, etc. For each State there is a listing for Funeral Homes and Newspapers for each city in that State. www.Regionalobits.com
There is a facility to search for Obits, but it appears to be erratic. If looking for the address of a funeral home or a newspaper for a particular city, you can try to use this website though it is limited.
Researching Jewish Cemeteries in Europe An article authored by Stanley Finkelstein as reported in Volume 16, Number 2 Summer 2001 of the JGS of Michigan's 'Generation' magazine. Also http://www.lo-tishkach.org/en/
Tombstone Reading Site Jewish tombstones with Hebrew inscriptions have an added value to genealogists, in that they not only show the date of death and sometimes the age or date of birth, but they also include the given name of the deceased's father. This permits you to go back one more generation. http://www.jewishgen.org/infofiles/tombstones.html
Tombstone Rubbings Gravestones are a wonderful genealogical resource. Check this web site by Jessie Lie Farber - The Association For Gravestone Studies - Gravestone Rubbing For Beginners http://www.justcallbob.com/grave.html
The proper way to do a rubbing is with a specialty type of paper, called 'Carboff' paper, that's made for the monument (tombstone) industry. It comes in long rolls, not very expensive (around $15 or $20 for a roll that will last for a decade) Available from Wenzco Supply in Macungie, PA. 1 610 966 3555, 1 800 346 7805. It can be purchased at stores selling drafting or art supplies. There is also a hard triangular crayon that works quite well. It is a triangular half of a square of about 1.5" on a side, about 0.4" thick.
Books
'The Tombstone Tourist: Musicians' Authored by Scott Stanton and published by 3T Publishing in 1998
'Tomb With A View' A newsletter authored by Katie Karrick, a Cleveland cemetery historian. The newsletter spurred Judi Culbertson to become co-author of guidebooks on the cemeteries of London, Paris, Italy, California and New York. The guidebooks are published by Walker & Co. http://dir.yahoo.com/Society_and_Culture/Death_and_Dying/Cemeteries/
Photographing in a cemetery Anne Lapedus Brest, a professional photographer, offers the following suggestions:
"I use an ordinary 'point and shoot' (auto focus) camera when I visit cemeteries, as they are quick and easy to use.
If the sun is shining directly onto the stone, then I just stand directly in front of the stone and take the photograph, and it is not necessary to use flash.
If the sun is behind, or to the side of the stone (or it is a cloudy day) then I use the flash but stand slightly to the side so that the flash DOES NOT bounce directly onto the stone (otherwise you won't be able to read part of the writing).
If some of the letters of the stone are missing, and there is just an indentation where the lettering used to be, it is still not necessary to do anything at all (particularly as this might damage the stone, as in the case of shaving cream).
If you take the photographs the way I have described above, then you will be able to read the inscriptions on the tombstones without any problems.
If you would like any more information on this, please do not hesitate to contact me privately angi@icon.co.za and I will be happy to help as much as I can. I have used this method both in South Africa, and in Ireland and it has worked perfectly in both countries."
Another tip: 'When photographing gravestones with raised or engraved lettering, the way to make the letters stand out is to create strong side lighting. A well equipped pro would run a long cord from his camera's flash socket to a flash held or mounted almost at right angles to the face of the stone.' Another tip is to take shaving cream and place it on the stone. Then rub it off. The foam stays in the etched portions making it easier to photograph in the white of the lather on the grey or black of the stone.
You can photograph a document with a manual 35 mm SLR camera. Use professional film available by mail order. Mail order photo labs are usually less expensive than local labs. One hour or drop-off locations cannot provide quality photos.
Laminating a photograph A lamination will eventually destroy photos and even photocopies.
Photoshop Tip The two general tricks that I've learned for all photographs, not just those of tombstones is: First - use the Image/Adjust/Auto Levels, then use the individual contrast and brightness controls. Second, use the Filters/Sharpen/Unsharp Mask (which name is counter intuitive, but it works) to sharpen things up.
Another thing I learned is that you can select small areas and play with them without affecting other parts of the picture. For this you need to learn all the selection tools - marquee, shapes, magic wand. You can use the magic wand additively to get just certain areas. You can use all the adjustments you would use on a whole picture to bring up fuzzy parts of the picture until it is as good as you can get it. Other tools that are useful are the dodge and burn tools to lighten and darken selected areas. From a posting by Rita Margolies
A commercial site that might be of interest to those who require photo preserving supplies is Century Business Solutions www.centurybusinesssolutions.com
Zemaitis Genealogy and Family History This site, in addition to offering links to Cemetery Records Online, also allows posting of Queries, Surname resources, Census Records, Ships Lists, State Links, Ethnic Links and more http://www.distantcousin.com/
15 West 16th Street, New York 10011 - Telephone: 212 294 8301; Fax: 212 294 8302 e-mail: barbara@cjh.org; - has a web site that provides detailed information about the wealth of genealogical records and resources house at the Center. www.cjh.org
and click on "Family History"
Heralded as the Diaspora's "National Archives of the Jewish People", the Center houses 100 million archival documents; 500,000 books; and tens of thousands of artifacts and works of art.
Central Archives for the History of the Jewish People (CAHJP)
This archives was founded in 1938 as the Jewish Historical General Archives. It offers many links including Genealogy http://sites.huji.ac.il/archives/
TheCentral Zionist Archives
The official historical archives of the World Zionist Organization, the Jewish Agency, the Jewish National Fund, Keren Hayesod and the World Jewish Congress. It also holds the personal papers of individuals involved in the Zionist movement or active in Palestine/Israel. http://www.wzo.org.il/cza/
Centropa
An international team of historians, filmmakers, web designers, journalists, educators, photographers and Jewish community activists based in Vienna. There goal is to create a window into Jewish history, and current events, in Central and Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. By marrying together the newest technologies and serious research methods, this site will take Jewish history off the shelf, and bring it into your homes, classrooms, synagogues, libraries, book clubs and organizations. Whether you are Jewish or not, from North America, Europe or the Middle East, you will find this site interesting and stimulating. http://www.centropa.org/
An Interactive database of Jewish Memory where you can explore "by Country" and you can search a database of photos sorted by surnames, cities or by country and you can search their database for biographies by family name and by country. http://www.centropa.org/?nID=1
Brandler Institute of Chasidic. Though has formed this research committee comprised of Genealogical and Historical Researchers. Further information can be obtained by e-mail to Abraham Heschel bict@safeaccess.com http://www.jewishgen.org/rabbinic/members.htm
Chesed Net
A comprehensive guide to Chesed organizations. We improve access to medical and social service related information. Resources section provides medical information and social service information. http://www.chesednet.com/
This is a directory published about a city or town that includes the names and occupations of the residents and usually includes a directory of all of the businesses in the town. Some still publish city directories, although it is certainly not as common as it used to be. A full discloser of what can be expected of a City Directory can be found http://www.ancestry.com/columns/george/03-06-98.htm
"The Mormon Library has a very comprehensive collection, with very few missing years. I believe that generally speaking, street directories ceased to be published in 1934 with the advent of telephone books continuing the chronological sequence."
"According to my own list of LDS microfilm numbers, no directory was published in 1919-20, 1928, 1929-30, 1932. Additionally, there is a note that the 1924 issue was not available. Sutro Library in San Francisco used to have 'on open access' all the directories for the five boroughs from 1935 to the 1970s. But as these were the original phone books, they were literally disintegrating on the shelf, and were withdrawn from use a couple of years ago." Posted by Jeremy Frankel on JewishGen
More than 14 million registered High School alumni and College/University alumni are registered A commercial site http://www.classmates.com/
As every genealogist knows, you can't be too careful when it comes to throwing things away. No piece of paper, book, periodical, pamphlet, program, syllabus, clipping, letter, postcard — whatever — should be thoughtlessly discarded. You never know when you might need it. http://petuniapress.com/pence_springclean.html#if
COA (Certificate of Arrival)
The person's certificate of arrival number. During a certain time period, the COA was issued when the person applied for naturalization, and the ship manifest was annotated with the COA number. http://www.theshipslist.com/Forms/faq.html
Cohain, Levites
"TheCohains are the members of the tribe of Levi that are specifically descended from Aaron, Moses' brother. This happened 3,000 years ago. There are men who claim descent through their fathers from either the tribe of Levi or Aaron (Cohanim) When Israel was conquered, each of the 12 tribes of Israel got its own portion of land, except for the Levites (Cohains included). They were given the job of priests in the Temple (Cohain) or assistants (Levites) it is more than that, but this is for simplicity.
According to tradition, if your father is a Cohain or a Levite, you are one. There is obviously no telling after all these years if one is correct, although DNA studies have shown remarkable similarities in certain chromosomes in those that claim this.
The other 'tribes' were supposedly dispersed after the fall of the First Temple 2,500 years ago. I know of no oral tradition of anyone claiming descent from a particular tribe.
As for linking back, obviously it would be one 'clue' if you thought you had found a direct male ancestor and he was designated a Cohen or Levite like others in your line, but it probably would be similar to finding someone named Jacob Joseph when others in the family were named the same.
I think the only hope for going 'beyond the records' would be when DNA testing is developed to the point when we can biologically test 'purported relatives'. In Iceland, a closed population for 500, there is a study trying to make a complete genetic picture of the population. Perhaps something like this would be possible, although with assimilation, I am not sure." From a posting by Debra Kay debjkay@email.msn.com
"The conservative way of dealing with the bible, states that there is no knowledge with regard to the "ten lost tribes", and the Jewish people of today are mainly from the tribes of Judea and Benjamin, plus Levi and remains of other tribes." From a posting by Udi Cain
JLTV's Brad Pomerance reports on Author Jon Entine's Book "Abraham's DNA: Race, Identity and the DNA of the Chosen People." An interesting and informative discussion on the subject of Jewish DNA http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rTJFziTzOeg
Michael Bernet wrote: "...whether a Jew was a Kohen or a Levi is, for genealogist, about as important as knowing whether he was tall or short."
I must disagree wholeheartedly with Michael. Such knowledge can often prove essential in tying up links between male lines sharing a common last name. Furthermore, if two such common-surname lines came from the same small shtetl, it is highly likely that the two lines share a common ancestor.
Thus two apparently un-related RIBINSKI'S who are both Cohanim, and who both had ancestors from the same Shtetl, are far more likely to be related than unrelated. Certainly, the researcher would have to do some more homework, but such knowledge is often essential in trying to track down relationships. As genealogists, we are all familiar with seemingly impossible-to-connect branches that were solved by some seemingly small bit of info."
Michael also wrote that: "..It would be dangerous and misleading for our research if we tried to formalize this in a database."
"Based on my comments above, I must also disagree with these sentiments. In fact, such a database does exist and enables researchers to record the tribal status of his ancestors... *together with* the town of origin and source material. The database can be seen at - (click on TribeFinder)" www.shoreshim.org
"It seems absurd, but if we were to disregard male-linked tribal status data, then we might as well disregard hemophilia and a whole range of other male-linked genetic diseases. I think that any knowledge or technique that helps one to trace a line backwards is an essential genealogical tool that should not be overlooked." From a posting by J Schamroth jscham@zahav.net.il
""According to demographic studies done in Israel, the largest lump of Jews that are under a single database in the world, about ten percent of the Israelis are Cohanim. The reasons for this supposedly high percentage are simple:"
1. "At the time of the Jews expulsion from Israel, after the destruction of the first temple, the ten lost tribes had already disappeared. Alas. The Kingdom of Judah had an un-proportionally high number of Levites and Cohanim, simply because the temple was part of Judah. The rest were mainly from the tribes of Judah and Binyamin, with a spattering of the rest thrown in. We stated the Diaspora being about 25% of the Jews."
2. "Cohanim, being the temple priests, are the only group of Jews that have Halachic (Jewish law) restrictions as to who they could marry. A Cohain who violated these rules was still considered a Cohain, but his children were not! These rules were sufficient reason for a father to make sure his sons knew they were Cohanim. I would guess that being put thus apart, would also "protect" them some-what from assimilating."
3. "Because of the Honor of being a Cohain (little that it means with-out our beloved temple), there are and were many cases of people claiming to be Cohanim, which would further up there numbers." From a posting by Shmuel A. Kahn
Commission For The Preservation of Pioneer Jewish Cemeteries and Landmarks
Family Treemaker One of several commercial computer software companies that offers courses on How To of genealogy. Check: http://www.familytreemaker.com
"An Associated press article by Anick Jesdanum appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle, among others, discussing the fact that archivists can't rely on digital storage because technology is changing so quickly that older formats can't be read by newer programs.
This includes digital photography, which can lose details as it's converted from one format to another.
A serious consideration for those of us who are storing all our genealogical information in various computer programs such as FTM, which may not be readable by our children's computers! The full article can be found at: Thanks to Babette Bloch who supplied this link. http://www.presstelegram.com/Stories/0%2C1413%2C204%257E21470% 257E%2C00.html What is the best software program for Jewish Genealogy? Arjeh van der Sluis at vandersluiscdn@ica.net, announced on April 24, 2000 that he "has a substantial amount information and has done a lot of research on which program is best for my needs" including Haza Data; Pro Gen; Ancestral Quest; Family Ties Deluxe; Family Origins; Family Tree Make Generations Grande Suite Legacy Family Tree; The Master Genealogist; Personal Ancestral File and Ultimate Family Tree. I'd say he qualifies an expert, wouldn't you?
Computer Center for Jewish Genealogy This HaMagid CD-Rom compilation represents a follow-up to the Center's earlier computerized book. It is an essential research tool for biographers, genealogists, historians, librarians, researchers and scholars. For more information about any of the Center's activities, contact Dr. Rosenstein at
The Computer Center for Jewish Genealogy 654 Westfield Avenue, Elizabeth, NJ 07208 Telephone: 1 908 353 5575 Fax: 1 908 353 6080 E-mail ccjgen@aol.com
Some of the more complex family tree programs (like The Master Genealogist) include facilities for "sensitive data" and "exclusionary" data. You can tag any item or text as sensitive and when you create the GEDCOM to send the family tree, or print out a chart, that information is not included. From a posting by Phyllis Kramer
PhpGedView A genealogy program which allows you to view and edit your genealogy on your website. It has full privacy function, can import from GEDCOM files and supports multimedia. It also simplifies family collaboration. http://sourceforge.net/projects/phpgedview
PilotYid List of Jewish-specific software for handheld computers (PDAs) http://www.pilotyid.com/
Consolidated List of Genealogical Bulletin Boards:
The ultimate source of authentic and reliable information about 'Countries' of the world on the net. The links in this directory will guide you to the official sites of the countries that you are looking for. http://www.123world.com/countries/index.html
Children of siblings are to each other first cousins. Children of first cousins are to each other second cousins. Children of second cousins are to each other third cousins, etc. On the other hand, a person is, to its parent's first cousin, a first cousin once removed. If this person has a child, the child is, to its grandparent's first cousin, a first cousin twice removed. Not a second cousin. First cousin marriages were very common -- even uncle and niece is legal under Jewish law.
For those who prefer the digest form to reduce the large number of messages received daily in JewishGen, the ability to select out individual text to save in a mail folder (or any other folder of choice) is very useful. Here is how to do a cut and paste:
1. Highlight the portion of the text that you want to select out for saving by using the left button of your mouse
2. Right click the button on your mouse and Left click on "Copy" in the window that "pops up".
3. Click on "Compose Message" or "New Message" which ever is required by your mail program.
4. Enter your e mail address in the "TO" line and a "Subject" if your mail program requires one.
5. Right click in the text area of the new message and Left click on "Paste" in the "pop-up" windows.
6. Click on "Send" or your equivalent and the selected text will "loop back" through your ISP to you.
7. Now you have a choice (a) copy/move the selected message from your "Sent Items" folder to another folder of your choice or; (b) await the arrival of the "loop back" message and "Copy/Move" that to its chosen destination. You can also use the "drag and drop" feature to move the text if you prefer, and it is available in your mail program. From a posting by Bob Cooper
Should you wish to save the highlighted area, save it from the same menu to a specific folder that you will remember i.e. Genealogy Saves.
A Yiddish newspaper founded in 1906 and had a circulation of over 250,000 http://www.forward.com/
Database - Middle East & Jewish World Databank
The Canadian Institute for Jewish Research has prepared this User’s Guide to the Index to facilitate the accessing of research materials. http://www.isranet.org/DataBank/u.htm
Type in a nameand state and you should receive information about the person, including their birth date, address, city, state and zip code. It doesn't always work, but the few minutes of effort may be worth it. http://anybirthday.com/
Death Certificates
If the funeral home that handle a death is still in business, their records would indicate who made the arrangements and would be a possible source for family information.
On-line Searchable Death Indexes & Records This website gathers together links to online death indexes by state and county. Included are death indexes, obituaries, probate indexes and cemetery & burial indexes. There are also links to Social Security Death Index, Obituary Daily Times, RootsWeb's Cemetery Database and Veterans Affairs burial Search http://www.deathindexes.com/
A death certificate of sorts or a document certifying the death of an American citizen in another country can be requested by contacting the U. S. State Dept. The details can be found at: http://travel.state.gov/family/issues_death.html
"The contents of Death Certificates varies from community to community and also from differing dates. The community, sometimes the county and usually the state have copies, depending on dates. In addition, the veracity of the death certificate depends of the memory of the person filling it out, usually but not always correct."
"Nevertheless, if this is a close relative, if you are serious about doing Jewish genealogy, you really must get these certificates. They give vital information: Mother's maiden names, names of children, Parents names, addresses, cemeteries, etc. Using death dates, you can look for obituaries and wills."
"In the U.S., even when the States had not yet started to collect death records, the local community may have them. Contact the community clerk and ask." From a posting by Joe Fibel
Diaspora
The term Diaspora (Greekδιασπορα, a scattering or sowing of seeds) is used (without capitalization) to refer to any people or ethnicpopulation forced or induced to leave their traditional ethnic homelands, being dispersed throughout other parts of the world, and the ensuing developments in their dispersal and culture.
Originally, the term Diaspora (capitalized) was used to refer specifically to the populations of Jews exiled from Judea in 586 BCby the Babylonians, and AD 135 by the Romans. This term is used interchangeably to refer to the historical movements of the dispersed ethnic population, the cultural development of that population, or the population itself. The probable origin of the word is the Septuagint version of Deuteronomy 28:25, "thou shalt be a Diaspora (Greek for dispersion) in all kingdoms of the earth". The term has been used in its modern sense since the late twentieth century. http://diaspora.wikiverse.org/
Dictionary Search
Search dictionary web sites for words and phrases 6,000,478 words in 954 dictionaries indexed http://www.onelook.com
Traditional dress in Russia, for instance, was virtually identical among both Chasidim and Misnagdim. In Lithuania, the dress was somewhat different from in Russia, but again, Chassidim and traditional Misnagdim dressed nearly alike as in Poland, and in Galicia, Hungary, etc. One possible exception might be Vizhnitz Chassidim as they were the only ones to wear their hat backwards; with bow on the band tied on the right side instead of the left. http://angelasancartier.net/europe-and-america-history-of-dress-400-1900-c-e
Frequently asked questions about Jewish genealogical research in Eastern Europe offers a 'how-to' that should be read by anyone who is interested in researching his or her roots http://www.jewishgen.org/infofiles/eefaq.html
Eastern European and Jewish Genealogy
For the person tracing both eastern European and Jewish family history, there is a wonderfully collection of sources available for obtaining both specific family data and sound genealogical research strategies. Many sources are also available to assist one in finding particular types of records and identifying record repositories Eastern European and Jewish Genealogy
Offers tons of information on all of the many East European countries, including Galicia, Ukraine, Poland, Austro-Hungarian Empire, German Empire, Russian Empire, Czech Republic, Slovakia and more at http://www.eegsociety.org/
Here you will find a list of all of the embassies in the city TheElectronic Embassy Help and Resource Center provides reference materials, answers to frequently asked questions, search tools and other means to get assistance http://www.embassy.org/hrc/index.html
Information and details how to purchase the newest CD that has huge of amounts of relative information for the Jewish genealogist http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/
Census geography maps, available on film, will locate the Enumeration Districts of various cities. Once you have found the proper ED, you can then search for street and addresses.
"Re the 1920 US Census Enumeration District numbers knowing an address. Specifically Brooklyn. There is a backdoor way of finding that number for practically any address on the 1920 census made possible by the new 1930 Census. The 1930 census enumeration district definitions (EDs), on the National Archives film series T1224, not only show the 1930 ED # (obviously), but for the first time also the 1920 ED #s they covered. Although the numbers are not the same, and several 1920 ED #s may be partially covered by a single 1930 ED, it can narrow your research choices for 1920 EDs. For example, if you were to look for a particular street address for Brooklyn in 1930 (assuming it wasn't renumbered since 1920), you should first use the new NARA website, NARA film series M1931, or for Brooklyn, the One Step Website, and when you find the ED# record it. Then go to the appropriate state/city/place roll in series T1224 for 1930 and locate that 1930 ED # description page, and then look on the left side of that page, where you should see the 1920 ED #s that your 1930 ED # covered. Next you would go to the roll that describes that state/city's/place's 1920 census description on the same series (T1224) and look up those ED #s you just got (rarely up to a maximum of 7 or 8). By drawing on a map the boundaries of those 1920 EDs, you should find the ED number you are searching for." From a posting by Joel Weintraub http://www.stevemorse.org/census/
Anything short-lived or with a short-term usefulness, and includes newspapers, almanacs, bookplates, greeting cards, invitations, matchbooks, pamphlets, posters, sheet music and tickets. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ephemera
Europe Aerial Reconnaissance Photographs
Five million photos shot by the British RAF over Western Europe during WW II is on-line www.evidenceincamera.co.uk
In addition to many resources, there is an on-line edition of their journal that offers a lot of information that can be downloaded. http://www.everton.com
The suggestion, in which the custom of facing the Temple during prayer has biblical origins. The rule laid down in the Mishna and amplified in the Talmud, is that if one prays in the Diaspora, he shall direct himself toward Eretz Israel. And so, the Jewish people of Morocco were called Westerns and those of East of Eretz Israel became Easterners. From a posting to JewishGen by Udi Cain http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mizrah
Family Chronicle
Family Chronicle is a how-to magazine for genealogists who are trying to discover their family roots. You know that there is no "master plan" that tells you how to conduct your research but there is offers of help here. Click on image to go to their home page http://www.familychronicle.com/
Family Discovery
A commercial site that offers records covering all 50 US States and most countries including: Immigration records: Census Records; Land records; Church records; Court House Records; Cemetery Records; Birth Records; Death & Mortality Records; Marriage Records; Wills of Testament: Pedigrees; Vital records and Statistics www.FamilyDiscovery.com
The Family History Department has more than 2.4 million microfilm rolls in its collection, but the open stacks of the Family History Library can only accommodate 1.4 million films. If your file is not available, no problem, as a duplicate set of films is located in the nuclear-bomb proof vault at Iron Mountain. Just go to the attendant area on any floor. They will check the computer system to determine if a duplicate is at the Distribution Center. If it is there, and invariably it is, they will order the film and it will be at the Library within three hours (they make deliveries every three hours every day).
The Church of the Latter Day Saints has microfilmed many of the church registers in Europe. These films are available for a nominal fee for use at their Family History Centers (FHC). You can find the nearest center to you by using this site http://www.genhomepage.com/FHC/
Copies of pages - a charge of 10 cents for a page if you provide the film and page number. It's 25 cents a page for microfilms with a minimum of $2.00. Requests are submitted on Form 31768 (Requests for Photocopies) which you get from your local FHC. Responses take about a month. Prices are probably more as this information was obtained in 1997.
If you wish to search their library to get the film number, if they have a film (s) for a town, http://www.familysearch.org/
and follow the links toLibraryand then toFHLC
Visiting the Family History Library If you are planning a trip to the FHL in Salt Lake City, the following information might prove to be of value:
1. The FHL has a scanner and computer connected to a microfilm reader. You
can use the
microfilm viewer in the same manner as most such viewers. When you find the page
that you want to save, you swivel around in your seat to face the adjacent computer and
click its mouse on an appropriate icon. A digital copy of the displayed image is saved in
a temporary file on the computer's hard drive.
You can save hundreds of pages, one at a time. At the end of the session, you place a blank re-writable CD-ROM disk into the computer's CD drive and follow the on-screen instructions to write the files to the CD. You then pop the CD out of the computer, slip it into your briefcase and take it home with you. The images are stored in your choice of TIFF or JPEG format. The image resolution is also user-selectable up to a maximum of 400 dots per inch.
The biggest difficulty is in determining whether the records at theLDS FHC you want, are available, on microfilm/fiche. The most up-to-date index is on-line, but it is the most difficult to use. The easiest to use is the fiche index, but it is woefully outdated. Go to the LDS site, enter the place name in various spelling permutations, and hope for a hit; try to query against a neighboring town and you may find your shtetl - some of the records aggregate villages, but it is not certain if those are the original records segregated by village, or transcripts inscribed that way. The LDS has a number of villages on film, the index for which, is also on film, but in Cyrillic script. There may be a transliterated version available somewhere on the web. For further information regarding the microfilms and records, contact Family History Support 50 East North Temple Street Salt Lake City, Utah 94150-3400 Telephone 1 800 346 6044 or 1 801 240 2584. Remember that some or all of their records may not be sold, or duplicated, except under limited circumstances.
The LDS has an 800 telephone number for those who would rather call (1 800 452 3860)than email FamHistLib@aol.com Family History Center Their inventory of records of birth records by state are organized by year. www.familyhistorycenter.org/
This site is useful in locating the existence of microfilms of records for ancestral towns but is very slow loading.
Family History Library (FHL) Telephone 1 800 346 6044 or e-mail fhl@ldschurch.org Speak to a reference librarian in European resources. An index to all known Jewish items at the LDS Family Library in Salt Lake City is available athttp://www.jewishgen.org/databases/fhlc/
At the FHL computer, load the Family History Library Catalogue, click on Locality Search, select town/parish records and type in city, state, when the title of that record comes up and ask for a full display of the topics that they have for that city/state combination. You'll see a list beginning with Almanacs; scroll down to census; highlight the year in which you are interested; hit F8 key for a full listing of what they have relating to that census and keep hitting the Pg Dn (page down) key until you get to the group of films that have the Soundex Code you need.
"Jewish Records in the Family History Library Catalog" An inventory of the microfilms, microfiche and books in the LDS Family History Library Catalog™ (FHLC) which are specifically Jewish genealogical sources. It is a valuable finding aid for persons researching their Jewish ancestry, but is not intended to be a replacement for the FHLC. The complete FHLC can be consulted at http://www.familysearch.org
If you search on a place name, such as a shtetl in (Galicia), remember to try different spellings since there is no Daitch/Mokotoff Soundex search capability.
The FHL index is organized in a hierarchical manner geographically, what is known as the locality index. So an entry for L'viv is found under "Austria, Gallitzin, Lwów." The JewishGen on-line database can be searched by any of the words in the location or title of the entry. Searching in a larger geographical area is the way to be sure that you've found all the entries for the towns your are interested in. Gallitzin only results in 73 hits and Austria only results in 251 hits so scanning through all the results won't take that long. http://www.iabsi.com/gen/public/fhl_resources.htm
Mormon microfilm entries show the AKT number. With this information you can order copies by mail from the Family History Library in Salt Lake City or from Beth Hatefutsoth, The Nahum Goldmann Museum of the Jewish Diaspora in Tel Aviv.
To obtain photocopies of a few pages from a book or a few frames of microfilm or microfiche, use the Request for Photocopies form. Copies cost U.S.$2.00 each, with a U.S.$4.00 minimum charge. Just follow the instructions found on the form, remembering to include the film number and the ACK/record number or the page number. My personal experience is that it takes only 2 weeks to receive them.
Here are the exact steps: Go to the Mormon web site at www.familysearch.org · Click on tab -SEARCH · Click on tab -Research Helps · Click on left hand words: “Sorted by Document Type” · Click on document # 31768 “Requests for Photocopies” · Download the Request Form (pdf format) · Follow the instructions.
There is an alternative to photographing microfilm and that is to scan it. You could purchase a portable microfilm scanner (search online for Prime Image, for example) which takes high resolution scanned images and these can be downloaded directly into the laptop.
The device is no large than a portable audio tape recorder. The film is slid through a carrier to the appropriate frame. The scanner makes a test scan which appears on the laptop screen, if you're happy, it then takes a slow scan and records the frame. These scanners are quite reasonably priced, between $100-200.
FHC had no qualms about people doing that. In fact the FHC themselves have outfitted the library with a film reader and scanner connected to a desktop computer. Images can be scanned and downloaded into various media such as CDs or small flash memories. From a posting by Jeremy G Frankel
Family History Data Sheet Estimator Mike Smith has developed an interesting and very workable site which is an interactive web page http://www.sanpitch.net/tools/famator.htm
'You are left with a single name and a solitary date. Where in time do you begin to look for the other family members? This site is here to help. It uses mathematical models from 1400 to the present day. It comes from over 100,000 computerized genealogical records from Western Europe and North America. It will estimate an entire family make-up for a given event for a given spouse. The data is a statistical estimate and should only be taken as such, but it should be accurate enough to begin your search.' Warning: You may find calculating dates on living people to be distressing as this site will estimate death dates, according to Mike.
Dave Wilks' Free Gedcom Server is an extremely fast database server especially crafted for genealogy research on the Internet. If you would like to share your Family Tree with others, then this is the place to do so. http://www.genserv.com/
In recent years, the LDS (Mormons) have made many updates to their catalogue. As a result, when Jewish records are included in Catholic Civil transcripts or other non-Jewish records, the catalogue typically so indicates. For areas covered by the former Kingdom of Poland (Congress Poland), this almost always applies only to pre-1826 records. After 1825, in the Kingdom of Poland, separate civil registers begin for each religious community i.e. Roman Catholic, Jewish, Protestant, Russian Orthodox, etc. The FHL has microfilmed through 1965 and the names should be in alphabetical order.
TheLDS Family History Library The largest genealogical library in the world with more than 2.2 million rolls of microfilm, 750,000 microfiche and 200,000 books available for research. The library has dozens of notebook finding aids to frequently used resources. Specialist at Reference Desks assist you in finding the resources you require. Here are some examples as sited by Eileen Polakoff as a Supplement to Avotaynu Vol. XX, No. 1
Eastern Europe Various records, primarily Revision lists or lists of Jewish residents from over 200 towns in Latvia;Birth, Marriage, Divorce and Death Records fromKrementzfrom 1870 to 1907; Revision lists and vital records from fifteen towns in Belarus; Rabbinate records ofBeltsy and Moldova; Crimean Birth, Marriage, Divorce and Death records from 6 towns for various years; Vital records for Lithuanian towns that were in Russian Polandin the 19th century and Metrical records of the Crown Rabbinate of Lithuania: Kovnofrom 1822 to 1940 and Vilna from 1837 to 1923
Western Europe English Census Records from 1841/51/61/71/81; Indexes to English vital records from 1837 to 1980; Alsace-Lorraine Vital Records from the 19th century; and Emigration Lists from Alsace from 1817 to 1866.
Germany Over 2000 microfilms of vital records of Jewish Communities from 1700 to 1930s - not all years and not for all towns, plus Port of Hamburg Departure Indexes and Manifests and German Minority Census of 1939 compiled by the Nazis.
Hungary Over 750 microfilms of vital records of Jewish Communities from 1770 to 1895 - not all years for all towns and the 1848 Census of the Jews for 23 counties
Poland More than 2000 microfilms of vital records of Jewish Communities (ca. 1800-1930s - not all years for all town)
United States Federal and State Census Records with finding aids (All US census records from 1790 to 1930; State Census Records vary); Federal and State Naturalization Indexes and/or Records; Vital records Indexes and Records for many States; Passenger Arrival Indexes and Manifests for all US ports (1820 to 1940s), (not complete for all ports); Thousands of City directories for all States and World War 1 Draft registrations
You probably know about the good news. LDS' site now allows *keyword searches*. What you may not know is that there is a go-around for speeding up your searches for films in any specific country of interest.
In the search block type two words (e.g.): Slovakia Jewish
Surprise... besides listings of books, census and many other information in LDS's rich repository, you will get the links to entries of Jewish vital record films in many Slovakian towns (not all, see note below).
Note: For obvious reasons, in the case of Slovakia, try searching several countries |Slovakia, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Romania, Ukraine, etc.
A final touch of beauty: click on the "order results by title" button. It makes the search returns much easier to use since they will appear in alphabetical order of the links titles e.g. "Anyakonyvek, 1760-1895 Izraelita Hitkozseg, Nagyteteny" will be listed before "Anyakonyvek, 1764-1895 Izraelita Hitkozseg, Lovasbereny", because 1760 precedes 1764 even if the town Lovasbereny precedes Nagyteteny.
Of course the above works with any combination of words. For example, try: Hungary census Jewish or Poland books Jewish.
CAVEAT: the search engine **will not find** combinations when the **exact keywords** can not be matched in its database. Also, so far I haven't discovered a wildcard method of searching.
Sounds confusing? Try it and in two minutes your will discover that the searches above are a piece of cake and this method will save you a lot of time. Submitted by Tom Venetianer on JewishGen
Personal Ancestral File (PAF) A free genealogical software program distributed by the Family History Center. You can download a full working copy of PAF from the FamilySearch site. This database system offers just about everything a beginner researcher needs, though it is not geared specifically towards Jewish genealogy, although it has source-citation features, multimedia scrap booking capabilities to handle photos, video and sound, and you can select the language in which you want your information displayed http://www.familysearch.com/Eng/default.asp
then click on 'Search for your ancestors in our vast record collections'
This site combs through public records to find the information you are looking for. It even performs international searches. www.familysearch.org
Family Tree of the Jewish People
This is one of several databases that incorporates the actual family trees that researchers have compiled over the years. You can search for names, and get an tree. http://www.jewishgen.org/gedcom/
FBI (Request for information from the FBI files)
The FBI Headquarters Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) Electronic Reading Room has made selected FBI documents available for downloading. You will need Adobe's Acrobat Viewer to review these files, but the Bureau has provided a link so that you can download the free viewer software.
The Fall, 1996, Vol XII, No. 3, page 60, had a brief mention of an FBI article appearing in the JGS of Rochester, NY "News", dated Summer 1996 (vol 3, No. 4) with a phone reference number of 202 324 3477. By calling this number you should reach the FOIA in Washington, DC. They will verify that a form letter is not required. Once a request is made, you receive a control number in about 2 weeks. Your request for information require that it be notarized Some form of proof of death must be enclosed i.e. a death certificate or a newspaper obituary or Who Was Who in America or a magazine article or other biographical reference. Further, proof of death itself is not required when the person was born more than 110 years ago. The assumption is that the person is most likely deceased after 110 years.
The only FBI file request for which you need to notarize the letter is for your OWN file, or for the files of LIVING relatives. In this case, you need to ask for the file under BOTH the Freedom of Information Act AND the Privacy Act. For the file of a living relative, you need to have a signed, notarized letter of permission from them.
The FBI does not always disseminate correct information on their procedures to the public. Disseminated from a posting by Michael Ravnitzky
Fond andOpis
These are archival designations of the record storage system that enable an archivist to retrieve records.A "Fond" is a record group, and an "opis" is an inventory of a subset of records within a specific fond. http://daviscenter.fas.harvard.edu/research_portal/chad_heal.html
Fraternal Order and Service Clubs
Most of the on-line sites related to fraternal orders provide historical information about the clubs and current membership rules. These sites can prove to be valuable resources for your on-line genealogy researching. Look for the names and addresses of local chapters so that you can contact them to see if they have original resources available, of if they can send you copies of anything pertaining to your ancestor.
The Knights of Pythias The Knights of Pythias are an American Jewish Fraternal group. The group is still in existence and may have records on former members. http://www.pythias.org/
"The Order of Knights of Pythias An international non-sectarian fraternal order, founded in 1864,and was the first to be chartered by an act of Congress" The Grand Lodge of NY - apparently, the Knights of Pythias Temple of New York has been turned into condominiums Located at 135 West 70th Street Upper West Side New York, NY http://www.nypythian.com/
Foreign Characters in Windows 95/98 (see also 'Language page' )
1. Windows 95/98 has Multilanguage support that you have to install via Add/Remove Programs on the Control Panel window. Read the Help file carefully about the various ways to switch between languages. Characters with diacritical marks are mainly tied to punctuation keys, in some languages they're on the number keys. Some of the other letter and punctuation keys will change position.
2. In Word, and some other programs, under the Insert menu, select Symbols and hunt around the various characters sets. Select the letter from the chart.
3. Alt key plus three number codes. In German - Alt. 132 = a/umlaut, 148 - = o/umlaut, 129 = u/umlaut. Windows 3x used a four digit code that still works with Windows 98 - e.g.. Alt. 0163 = English pound sign. If you want a copy of a list of French, German and Spanish special characters, contact Gary Luke feraltek@zeta.org.au
4. Somewhere in the Windows 98 Help screens is a set of complex key codes under the tile "Type International Characters" e.g. - CTL+SHIFT+COLON+ 'a' -> a/umlaut. Similar for o and u/umlaut.
The Hebrew word processing program called Dagesh, has a collection of characters from all European countries. From a posting by Gary Luke.
Find-a-grave
If someone you are researching was a personality of sorts, you will have a good opportunity to learn much about that person by searching http://www.findagrave.com
If you really want to find out about a person, and are willing to pay $6.95 for a complete report. The initial search results are free. You only pay to review the results. http://kf.knoxw.com Find Relatives Form and Questionnaire I found a form letter (you fill in the blanks) along with a Questionnaire Form offered by Moshe Scheaffer that looks good to me. It has been slightly modified and I would welcome further suggestions. If you are interested just click on the word form below and you will find the questionnaire form Click here >
Questionnaire
A non-Web way to locate your town is to go to your local library and ask to see the United States Board on geographic names (1970) gazetteer. Look in the several volumes of USBGN that cover eastern Europe and the Russian Empire. Be flexible with respect to spelling; v can be 'be 'b', ch can be kh, r can be l, sh can be zh, s can be sh or z, f can be v, g can be h, ei can be ay, and all vice versa, vowels are interchangeable, etc., etc. Your known town names may be the historical name which is no longer in use. USBGN will likely give under "see also" the modern name. It is common for many different towns in the Russian Empire to have the same name so it can be important to have a general idea of the location of your town. Another good gazetteer is "Where Once We Walked" (WOWW).. WOWW will give only the modern name of your town. The town name expressed in Yiddish by Jews may or may not be the same the town name used by the indigenous Russian, Ukrainian, Polish or Lithuanian people of the region. Note that WOWW will give the modern town name expressed in the indigenous language, not English.
Library of Congress Geography and Map Division (LCGMD) Washington, DC 20540-4761 Telephone: 202 707 6277 or 202 707 8555 Fax: 202 707 8531
Maps are free. LCGMD replies take about 4-8 weeks.
Forced-Migration-History
A list devoted to the exchange of ideas and information on historical aspects of forced migration, population displacements, resettlement and related themes (refugee welfare, Diaspora politics, the construction of identity, urbanization, nationalism, state-building, etc. Primarily centered around twentieth century Europe, including the Russian Empire and the Soviet Unit. To subscribe send an e-mail to mailbase@mailbase.ac.uk with this text in the body of the message: The web site below has just been established to discuss the subject of forced-migration-history forced migration. The also have a discussion group that looks into various aspects of migration. The site is mainly intended for academic discussion, but will be of interest to many. http://www.mailbase.ac.uk/lists/forced-migration-history/
Freedom of Information Form - FOIA requests
FOIA means "Freedom Of Information Act" which is the law that allows us to get records from various agencies. These requests go to different offices depending on the agency involved. Perhaps all INS requests made under FOIA probably go to Missouri Referring to a FOIA request is meaningless. Requests made under FOIA could be to SSA, INS, FBI or any other government agency required under FOIA to release information. For someone born more than 100 years ago, no proof is needed. For more recent births they'll accept anything, even a photo of the stone. You can request a form G639 by calling the INS at 1 800 870 3676. If you need further help, call the INS help line at 1 800 375 5283. Press 1 for the English option, then wait through the first set of six options and press 9 to talk to an agent. The below cited OIAs are made on form G-639 http://uscis.gov/graphics/formsfee/forms/files/g-639.pdf "
I hope some of the above information is of help." From a posting by Chuck Printz, cfphrai@verizon.net
Freedom of Information Letter Template
Dear Freedom of Information Officer:
I am writing under the Freedom of Information Act to obtain copies of INS records to aid in my genealogy research. Please provide me with a copy of the complete INS file for the following member (s) of my family (including, but not limited to, all naturalization and alien registration documents).
I've included as much information as I have to assist the NRC in identifying the correct records.
Full Name: Morris FRIEDMAN Original Surname: KMIOTEK
Death Date, Place: 15-Jul-1928, NYC Spouse's Name: Jennie, maiden name unknown Marriage Date, Place: Approx. 1900-1901, NYC Children's Names: <just list them, can include birthdates if you wish Parents' Names: Samuel & Sarah FRIEDMAN (formerly KMIOTEK) Immigration Date: Approx 1890, according to federal census records Naturalization Date: Approx 1910, according to federal census records Known U.S. Residences: 53 Willet Street, New York, NY (April 1910); 51 Bristol Street, Brooklyn, NY (January 1920)
If you have any questions about my request, please contact me at [phone number].
Thank you,
Format, and the following was posted on JewishGen by Elise Friedman
The INS office in DC used to handle FOIA requests, but now they are handled now by the National Records Center in Lee's Summit, Missouri. Mail your requests to:
US Department of Homeland Security PO Box 648010 Lee's Summit, MO 64064-8010 Fax: 816-350-5785 Phone: 816-350-5570
Within 2-3 weeks of mailing your request, you should receive an acknowledgement letter that includes a tracking number. The letter will also state that your request has been placed on either the simple track or the complex track. In most cases, naturalization file requests are placed on the simple track. Still, expect that it will take about 3 months to receive the results of your request, sometimes even longer.
All genealogy requests are now being handled at this office. Sending requests there initially could save some time. They will also accept requests by fax. Verification of death is required when the birth date is less than 100 years ago, but they'll accept a picture of the stone as proof. if you fax a request, don't mail it as well.
A geographical dictionary in which political and physical features of the earth, such as countries, cities, rivers, and mountains are listed alphabetically, and some information, usually descriptive and statistical, is given about them. http://www.census.gov/cgi-bin/gazetteer
The standard for exporting and importing information to and from genealogical databases. GEDCOM enables you to share your information with others who may be interested in some, or all of your ancestors. It also enables you to import GEDCOM files from other researchers who have information about family of interest, regardless of whether you use the same software as the other researcher. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GEDCOM
The USCIS Genealogy Program is a fee-for-Service providing family historians and other researches with timely access to historical immigration and naturalization records. http://www.uscis.gov/
422 Genealogy databases are listed for research at this site. This site was created by five experienced and devoted genealogists dedicated to helping all genealogists, from novice to advanced, improve their research skill. Offering free articles and Genealogy Courses to assist you. http://www.genhelp.org
Volunteers who are willing to help others by looking up specific items at institutions near them, or help supply other information easily accessible to them, not only in the United States, but many other countries. http://www.posom.com/hl/
Online Searchable Death Indexes (USA) on this website. A listing of available death indexes by state that can be searched online. Includes a link to the Social Security Death Index. Also includes links to birth, marriage and other helpful databases. All of these databases are free to search. http://www.germanroots.com/databases.html
Genealogy Information for Beginners
An excellent primer, though specifically geared towards Ukrainian information, this primer is very well done and much of the content is of value to any researcher. Other "help" sites are listed below, as well. http://www.infoukes.com/genealogy
A German genealogy site - a project of the Verein for Computergenealogie. The site offers a lot of links including links to Sample Letters to Churches, offices, Archives, Organizations, Genealogical charts; Place Lookups in Germany; Unit conversions; GEDCOM HTML Converter; GEDBAS - the German language GEDCOM data database; Emigration links; old disease terminology and a lot more http://www.genealogienetz.de/genealogy.html
Genealogy Newsletter
Start your own in print or on-line with the help of the handy "Absolutely Family: A Guide to Editing and Publishing a Family Newsletter" by Jean Rundquist Nelson and published by Family Times Publishing in 2000. The author's web site Great Family Newsletters http://www.greatfamilynewsletters.homestead.com
Genealogy Today
Genealogy news plus surname queries, family research tips, articles and genealogy search info www.genealogytoday.com
Genealogy Toolbox (Helm's)
Bills itself as the largest categorized list of genealogical links. It has genealogical software profiles, search engines, digitized images, how-to articles, queries and genealogical news stories. http://www.onlinegenealogy.com/
Genealogical Resources From or About Churches, Societies, Ethnic Groups, Adoptees, etc.
Some genealogical resources are defined geographically, i.e. birth certificates of all of the people born in Indiana, or the census of all of the people who were residing in the English county of Sussex at the time of the 1851 census. Other definitions are more subtle, such as those resources which deal with members of a certain religious group, or those belonging to an association, or those who were adopted. Here, at this site, are some very interesting web sites including Jewish Genealogy http://www.everton.com/special.htm
Another resource is The Digital Album, a site that offers information on using a scanner, preservation issues, tips and reference information along with building your digital albums http://www.city-gallery.com/digital/index.html
Genealogy Pages Links to other sites including links to Jewish pages. Requires a bit of searching http://www.genealogypages.com/
Genealogy Software Demo Programs A wide variety listings relating to genealogical programs are available from links at Louis Kessler's Genealogical Program http://www.lkessler.com/jglinks.shtml
Generations Project
Together with our guides the participants make 120 steps to the history of our Jewish ancestors. It is an excellent opportunity to visit the places where our families once lived. The group visits Eretz Israel during the second Temple destruction, then moves to
Babylon, Spain, Germany, Poland and Russian Empire. http://www.jewage.org/wiki/en/Special:GenerationsProject
A Jewish divorce. In Israel, there is no civil divorce - you have to go through the procedure practiced in your own religious community. TheGet is a 12-line Aramaic document. Many of the original certificates ofgittin from the United States are now stored in the American Jewish Historical Society Archives on the campus of Brandeis University. http://en.wiki edia.org/wiki/Get_%28divorce_document%29
Ghetto Life A very detailed and graphic story about life in the ghetto in WW II as described by Lili (Cukier) Susser is available at Lili's web site http://www.zchor.org/testimon/susser5.htm
Zoom in on most areas of the world with this feature. Must install program on your computer. http://earth.google.com/
Geshout Compare Google Maps, Yahoo Maps and Bing Maps on one screen. Zoom down to street level at any point on earth. http://geshout.com/mapscompare/all.php
It is not appropriate to apply this term to political or administrative divisions of Austro-Hungary, as this term was the Russian word for 'province' and would have been used in Russian controlled territory. For more information see Uyezds and Guberniyas on this page under Uyezds.
"Guide to Jewish Genealogy"
The definitive guide to Jewish genealogical research. Written by more than 60 authors, all experts in their own field. The list of authors is a veritable "Who's Who in Jewish Genealogy." Its more than 100 chapters cover all important aspects of the rich body of information available to do Jewish genealogical research. Each chapter in "Researching by Country of Ancestry" typically has (1) history of the Jewish presence in the country, (2) what records are available, (3) how to access records, (4) address of repositories and other institutions, (5) bibliography, and (6) Internet addresses. This Avotaynu book is of immense value to both the novice and the experienced researcher.
I found that using the archives of this fine magazine has been of great help http://www.hadassah.org
The archives of Hadassah, located in the offices of the AJHS, document the birth, developments and achievements of the organization since its founding in 1912 by Henrietta Szold. Its earliest documents include the original employment agreement between Szold and the nurses sent to Palestine in 1918 as part of the American Zionist Medical Unit, the beginning for establishing Hadassah Hospital.
Hadassah Jewish Women
Established at Brandeis University in 1997, the Hadassah-Brandeis Institute is the world's first university-based research institute devoted to the study of Jewish women. The Hadassah-Brandeis Institute supports interdisciplinary research on Jewish women's historical and contemporary experiences. The Institute works to increase knowledge about Jewish women around the world, carrying out activities in partnership with other universities and organizations.
224 West 35th Street, Room 300 New York, NY 10001 Fax: 212 239 1981 Rabbi Shmuel Plafker is responsible for burials. Many of the victims of the 1911 Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire were buried here. http://www.hebrewfreeburial.org/
363 Seventh Avenue New York, NY 10001 Phone: 212 239 1662 - Fax: 212 239 1981 Contact: Sandra Wiesel, Administrator http://www.hebrewfreeburial.org/
Hebrew Genealogy Forum
Family Roots' is a genealogy forum (in Hebrew) that is not related to any association/organization and deals with all aspects of Jewish genealogy. The Forum is free-to-use and the subjects discussed in it are not moderated The Forum includes a: Table with all the surnames researched by its members; a Gallery for translation and recognizing requests; Links to sites mentioned and Articles originally written and translated. This is a place to talk about genealogy research, ask questions, help others, share your success or failures and meet other people of like interest. The Forum's manager is Arnon Hershkovitz arnonh@tx.technion.ac.ilhttp://www.tapuz.co.il/tapuzforum/main/forumpage.asp?id=325
In Germany, some few, very wealthy Jewish families were given minor royal titles and thus had a family crest. One example is the Rothschild family.
In 18th century Poland, Jewish people were "rewarded" for converting to the Catholic religion with a minor royal title and the use of a crest. However, most of our ancestors did not even know what a crest was. http://www.heraldica.org/topics/jewish.htm
Heirlooms
The goal of this web site is to reunite family mementos of the past with the present generation. Though I didn't find any using the surnames in my list - who knows? Give it a try at www.heirloomslost.com
Heritage Quest Magazine
The largest genealogical data provider in the United States and a leading purveyor of data, products, supplies and equipment to consumers and institutions. Heritage Quest is usually available at many libraries and has the census from 1790 thru 1920, easily queried and easily printed. Many libraries allow access to library card holders over the internet and usually there is no charge. www.heritagequest.com
HIAS (Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society)
The oldest international migration and refugee resettlement agency in the U.S. It was formed in 1881. http://www.hias.org/
There are microfilm recordsfor the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society'sPhiladelphia immigrant records, from 1884 to 1952,LDS films 1,550649 - 1,550655. The records are alphabetical by first letter of the surname only. Then it is chronological. It is quite a job to search! They also have films for New York, Philadelphia and there may be some for Boston, as well http://www.hias.org/Find_Family/listings.html
HICEM (Hebrew Intergovernmental Committee for European Migration)
HICEM is an acronym for the Hebrew Intergovernmental Committee for European Migration. Some relief agency records from the Holocaust period are archived at YIVO. http://www.cjh.org
Historical Societies (of the worldon the Internet)
A directory of state and local historical societies on the world wide web provided by the Local History Services Department of the Indiana Historical Society. Use your browser's 'FIND' or 'SEARCH' button to locate the state or country of your choice. http://www.indianahistory.org/our-services/local-history-services
New York Skierniewice Benevolent Society Aubrey Jacobus aubrey@jacobus.orghas a copy of the program for the 50th Anniversary dinner in New York which contains a list of those present.
Holocaust Museum - (USHMM)
U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum 100 Raoul Wallenberg Place, S. W. Washington, D.C. 20024 http://www.ushmm.org/
This "tailored" link searches the holdings of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum's research archives. This link is the equivalent of typing "YOURSHTETL or Alternate Name" in the Museum's search form. Make sure to test whether there is any information available on your shtetl before adding this link.
If this database has information on your shtetl, replace the word "YOURSHTETL" with your shtetl name and any alternate names preceded by "plus" signs. From a posting to JewishGen by Fred Apel
Hot Chocolate
An on-line magazine is published only twice a year (May and November by Legends & Legacies), a Canadian genealogy Web site. Topics are broad-ranging at http://www.legends.ca/newsletter/newsletter.html
How-to-Genealogy site
Now in its sixth year of publication, you can subscribe to Treasure Map's popular FREE Genealogy monthly E-mail Newsletter. http://www.amberskyline.com/treasuremaps/
"Huppa Stone"
A large rock where a groom, instead of stomping on a glass, throws the glass against the stone. One such "huppa stone" is displayed in the Jewish Museum in Vienna. According to the inscription, such stones were placed along a synagogue's north wall, believed to be the abode of demons. The glass-breaking was supposed to terrify the spirits and distract their attention from the wedding. http://noughsaid.blogs.com/wanderluster/2003/10/huppa_holder.html
Re illegitimacy, it is possible that a member of your family did not bother to register as being married in a civil registry. According to Jewish Law, only a child born to a married woman whose father is not the woman's legitimate husband, is a "mamzer" (bastard). All other cases are Kosher. http://www.thefreedictionary.com/illegitimate+child
Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS)
Located in Washington, D.C. has email capability INS.History@usdoj.gov They will respond to requests for securing historical data on the functions and statistical findings of the INS at a given point in time. Please do not abuse their good intentions.
Independent Order of Brith Abraham (IOBA)
Organized in 1859 and reorganized in 1887. Last known address is 136 E. 39th St. NYC 10016. Phone: 212 725 1211 Last known Grand Master was Robert Freeman (1990) Post #230 IOBA has not been active for a great number of years and they have no records as of this date (Sept. 1990) of any living members who might be available. The purposes of the organization were to protect Jewish rights and to combat anti-Semitism; that they support Soviet and Ethiopian emigration and the safety and dignity of Jews worldwide. http://templesholomsterling.com/history.htm
A Directory A listing like an encyclopedia or a library's card catalog. It has named categories with entries assigned to categories partly or entirely by human catalogers. You look things up by finding a category you want seeing what it contains.
AnIndex Simply collects all the items, extracts keywords from them, and makes a big list. You search the index by specifying some words that seem likely, and it finds all the entries that contain that word.
Each has its advantages and disadvantages. Directories are organized better, but indexes are larger. Directories use consistent terminology, while indexes use whatever terms the underlying Web pages used. Directories contain fewer useless pages, but indexes are updated more frequently. This information was obtained from 'Today's eTIP™' www.dummiesdaily.com
Instructions on how to subscribe to this valuable information site. Much can be learned from the genealogy section, especially for Polish, Belarus and Ukrainian researching http://www.infoukes.com/lists
INS (US Immigration and Naturalization Service)
The INS has established an e-mail capability. They do not have the capability or to do genealogical research, or field questions specific to genealogy, the office email capability does offer an important resource for securing historical data on the functions and statistical findings of the INS at a given point in time. The office will respond to e-mail questions regarding agency history and research in INS public records. They will also entertain specific requests for copies from documents in their Historical Reference Library. INS.History@usdoj.gov http://www.formdomain.com/
International Association of Jewish Genealogical Societies Cemetery Project
The Mission Statement was published in the Winter 2003 issue of Avotaynu magazine. Jewish genealogists from around the world have created an academic research institute affiliated with the Jewish National and University of Jerusalem http://www.iijg.org/
International Ladies Garment Worker's Union
If your relative was an officer in either an ILGWU local, or at the national level, or was a delegate to a union School of Industrial & Labor Relations, Labor-Management Document Center, contact Cornel University, Ithaca, N.Y. 14853 - Attn: Richard Strassberg Director. There are no records for rank-in-file members. http://www.nps.gov/archive/elro/glossary/ilgwu.htm
which has links discussing the tracing process and other links. Please read my 'Margulis Saga'story and you will note that I used their free service and was able to locate a living nephew I never knew until they found him.
IRC's provide foreign addressees with a prepaid means of responding to inquiries, solicitations or other types of communications that are initiated by U.S. senders. IRC's are exchangeable for postage stamps at post offices in all foreign countries that are members of the Universal Postal Union. Each IRC is equivalent in value to the destination country's minimum postage rate for an unregistered airmail letter. The purchase price is $1.75 per coupon (6/1/01). The U.S. Postal Service Web site is at http://www.usps.com
TheInternational Survey of Jewish Monuments
Can be searched by country and also has a separate U.S. database which can be searched by location or architect or several other criteria http://www.isjm.org/
They have a microfilm made from registration cards of people seeking help during World War II through Joint offices inMunich, Vienna and Barcelona.This comprises some 80,000 names with family details. After the war, the Joint had a location office inIstanbulwhich tried to locate refugees and lost families. These records are also available. And finally, there is a list of survivors, which, alas, does not have a search engine. This list is arranged according to location, and then by family names arranged alphabetically. The JDC lists include additional information that is not available at Yad Vashem. archives@jdc.org.il http://www.jdc.org/
Jew Watch
A not for profit library for private study, scholarship, or research including information on the Holocaust, Restitution Issues, Khazarian Tribes of Russia, Religions, Atrocities, | Communists and Israel and a lot more http://www.jewwatch.com/
Note that I have not explored this site by any means, and it may be a politically incorrect web site, however it does appear to offer links to genealogical interesting sites. If someone has the time to explore this site and report back to me, it would be appreciated.
3-1-09: I have had reports that this site is not kosher, so be aware!
Jewish
The subject of - once you get on this site, I hope you will come back to mine. There is so much to learn from the good rabbi. This is a guide from everything from tort law and Kashrut to astrology and more. http://www.aishdas.org/webshas/
"Jewish Customs and Practices, their origins, history, development and the reasons for each of them"
An illustrated reference book. This site lists the historical origins of customs, how they have developed and changed over the ages and, wherever possible, it give at least one explanation for them. On this website Jewish practices are described from the point of view of Reform and Liberal Movements in Britain. http://jewish-customs.co.uk/
Jewish Data
The following indexed images have been added to this commercial online database - name searches are free and full access requires membership, with special rates for Societies and Libraries www.jewishdata.com
Images of every tombstone in the following Jewish Cemeteries:
Montreal, Canada: Baron De Hirsch on Savane St. - 20,000 records and images, about a quarter of the entire Cemetery.
Saratoga Springs, NY: Sharei Tephilah on Weibel St.
Springfield, MA: Bnei Israel Anshei Sfard, Kesser Israel, and City of Homes Assn. They are all located on Wilbraham Ave.
Utica, NY: Jonathan's lodge, House of Jacob, House of Israel, Tzvi Jacob, Beth El, all located on Woods Rd.
High-resolution images of each document can be viewed online. The following 11,000 records have been added recently:
Jewish Documents from:
Circuit Court District of MA (Boston area) 1906-1910
Kings County (Brooklyn)NY 1906-1910
Oneida County (Utica area) NY 1906-1949
Onondaga County (Syracuse area) NY 1906-1930
Saratoga County NY 1906-1930
Name searches are free, and full access requires membership, with special rates for Societies and Libraries. From a posting by Avraham Labera alaber@nycap.rr.com a commercial site offers an on-line database on JewishGen January 26, 2004
Jewish Encyclopedia.com
A free Jewish encyclopedia on the Internet and it contains the complete contents of the 12-volume Jewish encyclopedia, which was originally published between 1901-1906 and contains over 15,000 articles and illustrations. Very slow loading http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/
There were a number of well known Jewish gangsters in the 1920 and 1930s including Meyer Lansky, Bugsy Siegel, Longy Zwillman and Moe Dalitz. The roots of Jewish gangsterism lay in the ethnic neighborhoods of the Lower East Side; Brownsville, Brooklyn; Maxwell Street in Chicago and Boyle Heights in Los Angeles. http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/US-Israel/gangsters.html
The Journal of Biosocial Science claims that Ashkenazim Jews exhibit the highest average I.Q. of any ethnicity, scoring 12 to 15 points above Europeans. Such smarts are thought to be the result of natural selection between 800 C.E. and 1700 C.E. During the Middle Ages, Jews mainly worked in professions in which 'increased I.Q. strongly favored economic success ... which led to increased reproductive success." It is believe, according to the authors, that Tay-Sachs and other genetic disorders are the downside effect of the genes.
The Jewish Records Indexing - Poland database is a valuable FIRST step in locating family records. With more than 3 million listings, the database has helped researchers trace their family ancestry in Poland, the Russian Pale and Galician Ukraine. As JRI-Poland has grown, there is always more for researchers to find on this multi-faceted website.
Discover the valuable resources of JRI-Poland through this guided tour of the website. Sample database searches will be performed to show how to maximize search results.
The JRI-P is an index to Jewish vital records from Poland. Years of work have been put in by volunteers to index through the Family History Library, and the project also has made special arrangements to index records not yet filmed by the Mormons. http://www.jewishgen.org/jri-pl/
They have a list of names from Simferopol on microfilm and their catalogue is online http://www.jtsa.edu/
Jewish War Veterans of the USA
1811 R Street NW, Washington, DC 20009 www.jwv.org
Jewish Women's Archives
Executive Director is Gail Twersky Reimer. The mission of the Jewish Women's Archive is to uncover, chronicle and transmit the legacy of Jewish women and their contributions to families and communities, to the Jewish people and the world. The JWA web site, which hosts a 'Virtual Archive' of information on Jewish women, is at www.jwa.org
Jun. 3 2005 (UPI) -- A University of Utah study of Ashkenazi Jews suggests an unusual link between their genetic diseases and their higher intellectual ability.
The study, to appear in Cambridge University's Journal of Biosocial Science, says this unusual pattern of diseases among the Ashkenazim of central and northern Europe is the result of natural selection for enhanced intellectual ability.
The study says the selective force was the restriction of Ashkenazim in medieval Europe to occupations that required more than usual mental agility, the New York Times reported.
The study has received mixed reaction, with some scientists saying the finding is extremely implausible. Others say the researchers have made an interesting case.
The Utah researchers say Ashkenazic diseases like Tay-Sachs are a side effect of genes that promote intelligence. They say for some 900 years Jews in Europe were restricted to managerial occupations, which were intellectually demanding.
In the United States, Ashkenazi Jews make up 3 percent of the American population but have won 27 percent of its Nobel prizes. They also account for more than half of world chess champions.
<< . . . . This reed has traditionally been cut by the people for a number of domestic usages from basket weaving to furniture, not forgetting traditional music instruments. I would suppose that the "Rohrhandler" just bought the reed canes from the pickers (usually in most of Europe the Gipsy) and sold them to people who would use them to make furniture/music instruments... >>
Michael Bernet responded ... "This is typical of the position of Jews in European economy: intermediaries between producers whose products had little value, and buyers of the refined consumer products.
* Thus they bought animal fats from peasants and butchers, rendered them, and made soap and candles. * They bought hides, tanned them and sold them to shoemakers and saddle makers. * They bought hops (later also imported them from Bohemia) and sold them to the breweries
* They bought individual animals from peasants and sold them to farmers, carriage owners and butchers. Here the "Schmusser" had an important function, a sort of itinerant advertising column. He did not actually buy or sell animals, but on his travels village-to-village learned who was open to selling and who was open to buying, and made his living on commission. I guess he would frequently use the services of a cattle dealer to move the animal and effect the sale.
* In Eastern Europe they bought logs and floated them downriver to the Baltic for export by lumber dealers
Harold Pollins and Celia Made also made their points regarding Michael's statements ...
"Michael Bernet had posted: "I'm sure most of the hordes of itinerant, beggarly Jews who served as "middlemen" at that time for lack of other income, would have been happy to earn a starvation wage in some factory that would employ them."
Peddler/peddlars were ***distributors*** - not middlemen. I have a book which lists the items Jewish peddlars kept in their baskets [Pinkel/Pinkl/Binkl].
Here are some of them in 1700 and 1800s London: buckles; buttons; brooches; cigars; old and new clothes; cuckoo clocks; earrings and other jewellery; knives; lace; musical boxes; needles; oranges; ostrich feathers; pepper; perfume; purses; pens; slippers, toys [including yoyos no doubt]. The cotton reels were turned into toys inc. probably for French knitting [knitting Nancy] for children when they were empty.
Peddlars were the forerunners of early Woolworths and or the modern mail-order business, supplying a wide variety of items. They knew their customers and would take orders and deliver them the next time around. As they had to carry everything around with them, careful research was needed as to the best wares to take on their long journeys. Small, high-value and light items were obviously the most cost-effective. They were always at the mercy of robbers who were after their valuables.
It is true that in Europe Christian guilds often controlled manufacture of certain items but here are some important dates for the abolition of guilds and their restrictive practices: France: 1791; Russia 1816 and very late: Bohemia and Moravia: 1859 Interim order of Trades Act.
As for rather "earning a starvation wage in a factory", I have not carried out a poll amongst the deceased peddlars, but I bet 95 percent of the peddlars would have opted to continue in their profession with its relative freedom, rather than be stuck indoors for 18 hours a day doing boring/dangerous manual work. They were an adventurous, enterprising and hardy breed. We owe them a lot. From a posting by Celia Male
Jews in Sports
"The Big Book of Jewish Sports Heroes: An Illustrated Compendium of Sports History & The 150 Greatest Jewish Sports Stars" Authored by Peter Horvitz www.SPIBooks.com
"The Big Book of Jewish Baseball: An Illustrated Encyclopedia & Anecdotal History" Authored by Peter Horvitz and Joachim Horvitz www.SPIBooks.com
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017-4014. Visits to the JDC archives for 'qualified, committee approved researchers are by appointment only.' Apply for an application form which needs to be accompanied by two letters of reference or introduction http://www.jdc.org/
Judaica Europeana
This site unites ten London's British Library institutions to the Goethe University Library in Frankfurt providing access to Europe's Jewish cultural heritage. The site offers millions of photos, recordings and books. www.judaica-europeana.eu
Addresses a philosophical movement that cuts across all Jewish denominations and religions and is a continuously gathering resource for Jewish mysticism http://www.kabbalah.com/
The bridal price was the standard 100 zekukim, to which the groom added a further 100 zekukim (also standard). Religious documents would not necessarily contain secular names, even if they existed - not the traditional Orthodox Ketubbah. Some religious documents have a State seal - Jews usually had to document their marriage at a local registrar, often a church official until the mid-19th century.
Only the Hebrew name and occasionally kinnuy (cognomen) appears in a Ketubbah, not the surname. In a get (divorce) all first names, cognomens and other names the partner has ever been known by -- including non-Jewish names -- are included and all in Hebrew characters.
The traditional Ketubbah is written in Aramaic with a few Hebrew phrases (particularly the date and location); in Israel today, I believe, it is sometimes all Hebrew. In some branches of Judaism the Ketubbah is written in the local language, e.g. English, and there is always an option to have a local-language Ketubbah, too; often it's printed on the back of the traditional one.
Also, the traditional Ketubbah uses the formal Hebrew names for both bride and groom. The surname is not usually given, only the Hebrew names of the two partners and the names of their respective fathers. Unless one has some idea of time, location, Hebrew name of bride and groom, or fathers' name, it would be hard to determine whether a specific Ketubbah is that of an ancestor known primarily by surname.
The T'naim, on the other hand, contract at time of engagement, might very well have been in Yiddish.
A Ketubbah was commonly preprinted. The handwritten info useful to researchers includes: - date (in Hebrew) - name of bride and groom (Hebrew) and their fathers (Hebrew) - whether the bride (but not the groom) is unmarried, widowed or divorced - the amount of the "official" dowry (usually a standard 100 zuzim; which is halved in the case of a previously married woman), and then the groom "generously" doubles the standard sum (he is free to add more money, which may or may not be recorded in the Ketubbah).
The names at the bottom would be those of the two "ritual" witnesses, who must be Sabbath-observant according to Halacha. By custom, they are not close relatives. In the printed Ketubbah, the word nun - alef - memsofit is usually printed before each signature. The word is usually related to formal speech and I assume here it relates to a written declaration. Can anyone clear up the nikud/pronunciation and precise meaning of the word?
The signatories may occasionally be useful in research. Obviously, if the witness is a high-status person we can assume that bride or groom's family had high status, but the absence of high status proves nothing. With luck, we might find a neighbor or a schoolmate--or a father's mechuttenim. Posted by Michael Bernet
Witnesses Two witnesses are required, adult males, who are observant and keep the Sabbath according to all Orthodox requirements. In most communities it would not be an immediate relative, father, brother, but it could be a cousin, uncle or brother-in-law. The groom (and the bride - and just about anyone else), can sign the Ketubbah if they wish - but they are not in a position to be legal witnesses. The witnesses attest to the fact that the groom betrothed the bride, and that he promised to fulfill the obligations written in the Ketubbah.
The latter, but not the form. The Ketubbah is usually signed before the commencement of the kidushin - marriage ceremony - so the witnesses there cannot attest to the betrothal (which has not yet taken place). The witnesses signed on the Ketubbah attest that they have seen the bridegroom commit himself contractually to the obligations therein. They must be adult observant Jewish males who are not related to each other or to either of the parties to the marriage. Uncles, cousins, and brothers-in-law are all unsuitable ("posul") to act. Many communities do not even allow second cousins.
"The bride and groom would each have a witness."
While this may sound strange, it is practiced in some communities. Serving as a witness to the kesubo, (or indeed the marriage ceremony) is considered to be an honor. Since there are two honors going here, it is not uncommon for the bridegroom's family and the bride's family to honor one witness each.
When it comes to signing the official marriage register, the rules are quite different, and are determined by the local legal requirements. In New York City and elsewhere in the US, I guess the Jewish ceremony is not recognized and a separate civil marriage is required, so there is no reason to use the same witnesses.
In England, where Jewish marriage is recognized by statue, the register is held by the Secretary for Marriages of the Shul, and records the fact of a marriage having taken place under the shul's auspices. Thus you might expect the witnesses to the religious ceremony to sign the register, this is indeed practiced by the Shul to which I belong and where my daughters married. But other communities use different witnesses. On my own marriage certificate, my wife's uncle - not a valid witness under Jewish law - is one of the signatories. I believe the Shul concerned (the Sunderland Beth Hamedrosh) used standard witnesses for all marriages.
So there is little that can be deduced about the relationship of witnesses on a marriage certificate to the bride/groom. But you can be sure (for Orthodox marriages) that the witnesses on a Ketubbah were not related to the parties. From a posting by Perets Mett and Michael Bernet
A Resource for Turkic and Jewish History in Russia and Ukraine. Over a thousand years ago, the far east of Europe was ruled by Jewish kings who presided over numerous tribes, including their own tribe: the Turkic Khazars. After their conversion, the Khazar people used Jewish personal names, spoke and wrote in Hebrew, were circumcised, had synagogues and rabbis, studied the Torah and Talmud, and observed Hanukkah, Pesach, and the Sabbath. The Khazars were an advanced civilization with one of the most tolerant societies of the medieval period. It hosted merchants from all over Asia and Europe.
Books
"TheJews of Khazaria" The general interest book about the Khazars in English, 2nd edition
"TheKuzari: In Defense of the Despised Faith" Authored by Yehuda HaLevi
"Oxford Slavonic papers, New Series, Vol. 31" Authored by Jonathan Shepard
"TheWorld of the Khazars: New Perspectives- Selected Papers from the Jerusalem 1999 International Khazar Colloquium" Edited by Peter B Golden, Haggai Ben-Shammai and Andras Rona-Tas
Kindertransport
An organization of German Jewish children sent to England during WW II Reunion of Kindertransport 1A Frognal London NW3 England Phone: +44 (0) 171 431 6161 http://www.kindertransport.org/
Korzh.com
Crammer is a freeware flashcardand reminder software that provides a method of computer based training. It is intended to teach new foreign words or any other terms, formulas, etc. Anyone can get free registration of Crammer Pro for new dictionary by any theme (language, history dates, computer-related terms etc.) or new translation of Crammer's interface to another language http://www.korzh.com/crammer
Collection Description Yivo's Landmanschaften archive houses materials from over 800 societies, arranged in 303 record groups. Collections range in size from one folder to 13 feet in length and date from 1859 to 1984. The types of organizational records contained in the archive are: charters, certificates of incorporation, constitutions, legal documents, minutes, financial records, membership rosters, records of special committees, burial records, programs and materials from social functions, photographs, correspondence, manuscripts, immigration records, yizkor (memorial) books, and papers of individual society members. Society records, both handwritten and printed, are generally in Yiddish and English prior to 1950 records are generally in Yiddish; after 1950 they tend to be in English. Records do exist that are in German, Hungarian, Russian, and Polish. The collection is expertly catalogues in A Guide to Yivo's Landsmanschaften Archive.
Landsmanschaften records are also available in three other collections. The papers of The American Federation for Polish Jews, an organization founded in 1908 to aid Polish immigrants and strengthen Landsmanschaften in New York City, contain correspondence and organizational records dating from 1940 to 1963. Included as well are records pertaining to the Federations women's division, Ezra (organized in 1931), for the years 1942-1943.
YIVO holds the records of the American Joint Distribution Committee Landsmanschaften Department, an organization created in 1919 to solicit funds from Landsmanschaften for their hometowns in Eastern Europe. It was temporarily shut down in 1924, and revived in the 1930s as a part of the JDC's Reconstruction program. The collection contains records from two periods, 1937-1940 and 1945-1950. YIVO also holds the records of the United Jewish Organizations, founded in 1934 as an independent association of Jewish Landsmanschaften, fraternal, and benevolent societies. The organization was dissolved in 1937. Holdings contain materials dating from 1933 to 1937. http://jwa.org/archive/jsp/collInfo.jsp?collID=617
Although my web site is written in the English language (only because I am a second generation American on my mother's side), that doesn't mean that my site can't be read (or for that matter any site) in your favorite language. Google, in some cases, offers to translate a web site for free, but there is another suggestion made by Sally Bruckheimer in a posting.
"In Internet Explorer go to View pull-down menu, choose Encoding and then MORE and pick what looks good. It will either work or it will make the gibberish worse, in which case put the choice back where it was. Hint: you may have to install special fonts (available at Microsoft web-site) to get 'odd' languages like Lithuanian right. There is Lithuania (and every other language) Windows which automatically work in the appropriate language."
"I would like to point out, however, that there is a difficulty connected with the use of non-ASCII characters, i.e. characters with diacritical marks. On my screen, for example, because my browser is not set up specifically for a Lithuanian character set, there are a lot of characters replaced by question marks. What would have been more informatively written as "Siauliai", for example, is displayed as "?iauliai", which doesn't convey much. It would have been better, I dare say, to sacrifice the special S character, and use the unadorned S, so that every browser could display a better approximation, though inexact, to the original."
Eureka! I found out that Google provides loads of services and tools which are hidden for some strange reasons. Google's language tool is one of them that you don't want to miss.
You can have this Google feature translate my page into another language - and quickly! You can ask this feature to search for sites written in a specific language - a choice of 35 are available at this time.
Or, you can limit your search to sites located in a specific country. To use this site to not only translate a site (including my pages) into a different language choice, you can also use it to translate words and/or sentences from one language to another. www.google.com/language_tools
The Legacy Events Index provides a compendium of all the materials on The Legacy Project website. By clicking on one of the events listed below, you will be able to view all the scholarly and creative works on this site that reflect on that particular historical event. The Legacy Events Index will be expanded over time. The list below are all links to other sites relating to the subject's title. http://www.legacy-project.org/
Ben Gurion University Library Offers some information in a periodical published in Hebrew from around 1917 to around 1925 known as "Reshumot" in contains memoirs, reminiscences, eye witness reports of pogroms, etc. Another, even better, resource, is the periodical "He-avar" (the English language table of contents transliterates as Heawar). It was published by the Association for the Historical Study of Russian and Ukrainian Jewry. Volume 21 has the index for volumes 1-20. The periodical appeared irregularly until about 1976. Many volumes have abstracts in English. The contents are straight history, book reviews, memoirs, correspondence, biographies, etc. It is a treasure house! Reshumot and He-avar are also available at a number of university libraries in the U.S. and may be available through Interlibrary Loan. The Library of Congress and OCLC accession numbers, taken from the WorldCat database, will help your librarian find them: Reshumot GR98.A1, 5238064 He-avar DS135.R9, 6665265 From a posting by Ida and Yosef Schwarcz, Arad, Israel http://www.bgu.ac.il/aranne/indexnew.html Genealogy Libraries on the World Wide Web http://www-personal.umich.edu/~cgaunt/gen_web.html
Yeshiva University 500 W. 185 St. New York, NY 10033 www.yumuseum.org
"Periodically I see people posting a request that they need a local obit in some town in America. Here's a tip: try the local library in that town."
"I have written to libraries in many parts of the US and in most cases they are very willing to look up an obit for you if you have the date of death. In some cases the local library even has its own index of the local newspaper that does not exist nationally. In one case in North Carolina not only did the librarian look up the obit but when I explained what I was doing she also got me a listing from the local phone book that helped solve one of the my tree mysteries. What's more often the libraries will not charge you at all or will ask for a small token donation to one of their funds. My suggestion, try it and you might just find it works for you too." Good luck in your researching. From a posting by Allan Jordan
Lubavitch
If you believe a relative you are researching may have been a Lubavitcher, write to the following address and ask them for any records they may have.
Librarian World Lubavitch Headquarters 770 Eastern Parkway Brooklyn NY 11225 http://lubavitch.com/
"Sally Bruckheimer wrote in part: "...they said they were from a big city near where they were from-rather than the tiny shtetl which was the place. In Russia it was even more complicated because you were registered as living in one town even if you didn't live there any more. So you might have been born in town X, registered as being a resident of Y, and say you were living in Z the 'big city'.....There are different ways of answering 'Where are you from?' I was born in L, my parents lived in M, we were registered as living in N, I lived most of my childhood in O, I went to school in the next town over, P, I married and moved to Q although I was still registered in N, then we lived most of our lives in two other towns, R and S, before we went to Riga............... and... "Where were you born", and in the other "What is your place of origin"-which could mean different things to different people."
At the Seminar in Toronto (2002), Julian and Fay Bussgang spoke about 'permissions' being required (in some cases) to move from one town to another. One had to get permission from the 'mayor' of the new town you wanted to live in, and then get permission to leave the town of your current residency. This became quite complicated so many just "retained" their current residence while actually living in another town.
So when you see different towns listed - don't attempt to pick just one. It probably means that at one time or another, they lived in each of the ones mentioned. When you search names in a database, keep those towns in mind. Some one in those town may be a cousin, married sister, or in-law........ keep an open mind. And most important - remember *everything*!!" From a posting by Freya Blitstein Maslov
just type in the name of the town or city. If nothing shows up, try typing in another name of a town nearby that may be larger.
There are over 900,000 records for places arranged in hierarchies representing all nations of the modern world and including vernacular and historical names, coordinates, place types and other relevant information. This is one powerful web site for researchers.
1916 World Atlas, printed in English has one page entitled "Western Russia, Poland, and Russo-German Frontier". It includes an area bounded by Riga on the north, Breslau on the west, Vilna on the east, and Krakow on the south. The detail is such, that many small towns are shown. The map is in color. If you would like a copy of this map, contact Hilary Henkin. She may fill your request hilary@mymishpocha.net
Ancestral Villages in Europe The U.S. Defense Department National Imagery and Mapping Agency (NIMA) provides on-line imagery from the French SPOT imaging satellite (circa 1997-98?) which covers all of Europe. The data is at 10 meter resolution which means that objects smaller than about 10 meters in diameter can not be clearly discerned. But what you will discover is an excellent view of the terrain, roads, buildings and other landmarks. Also, it is only in black & white; but it's much better than a map. To use this data, go to the site and select the Tabs: NIMA Coverage = Check DO1-10M View + (Select one of the three, you can change this later) You then zoom in by continually clicking on the map. Keep going until you get to the photos (wait for each image to load!); however the end game -- finding the right place on the photo mosaic - can be trick. http://egsc.usgs.gov/nimamaps/
Atlapedia Online Maps Full color physical and political maps, as well as key facts and statistics on countries of the world. http://www.atlapedia.com
Cadastral Maps These are land maps showing property lines and the names of owners of houses, often created for tax purposes. see the Central State Historical Archives in L'viv (Tsentralnyi Derzhavnyyi Istorychnyi Arkhiv) m. L'viv, a.k.a. TsDIAL web site http://www.eegsociety.org
Cartographic Images From the world of ancient, early medieval, late medieval and Renaissance --- check out this powerful resource http://www.iag.net/~jsiebold/carto.html
Cities and Towns From the Geography and Map Division, Library of Congress. Search by Keywords. This site includes maps that depict individual buildings to panoramic views of large urban areas. http://lcweb2.loc.gov/
FEEFHS - Federation of East European Family History Societies. This is an international genealogical federation comprised of societies representing central and east European ethnicities. http://www.feefhs.org/
Free Map Tools Discover distances between two points; How far it is between; Radius around a point; Radius from a UK Postcode; Distance between two UK Postcodes; Download UK Postcodes with Latitude and Longitude and more http://www.freemaptools.com/
Geographicus Online gallery of antique maps (17th, 18th & 19th Century) and prints http://www.geographicus.com/Merchant2/agent.mv?AG=3D2F300B000D&SC=SFNT&S=Ghttp://www.geographicus.com/
Google "You can search for places by simply typing in an address. Go ahead, go to that site and type in your own address. Now click on the “Satellite” link in the upper right corner of the page. Google will change the view from the “drawn” map to a satellite image of that map. You will see an aerial view of your home which you can zoom in or out of. But here is the cool tip. Instead of entering an address, enter the following in the Google maps search box. 7.771008, -122.41175
Do those numbers look familiar? If so, you may own a GPS receiver and recognize them as latitude and longitude values (in this case for a spot in San Francisco). When you do that search, Google Maps will bring up a map for whatever is at that latitude and longitude. And if you switch to satellite mode you will see an actual aerial image of whatever is at that latitude and longitude. Now if someone gives you a latitude / longitude for a cemetery, you can now verify that information online without having to travel there yourself." From a posting by Ron D Doctor http://www.google.com/ Library of Congress So much available here http://lcweb2.loc.gov/
Library of Congress Map Collections - 1544 to 1996 A huge collection. The American Memory Maps can give you the graphic view of settlements, cities, battles and territories http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/gmdhtml/gmdhome.html
The Library of Congress Geography and Map Division (LCMD) Russian maps have a scale of 1:126,000 (1 cm = 1.26 km/1 inch = 2 miles) and have Cyrillic lettering that will indicate the historical Russian name that may or may not be the same as the Yiddish name that you know. The LCGMD Russian maps have two longitude scales with Polkova = 0 and Paris, France = 0. To convert from Polkova to Greenwich, add 31 degrees 20 minutes to the longitude value shown on the map.
The LCGMD German maps have a 1:300,000 scale (1 cm = 3 km/1 inch = 4.7 miles) with a Greenwich = 0 longitude scale and will have the modern town name expressed with German spelling. German s = English z; German Z = English ts; German W = English v, German j = English y, and so on. To convert from Paris to Greenwich, add 2 degrees 20 minutes.
Reprints are available of maps from towns and villages in Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, and New York. Most are from 1865-1892 and show the family name on each house. - $11 to $14. Also a few Ohio, Indiana, Illinois and California towns. Photocopies only $5
Old Map Photocopies, Old Prints, and Old Articles of Interest to Genealogists and Historians Pertaining to New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Indiana, Illinois, Ohio, California, England, Scotland & Wales from GLEASON'S OLD MAPS ETC. http://www.oldmapsetc.com/
Map Blast Find your shtetl and driving directions to get there at this site http://www.mapblast.com
Map of Europe With country boards changes from 0 A.D. until 2000 A.D., Dr. Roman Tunkel is offering to share an interactive map if you will respond directly to him via e-mail at tunkelr@juno.comHe can tell you where you can purchase this unique map
Map Sites Around The World Avery well designed web site offering full physical and political maps as well as key facts and statisticson countries of the world. http://www.atlapedia.com/ http://www.expediamaps.com/
Maporama Headquartered in Paris, this map firm has created the next generation of on-line mapping services. Its cartographic databases contain 635,000 world cities including comprehensive street-level maps for locations in Europe, the Americas, Asia, and Australia in addition to the United States and Canada. http://maporama.com
Official U.S. Bureau Mapping Here is an excellent site provided by the U.S. Census Bureau that lets you find any geographic location in the United States. http://tiger.census.gov/cgi-bin/mapbrowse-tbl/
Periodical Historical Atlas of Europe Twenty one on-line maps showing the states of Europe and Mediterranean basin at the end of each century starting from AD 1 to AD 2000. The site is fully bilingual. English and French http://www.euratlas.com/summary.htm
Pilot Map Although this site lists 19,500 Polish town names in Polish, the characters are in Latin and the maps give a great deal of detail http://www.pilot.pl/
This site also has excellent maps of over 9,100 European place names.
Yahoo Maps Web Services An easy way to display geographical content if you understand Web standard RSS format combined with either longitude/latitude or address information. You can plot up to 100 points on a map, including custom description, URLs, labels, groups, icons and more. http://developer.yahoo.net/maps/
Here you will find a listing for the Astrodienst Atlas Database and a lot more valuable reference links. At the web site, just type in the name as best you can, and the closest matching names of towns will come up. By clicking on the one you are looking for, you will find the Longitude and Latitude along with the current time zone.
1: x is a universal way that a mapmaker expresses the scale of the map that they prepared. The mapmaker is informing the user of the map that 1 unit of distance on the map = x unit of distance on earth; for example, for the map having a scale of 1:2,700,000 means that 1 inch on the map covers 2,700,000 inches on the earth.
How far is 2,700,000 inches? You have to convert this unit of measure to a unit of distance that you have some feeling for, like miles, for example. Here is how to convert the ratio form of scale into distance units that you understand:
1 inch (on the map) - 2,700,000 inches on earth. How many miles does this equal?
2,700,000 inches x 1 foot/12 inches x 1 mile/5,280 feet = 42.6 miles
Therefore, on a map that has a scale 1:2,700,000, 1 inch on the map is 42.6 miles on earth.
Thus, a map having a scale of 1:2,700,000 and a scale of 1 inch = 42.6 miles are equivalent maps in terms of the detail that they will provide. To reverse this information, 40 miles x 5,280 ft./mi. x 12 in./1 ft = 2,534,400.
Thus your map having a scale of 1 inch = 40 miles is equivalent to 1 in. = 2,534,400 inches, a scale of 1:2,534,000
A traditional rabbi will not officiate at a wedding held between Pesach (Passover) and Shavuot (Pentecost), the 50-day period during which the "omer" is counted daily. Portions of the three spring months of Nisan, Iyar and Sivan are involved.
Statistical studies of Jewish demographics in the Polish-Lithuanian commonwealth during the 18th century show that early teen marriages were the norm among one-quarter of the Jewish population, ostensibly the more affluent class. I.e., it was in those families best able to support grandchildren while they still had children to support that the mother's age at first birth ended to be lowest.
The traditional ages for Jewish marriages were 18-20 for boys, 16-18 for girls. The couple was billeted in their parental home, usually the bride's, at least until the husband was old enough to support his family on his own. From a posting to JewishGen by Norman H. Carp-Gordon http://www.jewfaq.org/marriage.htm
As it was also known later in Russian: miestiechko (mye stye chkoh) have achieved an official administration status through the Pale territory. Status Miasteczko has been carried not only by Jews, there have been established also Ukrainian and German colonials small towns.
The name Shtetl remained for centuries associated with Jewish way of life in Eastern Europe, and the nostalgic Yiddish song about the Galician "Shtetls Belz" reflects world of our fathers that have disappeared." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miasteczko,_Masovian_Voivodeship
"I think the specific use of *in-law* may be unique to the English language. German (and with it Yiddish) and French have their own very special terms.
Hebrew has a general term for someone related by marriage. Thus the groom is the wife's chatan-- and he is also the chatan of her parents and of her parents (he is the gisof her siblings). The bride is the kalah of her husband--and of his parents, but the gissah of her siblings. The father- and mother-in-law are the chotan and the chotenet. Actually, chatan(chusenin Yiddish) is used by everyone when referring to the groom, and kalah (kalah in Yiddish) to the bride.
There is a generic word in Hebrew for all to whom one is related by marriage. They are the mechuttenim (mechutan m/sing, mechutenet f/sing). This is a unique help for Jewish families. When one family talks of *our mechuttenim* you know they're speaking of the parents of their daughter- or son-in-law--a relationship that tends to be ignored in many cultures. The same terms are used in Yiddish (pronunciation varies according to geographic dialect), but a mother-in-law is called mechutayneste, brother-in-law is schwieger and sister-in-law is schwegerin." Michael Bernet http://www.genealogy.com/00000684.html
NARA
The National Archives and Records Administration is an independent federal agency that preserves our nation's history and defines us as a people by overseeing the management of all federal records. Genealogy researchers can access most documents as text files (not HTML documents) via this route. Internet users can obtain application information and publications. Their comprehensive website http://www.archives.gov/ Access to Archival Data (AAD) System On-line access to a selection of nearly 50 million electronic records on a wide range of topics http://www.archives.gov/aad/
National Archives - New England Region 390 Trapelo Road Waltham, MA 02154 617 647 8100 Serves" Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Vermont http://www.archives.gov/northeast/boston/
201 Varick Street, 12th floor (enter on Houston Street) New York, New York 10014 Telephone: 1 212 337 1300 Hours: 8:00-4:30 PM, Monday-Friday Tuesday & Thursday: to 8:00 PM Open First and Third Saturdays of each month
Bldg. 22, Military Ocean Terminal Bayonne, NJ 07002-5388 201 823 7545 Serves: New Jersey, New York, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands http://www.archives.gov/northeast/
The Northeast Region (New York City) maintains archival records from federal agencies and courts in New Jersey, New York, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islan
The New York facility has extensive microfilm holdings of value for genealogy research including:
federal population censuses for all states, 1790-1930
indexes for the 1880, 1900, 1910 and 1920 censuses (indexes are not available for all years and all states)
selected military service records and indexes
selected pension and bounty-land warrant applications
indexes to selected passenger arrival records for Eastern and Gulf Coast ports
indexes to selected naturalization records processed through federal courts in New Jersey and New York
WW II concentration camp records
Travel Directions: Subway: #1 or #9 IRT Local to Houston Street stop Bus: M10 Seventh Avenue Bus to Houston Street Car: A few blocks north of the Holland Tunnel Street parking is difficult. Garages are one block north of Houston St.
National Archives - Mid Atlantic Region
9th and Market Streets, Room 1359 Philadelphia, PA 19107 215 597 3000 Serves: Delaware, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, and West Virginia http://www.archives.gov/midatlantic/
National Archives - Southeast Region
1557 St. Joseph Avenue East Point, GA 30344 404 763 7477 Serves: Alabama, Georgia, Florida, Kentucky, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee http://www.archives.gov/southeast/
National Archives - Great Lakes Region
7358 South Pulaski Road Chicago, IL 60629 312 581 7816 Serves: Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, and Wisconsin http://www.archives.gov/great-lakes/
501 West Felix Street P O Box 6216 Fort Worth, TX 76115 817 334 5525 Serves: Arkansas, Louisiana, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Texas http://www.archives.gov/southwest/
National Archives - Rocky Mountain Region
Bldg. 48, Denver Federal Center P O Box 25307 Denver, CO 80225 303 236 0817 Serves: Colorado, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Utah, and Wyoming http://www.archives.gov/rocky-mountain/
National Archives - Pacific Southwest Region
24000 Avila Road P O Box 6719 Laguna Niguel, CA 92677-6719 714 643 4241 Serves: Arizona, Southern California Counties of Imperial, Inyo, Kern, Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, San Diego, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, and Ventura; and Clark County, Nevada
Randy Thompson is Archives Specialist at the National Archives and Record Administration Pacific Region in Laguna Niguel, California. http://www.archives.gov/pacific/laguna/
National Archives - Pacific Sierra Region
1000 Commodore Drive San Bruno, CA 94066 415 876 9009 Serves: Northern California, Hawaii, Nevada (except Clark County), and the Pacific Ocean area http://www.archives.gov/pacific/san-francisco/
Documents don't last forever so it is important that you follow these steps to insure that old newspaper clippings and documents last as long as possible.
Use 100 percent cotton gloves to keep finger oils off documents and photographs
Use an acid-free ink pen to mark the backs of photographs
To repair books and mount artwork for framing, use self-adhesive linen cloth tape
Use transparent mending tissue (non-yellowing, acid-free, pressure-sensitive, archival-mending) to restore documents.
Never laminate old newspapers or other documents as the plastics in laminates can get sticky and discolored if the items are stored where the document gets too hot, or they can get brittle if your storage space is too cold.
Newspaper Clipping Preservation Tip: To preserve a newspaper clipping, dissolve a Milk of Magnesia tablet in a quart of club soda overnight. Pour into a pan large enough to accommodate the flattened newspaper. Soak the clipping for one hour and then pat dry. Do not move until completely dry. Estimate life of the treated clipping is 200 years.
Vendors of Archival Supplies
Gaylord Brothers Should you be a librarian, you would know of this library supplies and Archival products catalog company - trusted for their quality by many libraries and serious preservationists of genealogical material. http://www.gaylord.com/
"There are public libraries in various areas that either have an index to obituaries, or have filmed the actual papers. The recent past seems to be kind of a black hole, but there are some sites out there. There are many commercial sites which have newspapers on line." The Legacy sites include Canadian obituaries.
"Google has also started to index newspapers. When you are at the google search page, click on the more link above the search box, then look for the news link on the page that comes up."
"In NY, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle 1841-1902 is on line at the Brooklyn Public Library website."
"There are subscription sites which include various newspapers - the well known large genealogy search site has a newspaper database. The Northern NY Library system has 21 newspapers on line for free. some of them covering the time period you ask about." From a posting by Lisa Lepore http://news.nnyln.net/index.html
I found another great search site - though it is a fee based site, it does provide a great service. Images of every tombstone in the following Jewish Cemeteries: Saratoga Springs, NY: Sharei Tephilah on Weibel St. Springfield, MA: Bnei Israel Anshei Sfard, Kesser Israel, and City of Homes Assn. They are all located on Wilbraham Ave. Utica, NY: Jonathan's lodge, House of Jacob, House of Israel, Tzvi Jacob, Beth El, all located on Woods Rd. Montreal, Canada: Baron De Hirsch on Savane St. - 20,000 records and images, about a quarter of the entire Cemetery.
Declaration of Intention Documents, which contain detailed information about immigrants who applied for US Citizenship, have been added to the database. High-resolution images of each document can be viewed online. The following 11,000 records have been added recently: Jewish documents from: Circuit Court District of MA (Boston area) 1906-1910 Kings County (Brooklyn) NY 1906-1910 Oneida County (Utica area) NY 1906-1949 Onondaga County (Syracuse area) NY 1906-1930 Saratoga County NY 1906-1930.
Name searches are free, and full access requires membership, with special rates for Societies and Libraries. www.jewishdata.com
Directories of pharmacists, contact your state's Department of Regulation and/or the State Archives. http://www.pharmacypages.com/
Public Access to Court Electronic Records (PACER)
An electronic public access service that allows users to obtain case and docket information from Federal Appellate, District and Bankruptcy courts, and from the U.S. Party/Case Index. Currently most courts are available on the Internet.
Links to these courts are provided from this web site. There is a charge to use this service.
"Perception that there were entirely "little Jewish places" or entirely "Jewish towns" is not entirely correct. Jewish people could constitute the majority of the shtetl population, but places were not "entirely Jewish".
Shtetl could be artificially 'subdivided' into the Jewish and Gentile 'suburbs', one can notice that often village had two names e.g. Velyky (Large) Shtetl and Maly (Little) Shtetl, Vysokie Shtetl (High, probably on top[ of a hill) and Niskie Shtetl (Lower, probably at hill's bottom). In larger towns, Jews used to reside in separate suburbs (Kazimierza Krakow, Naleki in Warszawa) or they were occupying certain parts of the street in the smaller town." From a posting by Alexander Sharon.
General Washington's financial advisor and assistant was a Jewish man by the name of Hyam Salomon. During the cold winter months at Valley Forge when American soldiers were freezing and running out of food, it was Hyam who marshaled all the Jews in America and Europe to provide money in relief aid to these stranded American troops and turned the course of history.
Without this help, Washington's Continental Army and the fate of the American Colonies would have perished before they could have defeated the British.
If you take a one dollar bill out of your pocket and look at the back at the Eagle, the stars above the Eagle's head are in the six point Star of David to honor Jews. And, if you turn the Eagle upside down, you will see a configuration in the likeness of a Menorah -- both at the insistence of George Washington who said we should never forget the Jewish people and what they have done in the interest of America. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haym_Solomon
Synagogues
Synagogue Records Everyone in a small, orthodox congregation knew each other and kept up on the news. Deaths? You didn't get a reminder of the Yahrzeit date from the synagogue, but gave it to them. Marriage records? A marriage was a contract between the two families, why would the synagogue need a record. Births? Boys got circumcised which was the Mohel's business; girls got named but why record it? Mohels might have kept a record for their own use, but maybe not - and who cared anyway, they weren't thinking bout genealogists. I have been involved in some synagogue records for genealogy. What is there is mostly the minutes of meetings about the new roof. There may be Sunday School class lists. There may be lists of paid memberships. But these are 20th century, large, American synagogues. The typical, small synagogue of the 19th century had much less.
What records do exist for defunct congregations are in some archives of the Jewish community, depending on the locality's decision. Some may be at places like the American Jewish Archives. European congregations (as a whole) were destroyed in great turmoil - their records were not sent to a central archive. The previous was posted on JewishGen by Sally Bruckheimer http://www.cjh.org/pdfs/USSynagogueRecords07.pdf
Wooden Synagogues Among the many tragedies of the Holocaust was the fact that the wooden synagogues of Eastern Europe - some 1,000 structures - were systematically burned to the ground by the Germans as they conquered territories and murdered, or deported, the Jewish population. A few of these magnificent structures survived and a group has documented them, as well as the history of these synagogues, in a video tape that can be purchased through Avotaynu. The video includes photos of many of the famous wooden synagogues of the past and file footage of Jewish life before the Holocaust. It also documents a trip to Lithuania to film the few (abandoned) remaining wooden synagogues there. The narrator is Theodore Bikel. You can order the tape at http://www.avotaynu.com/books/synagogues.htm
Microsoft Terraserver contains digitized aerial photos and digitized topographical maps of the United States provided by the US Geological Survey. http://terraserver-usa.com/
Louis Kessler offers a lot of links to many genealogy sites including Jewish Genealogy and Computer Program Comparisons of features at http://www.lkessler.com/jglinks.shtml
Committee of Professional Jewish Genealogists (CPJG) a list of members is available at the JGS of Los Angeles http://www.jewishgen.org/jgsla
or send a SASE (self addressed stamped envelope #10) to Eileen Polakoff, 240 West End Ave. #15A, New York, NY 10023 for a paper copy of the CPJG flyer. This list includes researchers in Israel.
Professional Researchers The Special Interest Group for Romanian Jewish Genealogy offers a wonderful informational site about dealing with professional researchers http://www.jewishgen.org/romsig/rsdb/prof-sum.html
The English Jewish newspaper, The Jewish Telegraph, offers a totally-free Roots Directory for people trying to locate lost family. To post a request e-mail to mike1cohen@aol.comor write to Jewish Telegraph 11 Park Hill, Bury Old Road Prestwich, Manchester, England M25 0HH. Include a full postal address. http://jewishtelegraph.com
Jewish Theological Seminary
The academic arm of the conservative movement, includes a Rabbinical School, Cantorial School, Graduate School, and affiliated institutions like Ramah Camps and the Jewish Museum in NY. has it's own web site at http://www.jtsa.edu/
To learn about the history of these societies, read "Jewish Immigrant Associations & American Identify in New York, 1880-1939" - authored by Professor Daniel Soyer
Landsman A Yiddish word for "countryman (Launtzmaun)". Among Jews of past generations, it would used to mean a Jew from the same village, city or region, depending on the context. In the U S, it is often used to refer to another Jew. Landmanschaften were an extraordinary number of fraternal lodges of mutual aid, benevolent, sick and benefit, burial and free loan societies, formed by the immigrants themselves. These societies also provided a sense of belonging, a place to preserve their dignity when they fell on hard times. It was also a way of preserving familiar ties to the Old World. In 1900, there were over 1,000 societies in New York alone, and by 1935 well over 3000.
New York Metro area "As a general rule, there is a method of finding a Landsman shaft and that is through the Landsmanshaft plot in a cemetery. Of course, most Landmanschaften are long gone, but if they are still active, they may have plots available in one or more of their cemeteries. To find such plots in the NYC area, go to the site of the JGS (NY) which has a cemetery plot index. This is found under www.jgsny.org
Click on Burial Societies in the New York Metropolitan Area and run a query on your town and/or society name. This will probably come up with one or more cemeteries in the NY area.
Phone the cemetery and see if there is an active burial group participating there and ask for the name of the person arranging burials. This will be the Landsmanshaft representative. There are over 10,000 plot references here and this project was led principally by the indefatigable Ada Greenblatt." From a posting by Joe Fibel
Karen Franklin is director of family research. The main office is in New York. There are also offices in London and Jerusalem. The Archives at LBI contains a wealth of genealogy information -- including the Simonis collection http://www.lbi.org/
Digital Librarian A librarian's choice of the best of the web and maintained by Margaret Vail Anderson, a librarian in Cortland, New York. Here you will find a wealth of links http://www.digital-librarian.com/genealogy.html
Internet Library Reference Center for Almanacs, Calendars, Telephone & Address, Genealogy, Geography; Reading Room for Books, Magazines and Newspapers from around the world; Web Searching; Regional and Country information and more http://www.ipl.org/
What it means genetically to be Jewish is explained in an article by Thomas H. Maugh II in the LA Times on Friday, June 4, 2010. Ashkenazis are the primary group descended from European Jews and are all as closely related as fourth or fifth cousins would be, according to the largest study ever conducted. "Jews really are different from their non- Jewish neighbors," according to Dr. Harry Ostrer, a geneticist at the NY University Langone Medical Center, coauthor of the study and appeared in the American Journal of Human Genetics. They are not different enough to be considered a separate race, as some experts have argued, but definitely are a "distinct population" - the result presumably, of cultural separation down through thousands of years.
Further, the study shows that there is "clearly a shared genetic common ancestry among geographically diverse populations consistent with oral tradition and culture ... and that traces back to the Middle East" said geneticist Sarah A. Tishkoff of the University of Pennsylvania, who was not involved in the study. "Jews have assimilated to some extent, but they clearly retain their common ancestry." Further, information now indicates the separation between North African and European Jews 2,500 years ago and the near extinction of European Jews in the Middle Ages - the major goal is to identify genes for many diseases that are more common in Jewish groups, such as breast cancer, Gaucher's disease and Tay-Sachs.
The Jewish people, according to archaeologists, originated in Babylon and Persia between the 4th and 6th centuries BC. The modern-day Jews most closely related to that original population are those in Iran, Iraq and Syria, whose closest non-Jewish relatives are the Druze, Bedouins and Palestinians, the study found. Sometime in that period, the Middle Eastern and European Jews diverged and the European branch began actively proselytizing for converts.
At the height of the Roman Empire, about 10% of the empire's population was Jewish, although the bulk of them were converts. Some Khazars were also incorporated during this period That explains why so many European and Syrian Jews have blue eyes and blond hair," Ostrer says. It also explains another of the team's findings -- that the population most closely related genetically to European Jews are Italians.
Scientific research indicates that Ashkenazi Jews have a disproportionately higher incidence than the general population of several genetic disorders. After the Romans defeated the Jews in 70 C.E., many fled in all directions. Those Jews who settled in the Iberian Peninsula and North Africa became known as Sephardim. Those who eventually settled in Eastern Europe became the Ashkenazi population.
According to the Technion and Rambam Medical Center in Haifa researchers, 42 percent of all Ashkenazi Jews living today are related to four women who lived between the 11th and 13th centuries. Due to their religious and communal segregation, a great deal of arranged marriages between cousins took place. With no new blood coming in from outside the Ashkenazi community, the carrier frequencies of certain disease-causing genes increased. This information was obtained from an article by Tamar Fenton and published in the April 17th, 2009 issue of American Jewish World.
in 1848 there was a cholera pandemic all over Europe, with in particular 3 million deaths in Russia. 1848 was also a year of revolutions in most of Europe, but this did not affect Russia or Russian Poland.
"The American Medical Directory of Physicians Guide"
contains relevant data on over 500,000 physicians in the United States. Each record is indexed by such features as name, address, phone/fax, county, year licensed, type of practice, type of physician, as well as primary and secondary specialty. http://www.epa.gov/radon/pubs/physic.html
What would you like to know about diabetes? I've had Type I for over 20 years and have done a lot of testing and reading about the subject. I'm not an expert or a doctor, but I can tell you that it is not a pleasant disease to live with. I'm the only one in my immediate family that has the disease, though my uncle (on my father's side) and a cousin (on my mother's side) died from the disease. http://www.jewishdiabetes.org/
Diseases, Medical Terms and Epidemics Related to Genealogy
The human genealogical project (Canadian Center for Molecular Biology, Technion) has shown quite clearly that, on average, any two humans on the face of the Earth differ by less than only 0.1% at the level of their human genome sequence. Yet it is this tiny difference which makes the genetic contribution to the wonderful diversity of humanity.
While archeology uncovers aspects of human history, analyzing relics left behind, genetic archeology digs into the diversity of contemporary human genome to unravel mysteries about past history. The head of the department of nephrology at Rambam Medical Center, Haifa, is Dr. Skorecki who also heads the Canadian Center for Molecular medicine Research, Technion, also in Haifa. Dr. Skorecki and his colleagues have applied analysis of DNA markers to unravel geographic origins and historical relationships among communities in the Jewish Diaspora. From a posting on 1/19/01 submitted by Schelly Dardashti. Schelly Dardashti e-mail address:schelly@allrelative.net http://homepages.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~hornbeck/disease.htm
DNA
Prior to the release of new genetic studies during 2000 and 2001 which showed that the majority element of Ashkenazic Jewish communities stems from the Israelites of the Middle East. DNA testing for genealogy has become increasingly popular. Especially attention-getting have been efforts to trace genetic relationships along the male lineage. The best known application is the ability to verify whether a Jewish male is a Kohen, a member of the priestly class descended from Aaron, the brother of Moses. Markers distinguishing the Levites, the other priestly class descended from Levi, have also been identified. Regarding the female line --- in the case of Ashkenazim -- there are two competing theories about genetic origins. One has it that many Jewish women in Diaspora communities probably started out as local non-Jews who became so protective of their adopted Jewish identity that they made sure marriages never moved outside the core group.
"Later, entry into the community, relative to its size, was much less," said Neil Bradman, Ph.D., chairman of the Center for Genetic Anthropology at University College, London, who has looked into this issue. Initially, the husbands were most likely itinerant Jewish traders who settled in a town for commercial reasons -- for example, port cities that rimmed the Mediterranean -- and then sought marriage partners from the area. Bradman has summarized much of the current research in a chapter called "threads to Antiquity," published in the 2004 anthology "Traces of ancestry: Studies in Honour of Colin Renfew" and published by McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research.
The second theory suggests "founding mothers" -- four Jewish women who may have also lived as early as the biblical period and became the progenitors of close to half of Ashkenazim living today. This theory, put forward in the American Journal of Human Genetics by a research team from the Technion and Rambam Medical Center in Haifa, implies that at some point Jewish men settled abroad with families rather than acquiring wives locally. More about this topic can be found in the April 2006 issue of Hadassah Magazine in an article written by Andree Aelion Brooks.
"Have you ever met someone with the same last name and wondered if you might be related? Tracing one's family history is rapidly becoming a favorite pastime. Inevitably, at some point you will find that you can't validate the information you uncover or you'll find yourself running into brick walls."
"Today, however, there's another way -- utilizing technology to verify ancestry. DNA tests are most useful in determining genetic links between people who may have little documentation or oral history to guide them. DNA - the 9*gene* in genealogy can answer questions when there is no available paper trail."
"DNA is nothing more than a tool in the toolkit for the genealogist who has run into a paper trail roadblock," says Bennett Greenspan, president/CEO of Family Tree DNA, the Houston-based company that is considered the world leader in genetic testing for genealogical research. "With DNA testing, we are able to unravel that history book that is contained within the cells of all of us." http://www.familytreedna.com/
Should you be interested in DNA, the cost for one type of kit is $219.00. Details can be found at http://www.jewishgen.org/dna "Back to your roots: Trying to trace your family tree?" An interesting article in the British Magazine "New Scientist of March 16, 2002. Once at the web site, use the search engine at the top of the page and type in "Back to your roots" (without the quotation marks). The article is geared to genealogy. http://www.newscientist.com/
DNA Article - May. 1, 2003 It's All Relative: Tracing with technology By Schelly Talalay Dardashti, discusses technological aspects (DNA) of genealogy and a new DNA name project (Issroff etc), Given Names Database update (JewishGen), Malka's Sephardic book award, Gombin documentary on Israel TV. http://www.jpost.com/ and then use their 'search engine. "DNA Bred Crumb Trail" An informative article by Andree Aelion Brooks published in the April 2006 issue of Hadassah Magazine http://www.hadassahmagazine.org/site/c.twI6LmN7IzF/ b.5766959/k.2012/April_2006_Vol_87_No_8.htm
DNA Study of Eyes Many Jewish communities were formed by unions between Jewish men and non-Jewish women, according to a new study announced in May, 2002. This is the conclusion reached by a group of researchers who examined the DNA of women in nine communities around the world, including Morocco and the former Soviet republic of Georgia. The study reported in The New York Times, contradicts the view that most Jewish communities were founded by Jewish families fleeing persecution or were invited to settle by local rulers. The study appears in the May, 2002 edition of The American Journal of Human Genetics. http://www.thetech.org/genetics/news.php?id=66
"Tracing Jewish DNA for Family History & Ancestry: Merging a Mosaic of Communities" Authored by Anne Mizrahi Hart, M.A. ISBN: 0-595-28127-3 The Genealogist's Physician Lookup Service. Each State is listed with the years available going back to the late 1800s, though most start around 1902. Also offered is a "Free Resources" list - a list of faculty at various medical schools and hospitals mostly in the late 1890s http://members.aol.com/CensusResearch/PLS/index.htm
Genealogical Guide A guide to over 149,000 medical practitioners providing brief biographical sketches drawn from the American Medical Association's Deceased Physician Masterfile", edited by Arthur W. Hafner. Two volumes published in Chicago, Illinois by the American Medical Association in 1993. In Boston, available at: New England Historic Genealogical Society; (Ref CS 5 D56 1993) Countway Medicine Library, Harvard; (Ref. WZ 22 AA1 D598 1993) http://user.itl.net/~glen/doctors.html
Medhelp This site has information on some familial Jewish Genetic Diseases and also lists the organizations networking on these diseases. http://www.medhelp.org/
National Library of Medicine Just enter a keyword, and the search engine returns a listing of relevant journal articles, videotapes, and other materials in its holdings. http://locatorplus.gov
Tay-Sachs A commonly thought of as a mostly 'Jewish' disease. This is only because the gene is considerably more common in Ashkenazim than in the general population. The Tay-Sachs gene occurs in non-Jewish populations, as well. The Cajuns and the Quebecois have somewhat higher than average rates of the gene, as do people of Irish descent. But it can occur in people of any ethnic background.
A similar disease is Canavan disease. It is caused by a different gene and involves a different mechanism, but unfortunately progresses in much the same way as Tay-Sachs. It is also more common among Ashkenazim. http://user.itl.net/~glen/doctors.html
Looking for a Physicist? American Physical Society One Physics Ellipse College Park, MD 20740-3844 Phone: 301 209 3280 http://publish.aps.org/
James Gross larklane@juno.comoffered these suggestions in contacting the National Personnel Records Center (NPRC) which handles military medical records. Many records were burned in 1973 and the NPRC often sends VA records back as a substitute. He suggests making up a business form letter leaving off the street and city/state of the VA office. He sends the letter to a local VA office giving them the deceased relative's name, dob, dod, soc. sec. number, states that the person is dead, mentions that the request is being sent under the Freedom of Information Act and asks them to provide the VA # or File #, as well as to advise which VA office would have the file. There is no charge for a response. Do not ask for the actual file in this letter.
The next step is to take that info and do a request for a copy of the complete military file from the NPRC in St. Louis. Enclose your VA response letter and request that they obtain a copy of the VA file as well. It seems that the VA medical records have to come via the NPRC in St. Louis. The NPRC will probably mail your letter back, unless you enclose both For SF180 and NA 13075. If you don't have NA 13075 (request for additional info), the NPRC will send back your letter with a form and ask you to fill it out. Enclose a photocopy of a death certificate, with Form SF180. Regardless of what state you live in, you can send one of these form letters to any VA office. Don't send too many VA requests to any one office. If one VA office rejects your letter, try another office. Rather than requesting the actual files, request only for file #'s and file locations.
"How to Locate Anyone Who Is or Has Been in the Military" Authored by Johnson & Knox and published in 1999.
"Y Chromosome Bears Witness to Story of the Jewish Diaspora"
Military
There were Jewish soldiers on both sides of many of the European wars of modern times, notably in the British, French, Prussian and Austrian armies. See the article "Army" http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com
American Battle Monuments Commission Information galoreabout Military personnel. Best to write. Room 4c014 Forrestal Building 1000 Independence Ave. SW Washington, DC 20314 Phone: 693 6067 http://www.abmc.gov/home.php
Ancient Faces Military photos (vintage photos of Veterans, ships, etc. by war, last name and branch of service and a lot more of interest to a genealogist http://www.ancientfaces.com/research/war_era/42
Conscription Age From December 5, 1868, the compulsory military service begins with January 1 of the year in which the citizen has his 21st birthday. Representation was no longer allowed. Temporary exceptions were possible for a single son of parents who were not able to work and similar difficult conditions in the family. The military service was for three years of regular service and seven years of reserve service. From an e-mail from Eugene A Moisey, Sr. http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/FWWconscription.htm
Military Records On-line Searchable Military Records & Databases. This website is very comprehensive and 99% free. There are some links to paid sites, but theses are clearly marked. There are other links on this site that are also very useful. http://home.att.net/~wee-monster/military.html
Meest Money transfer company that hand delivers to many foreign countries. Copies of documents they send will be in Latin characters. Home Office: 817 Pennsylvania Ave. Linden, NJ 07036 Phone: 800 288 9949 http://www.meest.net/
VIGO Money transfer company - for further information 1 800 777 8784 http://www.vigousa.com/
Mussar Movement
Began in Lithuania in the late 19th to early 20th centuries and stressed education of the individual toward strict ethical behavior in the spirit of Halacha. Check also the Encyclopedia Judaica for a section on Mussar spelled Musar.
From the Svencionys ShtetLinks site: "The Musar Movement". The founder and primary proponent of the Musar Movement in 19th-century Lithuania was Rabbi Israel Salanter (1810-1883), who established the first Musar Society in Vilna in 1842. Musar (literally, "moral instruction or ethics") stressed the study of medieval Jewish ethical texts. Musar was basically Orthodox Judaism like that propounded by the Vilna Gaon. But Salanter, unlike the Gaon, considered it unethical for religious Jews to withdraw from the affairs of their communities - even for Talmudic study.
Rabbi Israel Salanter and the Musar Movement
Musar, by its de-emphasis on Talmudic and Torah study and its emphasis on involvement in the wider community, had been designed to unite Hasidic elements with elements common to the Haskala. However, it never had the appeal for the common people that Salanter had hoped it would. Additionally, the Jews who wished to concentrate on Talmudic and Torah studies eventually rejected Musar also. Ultimately, although Musar established itself in Israel, the United States and Britain, it was not able to gain a lasting foothold in Lithuania. http://www.us-israel.org/jsource/biography/salanter.html
For more information, plug in "Salanter" or "Musar (or Mussar) Movement" into any search engine.
"The Yeshiva" Authored by Chaim Grade and translated from the Yiddish.
National Sound Archives Digitations Project at the Jewish National and University Library (songs and readings from a variety of Jewish communities and languages) http://jnul.huji.ac.il/
There are exceptions to the rule that an immigrant must be a "legal resident" of the US for at least 6 years before he/she becomes eligible to apply for citizenship. Immigrants who fall in certain categories (i.e. those who are married to US citizens) may apply after only a 3 year residency. http://www.archives.gov/research/naturalization/index.html
"For those in the New York Metropolitan area who find the New York Public Library lacking standard Jewish Genealogical reference volumes, may I recommend the NJ State Library in Trenton? It has on open shelves both editions of "Where Once we Walked, all three Beider volumes, Malcolm Stern's major works on American Jewish Families, several Rosenstein's including The Unbroken Chain (both editions), three volumes of the Auschwitz death books, the recent edition of Estelle Guzik's Genealogical Resources in the NY Metropolitan area, as well as many other standard works. "
"There is also a large collection of CD Rom's including about 70 of the World Family Tree disks and computers which are usually unoccupied. The NJ State Library is close to the NJ State Archives which is the place to go to look up Births, Marriages and Deaths. The staff there is very helpful and welcomes visitors." From a posting to JewishGen by Arthur Sugerman Lawrenceville, NJsugerman@comcast.net http://www.njstatelib.org/
In the birth, death, etc. columns, give each folder a number where the information can be found. The 'other' column lists folders or pages where other information about the person can be found i.e. signature of a parent on the child's birth certificate, or parent's name on a death certificate. You could also include the page numbers for other kinds of documents i.e. citizenship papers, ship information, etc. Some pages are referenced by many people i.e. as a census record might be, or a birth certificate may have several witness signatures who are also relatives that you may want to reference in 'other' for that person.
Note: if you remove a page, be sure to write the folder number in a corner so that you can return the page back to the same folder. As you add more data, just write in the number of the folder where you are putting it in the proper column and once in a while print out a new copy.
For information on the Hebrew National Orphan Home orphanage and how to obtain records and listing all the orphanages and other institutions under their care with information and histories for accessing records, and over 200 URL links to sites containing: Jewish Genealogy and Archives/Records and Holdings Page: Information on the United Hebrew Charities Holdings; Federal & State Census Page: 726 names and ages of children and adults residing in the New York City Foundling Hospital from the 1890 NYC Police Census - these names contain mostly NON-Jewish children and adults who were working there at time of census; US Jewish Orphanage Page: Orphanage Alumni Reunions Page; Jewish Genealogy Resources Page and other Genealogical Resources Pages. This site is awesome! http://www.hnoh.com/
Jewish Child Care Association 120 Wall Street New York, NY 10005 Attn: Leona M. Ferrer, Disclosure Coordinator Tel: 1 212 425 3333 Fax: 1 212 425 9397 http://www.jccany.org/site/PageServer
They are a dynamic database that is constantly being added to and updated. A posting by Zvi Bernhardt of Yad Vashem on the JewishGen site on 11/22/02 offers an excellent response and explanation of what to anticipate in using these pages. Assistance is offered by e-mail names.research@yadvashem.org.il
Yad Vashem in Jerusalem At the Hall of Names has computerized their (3) millions of testimonies and you can display the testimony on the computer's screen and also print it for NIS 2 (about 43 US cents). It is online. One of the search options is to search by the surname of the person who have filled the testimony. http://www.yad-vashem.org.il/remembrance/names/hall_of_names.html
From the year 1880 until 1924, over one-third of Eastern European Jews left their shtetls and emigrated to other countries - over 90 percent to the U.S. About 75 percent came from the Russian Pale of Settlement, an area in which Jews were confined to by Russian law. Fifteen western came from provinces of European Russia and the ten provinces of congress Poland. Eighteen percent of these Jewish immigrants came from the Austria-Hungary regions of Galicia, Bukovina and Hungary and about 4% left Romania.
Longitudes and 
