Jewish Genealogy Research: Difference between revisions

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=== Did you know? ===

*Columbus took Jews with him in hopes they could translate Oriental languages.  

*Jewish births are sometimes [[Jewish Records in Other Denominations|listed in local church records]].  

*Emma Lazarus, daughter of Sephardic Jews, wrote the famous poem inscribed on the [[Jewish Emigration and Immigration|Statue of Liberty]], "give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses..."  

=== Ethnic Divisions of Judiasm ===

*'''Ashkenazi''' Communities of Jews that settled in Central and Eastern Europe. They speak a unique language called Yiddish, which is a mixture of Hebrew and German that originated in the 9th century.  

*'''Sephardic''' Jews who descend from those who were expelled from Spain in 1492 and Portugal in 1496 and from Italy 1490 - 1510. Most of these Jews spoke a version of Spanish called Ladino and settled in the Ottoman Empire, Netherlands and the Holy Land. Sepharad means Spain in Ladino. <br>  

*'''Romaniote''' Community with distinctive cultural features and who have lived in the territory of Greece, Italy and neighboring areas for more than 2,000 years. They trace their roots from the destruction of Jerusalem. Their languages were Yevanic, a Greek dialect, and modern Greek.  

*'''Mizrahi''' Jews descended from local Jewish communities of the Middle East. The term Mizrahi is most commonly used in Israel to refer to Jews who trace their roots back to Muslim-majority countries. Mizrahi and Sepharadic are often inter mingled.  

*'''Marrano''' Jews from Spain who converted or were forced to convert to Christianity, some of whom may have continued to practice Judaism in secret. Sometimes called Crypto-Jews  

=== Key Internet Links ===

* [http://americanjewisharchives.org/ American Jewish Archive] The Jacob Rader Marcus Center of the American Jewish Archive has a large and growing genealogy collection, with over 1,000 family genealogy files. In addition, we have extensive resources in the following areas: Jewish communities and immigration during the Colonial Period, early Jewish communities in the Caribbean Islands, along with congregational records from early Jewish settlement to modern times ]

* [http://www.ajhs.org/ American Jewish Historical Society] books, photos, art and artifacts]

* Ancestry.com [http://landing.ancestry.com/jewishfamilyhistory/us/default.aspx Jewish Family History Collection]

* [https://www.archives.com/genealogy/family-heritage-jewish.html Archives: Jewish Family History Resources]

* [http://avotaynu.com/ Avotaynu] Not the same as the website below. Avotaynu publishes books, newsletters and weekly emails for researches

** [http://www.avotaynu.com/csi/csi-home.htm Consolidated Jewish Surname Index]

* [http://www.avotaynuonline.com/ Avotaynu Online] intends to stimulate collaboration among genealogists. They are also the main sponsor behind the Jewish DNA collection effort.  

* [https://bloodandfrogs.com/compendium B&F Compendium of Jewish Genealogy] Over 15,000 Jewish genealogy resources for over 200 countries, 80 provinces, and over 1200 towns in Poland.  

* [http://www.cemeteryscribes.com/ Cemetery Scribes] recording tombstone inscriptions in the UK

* [http://www.cjh.org/ Center for Jewish History] databases, collections, guides, and event  

* [http://www.cyndislist.com/jewish/ Cyndi's List/Jewish]

* [http://feefhs.org/ Federation of East European Family History Societies] fosters research

* [http://www.geshergalicia.org/ Gesher Galicia] Promotes and conducts Jewish genealogical and historical research for Galicia a province of the former Austro-Hungarian Empire.

* [http://www.rtrfoundation.org/index.shtml Routes to Roots] Jewish and civil records of Eastern Europe  

*[http://sephardim.com/ Sephardim.com] for Sephardic genealogy / Jewish genealogy research  

*[http://www.sephardicgen.com// Sephardic Gen] multiple databases and links for Sephardic research  

*[http://synagoguescribes.com/blog/ Synagogue Scribes] London Ashkenazi Synagogue records database]  

*[http://www.jewishroots.uct.ac.za/ The South African Jewish database]. The primary aim of the project is to research the estimated 15,000 core families who migrated to Southern Africa between 1850-1950 from England, Germany, Lithuania, Latvia and Belarus.  

*[[Utah Jewish Genealogical Society]]. The Utah genealogy society focused on Jewish research.  

*[http://www.heritageabroad.gov/ U.S. Commission for the Preservation of America's Heritage Abroad] - contains lists of Jewish cemeteries and other historically significant sites. Information organized by country.  

* [http://www.yadvashem.org/ Yad Vashem] - Israeli Holocaust Museum and database (contains the Holocaust Victims' Database)

* [https://www.yivo.org/ Yivo Institute for Jewish Research] A 7-year initiative to digitally reunite prewar archival and library collections separated by the Holocaust.

:*[http://stevemorse.org/ellis/passengers.php?mode=ny&firstkind=close&FNM=&lastkind=starts&LNM= Searching $ New York (all: 1820-1957) Passenger Lists in One Step]  

=== Helpful Guides ===

*[[How to Start Your Family History|How to Start Your Family History]]&nbsp;Simple steps to begin your family history.  

*[[United States#States|State Research Guides]]&nbsp;Individual guides to finding records and indexes in each U.S. state.  

=== Sources ===

[[Category:Jewish Records]] [[Category:Israel]] [[Category:Ethnic_Groups]] [[Category:United_States_Ethnic_Groups]]