Where to Start

You have come to this site to find out how to begin tracing your Jewish ancestry, or for help furthering the Jewish research you have already started. You have come to the right place. Ancestry.com is the number one online source for family history information with billions of historical records, some oriented specifically toward Jewish family history research.

Many people think that Jewish genealogical research is different than other genealogical research. For the most part it is not. All genealogical research, whether Jewish or otherwise, starts with documenting what you know and then with family members or others who might have information about the family.

Record What You Know

First, start by recording everything you know-names, dates, and places of yourself, your parents, your grandparents, and so on. A helpful way to record this information is by starting a free family tree on Ancestry.com. By entering what you already know into a family tree, you keep all your information organized in a centralized place.

Talk with Family

You may be surprised what you can learn simply by talking with your family. When speaking with them, do not ask the general question, "What do you know about our family’s history?" The response will invariably be, "Nothing!" Ask specific questions, like names, places, and dates. The following examples are taken from real interviews:

Life events can jog memories.
"When did your grandfather die?"
"I don’t know."
"Was he alive when you were born?"
"Yes."
"Did he attend your bar mitzvah?"
"Yes, in fact he died a year after my bar mitzvah."

Photographs can jog memories.
"When were your grandparents married?"
"I don’t know."
"Do you have any photographs of them?"
"Yes, in fact I have the photo album created in 1951 for their 50th wedding anniversary celebration."

Search for Records to Fill in the Gaps

Once you’ve recorded what you know and gotten as much information from your family as possible, it’s time to fill in the gaps by finding records about your ancestors’ lives. Interestingly, you are rarely looking for Jewish records, because historically there is nothing in the Jewish religion or culture that requires keeping records of life events. Synagogues did not keep records of births (there are no christenings) or deaths, and there is nothing comparable to marriage banns.

When you do Jewish research you are looking for government records. If your great-grandfather was born in New York City, his birth record is in the New York City archives. If your great-grandfather was born in Minsk, Belarus, his birth record is in the Minsk archives. Some people believe all Jewish records were destroyed in the Holocaust. While it is true that most things Jewish were destroyed during this period, the records you are looking for are government records, not Jewish records. For the most part, government records have survived.

Research Issues Peculiar to Jewish Genealogy

There are some unique aspects of Jewish culture and religion that can help you trace your family history, such as Jewish naming patterns and tombstone inscriptions.

Jewish Naming Patterns

Every Jew has a religious given name as well as a secular name. The religious name is used in baby namings, religious services, and on tombstones. Ashkenazic Jews-the Jews who originated in Central and Eastern Europe-invariably give their children the religious name of a deceased relative. Sephardic Jews-whose origins are primarily the Mediterranean rim and the Middle East-name their children in the following manner: the first son is named after the father’s father; first daughter-mother’s mother; second son-mother’s father; second daughter-father’s mother. These rules are often the first clue as to the names of ancestors for whom there is yet no documentation.

Interview:
"What is the name of your grandmother?"
"I don’t know. She died before I was born."
"Who are you named after?"
"My grandmother."

Two Jewish genealogists who suspect they are related but have not found records as proof often will compare given names in the two families. If there are given names common to both families, it suggests common ancestry.

Jewish Tombstones

If a Jewish tombstone has a Hebrew inscription, it includes the religious name of the deceased and his/her father’s given name. It is a quick way to go back one more generation. Assimilated Jews tended not to have Hebrew inscriptions on their tombstones. As a generalization these inscriptions do not appear on tombstones of Jews who came from Germany in the 19th century, Jews who are members of the Reform movement, or more recent burials where the Hebrew name of the decedent has been lost to the family.

If the decedent was the immigrant ancestor, the Hebrew name is a clue to the Yiddish name used when the person lived in Eastern Europe. The tombstone inscription shows that Harry was Hirsch, Morris was Moshe (Moses), Rose was Frusha, Ida was Chaya. The problem of knowing the European given name is so critical to locating information about an ancestor on passenger lists or in European records that our Jewish Family History Collection homepage has a search for "Jewish Name Variations."

Additional Jewish Resources

There is much help available in your quest to find your Jewish ancestry. The following resources are available:

Ancestry.com and JewishGen.org

The ultimate goal is to find records of your ancestors and there is no better place to start and continue to return than Ancestry.com and JewishGen.org. Many of the important JewishGen databases are also on Ancestry.com and free to the public; therefore, searching for your ancestors at the Ancestry.com Jewish Family History Collections homepage will automatically retrieve the information from JewishGen.org without you having to actually go to the JewishGen site. However, here are two important databases that must be accessed directly at JewishGen.org:

JewishGen Family Finder (JGFF). Your genealogy may already be done! More than 80,000 genealogists worldwide have submitted to JGFF the Jewish surnames and ancestral towns they are researching. Go to the site and search for the surnames you are researching to determine if other genealogists are doing similar work. Be sure to search using the "Sounds like" option because there are often spelling variants of names. JGFF will display the surname, town, and identifying information about the person who submitted the information so you can contact the individual and jumpstart your research. You can search for a surname only, a town only, or both.

Family Tree of the Jewish People (FTJP). This database includes more than 2.5 million people on Jewish family trees. Perhaps a distant relative or a relative by marriage has already done some of your research and can fill in a portion of your tree. FTJP also provides a way for you to communicate with the person who submitted the information.

Some additional resources specific to JewishGen.org include the following:

Special Interest Groups

Because today most Jews do not live in the countries where their ancestors lived 150 years ago, Special Interest Groups have developed oriented toward researching their country of ancestry. Most are for countries in Central and Eastern Europe (e.g., Germany and Ukraine). Two are topical SIGs: Rabbinic and Sephardic. You can link to their homepages from the JewishGen.org homepage. Go to the section titled "Special Interest Groups." Two SIGs are not part of the JewishGen umbrella and are listed in the "Hosted Organizations" section of the homepage: Jewish Records Indexing-Poland and LitvakSIG (Lithuania).

Jewish Genealogical Societies

There are some 80 Jewish genealogical societies in the world under the umbrella of the International Association of Jewish Genealogical Societies (IAJGS). A complete list of societies is available at http://iajgs.org/Member-Index.htm. If there is one in your area, join the society. At their meetings you will be able to discuss your research with experts who can point you in the right direction. You can also e-mail them for local assistance.

International Conference on Jewish Genealogy

The International Association of Jewish Genealogical Societies (IAJGS) sponsors the annual International Conference on Jewish Genealogy, which has been held annually since 1982. Typically between 750 and 1,000 people attend. Information on the conference can be found at the IAJGS website: http://www.iajgs.org/.

AVOTAYNU

AVOTAYNU is a quarterly journal of Jewish genealogy, which publishes articles of value about Jewish genealogical research. Information about AVOTAYNU can be found at http://www.avotaynu.com/.

Books on Jewish Research

Avotaynu, Inc., the publisher of AVOTAYNU, has also produced more than 50 books to assist persons researching their Jewish ancestry. Written by more than 60 authors on 100 subjects, Avotaynu Guide to Jewish Genealogy is the definitive guide to Jewish genealogical research. Avotaynu also publishes the e-zine of Jewish genealogy, Nu? What’s New?, published biweekly and available free of charge.

North America

No matter where you live, the first step in researching your Jewish roots is to document, as well as possible, your family’s presence in your own country. If you live in Canada or the U.S. you want to document your family’s presence in these countries. Once you have documented everything you and your family know about the family history, use the vast collections of records on Ancestry to fill in the blanks and go back in time.

Census Records

Most importantly, find your family in all the census records available on Ancestry. This includes all U.S. or Canadian censuses publicly available, starting with the most recent (1930 for the U.S., 1911 for Canada). These censuses provide valuable information about when your immigrant ancestors came to your country and when they were naturalized. Find them in as many censuses as possible.

Sometimes it is difficult to find an individual in the census because his or her name is common. Select a household member with the least common given name to search for. For example, if you are searching for the family of Abraham and Sarah Cohen, try searching for their daughter Gertrude, which is a less common name than Abraham or Sarah. Given names in censuses may not be the same as the one by which you knew the person, especially children. Your Aunt Peggy may have been known as Becky as a child, or Rebecca. Even surnames may have changed-especially those of immigrant ancestors. Many Jewish immigrants Americanized their surnames because of anti-Semitic and anti-immigrant feelings at that time. Others changed their name just to be more in step with their new country. The first census in which they appeared may show their European name while later ones may show their new name.

You will be surprised at the reporting errors you find in the censuses. Someone who was listed as 35 in the 1920 census may be listed as 47 in the 1930 census. Always be suspect of census data, but use it as a guide. Focus on information such as when your ancestor was naturalized, when he or she arrived in the U.S., and when he or she was married. These are clues that will allow you to "cross the pond" to search for records in your country of ancestry.

Immigration Records

In addition to finding clues about where your ancestors came from in census records, you can find similar information in the Immigration Collection on Ancestry. The Immigration Collection includes passenger lists for those arriving in Ellis Island and numerous other ports along the U.S. and Canadian coasts. Another valuable collection is the Canadian Border Crossings Collection, which contains records on individuals who traveled between Canada and the U.S. Many Jewish immigrants traveled to Canada before settling in America, so this can be an especially useful collection for those researching their Jewish origins. Other collections, such as the U.S. Passport Applications Collection can also contain information about country of origin. Several naturalization indexes have already been added to the Immigration Records Collection and more naturalization records will be added to the site in the coming months, promising even more help.

Social Security Death Index and Military Records

Other record collections on Ancestry may be useful as you try to fill in gaps on your Jewish-American families and find clues to the towns and countries they came from. One is the Social Security Death Index, which provides information about any person in the U.S. who died after 1962 and whose death was reported to the Social Security Administration. Information usually includes exact birth date and month/year of death. You can also find the mother’s maiden name if you decide to send in for the original application.

You may want to check the WWI Draft Registration Cards, the WWII Draft Registration, Enlistment Records, and the Canadian Soldiers of World War I Collection. These records will often include the date of birth of the individual and may even include the town where he or she was born.

Site-Wide Search

You should also conduct a site-wide search of all the collections on Ancestry by entering first and last name and other identifying information in the search box on the Ancestry homepage if you are in the U.S. or the Ancestry.ca homepage if you are in Canada. Sometimes it is overwhelming to search through all of the results that come up from a site-wide search, but you can also luck out and find some very useful information in collections you were previously unaware of.

Check all the potential sources of information about your family at Ancestry. Once you have exhausted these resources-and hopefully found clues about when and where your ancestors immigrated from-it is time to cross the Atlantic and look for records that are available from your town of ancestry. Visit the "Europe" or "More Countries" tab to learn more.

Europe

In order to "cross the pond" and locate records of your ancestors on the other side of the Atlantic, it is very helpful to know their town of ancestry. All governments keep track of their citizens and there is a wealth of records about your ancestors in the archives of your country of origin.

If you know the town of ancestry, find it on a map or use Google to confirm you have the spelling correct. If you cannot find the town, use the Jewish Community Locator on our Jewish Family History Collections homepage. It will offer you a choice of possible matching towns based on spelling variants and former names of towns. Keep in mind that sometimes these names changed as various governments took control so you may find that your ancestral town had different names depending on the time period. You may want to explore the Yizkor book list, available on JewishGen.org. These books were created as a memorial to the thousands of towns completely destroyed during the Holocaust. Quite often they list people and places and discuss life in particular Jewish towns and villages.

If you do not know the town of origin for your ancestors, research the vast Ancestry collections. Try searching passenger lists and naturalization records in the Immigration Collection. These records often include information about town of recent residence and/or birth in the Old Country. You can also find clues to immigration in other records-such as census records, which often list when individuals immigrated and from which country, as well as the country of birth of their parents. If possible, enlist the knowledge of your family, who may know more about your family origins.

If you still cannot determine the town of ancestry, your search will be more difficult, but not impossible.

Once you have determined the town of ancestry, go to the Ancestry Jewish Family History Collections homepage and select the "Europe" tab. You can search all our Jewish European record collections from this page. You can use the "Jewish Name Variations" aid to discover alternative spellings of your ancestor’s name. The main search box also employs a Soundex system that will search for common name variations. The results will include the potential spelling variants of the same name.

A list of some of the European Jewish record collections available on our site is located below the main search box on the "Europe" tab. Click "More" to see a list of all the Jewish European record collections available. Besides using the main search box to search all of the European collections at once, you may search in an individual European record collection of interest to you.

If successful, you have found records of your ancestors in the Old Country.

More Countries

The first collection in Ancestry’s non-European Jewish record collection is from Israel. More collections about Jews living outside of Europe will become available on the site in the coming months.

Ancestry has the U.S. Department of State Consular Post Records, which contain an index to records of U.S. consulates in Jerusalem, Jaffa, and Haifa, from 1857-1935. These indexes contain more than 9,100 names.

Watch this space for more records of Jews who lived in places other than the European nations and North America.

Holocaust Research

An important part of Jewish family history research is Holocaust research. Because 50% of European Jewry was murdered in the Holocaust (91% of Polish Jewry), virtually every Jewish-American has family members who were victims of the Holocaust. Because most of these victims have no grave and the destruction of Jewish artifacts was nearly total, many Jewish genealogists feel an obligation to document as best as possible the victims in their family and consider the results of their research a memorial to their murdered family members. Arthur Kurzweil, the author of the Jewish genealogy guide From Generation to Generation once said, "The Nazis took away their names and gave them numbers. We genealogists are taking away the numbers and giving them back their names."

Holocaust research becomes easier as the event fades into history. This is because most countries in the world make vital records (birth, marriage, death) available to the public after 100 years, and sometimes sooner. Therefore in 2008, birth records of people born before 1909 become accessible to the public and some lost in the Holocaust may be found in these vital records.

Through its alliance with JewishGen, Ancestry has more than 120 databases pertaining to the Holocaust, which you can search from the Holocaust tab (to see a full list of the databases, click "More"). One example of these important databases is the Register of Survivors, which was originally published in Pinkas HaNitzolim in 1945, and which contains names of survivors found living in various locations in Europe. Another is the Refugees to Tashkent collection. More than 150,000 Jewish refugees from the Soviet Union were evacuated to Tashkent and other localities in Uzbekistan in 1941.

Other Resources

Besides using the Ancestry Jewish Family History Collections homepage, you will probably want to search some additional Holocaust resources. One of the most important databases about Holocaust victims is the "Shoah Victims’ Database," which is managed at Yad Vashem in Jerusalem and is accessible on the Internet. It contains information about more than 3 million Jews murdered in the Holocaust, including name; year and place of birth; parents' given names; and if married, the name of the spouse and the maiden names of women.

Another valuable database is the collection of the International Tracing Service. It has documentation of some 17 million people-not just Jews-who were oppressed by the Germans during WWII. This can include information about victims as well as survivors.

A primer on how to do Holocaust research can be found at http://www.avotaynu.com/holocaust/.