JOWBR, one of JewishGen’s most popular databases, seeks to catalogue data about Jewish cemeteries and burial records worldwide, from the earliest records to the present, and to be the central search location for Jewish burial rec­ords. JewishGen charges no fees for access; the information is available to everyone with Internet access. After a December 2009 update, JOWBR will have more than 1.2 million burial records from about 2,600 cemeteries in 45 countries. The database links about 175,000 photographs to its records.

The donors include individuals, cemetery administrators, historical societies, and local Jewish Genealogical Society projects. They sign a Donor Agreement that permits JewishGen to join the donor’s data into the JOWBR database. This non-exclusive agreement does not limit the use of the donor’s data for any other purposes.

A team of translators transliterates non-English information on headstone photographs for inclusion in the database. Another group of volunteers converts paper records to JOWBR’s digital spreadsheet format which donors may use to find records more easily in a cemetery.

Importance of JOWBR

JOWBR functions as a virtual cemetery, where records are recorded permanently for researchers and family members to use information on Jewish burials. Most genealogists have heard about the poor state of some ancestral cemeteries; even in the United States, some cemeteries and landsmanshaftn (townsmen societies) are abandoning their sections when no one is left to keep the society records. Some cemeteries are overgrown with natural growth and stones are in disrepair. A complete list of the cemeteries whose records are included in the JOWBR is posted online at .

Often people seeking information about relatives whose burial place is unknown. By accessing the JOWBR home page at , researchers can find individuals in a single, centralized database. Many cemeteries and local genealogical and historical organizations have created their own searchable databases. JOWBR sees itself not as competition to those sites, but as an enhancement. Along with the individual burial records in the database is a link to the Cemetery Description page which gives basic location, contact information, and history of the cemetery when provided. If a cemetery/organization submits only basic information for each burial (surname, given name, date of death), JOWBR refers researchers to that organization’s website for additional information.

JOWBR as a Genealogical Tool

Genealogists are aware of the importance of headstones in genealogical research. Information on tombstones may not be found elsewhere. One of the most important reasons for finding the location of a headstone is to learn the deceased’s Hebrew name that traditionally includes the father’s Hebrew name. For immigrant ancestors, this information will assist researchers and family members in finding records in the Old Country.

Hebrew name information may be accessed in one of three ways:

• If  submitted, the name is included with the grave record within the database.
• A picture of the headstone can be linked to the submitted burial record, so that researchers may do the translation themselves.
• Knowing the location of a cemetery, a researcher may visit or contact the cemetery or other genealogists in the area for more help.

In my research, had I not found my grandfather’s headstone with his Hebrew patronymic name, I would never have known my great-grandfather’s name, and I would not have been able to continue my European research. Unfortunately, contemporary headstones increasingly omit the Hebrew patronymic names and break the link to the past.

Many online articles describe Jewish tombstones, as does JewishGen’s InfoFile, “Reading Hebrew Headstones” at InfoFiles/tombstones.html>. For in­for­mation on how to submit data, visit http://www.jewishgen.org/databases/Cemetery/Submit.htm.

Nolan Altman

JewishGen Vice-President for Data Acquisition