Genealogists always look for new ways to break through stubborn brick walls. Whether walking through graveyards that have not been maintained, calling everyone with our surname from some obscure directory, or spending nights without sleep when trying to find a new database, genealogists leave no stone unturned looking for long-lost records that tell about the events in our ancestors’ lives. For those persons trying to research Jewish ancestors in the British Isles, the search is no different.

In August 2007, however, the LDS (Mormon) Family History Library introduced a new electronic database to make existing paper records more accessible. The database, the Knowles Collection, is a compilation of records built upon the work of the late Isobel Mordy, who documented the lives of Jews in the British Isles. It may be accessed free of charge at <www.familysearch.org>.

Mordy Collection

The Mordy Collection is composed of four individual sections that can help a researcher learn more about his or her family. The collection includes a variety of records of nearly 6,000 individuals and 156 different pedigrees. In Mordy’s original work, records were linked as families which we call pedigrees. The Mordy Collection, kept on small slips of paper, was microfilmed in 1984 by the Genealogical Society of Utah, the genealogical acquisition arm of the Mormon Church. The films, which are available to researchers worldwide through local LDS (Mormon) Family History Centers, include census, birth, marriage, death, probate, biographical, and other records.

Mordy’s work documenting British Jewry was second to none, but the organization of the collection makes it difficult to use. First, the family codes may be quite complex. Larger pedigrees may have more than 50 people per generation. To compile family pedigrees in such cases requires considerable time. In addition, researchers may become frustrated as other pedigrees merge into their pedigree and the time requirements increase.

A second problem arises from the fact that. Mordy died before the beginning of the modern computer era. Computers are so integral to our daily lives today, it is difficult to imagine doing genealogy without them. Because Mordy did not have that luxury, her incredible work is available only on microfilm and not in any searchable electronic format.

Three of the four sections of the collection are indexes—indexes to pedigree slips, miscellaneous data, and locality. A fourth section holds the pedigree slips.

• The first section is the Index to Pedigree Slips. This section, arranged alphabetically by surname, lists the pedigree code, a letter or number of letters used to define each family pedigree and the personal reference number for each person listed in the index. For example, the Pedigree Code for the family of Rabbi Davis, the Chief Rabbi of Pumbersfelton, Bavaria, is “D.”
• The second section includes the pedigree slips indexed in section 1. A slip exists for everyone listed in the collection. This information gives the personal reference number for each person. It is through these codes that family links are made. The individual reference number includes the family pedigree code followed by three additional digits. The first number is the individual’s generation; the second number is his/her own generation number; and the third number is the person’s place within his or her own generation. If a person listed is the earliest ancestor in a family line, then the number for the father is omitted. In order to make family links, a researcher may need to chart each person within the family pedigree, a potentially time-consuming endeavor.
• The third section of the Mordy Collection is the Miscellaneous Data Index. Composed entirely of individual records of the Jews of the British Isles, some papers refer to people listed on the pedigree slips. Most do not, however, and this section is simply a collection of miscellaneous rec­ords from many sources. Regardless of the background of an ancestor, whether they were cigar makers who came to the British Isles from Amsterdam, Russian tailors who settled in Dublin, or the Jews who left England for a new life in Jamaica, they may be listed here as long as they lived in the British Isles.
• The fourth and final section, the Locality Indexes, indexes every address mentioned in the collection by location. For example, the indexes for London have been indexed by street name and show everyone in the collection in order by street name and house number. Cities with large populations, such as London, are indexed by street, while smaller communities simply are indexed by the name of the city. When the records of an ancestor can not be found, this index can provide the names of neighbors whose records may include mention of one’s own ancestors. Thus, for example, neighbors may have become friends and appear as a witness to each others’ documents, or they may appear in local histories together.

Advantages of the Knowles Collection

    For many years, people have used the Mordy Collection and have found ancestors. The two limitations described above, however, discouraged many from using it. In creating the Knowles Collection, this author has produced a searchable database. All of the individual rec­ords compiled by Isobel Mordy are linked electronically by families in a totally searchable database for those researching Jewish ancestors in the records of the British Isles. All of Mordy’s original records have been saved and are the foundation of the Knowles Collection.

Starting with Mordy’s original 6,000 names, the Knowles Collection has been updated periodically; in January 2010, it held more than 75,000 names. In summer 2010, the database will tally more than 100,000 names. Updated three or four times per year, the collection has become a living database, growing and expanding almost daily. The summer 2010 update will include almost 175 additional individual sources, including census, synagogue, cemetery, probate, and civil registration records, plus a large number of individual family records donated by people throughout the world. Although the Mordy Collection included records of people who lived well into the 1900s (some as late as the 1980s), for privacy reasons, the Knowles Collection has few records more recent than the early 1920s.

Future of the Knowles Collection

   Although the Knowles Collection has emphasized rec­ords of Jews in the British Isles, more than 30 different additional countries are mentioned as origination or destination points for these individuals, because so many people immigrated to the British Isles from other countries and then were included in British records. Those who left England for other locations, such as Jamaica or the American colonies, continued their histories in their adopted countries and these records also are included. For example, many Jews from England settled in the Charleston, South Carolina, area where they built homes, had families, worked, and died. Thus, many Charleston cemetery records have been added to the electronic collection as have numerous collections of individual families, making the Knowles Collection a global database. Currently, the collection grows by about 5,000 people per month or the equivalent of an additional Mordy Collection every six weeks. Everyone included in the Mordy collection was Jewish, but as other records (such as census) appear, a small number of non-Jews who now were members of Jewish families may have been added.

Accessing the Knowles Collection

The Knowles Collection may be accessed in two different ways. The first is through <www.familysearch.org>. Once at the home page, the collection may be found on the Jewish records link. It is available as either a GEDCOM file or as a PAF (Personal Ancestral File) file. The GEDCOM file can be downloaded into any genealogical software, helping researchers have access through whatever software they prefer. A second way to access the collection is to visit the Family Search Community Trees Page at <http://histfam.familysearch.org>. This collection of family trees includes lineage-linked genealogies from specific time periods and geographic localities around the world. Accessing the records through this site will provide the researcher with the same source information as going through <www. familysearch.org>.

 

A staff member of the British Reference section of the Family History Library in Salt Lake City, Utah, Todd Knowles, AG, is an Accredited Genealogist who specializes in Jewish research. He has presented at conferences around the world, and his articles on Jewish research have been widely published. A desire to find out more about the lives of his own Jewish ancestors encouraged Todd to compile the Knowles Collection, a set of records dealing with the Jews of the British Isles.