The International Institute for Jewish Genealogy in Jerusalem is attempting the first-ever demographic and genealogical study of a national Jewry as a whole, from its inception to the present day. This article describes the project, its aims, methodology and preliminary […]
A Family Tree of Scottish Jewry: Records-Retrieval Stage Completed!
The International Institute for Jewish Genealogy (IIJG) has been engaged for three years in an exhaustive demographic study of the Scottish Jewish community from the founding of the community to the present. The IIJG is pleased to announce that Michael […]
The Garnethill Hostel for Nazi-Era Refugees 1939-1948, in Glasgow
The Scottish Jewish Archives Centre is housed in the beautiful Garnethill Synagogue, Scotland’s first purpose-built synagogue, erected in the Garnethill district of Glasgow during 1879. The Centre houses a diverse collection of records of the Jewish experience in Scotland since […]
Getting It Right: Working with the British Commonwealth Graves Commission
Since approximately 1995, a team of enthusiastic and dedicated historians and genealogists working with the Association of Jewish Ex-Servicemen and Women (AJEX) has provided appropriate evidence to the Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) to amend errors in relation to the […]
Knowles Collection: Connecting Jewish Families
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 […]
Unwanted Jewish Aliens in France: A Guide to French (and Other) Holocaust Records
This article is based upon a talk given at the IAJGS Conference in Philadelphia, August 2–6, 2009—Ed. For the past five years, I have been researching the fate of Jewish refugees in Belgium, France, Italy, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom […]
British Migration Records, 1793–1960
This article is adapted from a talk given at the Chicago 2008 IAJGS conference—Ed. Genealogists sometimes tell me that they know what I do, but don’t need it because [they] have found [their] ancestor’s arrival records in the Ellis Island […]
Book Review: Tracing Your Jewish Ancestors. A Guide for Family Historians. Rosemary Wenzerul. Barnsley, S. Yorkshire
Tracing Your Jewish Ancestors. A Guide for Family Historians. Rosemary Wenzerul. Barnsley, S. Yorkshire: Pen and Sword Books Ltd., 2008. Price: £ 12.99 This excellent guide focuses primarily on United Kingdom Jewish genealogy, but also has much to offer to […]
Coming to America through Hamburg and Liverpool Part II: Crossing the Atlantic
In Part I of the saga, “Coming to America Through Hamburg and Liverpool,” in AVOTAYNU, Vol. XXII, No. 4, (Winter 2006), pp. 15–22, we tracked the six Boonin children across Europe to Hamburg, their crossing of the North Sea, their […]
Jewish Ancestors? A Guide to Jewish Genealogy In the United Kingdom, by the Jewish Genealogical Society of Great Britain
Jewish Ancestors? A Guide to Jewish Genealogy in the United Kingdom. Published by the Jewish Genealogical Society of Great Britain; contributing editor Rosemary Wenzerul, 2006. Paperback, 144 pages. Because my paternal grandfather and grandmother were born in London’s East End […]
Costa Fascination: One of England’s Oldest Jewish Families
Genealogy, the research and study of family history, is such a fascinating subject, so fascinating that it has been linked with addiction—not alcohol, gambling or drugs, but the sheer pleasure of finding new facts that lead on to more searching […]