Our Jewish Research genealogists research on location. They will find and analyze the best records available to further your family history research. They can search the archives and libraries in Jewish Research, including:
- YIVO Institute in New York City
World’s leading research center for East European Jewish studies. Includes world’s largest collection of Yiddish books and materials relating to the history and culture of Eastern European Jewry. Also encyclopedias, gazetteers, yizkor books (Holocaust town memorial books), reference books on the geographical distribution of Jewish family names, biographical directories, and Landsmanshaft records. - Leo Baeck Institute in New York, London, and Jerusalem
History of Jewish communities of German-speaking nations. Documents all geographic areas where German was spoken. Covers 17th century to the Holocaust and includes family pedigrees, family histories, memoirs, and Jewish community histories. - Yad Vashem in Jersulaem
Major repository for information about the Holocaust. Contains more than 85,000 volumes documenting the Holocaust and includes the world’s largest collection of yizkor books. Includes the only publically available copies of the records of the International Tracing Service, a manuscript collection called Pages of Testimony that identifies more than 3 million Jews murdered in the Holocaust, and many oral or written testimonies of Holocaust survivors. - United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C.
Provides records relating to the Holocaust. Its Survivors Registry and other resources such as transport lists, death lists, yizkor books, personal papers, and oral histories to determine the fate of Holocaust victims and survivors
- Library of Congress in Washington, D.C.
Houses hundreds of yizkor books as well as an extensive collection on the Holocaust and all aspects of Jewish history and culture. - American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC) Archives
Houses one of the most significant collections in the world for the study of modern Jewish history. Includes over 3 miles of text documents; over 100,000 photographs; a research library of 6,000 books; and approximately 1,500 audiovisual materials, including 200 oral histories. - New York Public Library
Excellent place for research because most Jewish immigrants to the United States lived in New York for a time. Contains borough directories, census records for the greater metropolitan area, back issues of The New York Times, maps, atlases, gazetteers, community histories, yizkor books, indexes to some of the U.S. federal census returns, vital records for New York City, and ship passenger lists. The library’s Jewish Division houses one of the most significant collections of Judaica in the world, including bibliographies, reference works, periodicals, and newspapers. The collection is only available in the Jewish Division’s reading room. - American Jewish Archives in Cincinnati, Ohio
Includes over 800 major manuscript collections and almost 16,000 smaller collections. Also contains over 4,000 microfilm reels, including papers of Rabbi Stephen S. Wise, Supreme Court Justice Louis D. Brandeis, Zionist leader Chaim Weizmann, and the records of the Socialist Labor Party of America. - Family History Library
Jewish Historical Society of Greater Washington
We have genealogists who perform in-depth research in the Jewish Historical Society of Greater Washington in Washington, D.C. The collectioms include:
Personal and family papers, family trees, scrapbooks and memorabilia
Organizational and business records for Jewish merchants in the downtown Washington, DC business district
Congregation and synagogue archives, including photographs, correspondence, scrapbooks, anniversary programs and memorabilia
Historical photographs with more than 1,500 from the 1880s to the present depicting public and private life
Oral histories spanning six major collections dealing with women caring for communities, birth of Israel, life before immigration to America, suburban Maryland congregations, business, family life and war time
Ritual objects from mid-19th century
We also have Washington, D.C. genealogists.
Our genealogists can do research projects of many sizes and for many budgets. We customize the amount of research provided according to your needs.
If you would like to learn how our genealogists can further your research, request a research quote.
Some of the major records sources that can be used for genealogy research in Jewish Research include:
- Birth, marriage, and death records. Also, between 1826-1835 Poland, Russia, and other Central and Eastern Europe countries required separate Jewish birth, marriage, and death records be kept in areas where several Jewish families lived.
- National census records. Most nations periodically take a census of their population. The United States has taken a census every decade since 1790. Some countries conducted censuses specifically of the Jewish population. Germany, for example, had a census of Jews in 1939. State, territorial, and colonial censuses were recorded in 1855 and 1865.
- Business records and commerce records of businesses
- Jewish cemetery records
- Prisoner records
- Directories or alphabetical lists of names and addresses. These often list all the adult residents or trades people of a city or area. Beginning in the 20th century there are telephone directories.
- Court records contain information about people involved in litigation or other court matters
- Jewish Synagogue records. Also, in many countries,the established national church (such as Catholic, Orthodox, or Lutheran) was appointed as the official record keeper of births, marriages, and deaths for the entire population, including Jews.
- Land records were kept by the towns and counties from the time they were settled
- Probate records were kept by the local courts
- Knowles Collection: the Jews of the British Isles provides the genealogy of many Jews from the British Isles. It links together into family groups, thousands of individual Jews (over 155,000).
- Newspapers were written in many areas and time periods that contain information such as notices of marriages, notices of death, and obituaries
- Military records
- Town and county histories about the settlers and their families
- Ship passenger lists, tax lists, and town records were recorded for many areas
