By Mark Jacobson
Ashkenazi Jewish Genealogy research presents unique problems and situations. Family surname changes after immigration to the US or other western countries, and knowing exactly where your family came from before immigration are some of the challenges facing the Jewish genealogist. Begin your search at home and work backwards slowly, recording and documenting as much as you can to expand your knowledge and understanding of your family background. Search for American records of your family and use them to trace the family backwards, hopefully back to their East European origins. Jewish genealogy interest and opportunity for finding records and connections has grown substantially in the past 10 years, primarily due to the internet. The internet allows people to meet fellow researchers, work together on common research projects which benefit all of us, and give access to new and important information.
Starting to put together your family story is easy. Make sure to start organized and stay that way. Write down everything you know about your family. You can start with a chart – begin with yourself, your date of birth and place of birth, marriage information, spouse, children, etc. Then work backward, adding all of the family information you know. You can print blank family tree charts for free from various online genealogy websites, like Ancestry.com, or you can purchase one of the many genealogy programs for your computer to organize the information. This will help you see exactly what you know and don’t know about your family history and enable you to print out all kinds of family trees. Next, join your local Jewish Genealogy Society. There are more than 75 local societies all over the world. These societies usually hold monthly meetings where you can meet and network with other local Jewish genealogy researchers, and learn new information from various speakers. To find out about your local society visit: International Association of Jewish Genealogical Societies, Inc. (IAJGS) http://www.jewishgen.org/iajgs/members.html
Most North American Jews are descended from the millions of Jews who emigrated from Eastern Europe between 1880 and 1924. Many of these Jews who immigrated to the US changed their surname some time after immigration (although the old story of the family name being changed at Ellis Island is not true). Most came to live permanently as Americans, and hopefully bring over as much of their family as possible. For many, part of the transition to become Americans and fit in was to change their surnames, either with a simpler spelling, shortening the original name, or changing it totally. There were no rules for name change and usually there was no official documentation – people just changed their names.
The name change is a major challenge. It might seem impossible to overcome, but there are some basic steps you should try. Contact relatives you know – especially older relatives, who might remember more about the family history. Ask them about their family – names, places and dates. Try to find out if anyone remembers the original name your family had when the earliest family members immigrated. Write down all possibilities you find – you might find that various family members will give you different answers to these questions, and you won’t know the right one without research. Ask relatives if they remember their parents or grandparents mentioning family names or variations. Ask them if they have any immigration papers, naturalization papers, or other family papers which might show the original name. This might be the toughest challenge in your research. If you don’t know the original family name, you might not be able to trace the family back to its European origins. Make sure to ask them if they know the region or exact town of origin of the family and when the family immigrated. This will help you later in your research.
At this point it would be helpful to begin searching the many online sources for Jewish genealogy. Begin with: http://www.jewishgen.org , where you can learn about different resources and research tools, learn about the history of former Jewish communities in Europe, as well as search the Jewish Gen Family Finder, where you can find the names and addresses of others who are researching your surname (or European town if you know it) and contact them. This is a great way to meet cousins you might never have known and share information with them. Search for information on your family name at http://www.jewishgen.org/JRI-PL where millions of 19th century Jewish Polish records have been indexed and are searchable by surname and town (more about this source later). Also search the Consolidated Jewish Surname Index: http://www.avotaynu.com/csi/csi-home.html , which allows you to search for more information on Jewish surnames. These sources will help you see where you can find information on your specific surname.
If you want to find out where your family came from in Europe and hopefully find any existing records there, you have to start your research with American records. Vital records are a good place to start. American birth records usually won’t contain much information for researching backward, plus they are restricted in many states. Marriage and death records are better. Many marriage and death records, especially those older than 50 years, have indexes available either on the internet or on microfilm. You can rent and view many of these microfilms (for a small fee) from your local Family History Center (FHC) (genealogy research areas run by the LDS or Mormon church located throughout the US). To find the one that is near your home visit: http://www.familysearch.org/eng/library/FHC/frameset_fhc.asp . The LDS centers have microfilms available for all people to use, not just Mormons, and the records they have are not just church records but records from many countries which are useful for all genealogists. At http://www.familysearch.org you can also search their online microfilm catalogue to find if they have the films you want to order. Many immigrants married when they came to America. These records often list place of birth as well as parents names, possibly including original surnames or mother’s maiden name. Death records often list the parent’s names and place and date of birth, although all of this information is second hand by nature and not always accurate. Birth, marriage and death records can either be found through the FHC or through various state or county archives or health departments. The website http://www.vitalrec.com can help you find information on where and what vital records are available for each state. Census records are available, many indexed on the internet or on microfilm available through a library or the FHC, currently up to 1930 and going backward every ten years to 1790. If your family was in the United States before 1931 this is an excellent resource to find all kinds of information about them. Families living together are listed together. For the 1900, 1910, 1920 and 1930 census you will learn the age, occupation, marital status, country of birth, year of immigration, and, most importantly for the Jewish genealogist, naturalization status of everyone in the household (some census even include year of naturalization). This could help you find the important naturalization records.
United States naturalization records before 1906 often have little information beyond name, address, age, occupation, and sometimes date of immigration and country of origin, and this information varies wildly by state, county, and court where they were created. Naturalization records after 1906 are the best resource you can find to move backward. These forms were standardized for all courts throughout the nation. The records are becoming easier to find all the time – many are now indexed by name on the internet. Once you find one for your relative, you will have all kinds of valuable clues. These records consist of 2 documents, a Declaration of Intention, a record often obtained soon after immigration which began the naturalization process, and a Petition for Naturalization, which granted citizenship. A third record often found is a Certificate of Arrival, verifying the date, port, and ship immigrant arrived on, as well as the name used on the manifest. Besides having information about this person’s life and family in America, the naturalization petition will usually give their date of birth, exact place of birth and residence before immigration, the date, port, and ship of arrival in the US, and, most importantly, they will usually tell you the person’s name as listed on the passenger manifest. This information will not only help you find their passenger manifest, it will tell you what their name was before immigration.
Passenger records are the link between the old and the new world. Most 19th century passenger manifests were created for customs, so they have little information besides the passenger names, ages, sometimes occupations and country of origin. Beginning in the 1890’s and continuing through the 20th century passenger manifests were created for immigration purposes. These immigrant passenger records usually list at least the person’s last city of residence in Europe. Most after 1902 also list a lot more – exact town of birth, plus name and address of their closest relative in Europe. Hopefully, now you will know not only your ancestor’s original name, but where they were born.
Once you know where your immigrant ancestors were born you have new challenges.
Most American Jews are descended from people who came to the United States, primarily from countries in Eastern Europe, between 1880 and 1924. Jewish researchers don’t usually have the benefit of being able to search American wills, deeds, and Civil War records to find information on their ancestors. Their ancestors were primarily living in Eastern Europe in the 19th century, grouped together in areas controlled by Russia (in the area called the Pale of Settlement which included most of Poland, Latvia, and Lithuania) or Austrian Poland, called Galicia. Before about 1800 most Eastern European (as well as many Western European) Jews had no surnames – they were known by the first name, followed by a patronym, or “son-of”. East European governments imposed surnames on Jews between 1790 and about 1830. Beginning with the creation of surnames, official birth, marriage, and death records in these areas began to be kept, but were often written in languages difficult to decipher to Americans – old Russian, Polish, or German script. Many of the records were destroyed in wars, political upheaval, or through neglect, and the archives which hold the remnants were primarily inaccessible until very recently, and some are still inaccessible. Privacy laws create restrictions on access to many records. Records which exist are often scattered in different archives in different countries. But there are still millions which survived and are available!!!
Through the non-profit, researcher donation funded Jewish research program Jewish Record Indexing – Poland (JRI-Poland), as well as individual groups associated with the JewishGen, indexing projects have been created for Jewish birth, marriage, and death records in archives in Poland, Latvia, Lithuania, and Belarus, making many records accessible to researchers for the first time. Many of these are searchable online, allowing you to find the records for your family and order copies of the original records from the archives.
Other good online resources include some websites which have large lists of genealogy links, arranged by category. A good one for Jewish genealogy is: http://www.jewishwebindex.com . Other more general genealogy web-link sites, where you can find links to all kinds of great online genealogy resources are http://www.academic-genealogy.com and http://www.cyndislist.com . I also recommend Jewish genealogy researcher Boris Feldblyum’s website which contains numerous interesting articles written by Boris on Jewish genealogy research: http://www.bfcollection.net/fast/articles.html .
Use these resources and others you will discover to learn more about your family and where your people came from. Collect and save copies of all family records you find, keep them organized, and hopefully you will be able to quickly fill your family tree and learn a lot about your family. Remember to start at home – write down what you know, ask your relatives what they know, and keep adding new information as you find it. Begin your adventure now! Take pride in your Jewish heritage and culture through the genealogy of your family.
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