A Taste of Jewish Family History Research
Nancy Levin Arbeiter, CGRS 14 Rockwood Lane, Needham, Massachusetts 02492 USA Telephone: 781-449-9730; [email protected]
Nancy Levin Arbeiter, September 2005; Please do not reproduce without permission.
Genealogy research – be it Jewish or non-Jewish – is more than just names and dates and places. It’s learning about your family members, who they were, how they lived, where they lived, and why they made the choices they made.
Think of your family history as a puzzle…but it’s your own, personal puzzle with thousands of pieces that you have to put together. And when it’s done, what a feeling of accomplishment and pride you’ll have. And what a beautiful picture it’ll be.
Things to Remember Right from the Very Beginning
Just because the older generations might have passed on and just because you never remembered to ask questions when you were younger and they were alive, you can still learn about your forebears. You need very little information to get started.
Contrary to popular belief: no, the records were not all burned up; yes, the towns in Eastern Europe still exist and were not all wiped off the map; yes, it is possible to locate records pertinent to your family dating into the early 1800s (depending on the country); no, not everyone stepped foot on Ellis Island; no your surname was NOT changed at Ellis Island; and yes, you can learn your family’s original surname and where they came from.
A family tree with just names, dates, and places is really really boring. It’s a good start but that’s all. It’s just a skeleton, a list, a telephone book of people, an organizational chart…that doesn’t tell you much about each individual within your family. You need to put meat on the skeleton to make it come alive.
Your family did not live in a bubble. They were impacted by history – Jewish history, non- Jewish history, the history of the countries in which they were living, and by the people around them. And these people / neighbors / historical times impacted the decisions that your ancestors made. So when you do your research, you must think about what was happening in the world when your forebears were alive. Think about their neighborhood and the world around them. Why did they move? How did they get there – what were the modes of transportation at that time? Assuming they were like other poor immigrants, what might they have experienced during the journey? How big was their world – just a two block area? Or were they peddlers, constantly moving? Who was living near them? What were the dwellings like? Where was the synagogue or church that they attended? Why did your family do what they did? Why did they make the choices that they made?
Interview everyone you can – especially the older generations. While you can always locate written documents, when the older generations are gone the stories will be gone and you can’t bring them back.
Your family pictures are prized possessions – especially those that might have been taken by or were in the possession of older generations of your family. If you don’t identify the A Taste of Jewish Family History Research 2 Nancy Levin Arbeiter, September 2005; Please do not reproduce without permission
people in them now, in fifty years you will not know who the people in the pictures were and how they fit into your family. So…try to identify the people in the pictures. And remember, color pictures will not last. For archival purposes, do NOT write on the pictures or on the back of them or put the pictures in the “sticky” photo albums. You can purchase archival photo albums or similar type items and then identify the people using archival pens.
Your computer and the Internet are only tools and the information found through them should only be used as clues. You can’t do genealogy research accurately or properly by sitting at a desk.
Honor copyrighted material. Just because it’s on the Internet doesn’t mean that you can freely take it.
Similar to the research papers you do for school, you need to write down what you’ve learned and always cite your sources. Footnotes, endnotes, and even just a comment that the information came from Great-Aunt Sadie will suffice. With cited sources, people who look at your material in the future will know where the information came from.
I. Select Bibliography
There are hundreds of books, articles, journals, and microfiche databases that can help you with your genealogical research. The following is only a select number of them:
Arbeiter, Nancy Levin. “A Beginner’s Primer in U.S. Jewish Genealogical Research.” AVOTAYNU: The International Review of Jewish Genealogy, XIV, no. 3 (fall 1998): 43- 57. Beider, Alexander. A Dictionary of Jewish Surnames from the Russian Empire. Teaneck, NJ: Avotaynu, Inc., 1993. Beider, Alexander. A Dictionary of Jewish Surnames from the Kingdom of Poland. Teaneck, NJ: Avotaynu, Inc., 1996. Blatt, Warren, “Jewish Given Names in Eastern Europe and the U.S.” AVOTAYNU: The International Review of Jewish Genealogy, XIV, no. 3 (fall 1998): 9-15. Adapted from a talk given at the Jewish genealogical seminar in 1998. Slides scanned in and available at:
Glazier, Ira A., ed. Migration from the Russian Empire: Lists of Passengers Arriving at U.S. Ports. 6 vols. Baltimore, MD: Genealogical Publishing Co., Inc., 1995-1998. [volumes published to date cover January 1875-June 1891] Gorr, Rabbi Shmuel. Jewish Personal Names, Their Origin, Derivation and Diminutive Forms. Teaneck, NY: Avotaynu, Inc. 1991. Greenwood, Val. The Researcher’s Guide to American Genealogy. 3rd ed. Baltimore, MD: Genealogical Publishing Co., Inc., 2000. Guzik, Estelle M., ed. Genealogical Resources in the New York Metropolitan Area. New York, NY: Jewish Genealogical Society, Inc., 1989. [update in process] Hatcher, Patricia Law. Producing a Quality Family History. Salt Lake City, UT: Ancestry, Inc., 1996. Kurzweil, Arthur. From Generation to Generation, How to Trace Your Jewish Genealogy and Family History. Revised ed. New York, NY: HarperCollins, 1994. Lackey, Richard S. Cite Your Sources: A Manual for Documenting Family Histories and Genealogical Records. Jackson, MS: University Press of Mississippi, 1980. Lainhart, Ann S. State Census Records. 1992. Reprint, n.p.: Genealogical Publishing Co., Inc., 1993. Malka, Jeffrey S. Sephardic Genealogy: Discovering Your Sephardic Ancestors and Their World. Bergenfield, NJ: Avotaynu, Inc., 2002. Mills, Elizabeth Shown. Evidence! Citation & Analysis for the Family Historian. Baltimore, MD: Genealogical Publishing Co., 1997. Milner, Paul and Linda Jonas. A Genealogist’s Guide to Discovering Your English Ancestors. Cincinnati, OH: Betterway Books, 2000. Mokotoff, Gary and Sallyann Amdur Sack with Alexander Sharon. Where Once We Walked Revised Edition: A Guide to the Jewish Communities Destroyed in the Holocaust. Bergenfield, NJ: Avotaynu, Inc., 2002. Mokotoff, Gary and Sallyann Amdur Sack, eds. Avotaynu Guide to Jewish Genealogy. Bergenfield, NJ: Avotaynu, Inc., 2004. Mokotoff, Gary and Warren Blatt. Getting Started In Jewish Genealogy. Teaneck, NJ: Avotaynu, Inc., 1999. Mokotoff, Gary. How to Document Victims and Locate Survivors of the Holocaust. Teaneck, NJ: Avotaynu, Inc., 1995. Morton Allan Directory of European Passenger Steamship Arrivals: For the Years 1890 to 1930 at the Port of New York and for the Years 1904 to 1926 at the Ports of New York, Philadelphia, Boston, and Baltimore. 1931. Reprint, Baltimore, MD: Genealogical Publishing Co., Inc., 1987. [lists of steamships; does not contain passenger names] Neagles, James C. and Lila Lee Neagles. Locating Your Immigrant Ancestor: A Guide to Naturalization Records. Logan, UT: Everton Publishers, 1986. Nelson, Lynn. A Genealogist’s Guide to Discovering Your Italian Ancestors. Cincinnati, OH: Betterway Books, 1997. Newman, John J. American Naturalization Processes and Procedures, 1790-1985. Indianapolis, Indiana: Indiana Historical Society, 1985. Schoenburg, Nancy and Stuart Schoenburg. Lithuanian Jewish Communities. New York: Garland Publishing, Inc., 1991. Shea, Jonathan D. and William F. Hoffman. Following the Paper Trail: A Multilingual Translation Guide. New Milford, CT: Language & Lineage Press, 1991. Schaefer, Christina K. Guide to Naturalization Records of the United States. Baltimore, MD: Genealogical Publishing Co., Inc., 1998. A Taste of Jewish Family History Research 4 Nancy Levin Arbeiter, September 2005; Please do not reproduce without permission
Smith, Marian. "‘Any woman who is now or may hereafter be married…’ Women and Naturalization, ca. 1802-1940". Prologue: Quarterly of the National Archives and Records Administration, vol. 30, no. 2 (summer 1998). Stern, Malcolm H. First American Jewish Families: 600 Genealogies, 1654-1988. 3rd ed. Baltimore, MD: Ottenheimer Publishers, Inc.; 1991. Stevenson, Noel C. A Guide to the Standard of Proof Relating to Pedigrees, Ancestry, Heirship and Family History. Revised ed. Laguna Hills, CA: Aegean Park Press, 1989. Szucs, Loretto Dennis and Sandra Hargreaves Luebking, eds. The Source: A Guidebook of American Genealogy. Revised Edition. Salt Lake City, UT: Ancestry Incorporated, 1997. Tepper, Michael. American Passenger Arrival Records: A Guide to the Records of Immigrants Arriving at American Ports by Sail and Steam. Baltimore, MD: Genealogical Publishing Co., 1988. Weiner, Miriam. Jewish Roots in Poland: Pages from the Past and Archival Inventories. Secaucus, NJ: Routes to Roots Foundation, Inc.; NY: YIVO Institute for Jewish Research, 1997. Weiner, Miriam. Jewish Roots in Ukraine and Moldova: Pages from the Past and Archival Inventories. Secaucus, NJ: Routes to Roots Foundation, Inc.; NY: YIVO Institute for Jewish Research, 1999. Wolfman, Ira. Do People Grow on Family Trees? Genealogy for Kids & Other Beginners. New York, NY: Workman Publishing, 1991.
Any person interested in Jewish genealogy should read: Avotaynu, The International Review of Jewish Genealogy. Bergenfield, NJ: Avotaynu, Inc. For information: 1-800-AVOTAYN or on the web:
Any person interested in Jewish genealogy should access the on-line Jewish genealogy news group:
There is a very active local Jewish Genealogical Society for the Greater Boston area: