Methods in Conducting Research in Jewish Genealogy

Too often Jewish Americans are disembodied from their ancestry. Many can not even name their great grandparents, however, the Internet has allowed for new resources in Jewish genealogy research. For centuries,

Jews have fled one country, only to settle in another for a generation or two. The changing political milieu of Europe, and the constant threat of eradication forced Jews into refugee camps, or to foreign lands: vital documents such as birth certificates, marriage licenses and family trees were lost along the path to America.

This first step is to gather as much information as possible. This may only take you back a few generations; much has been lost between the old world and the new world, however, Ellis Island has published ship manifests dating back to 1892; each ship entering the United states through Ellis Island possessed a detailed list of passengers. These passengerlists (ship manifests) include such information as ethnicity, last place of residency, date of arrival and age at arrival. This is a great website to answer the question, who was my first American ancestor. when searching this database be sure to account for variations in name spelling, the spelling of one's name often changed between the new country and the old country.

Another great resource for American ancestry is the public library. Each public library possesses a vital records department, here you may find marriage, birth and naturalizationinformation. This resource works well for those families who arrived here before WWII, to escape the Russian/Polishempire. The U.S. census is another good resource, this may include ancestors who did not arrive through Ellis Island. The U.S. census is conducted every ten years, and contains vital information which may be lost otherwise.

The most challenging aspect of conducting genealogy research is obtaining information from Europe. Poland has recently made aliyah passports public. Aliyah passports were issued to each Jew for identification. These documents are genealogical treasures, each one possesses photos, signatures and state stamps; when a family relocated from Poland to a new country, they were to return their passport via mail to Warsaw, these have been kept on file there, and are now public. these passport also include families from portions of Lithuania, Belarus and the Ukraine. They may be accessed through the JRI-Poland for a donation of $54. Aliyah passports are very useful American Jews to their heritage.

Russia has recently made the Lithuania Internal passport records public. Before WWI families were required to possess internal passports, so they could travel within the boundariesof Russia. The passports were issued by local townships, or the police. These passports were categorized, and each category was represented by a different color passport: a certain color was distributed to those of Jewish ancestry, who were forced into the Russian interior, after WWI. the Lithuania Internal passport contains such vital information as surname, date of birth, place of birth, address, nationality, religion, occupation, special traits, family status, inscription about children, a photo and other vital information. These documents are available between the years of 1919-1940, and are accessible through the Lithuania Central State Archive, of the 100,000 records on file 16,000 are individuals of Jewish descent.

Much has been lost over the centuries. American Jews have lost the records of their European ancestor's, and thus, have lost a large portion of an ancient heritage, and though the aforementioned information may not be able to bridge to gap entirely, one can only hope that something can be learned from the information that is now public, and those who have been disconnected with their ancestry and heritage can begin to build some semblance of a family tree.