Exploring your Jewish family history

Posted by Laura Gibson on January 27, 2021 in Research

From passenger lists to Holocaust records, you can search the Jewish Family History Collection on Ancestry UK, the world’s largest online collection of Jewish historical records. We are incredibly grateful to our partners at Arolsen Archives and USC Shoah Foundation for entrusting us with these incalculably important collections. Arolsen Archives is an organization dedicated to documenting National Socialist persecution and the lives of the liberated survivors. USC Shoah Foundation develops empathy, understanding and respect through testimony, using its Visual History Archive of more than 55,000 video testimonies, award-winning IWitness education program, and the Centre for Advanced Genocide Research.

If you are just beginning to research your Jewish family history, look at the resources, tips and useful guides below to help you on your way.

 

How to get started;

  1. Gather information from family members:
    • Family Bibles
    • Journals, diaries, and letters
    • Photographs
    • Obituaries and newspaper clippings
    • Birth, marriage, and death certificates
    • Family group sheets and books of remembrance
  1. Interview your family members and ask whether they have any records. Note down names, dates, and places.
  2. Start a family tree and add anything you’ve discovered.
  3. Search family trees by clicking the Search tab and selecting Public Member Trees. To narrow your search results, try adding information one field at a time until you get results you can use.
  4. Use the Jewish family history message boards to collaborate with others.

 

More resources;