Do you have relatives or ancestors that are Jewish? You may want to check out JewishGen. It is a genealogy website that has been designed for people who have Jewish ancestry to research their roots, learn more about their family history, and even connect with living relatives.
JewishGen is a non-profit organization that is affiliated with the Museum of Jewish Heritage – A Living Memorial to the Holocaust. The JewishGen website started out as a bulletin board in 1987, with only 150 users. The website is still primarily run by volunteers from all over the world. The mission of JewishGen is to encourage the preservation of Jewish heritage.
This genealogy website is free to use, for all genealogists who wish to use it. You can find a lot of resources on this website. The FAQ list has suggestions about guides that you can read that will help you get started working on Jewish genealogy, (for those who are just beginning their research).
There is information about the JGFF, or Jewishgen Family Finder. This is a big list of surnames and towns that are currently being researched by Jewish genealogists. The list has over 450,00 entries in total, which is made up of 100,000 ancestral surnames and 18,000 town names. There is a handy link that can connect you directly to it. The JGFF is maintined by JewishGen.
The JGFF is one of many general databases that genealogists can use. There are several others. Two have been updated recently: The JewishGen Holocaust Database, and The JewishGen Online Worldwide Burial Registry.
If you know that your ancestors immigrated to America, you may want to search through the Ellis Island Foundation Database on JewishGen. Or, if you know what country they immigrated from, then you can search through the databases for Eastern Europe, Belarus, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Germany, Austria / Czech Republic, Hungary, Romania / Moldova, Ukraine, Great Britain, Scandinavia, Israel, Syria, or South Africa. There is also an database for America that genealogists can search through.
If you truly are a “first timer” to JewishGen, then you should read over their “First Timer” page. It gives you step by step suggestions about how to get started with your genealogy research. One of their suggestions is that you take a look at some of their educational videos. It doesn’t cost anything to view them. Read over the current class list on the website to see what is currently being offered.
Image by Jackie Weisberg on Flickr