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searching Jewish lines...can we

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  • searching Jewish lines...can we

    My niece who is 29 came to me a couple of weeks ago and asked for help. Her father is Jewish and she would like to start searching her roots for her as well as for her children. Now we have gone to her grandfather who gave what info he had so now we are attempting to search where we can. I understand Jewish records are hard to get to. What if any rules should we follow? We have her lines so far into New York before branching into Russia and Poland around 1880 and some into Scotland.
    Thank you for any help and guidance in this area.

    kim

  • #2
    Hi Kim,
    Welcome to the forum.
    I've moved your query to our Family History Research forum where hopefully some of our members may be able to help.

    Also, take a look at our Jewish History page in the reference library - there are a few links there which may be of help.
    Elaine







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    • #3
      Hi Kim and welcome. I'm assuming you mean the family members made their way to NY from Russia and Poland? A common route from Russia/Poland to the USA was via the UK. A sea crossing to Hull on the east coast of England, where onward passengers were escorted to a special railway station, train to Liverpool on the west coast and then down to the docks for sailings to America. I believe there was a network of Jewish voluntary agencies which gave assistance with meeting, interpreting, making arrangements, passing on the names of contacts etc. If some of them went to Scotland, would they have had any particular occupational skills to make that a good location for them to settle in?
      Janet in Yorkshire



      Genealogists never die - they just swap places in the family tree

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      • #4
        There are a number of specialist Jewish family history sites - JewishGen is the Jewish equivalent of GenUKI for UK/Irish research.

        You will find that there are a lot of challenging things about names: the Sephardi and Ashkenazi lines have different traditions (whether or not one should name a child after a living relative, for example); surnames were imposed on the Jewish communities, which had, hitherto, used patronyms - with the result that secular names were considered unimportant... so accuracy/consistency are not high on their agenda. The knock-on effect is that names such as Moses and Mordecai might turn up later as Morris/Maurice or Moss ... or the name might be dropped completely. Antisemitism was an additional pressure, along with anti-German feeling during WW1 & WW2 (meaning German-sounding names were problematic), or just plain xenophobia, so foreign-sounding names were Anglicised. The fact that border officials couldn't spell foreign names also led to immigrants being ascribed names which the officials could spell, even if they weren't correct. Siblings sometimes adopted different spellings of the family's surname - or even different surnames - in their desire to be assimilated into the local communities.

        There are one or two experts in this field who come onto FTF quite frequently. Posting some of the surnames you're researching, along with places and rough dates might attract their attention. I'm aware of these issues, because I've helped my niece with her paternal tree - and it's been fascinating.

        Christine
        Last edited by Christine in Herts; 08-07-13, 00:03.
        Researching: BENNETT (Leics/Birmingham-ish) - incl. Leonard BENNETT in Detroit & Florida ; WARR/WOR, STRATFORD & GARDNER/GARNAR (Oxon); CHRISTMAS, RUSSELL, PAFOOT/PAFFORD (Hants); BIGWOOD, HAYLER/HAILOR (Sussex); LANCASTER (Beds, Berks, Wilts) - plus - COCKS (Spitalfields, Liverpool, Plymouth); RUSE/ROWSE, TREMEER, WADLIN(G)/WADLETON (Devonport, E Cornwall); GOULD (S Devon); CHAPMAN, HALL/HOLE, HORN (N Devon); BARRON, SCANTLEBURY (Mevagissey)...

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        • #5
          On the up side, though - any of your Jewish relatives who were in the UK at any time from 1837 (1855 in Scotland) will be recorded in the civil registrations is the normal way, so from that point of view, the records are easy to get. The problems come as Christine has said, in working out what name they were using and how they, or someone else, thought it was spelled.

          OC

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          • #6
            I found http://www.jewishgen.org/ (as mentioned above) to be most useful iro 19th century BMD records, in my case, for Poland and Russia.

            Brian
            Brian
            Avatar: My wife and I with the family "cat".

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            • #7
              I was at the London Metropolitan Archives on Monday and saw this information booklet that might give you some ideas:-

              http://www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/thing...n-archives.pdf

              Although it is primarily concerned with the records held at the LMA, it does give some poiters for Jewish research in generel. Of particular interest is that in most cases access to records has to be with written permission of the establishment that submitted them, and many records are written in Hebrew.
              Co-ordinator for PoW project Southern Region 08
              Researching:- Wieland, Habbes, Saettele, Bowinkelmann, Freckenhauser, Dilger in Germany
              Kincaid, Warner, Hitchman, Collie, Curtis, Pocock, Stanley, Nixey, McDonald in London, Berks, Bucks, Oxon and West Midlands
              Drake, Beals, Pritchard in Kent
              Devine in Ireland

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              • #8
                Pete

                That's why it is easier, certsainly in the first instance, to get the civil record of birth, amrriage or death. Synagogue records do hold some extra details but the nitty gritty will be on the civil record at the GRO.

                We do have a member on here who can translate Hebrew documents. You don't always need written permission but you do USUALLY need someone who is Jewish themself to approach the synagogue.

                OC

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