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Also check out our
Resources page
for links to helpful sites & videos.
Step 1. Interview
Family Members
Start with what you know.
There
are many genealogy forms freely available on
the internet or from books.
(We have provided a link to some basic forms
on the left.) Always start with
yourself.
Basic information required: Name(s)
[most Ashkenazi Jews have multiple names –
Hebrew, Yiddish, European, and American /
Israeli]; date & place of birth; date &
place of immigration;
date & place of death and burial;
marriage information; children's information.
Fill out the information as
completely as possible, then start asking
questions of family members and relatives
who may have information. Most people
do not offer information unless they are
asked for it. And don’t just focus on
names and dates. Sometimes getting different versions
of a story can give you valuable information
that no one would think of otherwise.
If you're asking about people who died in
the Holocaust and no one will give you
answers, try asking about pre-war
experiences - whether they went to school,
who their best friend was, what the High
Holidays or Passover was like. Listen
carefully, you'll hear names you won't hear
otherwise.
Step 2. Decide
which lines you are most interested in
Not only will this help
narrow down your research, but when you hit
a brick wall and get frustrated, you can
always do a bit of “quick research” on
another line and get re-energized when you
find something there.
Most genealogists find themselves
rotating through their various lines.
Remember that you have 4
grandparents,
8 great-grandparents, 16
great-great-grandparents and so on.
That’s a lot of research!
Taking the Genealogy 101
Workshop will help you with methodology,
resource locations, research techniques and
how to organize your information. If
you can't make the JGSLI workshop, both
jewishgen.org and
ancestry.com have online courses
available.
Step 3. See
what’s online
Once you have names and where they came
from, you can start looking up passenger
records, census records, naturalization
information, and any other government record
that has been made publicly available.
Sometimes you'll just get confirmation of
when your ancestor emigrated.
Sometimes you'll get additional information,
such as a parent's name listed as "closest
relative in home country". For Ellis
Island records, try Stephen Morse's
One Step Forms if you don't have an
Ancestry.com subscription.
Using online resources
such as JewishGen.org, Ancestry.com or
Footnote.com allows you to access records
and connect with others who may be
researching the same family or town.
Don’t forget to document where you
got all your information.
By the time you’ve been doing this
awhile, you may not remember which database
or which email told you Moshe and Samuel
were brothers.
Must-subscribe
newsletters for the Jewish genealogist:
JewishGen's digest
Other online items of
interest are:
Dick Eastman's Online Genealogy
Newsletter -- a long-running daily
blog, often focusing on technological
help for genealogists
ResearchBuzz -- newsletter about
digital archives, online museums,
databases and other Internet information
collections.
Step 4. Search out non-digital
records
It
doesn’t sound as much fun, but many times
what you think you know is wrong, or you got
the information from the one record that
isn’t correct.
Immigration and census records are
particularly ripe for errors because our
ancestors didn’t trust governments and often
told the census taker or immigration
official what they knew they wanted to hear,
not necessarily the truth.
Cemeteries have a lot of information,
especially on headstones and death records.
If your family emigrated at the same
time as others from their village, there may
be benevolent society records, or tradesman
union or guild records.
Small businesses were often listed in
city directories (telephone books from
before there were telephones). And
don't forget to go back to the relatives you
interviewed earlier with your new
information. Oftentimes, this will
trigger other memories.
Step 5.
Start putting the
information together
Once
you see what you have in one place, you can
start to see where you are missing
information.
Or you can decide on your next
direction to research.
Some researchers spend years “going
deep” on one line, others focus on their
mother’s side or their father’s.
And there are always some who seem to
be researching everything all at once. (Not
recommended for beginners!)
Maybe you have names and dates and
now you want to find a photograph.
If they applied for a passport, you
might be able to get a copy of their
original passport photo.
Maybe they were photographed for a
local newspaper.
Maybe they served on the board of
their synagogue, who might have a photograph
in their files.
You never know what you’ll find.
Step 6.
Get networked
Everyone needs help at some point, and
that’s what JGSLI members are here for.
Make sure you sign up for our
Facebook group to get help at any time.
The Mishpocha Mavens are available
before every meeting to help.
You can post a brick wall in Lineage.
You can get the back of a photo
translated at a meeting.
We don’t mind – one day, you’ll be
able to return the favor.
The JewishGen Discussion
Groups and Special Interest Groups (SIGs)
are read and contributed to by thousands of
researchers around the world. On the
discussion group, people ask questions,
provide helpful hints and help others.
In addition to general topics, there are
also discussion groups that focus on
specific geographic areas and interests
within Jewish genealogy.
For Jewish researchers, JewishGen is
invaluable.
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