A selective list of resources, mostly on Jewish genealogy and family history, to help you with your research.
I don’t list the major sites that you’ll find when you do a basic google search for “genealogy” or “Jewish genealogy,” and right now (just about) every database linked to here is free.
I’ve tried to focus on information and databases that are especially useful and that you wouldn’t necessarily find — or know their value — just from googling.
This list is still in its infancy, so please keep checking back….
JewishGen FAQ Start your research here; lots of reliable information
JewishGen info pages When you’re ready to learn more….
FHL starting to do Jewish genealogy
Family Search Indexing Project
FHL new pilot family search (be patient — loads *very* slowly)
Avotaynu Consolidated Jewish Name Index (coming soon: description and instructions for using this great database)
IAJGS International Jewish Cemetery Project to find and record every Jewish burial site in the world
JewishGen Online Worldwide Burial Registry (JOWBR) many burials, but by no means complete
JewishGen Communities Database focused on locations that had Jewish residents
JewishGen Family Finder register your names and towns and connect with others looking for the same names and towns
JewishGen ShtetlLinks Project if you know the name of a shtetl, see if there’s a page for it in JewishGen
Ancestry’s Jewish Family History Collection you don’t have to be a paid member of Ancestry to search this consolidated database
One-Step Searches of Immigration Records (coming soon: best ways to use this website to find immigrant ancestor ship records)
Yad Vashem Pages of Testimony Database Holocaust victims’ names and information (coming soon: how to use the POT database)
Yizkor books online at New York Public Library 650 full-page, complete book scans, printable pages, mostly Hebrew and/or Yiddish (coming soon: brief discussion and description)
Yizkor book translations at JewishGen Partial and full translations of many Yizkor books (coming soon: FAQ about Yizkor books)
Buy Yizkor books at the Yiddish Book Center on-demand bound digital facsimile reprints
Boston Jewish Advocate Obituary Database cover 1905 through 2008
Jewish Cemetery Association of Massachusetts (JCAM) database of all Jewish cemetery burials
Mount Hebron Cemetery searchable database, Jewish burials from 1909 to today; you can search from this page by burial society
London United Synagogue Marriage Authorisation Certificates searchable database, currently 1880-1891 and growing; keep checking back
ItalianGen NY naturalization indexes databases large and growing; covers all greater New York City and all boroughs; complete records (not just Italian names)
ItalianGen NY vital records indexes databases large and growing; birth, death, brides’ indexes, grooms’ indexes; complete records (not just Italian names)
Request form for Social Security application (SS-5) (coming soon: information on the value of this form and how to use it)
FreeBMD UK vital records index database volunteer transcribers, not complete but always growing
BMDIndex complete, pretty inexpensive, links to GRO ordering information
UK General Register Office (GRO) ordering UK birth, marriage, death records (coming soon: description and suggestions for finding UK BMD)
Online searchable death indexes useful aggregator and apparently kept quite current
Linkpendium genealogy links Interesting aggregator; the worldwide surnames database is probably worth having a look at (coming soon: suggestions for using Linkpendium)
