Jewish Genealogical Society of Great Britain Blog

From Howard Kramer:   Hi JGSGB Members,   Further to my recent posting, the link to view the event at 7pm (London time) on 13 October is as follows:   https://www.tickettailor.com/ events/abneyparktrust/423334   You will need to apply to be put on the guest list. Enter 1 as number of tickets required. No payment is required and you will be sent a link to use on the 13th. I understand that the event will be available for posterity on YouTube, if you are unable to join it as it happens. Regards, Howard Kramer howard@thekramers.co.uk

JGSGB will be at the Online Family History Show on Saturday 26 September 2020 from 10am to 4.30pm https://thefamilyhistoryshow.c om/online   Advance tickets are £6, and on the day they are £8.     [If you're viewing this post via the summary email and the links don't work, please go to https://jgsgbnews.blogspot.com/]

From David Shulman: What better way to start the New Year other than with a brand new database! A newly-created searchable database, hosted by JCR-UK, is now up and running. The database, relating to burials at Cardiff’s Highfield Road Orthodox Jewish Cemetery, covers the period 1852 through July 2020 and contains nearly 1,800 burial records, with some 1,470 headstone images. It can be accessed at: https://www.jewishgen.org/jcr-uk/Cemeteries/Cardiff/Highfield_Road_Cemetery/Cemetery_Menu.htm Search results also include coordinates for each individual grave (accurate to about one metre) together with a link to a Google satellite image of the cemetery showing the location of the grave. The creation of the database is part of a project to digitalise the records of all Jewish cemeteries in South Wales and complements a major project by the Jewish History Association of South Wales to collect reminiscences and artefacts and physical items from the numerous Jewish communities in South Wales (

From Michael Sharp via JewishGen: The Holocaust Education and Learning Centre at the University of Huddersfield has relaunched its events programme in a covid-secure form using Zoom. Details can be found at  https://holocaustlearning.org.uk/events/ All zoom events are free but must be booked in advance. The first event is on Thursday 1st October and is a conversation between survivor Rudi Leavor and Dame Louise Ellman on past and current experiences of antisemitism. Louise Ellman is one of the former members of the UK parliament who was vilified by anti-semites when the party was being led by Jeremy Corbyn. Future events include presentations on the Arolsen archives, the USHMM collection, the role of bureaucrats in the Nazi crimes, antisemitism and The Russian revolution, and Jewish refugees in Shanghai and in the Dominican Republic. To book, click on the button for the event concerned and enter your details. A zoom link will be sent out approx. 2 days before each event.  P

From Howard Kramer: The Abney Park Trust will lead an online community memorial event on Tuesday 13th October at 7pm to remember those killed in the Coronation Avenue bombing. For those who are unaware of the circumstances, a bomb hit the flats at Coronation Avenue, Stoke Newington, London, on the evening of 13th October 1940 and around 160 people were killed in the shelter under the flats.  At Abney Park Cemetery a memorial stone is located naming those who perished.  Due to the current Covid restrictions the event will be screened via You Tube.  Further details to be announced once known.  My connection is that my grandparents and aunt were victims of the bomb. Howard Kramer

Our next meeting in the JGSGB Virtual Meeting Programme is a Chilterns Regional Group Meeting by Zoom. Date: September 29th 2020 Time: 19:30 London Title: “Scandal Down Under: Divorce, Death & Descendants” Speaker: Daniel Morgan-Thomas Description: The story of the author’s cousin Elsie, cause of headlines across Australia in the 20th century – from the scandal of her stepfather’s infamous bankruptcy in New Zealand to her four tumultuous marriages across the Antipodes! This talk displays the wide array of Australian and New Zealand sources for genealogy now available online and the research advantages of having some relatives with a taste for notoriety. After the talk, there will be an opportunity for Q&A on the talk. About Daniel Morgan-Thomas Daniel has been a member of the Society since 2008, when he joined at the age of 15! Since then he has served on the Programme Committee, as a library volunteer and helped run some of the Society’s workshops at the Jewish Museum. When n

Why not help the Society raise funds when you purchase goods on Amazon UK?   All you have to do is register with Amazon Smile https://tinyurl.com/t2peu5d and enter your usual Amazon username and password. If you are not currently an Amazon user, you can create an account. Then search for Jewish Genealogical Society of Great Britain under Charities and click on Select. You are now ready to shop in the normal way. For everything you purchase excluding P&P and VAT, Amazon donates 0.5% to the Society.

From Martin Hill: Dear All We are grateful to all those members who responded to the recent questionnaire about the reopening of our Library. We are now considering what steps we need to take and will be discussing these with the Society of Genealogists to ensure that what we do is consistent with their expectations. One of the questions related to key reference books such as the transcriptions of the registers of the Bevis Marks, Great, New and Hambro synagogues and asked about your preparedness to do look-ups. A number of you indicated that you would be prepared but unfortunately SurveyMonkey does not allow us to know who is willing to do such look-ups. If you were one, I should be grateful if you could e-mail me at secretary@jgsgb.org.uk letting me know what reference books you hold. Many thanks. Martin Hill Secretary, JGSGB

"JewishGen is pleased to announce that two new data sets have been added to the Holocaust Database ( https://www.jewishgen.org/databases/Holocaust/ )  Selected Jewish Refugee Passenger Manifests   In the year 1940, two modest-sized sister ships of the Furness-Withy line, the aptly name Newfoundland, and the Nova Scotia made eleven crossings of the Atlantic from Liverpool to Boston. The ships made intermediate stops at St. John’s, Newfoundland, and Halifax, Nova Scotia carrying a total of 1,052 passengers to their Boston destination. The majority of passengers were Europeans whose home countries, Germany, Austria, Czechoslovakia and Poland, had been taken over by the Nazis.   Among these were 898 Jewish refugees, fortunate enough or far-seeing enough to have acquired travel documents in time to escape the impending holocaust. During the previous year, 1939, the two ships had made a similar number of Liverpool to Boston voyages but did not carry any Jewish passengers. By

Our next meeting in the JGSGB Virtual Meeting Programme is a General Meeting by Zoom. Date: September 13th 2020 Time: 14:00 London Title: European Days of Jewish Heritage and Culture 2020 - Family Research Workshop Experts: JGSGB Mentors will be on hand Description: JGSGB invites newcomers to genealogy and seasoned Society members who may need a brush-up or have come up against brick walls to a free Zoom workshop. Expert JGSGB Mentors will be on hand at this research meeting covering multiple locations and regions – you may find it useful to listen to the queries and answers of others to inspire your own research. If you would like to ask a question, please let us know the theme of your query (e.g. region and/or time period) in advance by email to workshop@jgsgb.org.uk . Each attendee will have around 5 minutes to receive suggestions/advice from mentors in the workshop. For more information please email: workshop@jgsgb.org.uk The invitation to register is below, but please kee

September at Findmypast is Migration Month. They say: "This means that throughout September, we’ll be shedding light on educational and inspirational content to help our users discover the life-changing journeys that shaped many family histories." See https://www.findmypast.co.uk/blog/help/10-tips-to-help-you-trace-your-emigrant-ancestor

FamilySearch Announces RootsTech Connect 2021: A Free Global Virtual Event FamilySearch is thrilled to announce that the RootsTech 2021 conference previously planned for February 3–6, 2021, in Salt Lake City, Utah, will now be held on February 25–27, 2021, as a free, virtual event online. RootsTech Connect 2021 will enable attendees to participate from around the world and will feature inspiring keynote speakers, dozens of classes in multiple languages, and a virtual marketplace.  Reserve your place today for free at RootsTech.org .