Jewish Genealogical Society of Great Britain Blog

From David Mendoza and Ton Tielen, The Sephardi Heritage Project: " A free new online Jewish genealogy and history group is launching on Sunday 3rd May 2020, focused on Sephardim and also including the universal Jewish experience. Enjoy your time at home exploring your family history. Hosted on Zoom by two of the best-known names in Sephardic genealogy, Ton Tielen and David Mendoza. We will be hosting fun and informative seminars, as well as publishing a regular email newsletter. The entire service is free, although we are hoping to find sponsors. Our first conversation on Sunday 3rd May 2020 will explore the Amsterdam archives, including synagogue records dating back to 1615 and other free online resources. Future meetings will cover topics as varied as interviews, family histories and the Inquisition. There will be a weekly broadcast on Sundays (excluding Jewish holidays) at: 21:00 Israel time; 20:00 Paris time; 19:00 London time; 14:00 EST; and 11:00 PT.   P...

The Arolsen Archives are appealing for people to take part in the online project “Every Name Counts”. The Arolsen Archives are building the world’s largest online archive with information on the victims of Nazism. The crowdsourcing project “Every Name Counts” calls for volunteers to enter names found on documents into the online archive to ensure that they will never be forgotten. Bad Arolsen - The COVID-19 pandemic makes it impossible for people to come together as they have done in the past to take part in joint acts of remembrance: It has become necessary to cancel many memorial ceremonies involving the laying of wreaths and visits to memorial sites that were planned long in advance to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the liberation of the concentration camps and the end of the Second World War. This is why the Arolsen Archives have chosen this time to offer a new form of remembrance which is open to all. The aim of “Every Name Counts” is to motivate as many people as pos...

Peter Heilbrunn has passed on this announcement from MyHeritage: 
 "We’ve opened up access to our yearbook collection for FREE, through May 23, 2020! Our yearbook collection consists of 290 million names in 36 million pages, from yearbooks across the U.S. from 1890 until 1979. Take this opportunity to reminisce about your own high school years or search for your loved ones in the collection. 
 In addition, following the successful release of MyHeritage In Color™ (10 million photos were colorized in the first 3 months), one of the ideas raised by our team was to apply this technology also to records, in cases where black and white photos are abundant and colors could enhance the records. We focused our attention on the huge U.S. Yearbook collection on MyHeritage, and I’m happy to announce that you can now view our entire collection of U.S. yearbooks in color! 
 Search MyHeritage U.S. Yearbooks for Free Now 
 Ordinarily, accessing the yearbook records on MyHeritage requires...

The April edition of the Jewish Heritage Europe monthly Newsletter is out. A summary of the news, views, and insights published over the last month. In this edition — an online exhibition of remarkable papercuts by the Warsaw-based artist Monika Krajewska; long reads about Jewish cemeteries in Poland and Ecuador, and news reports from Hungary, Lithuania, Italy, the UK, and Germany. There are links to “news you can use” during the Coronavirus stay-at-home measures — virtual tours, online exhibits, lectures, and more. And you can also download a book chapter by JHE coordinator Ruth Ellen Gruber. Go to https://mailchi.mp/jewish-heritage-europe/jewish-heritage-europe-newsletter-april-2020?e=0ce32e7b82

Announcement from the UK National Archives: We are making digital records available on our website free of charge for as long as our Kew site is closed to visitors. Registered users will be able to order and download up to 10 items at no cost, to a maximum of 50 items over 30 days. How can I download documents for free? You will be required to  register for a free account on our website and be logged in to be able to download documents. To find records that are available to download for free, filter your search results in Discovery to include records that are ‘available for download only’. What sort of documents can I download? You will be able to download records digitised by The National Archives and published through Discovery, our online catalogue. These include: First and Second World War records, including medal index cards Military records, including unit war diaries Royal and Merchant Navy records, including Royal Marine service records Wills from the ...

The Society has already cancelled face-to-face meetings through to the end of March and Council has now considered the longer-term implications of Covid-19 and will attempt to mitigate the impact of the virus on the Society’s activities. Sadly we are forced to extend cancellations further. A substantial proportion of our members are in the at-risk category and face-to-face meetings are unlikely to be possible for some time. Council has, therefore, decided to cancel or postpone all face-to-face meetings until the end of May. This means that the AGM scheduled for 10 May will be postponed. Council will review the position when it holds its next virtual meeting at the end of April. Council is exploring the possibility of providing virtual meetings so that groups can still hear from speakers and there can still be direct communication between members. Shemot and the Newsletter will continue to be issued and JGSGB Discuss, the JGSGB Facebook, page and t...

The Memory Map of the Jewish East End is a new digital resource and interactive website that allows users to remotely explore the social and cultural history of the Jewish East End. The project is a collaboration between artist and writer Rachel Lichtenstein and three of The Bartlett’s research units: The Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis, The Space Syntax Laboratory and The Survey of London. Covering more than 70 significant sites, the Memory Map aims to become a lasting document of the history and memory traces of this vibrant Jewish community. Users are able to listen to the stories, memories and voices of residents from Rachel Lichtenstein’s substantial archive of audio interviews of this rapidly vanishing landscape, testimony from the collection of Sandys Row Synagogue, the oldest Ashkenazi Synagogue in London, and collaborative research from the Memory Map team, including essays written by the Survey of London. http://www.jewisheastendmemorymap.org/

Our April newsletter is now online and available to members.

"YIVO wants to help keep our spirits lifted and provide content to sustain our minds and soul,” said Jonathan Brent YIVO’s Executive Director & CEO. Delve into the evolution of Yiddish theatre or learn about the rich history of Jewish life in Eastern Europe, Ashkenazi folklore and more. YIVO’s entertaining and enlightening Shine online courses feature an array of leading scholars and include nearly 1,000 archival objects. To register for your free Shine online course, go to yivo.org/shine . Please also take advantage of YIVO’s other free online resources: • Past Public Programs Archives o Watch hundreds of past public programs on our YouTube channel, from lectures and conferences to book talks and concerts, featuring award-winning scholars, writers, and artists. youtube.com/user/yivoinstitute • Edward Blank YIVO Vilna Online Collections o Explore YIVO’s prewar library and archival collections. vilnacollections.yivo.org/ • YIVO Encyclopedia of Jews in Eastern Eu...

The April issue of Shemot has now been published online. It contains articles by Leigh Dworkin, Richard Aronowitz, Alan Cohen, Nadia Lipes, Phil Harris and John Minkes. Members can access the issue from the JGSGB website. Log in, then go to the Members tab, and scroll down to Shemot. We hope you enjoy reading it!

Friday 3 January. 10.30–3pm. A Library Session - open for general research. Visitors welcome. (There would be a nominal charge of £5 per person including refreshments, deductible on the day against one year’s membership). Librarians will be on hand to help you use the library. 14 Charterhouse Buildings, Goswell Road, London EC1M 7BA. RSVP : library@jgsgb.org.uk Sunday 5 January. 2.30–5pm. Herts Regional Group. Subject : "Visiting Archives – some members' recent experiences”. Contact : northherts@jgsgb.org.uk for location and further information Thursday 16 January. 7.30–9pm. An Education Evening. “Holocaust Research”. Webinar. For further information, contact Jeanette Rosenberg at education@jgsgb.org.uk Sunday 19 January. 2–5pm. A Library Session. Open for general research. Visitors welcome. Librarians will be on hand to help you use the library.  14 Charterhouse Buildings, Goswell Road, London EC1M 7BA. RSVP :  library@jgsgb.org.uk Sunday 19...

I am very happy to announce that my good friend and fellow researcher Joshua Marrache from Gibraltar will be coming to London on Sunday 19 January 2020 to give a talk to the Jewish Genealogical Society of Great Britain. The subject will be the Jewish community of Gibraltar: its foundation, together with its commercial and family links to Morocco, Italy, Amsterdam and London during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The meeting will be held at our usual venue, The Society of Genealogists, 14 Charterhouse Buildings, Goswell Road, London EC1M 7BA and will start at 2.00pm. The closest stations are Barbican and Farringdon. Please arrive for 1.45 at the latest, so we can start promptly. Non-members of JGSGB will be very welcome to join us, for whom there would be a nominal charge of £5 per person, to include refreshments. As you can see from the title of Joshua’s talk, this will cover several areas of genealogical interest so we hope to see as many p...

A day of talks and workshops introducing how you can research the rebels in your family. Sessions will range from a beginners guide to family history, special sessions exploring Afro-Caribbean and Somali family history to writing and publishing your research! We will have stalls from Friends of Island History Trust, The East of London Family History Society, The Jewish Genealogical Society of Great Britain and others. For our younger family historians, we welcome them to join our family history zine workshop. Contact Genova Messiah Heritage Trainee Tower Hamlets Council  Tower Hamlets Local History Library and Archives 277 Bancroft Road London E1 4DQ Tel: 020 7364 1290 localhistory@towerhamlets.gov. uk

Did you know that whenever you buy anything online – from your weekly shop to your annual holiday – you could be raising free donations for The Jewish Genealogical Society of Great Britain with easyfundraising? There are over 4,000 shops and sites on board ready to make a donation – including eBay, Argos, John Lewis, ASOS, Booking.com and M&S – and it won’t cost you a penny extra to help us raise funds. All you need to do is: 1. Go to  https://www. easyfundraising.org.uk/causes/ jgsgb/?utm_campaign=raise-more   and join for free 2. Every time you shop online, go to easyfundraising first to find the site you want and start shopping. 3. After you’ve checked out, the retailer will make a donation to The Jewish Genealogical Society of Great Britain at no extra cost to you whatsoever! There are no catches or hidden charges and The Jewish Genealogical Society of Great Britain will be really grateful for the donations. Thank you for your support....