Jewish Genealogical Society of Great Britain Blog

From Ton Tielen and David Mendoza: David Baruch Louzada - A Sephardic Life Happy New Year! Our first talk of 2021 showcases what we can all achieve through innovative research. David Baruch Louzada (1640–1699), like other Sephardim of his generation, was an ordinary person living in extraordinary times. His life has been researched by his descendent, Julian Land. Julian will discuss not just David's family and commercial life, but also his social and communal activities. David Baruch Louzada travels took him to Livorno, France, Amsterdam, and across the Atlantic to Barbados at a time when most people rarely went more than a day's walk from home. Julian's research illustrates available resources. Time: Sunday Jan 3, 2021. 2pm NYC, 7pm London, 8pm Amsterdam/Paris, 9pm Jerusalem. Join Zoom Meeting: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88626569678 Thanks to everyone who supports our work. If you are not already a patron, please consider a small monthly donation. As little as $5/...

Having just completed the JGSGB session at the UK Limmud Festival 2020, I’d like to thank those familiar faces that supported us, even though I realise you know it all already! Here is a reminder about our next meeting in our Virtual Meeting Programme, which is from the JGSGB South & West London Regional Group (SWL RG) by Zoom.   Date: Sunday January 3rd 2021 Time: 14:30 London, 09.30 New York, 16:30 Jerusalem Title: The History of my House: the Dukes family of Hlohovec, Vienna and Budapest Speaker: Jill Whitehead Description: The Dukes family lived in my house in Sutton, Surrey, between 1946 and 1993, having escaped Vienna in 1939. This is the story of how a Jewish family – father and sons – built up an agricultural empire in the old Austro-Hungarian Empire, with farms in Slovakia feeding the growing populations of Vienna and Budapest. One son, Leopold Lipmann, became the boss of the family company, with an HQ in Vienna, and it was he who came to Sutton with his family in 193...

From MyHeritage: "We’re excited to announce the release of Genetic Groups, a long-awaited enhancement of ethnicity results on MyHeritage DNA. With this very exciting addition, the resolution of MyHeritage’s ethnicity breakdown increases dramatically to 2,114 geographic regions, providing more depth and resolution than any other DNA test available today, and complementing the current 42 top-level ethnicities. This is a huge milestone for MyHeritage and a great step for millions of people fascinated by family history and curious to learn more about their origins. Genetic Groups have been added for free to the ethnicity results for anyone who has already purchased a MyHeritage DNA test, and will be added to the results going forward for any newly purchased test. They are also available to anyone who has uploaded DNA data from another service, or will upload it now." Please read https://dna-explained.com/2020/12/24/introducing-genetic-groups-at-myheritage / for more i...

From Ton Tielen and David Mendoza:   Sir Moses Montefiore is a giant of Jewish history. He was a British financier, philanthropist, Sheriff of London, and close to Queen Victoria. He was a member of Bevis Marks synagogue - where his seat is now reserved for VIPs - and President of the Board of Deputies of British Jews. He was key in unifying British Sephardim and Ashkenazim, and also was active in helping Jewish communities around the world from Russia, to Morocco, to Eretz Israel. Abigail Green is Professor of Modern European History at the University of Oxford. Her biography of Sir Moses Montefiore won the Sami Rohr Choice Award 2012, was named a New Republic Best Book of 2010, and a TLS Book of the Year 2010. Time: Sunday Dec 27, 2020. 2pm NYC, 7pm London, 8pm Amsterdam/Paris, 9pm Jerusalem. Join Zoom Meeting: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88441782192 Thanks to everyone who supports our work. If you are not already a patron, please consider a small monthly donation. As little ...

A recent update to the birth index on the UK's General Register Office website means that you can now discover all the middle names of babies born up to 1934. For general information about the GRO, see https://www.gro.gov.uk/gro/content/certificates/faq.asp You will need to register if you have not used the site before.

From Ton Tielen and David Mendoza: Who Owns the Synagogue? Shearith Israel in New York and Jeshuat Israel (the Touro synagogue) in Newport are two of the oldest congregations in North America. The Touro ceased functioning as a Sephardic community. In the 1880s Shearith Israel secured deeds from the descendants of the original members of the Touro. Zachary Edinger will discuss the history of both congregations, and will provide an introduction to their archives and genealogical records. Zachary serves as Assistant Hazzan and Ritual Director at Congregation Shearith Israel in New York City, and is a well-known figure within the Western Sephardic world. Time: Sunday Dec 20, 2020. 2pm NYC, 7pm London, 8pm Amsterdam/Paris, 9pm Jerusalem. Join Zoom Meeting https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86398743437 Thanks to everyone who supports our work. If you are not already a patron, please consider a small monthly donation. As little as $5/month makes a huge difference. https://www.patreon.com/seph...

From Johannesburg Holocaust & Genocide Centre: In June 1945 Rabbi Isaac Levy, Senior Jewish Chaplain to the British 2nd Army, wrote to Jewish soldiers to inform them of the liberation of the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp and to describe his work there. Alongside Rabbi Levy at Belsen were several Jewish and Christian army chaplains, and together they helped to bury the dead, care for the sick, and listen to the stories of survivors of the Holocaust. Join John Levy (Rabbi Isaac Levy’s son), and Rob Thompson (Wolfson Foundation funded PhD candidate at UCL) as they share the experiences of Rabbi Levy and the Christian chaplains at Belsen: a powerful story of Jewish-Christian encounter as the world came face to face with the aftermath of the Holocaust. In partnership with the Sir Martin Gilbert Learning Centre and University College London.  7pm Johannesburg time ( GMT+2)   Register at https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZ0sd-yvqDwrGNGiTh1dfkZFBLIXhSW60Ycn   ...

Our next meeting in the JGSGB Virtual Meeting Programme is from the JGSGB Dutch & Sephardi Special Interest Group (D&S SIG) by Zoom.   Date: Sunday 20 December 2020 Time: 14:00 London Title: Sephardic-Nordic-Noir Speaker: Bernard Miller Description: Think Sephardic Jews and you are unlikely to think Viking. So when, early in his family history search, Bernard found Danish, Swedish and Norwegian relatives sprouting on his family tree, usually related by marriage, he assumed most were paternal Ashkenazi one-offs even if they showed as connected through his mother’s Sephardic side. After all, most of that lineage came from Spain, Portugal, Holland and Belgium. Even after becoming aware of the German Sephardic community based around Hamburg, he was not expecting to uncover Sephardic blood relatives in Scandinavia. A series of apparently random discoveries and a set of astonishing coincidences proved his initial assumptions wrong and show he has many more Scandinavian Sephardic ...

WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE? Well, we'll tell you on Saturday night at 20:30 SAST as we investigate the hidden secrets of your DNA. (South Africa Standard Time (SAST) is 2 hours ahead of Coordinated Universal Time (UTC).) REGISTER NOW: bit.ly/sajrweb67   Professor Scott Hazelhurst - are all Jews related?. Is there a “Cohen gene” and do the SA Lemba tribe have it? Are Ashkenazi, Sephardi, Ethiopian, and Indian Jews genetically connected?   Dr Danny Myersveld - did your parents curse you with bad DNA? What can you learn about your health from analysing your DNA? Is your DNA a life sentence?   Professor Marco Weinberg - can we use CRISPR gene editing to make super humans? Should we? How far are you willing to go to have perfect children? We've gathered world experts to explore the genetic code of life!    

"While visiting the Arolsen Archives, a Norwegian journalist discovered a small collection of personal items that had been confiscated from concentration camp prisoners from Norway when they were arrested by the Nazis. Gøril Grov Sørdal resolved to help search for the relatives of the victims so these mementos could be returned. Thanks to intensive research, excellent knowledge of the country and appeals on television and radio, she helped the Arolsen Archives to find nearly all of the families. More than 9,000 resistance fighters were arrested by the Nazis during Germany’s occupation of Norway. They were sent to German concentration camps, where some of them had to perform heavy forced labor. The Arolsen Archives hold thousands of documents with extensive information about these victims of persecution from Norway – as well as a collection of personal objects that a small group of them left behind in Germany. Small collection of striking fates  The collection comprises items l...

From Ton Tielen and David Mendoza: Steve Delgado Porter has traced his Delgado ancestry from Jamaica back to Portugal. He shares the family history, and the sources used.  The family includes famous poets such as João Pinto Delgado, rabbis such as Haham Moses Cohen D'Azervedo, and men of business. As well as Portugal and Jamaica, there are family links to Hamburg, Amsterdam and London. Jamaica has become a major focus in Sephardic genealogy. Steve is author of  Jamaican Records: A Two Part Guide to Genealogical and Historical Research Using Repositories in Jamaica and England.   Time: Sunday Dec 13, 2020. 2pm NYC, 7pm London, 8pm Amsterdam/Paris, 9pm Jerusalem. Join Zoom Meeting https://us02web.zoom.us/j/ 82545628251

From Ton Tielen and David Mendoza: "My Heart is in the East..." Financial support for Eretz Israel from the farthest West Support for the Jewish community in Terra Santa was one of the earliest obligations the Amsterdam and London Jewish communities took upon themselves. Over the course of centuries, they placed great value in fulfilling this charitable obligation. The money ensured that a large number of Jews and Jewish institutions could survive in Ottoman Palestine. Ton Tielen shares his research in the Amsterdam and London Sephardic archives. He will show how there were closer ties between eastern and western Sephardic communities than is generally known. Time: Sunday Dec 6, 2020. 2pm NYC, 7pm London, 8pm Amsterdam/Paris, 9pm Jerusalem. Join Zoom Meeting https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83684272950 A small monthly donation on Patreon helps us a lot. Many thanks to everyone who already supports our work. https://www.patreon.com/sephardi If you can't get into the Zo...

An appeal is being launched in Margate, Kent to prevent a 91-year-old synagogue from falling into the hands of property developers.   They say: "The synagogue was built in 1929 for the then-flourishing Jewish community as well as regular holiday makers. In recent years, however, the congregation has dwindled to a few and the synagogue is no longer viable as a place of worship. It is due to be auctioned off by its trustees in December.   The campaign, run by a group of local artists and educators of Jewish heritage, is seeking to raise £400,000 to take over the freehold of Margate synagogue, with the intention of converting it to a Cultural Space for the local community, whilst also preserving the building’s Jewish origins.  Help us to once again make the synagogue a vibrant focus for the area. The Ciftonville Cultural Space CIC is a not-for-profit organisation whose vision is to convert the Margate Synagogue into a cross-community cultural hub which reflects the diversity...

This year's Sam Johnson Memorial Lecture will take place on 3rd December at 17.30. Dr Jean-Marc Dreyfus (University of Manchester) will be delivering the lecture on “Mischling: the contrasted destiny of 'half-Jews' in the Third Reich, between persecution and survival”. His presentation will describe the state of the research on the topic of ‘half-Jews’ in Germany and also the difficult memory of their persecution.  'Mischling' : the contrasted destiny of ‘half-Jews’ in the Third Reich, between persecution and survival Nazi policy obsessively classified people. With the Nuremburg racial laws of September 1935, the status of ‘half-blood’ Jews, whether of ‘first’ or ‘second degree’, was inscribed in the German civil code. At least 700 000 Germans fell into those categories and were submitted to severe legal restrictions. At the end of the war, many were interned in labour camps. We now know that they survived; the final decision on their fate remained pendin...

The Arolsen Archives have added around a million new documents to their online archive. These latest additions include pictures of prisoners and transport lists from Auschwitz concentration camp as well as thousands of letters written by Soviet forced laborers to their families. A comprehensive collection of documents from the British and French occupation zones can now also be searched for the names of victims of Nazi persecution. See https://arolsen-archives.org/en/news/update-online-archive/

Our next meeting in the JGSGB Virtual Meeting Programme is a meeting from the JGSGB Chilterns Regional Group (RG) by Zoom. Here is the information for this meeting: Date: Tuesday Dec 8th 2020 Time: 19:30 London (note, 14:30 New York, 11:30 San Francisco, 21:30 Jerusalem) Title: “Polish Ancestral Tourism, Part 2: Busting a Gut in Warsaw, Łódź & Łomża” Speaker: Leigh Dworkin Description: This talk details Ancestral Tourism in Warsaw, Łódź and Łomża (pronounced “Wutch” and “Womja”). It describes the speaker’s second trip to Poland at the time of the IAJGS (International Association of Jewish Genealogical Societies) Conference in Warsaw back in 2018. This time the trip was meticulously planned with a gaggle of cemeteries, memorials and ancestral towns/villages explored, not forgetting the occasional archive, synagogue and museum too. Had everything gone exactly to plan it would have been boring … Learn how to ignore medical emergencies whilst extending your family histo...

Our next meeting in the JGSGB Virtual Meeting Programme is an extra meeting from the JGSGB Eastern European Special Interest Group (EE SIG) by Zoom. This is the third of three speakers on Eastern European ancestral tourism in November, making it Ancestral Tourism month! There is also another Polish Ancestral Tourism meeting coming soon in December … More details about this and subsequent meetings will follow in the coming weeks. Here is the information for the next meeting: Date: Sunday Nov 29th 2020 Time: 14:00 London (note, 09:00 New York, 06:00 San Francisco, 07:00 Arizona) Title: “An Epic Journey: Eastern Europe in 22 Days”  Speaker: Dr. Janette Silverman Description: In 2018, Janette Silverman and five members of her research team headed off to visit places where Jews once lived and do onsite research in Poland, Lithuania, Ukraine, Moldova, Romania and Hungary. As you can imagine, the trip was filled with challenges but also resulted in some amazing finds. Janette wi...

The web version of the 1851 Anglo-Jewry Database has been updated, and a revised and enriched version is up on JewishGen. Please see http://www.jewishgen.org/jcr- uk/1851/introduction.htm .

From Ton Tielen and David Mendoza Moroccan Sephardic Migration to England in the 19th Century During the 19th century many Sephardic families from the city of Mogador/Essaouira in Morocco migrated to England where they became part of the rich fabric of the Jewish community. Sidney Corcos was born in Agadir, and left Morocco to go to Israel as a child. He served as director of the Natural History Museum in Jerusalem and is currently working on the new Beit Dakyra museum in Mogador/Essaouira. Sidney has done extensive research on the history and genealogy of his family and other Moroccan Sephardim. Topic: Moroccan Sephardic Migration to England in the 19th Century Time: Sunday Nov 22, 2020. 2pm NYC, 7pm London, 8pm Amsterdam/Paris, 9pm Jerusalem. Join Zoom Meeting https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89624186516 Best wishes, Ton Tielen and David Mendoza Sephardic World

Request from Emma Shaw at Newcastle University in Australia: Our research team at the University of Newcastle (Drs Shaw, Donnelly, Burke and Parkes from the School of Education) are conducting research into family history and DNA testing and its impacts on people’s understanding of themselves and their place in history, as well as some general demographic information. To this end, we are conducting an online survey which is expected to take about 20 minutes. This study is an Australian first and provides your group members with an exciting opportunity to be involved in a new worldwide project about exploring the past. We are hoping that you would be able to share this invitation, either by email or social media, with your group’s members and direct them to the link provided: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/2DDTC2L Thank you for considering this invitation, Dr Emma Shaw (for the research team)