Resources

Image of various books on genealogy

The JGSGB Library The Library contains more than a thousand books and other items relating to genealogy. The emphasis is on resources which can help those tracing Jewish ancestors. It is unrivalled by any other library in Europe.

Talk given at New West End Synagogue

Are you looking for a speaker about Jewish Family History?

This is the JGSGB Online Discussion Group, the discussion forum of the Jewish Genealogical Society of Great Britain (JGSGB).

The Federation of Synagogues have made available to the public, through JGSGB and JCR-UK, the details of all burials at the Federation's cemeteries at Edmonton, London N18 and Rainham, Essex. These lists have been created and published through the efforts and support of Yitz Katz, Leigh Dworkin, Mark Nicholls and Saul Issroff. Elliott Porte kindly provided missing data for Edmonton for period 1908-1918

This index derives from a world survey of the Gompertz surname by research associates Melville Goldbaum (UK), Ernest Gompers (Holland), Rose McKiernan (US), and Kenneth Gompertz (Australia); from contributions by Iwan de Vries (Suriname), Ralph Bennett (US); and from generous contributions from family and non-family sources. The author alone is responsible for the contents of this study.

Audrey Collins of National Archives at the Chilterns Group 2014

A list of and information about our Special Interest Groups and of our Regional Groups. Meetings of these groups are free to members of JGSGB but a charge will be made to non members which will be offset against any future subscription to the Society.

JGSGB has transcribed a Gabbai Book, owned by an anonymous donor in Israel. A Gabbai Book is used by the Gabbai or Shamash/Warden of a synagogue to record donations from congregants without the need to write the details down. The holes and threads are used to indicate the type of honour being donated against and the amount donated

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Useful Links and Information Sources

The authorisations, if you know where to look, carry many genealogical clues for research. To that end Rabbi Jeremy Rosen (to whom I am indebted) and I decided to produce a crib sheet to aid researchers.

Link to the United Synagogue Marriage Authorisations page on their website

List of Films of Jewish Interest

List of Films of Jewish Interest previously held at LDS Family History Library, National Archives, Kew. Many UK films have been transferred to the new location of LDS films, which is at the Society of Genealogists,14 Charterhouse Buildings, Goswell Rd, London EC1M 7BA. You can still visit the LDS Family History Centre at Kew to access many of the listed films on-line through the computers at the Centre. First check that the film you want to look at is available on-line before visiting the Centre. Where the film is on-line an icon of a camera is shown. If there is a key in the camera icon, it means that the film can only be viewed at a Family History Centre. If there is no key in the icon the film can be viewed on your own computer or other electronic device. For more information about LDS films of Jewish interest go to https://familysearch.org/catalog/search then select Subject as the search filed and type in Jewish. To narrow the search, type in a country or town that you are interested in. Below are a number of useful films that have already been identified.

In 2000, the Jewish Information Bureau, a division of Chabad House of Hendon received a phone call from a contractor who was renovating an old house that had belonged to an elderly woman who had passed away. He had noticed a blue aged suitcase in the skip they were using, opened it and found it's contents were of Jewish origin, little did he know that the contents of this suitcase were priceless. When he brought it over to the Bureau's offices, they were stunned to find a woman's entire life in that small suitcase, passport's, Ketubah's, letter's, pictures, postcards, it was mind boggling

THE SAUER AND WALLER COLLECTION. WHAT WE KNOW SO FAR AS AT 4th JULY 2006 from letters and with the assistance of Pierre Sauer and Laurent Sauer who by chance came across this website on 26th January 2006

Please click 'Read more' to see browsable lists - then click on the list that you would like to browse

The collection of trees held in the JGSGB comes from members, former members, visitors and non members. They range from one page without dates or places to documents running to a hundred or more pages, fully annotated and illustrated.

JGSGB is supporting the work of Yad Vashem’s Names Recovery Project at www1.yadvashem.org/yv/en/remembrance/names/index.asp. We want to encourage everyone to create Pages of Testimony (see www1.yadvashem.org/yv/en/remembrance/names/pot.asp) for registering the names of those who perished in the Holocaust. Each Page of Testimony contains a victim's name, biographical details, and a photograph when available.

JGSGB Members and non-Members alike have, over many years, donated to JGSGB Birth, Marriage and Death Certificates that they have purchased but found not to be members of their family.

JGSGB has developed a Family Group Sheet specifically for Jewish families, including data fields for Bar and Bat Mitzvah and Circumcision.