Jewish Genealogy - 5 Important Sources!

[Jane Tilly]

Genealogy is the study of your family history and if you are a Jew,
you are bound to want to find out more about your cultural heritage,
past and family's origins, right? So, don't fret if you've not been
lucky in finding that long-lost cousin or even found one illustrious
ancestor to boast about so far in your search for your roots. There is
ready help at hand; we have outlined the 5 most important sources for
you to trace your Jewish genealogy with minimum stress and maximum
results.
From getting to know the background details of Sephardic ancestors to
which grand-uncle married is the black sheep of the family to many
more interesting details about births, marriages and extended
families, the organized search for Jewish genealogy can bring you many
interesting and unknown facts to life. You only need to know of the
right links so you can reach your goal of putting together that
elusive Jewish family tree; we have some good ideas here.
If you are new to the world of genealogy and what it requires to get
professional, accurate and comprehensive results, fear not; you can
use these sources to get to the right answer for missing relatives and
family background just as simply as applying a mathematical formula to
an equation gets you the right answer!
1. Yes, it's true that Jewish and Sephardic ancestry is rich and
diverse, besides being filled with interesting anecdotes that only an
interview with the elders in your family can give you, so why not
begin there? Not only will you get a crash course in family history,
but get the birth records and proper name details of forefathers and
their branches of family besides where they lived.
2. Verify the data given to you by family elders and other sources of
family history (such as religious heads, friends and educational
institution information) with marriage registry records to make your
documentation strong.
3. Try and collect old letters, snapshots, and death certificates
besides the birth and marriage records of family members so you have
authentic details to cross-check with when compiling the information
for your Jewish genealogy as sometimes these are the best sources for
obtaining knowledge for Sephardic and Ashkenazim genealogists.
4. The awful memory of the Holocaust may be hard to look up but going
through these historical records is very important for those looking
for Jewish genealogical links; a good place to start are records of
Arolsen in the International Red Cross. You may want to seriously look
up Yad Vashem's Pages of Testimony if you are particularly keen on the
Sephardim line, which gives details of the numerous Sephardims who
were persecuted by the Nazis. Many details are now electronically
uploaded and therefore accessible on the web, so that's a good start
for those that can't visit public libraries. You may have to provide
exact names and surnames for accurate details to be made available to
you if you visit the Red Cross for genealogical records, though.
5. Lastly, Sephardic researchers can consult the Ketubbot, the Jewish
marriage contract that typically presents numerous generations on both
sides of the married couple besides the Archives of Alliance Israelite
that can be found in Paris.