Jewish Genealogy: A Quick Online Guide

Find out how to get information about your Jewish roots. Links to vital records, Holocaust resources, name origins, and Jewish genealogy collections.

Vital records

Birth, death, immigration, census, military service, civil marriage, and school records.

Resource	Description	How to use
Ancestrylibrary.com	Comprehensive genealogy site for vital records, especially U.S. sources; includes some scanned documents	Search for individuals by name; add dates, places and other details to refine search.
JewishGen	Comprehensive, global Jewish genealogy site with databases, town sites, yizkor book translations, and research groups.	Search databases for names and places, research towns, and register to connect with similar researchers.
SephardicGen/JewishGen Sephardic Genealogy	Comprehensive global site arranged by country, family name, topic. Includes information on Inquisition archives and numerous links.	Search by name, country, or topic.
Stephen Morse One-Step	Search tools/shortcuts for finding vital records, and navigating calendars, maps, foreign alphabets and soundex.	Choose topics and enter data.

Find information about individuals, communities, and their fate during the Holocaust.

Resource	Description	How to use
International Tracing Service	Center for documentation, information and research on Nazi persecution, forced labor and the Holocaust.	Search inventories online; submit forms to request information.
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum	Includes exhibitions, research resources, educational programs and resources, leadership training and commemorations.	Search databases, find resources for survivors and victims, explore research and educational resources.
Yad Vashem - Central Database of Shoah Victims Names	World center for documentation, research, education and commemoration of the Holocaust.	Search for names and places of Shoah (Holocaust) victims; submit information. Automated translations.
Yizkor Books Online	700 yizkor books from NYPL and the Yiddish Book Center.	Search by town or city name.
Yizkor Book Project (JewishGen)	Bibliographic database and translations of yizkor books.	Search by town or city name, country and region, check necrology database.

Author	Title
Beider, Alexander	A dictionary of Ashkenazic given names: their origins, structure, pronunciation, and migrations
Beider, Alexander	A dictionary of Jewish surnames from Galicia A dictionary of Jewish surnames from the Kingdom of Poland A dictionary of Jewish surnames from the Russian Empire
Faiguenboim, Guilherme, Valadares, Paulo Campagnano, Anna Rosa	Dicionário sefaradi de sobrenomes : inclusive cristãos novos, conversos, marranos, italianos, berberes e sua história na Espanha, Portugal e Itália = Dictionary of Sephardic surnames : including Christianized Jews, Conversos, Marranos, Italians, Berbers, and their history in Spain, Portugal and Italy
Ackman-Ziff Family Genealogy Institute	Reference Books on Jewish names (PDF)
Avotaynu	Consolidated Jewish Surname Index (online database)

Name	Focus
Ackman-Ziff Family Genealogy Institute	Jewish genealogy resources at the Center for Jewish History, serving the American Jewish Historical Society American Sephardi Federation Leo Baeck Institute (German Jewry) Yeshiva University Museum YIVO Institute for Jewish Research (Yiddish and Eastern European Jewry)
American Jewish Archives	American Jewish history and archives, including genealogy resources
Avotaynu	Jewish genealogy (online resource and print publications)
Central Archives for the History of the Jewish People (Jerusalem)	Jewish history and genealogy
International Association of Jewish Genealogical Societies (IAJGS)	Jewish genealogy
JewishGen	Jewish genealogy, vital records, regional genealogy, yizkor books
Jewish Historical Institute (ZIH)	Polish Jewry, including genealogy