Researching your Jewish Genealogy

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Researching your Jewish Genealogy
on the INTERNET
David Eagleman, PhD
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How does one begin to research Jewish roots?

• Ask your family
• Maintain a healthy skepticism
• Use all kinds of records
• Be clear on geographical and political boundaries
• Understand that names spellings are fluid
• What is the Internet? What is the World Wide Web?

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Phone Books
U.S.A.

• www.switchboard.com
• www.whowhere.com
• www.bigfoot.com

Around the world

• www.infobel.com/world

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Search Engines

• www.google.com
• www.altavista.com
• www.yahoo.com
• www.lycos.com

Remember name spellings are fluid!
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The Home of Jewish Genealogy
www.jewishgen.org
Databases Infofiles Services Newsgroup Translation
Yizkor books
ShtetLinks Shtetl Finder Cemetery JGFF
(JewishGen Family Finder) JRI-Poland Family Tree
of the Jewish People
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Other valuable sites

• Social Security Death Index
• Ellis Island (passenger arrival records)
• Consolidated Jewish Surname Index
• Gendex, RootsWeb, World Family Tree
• Commercial sites e.g. ancestry.com
  genealogy.com (census records, etc)
• Maps
• National Archives
• US Holocaust Memorial Museum

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Putting your family tree on the Internet

• Provides global access to other researchers

Some options
1. All information 2. No information about the
living 3. Just the names
Example www.eagleman.com/family
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The future of genealogy

• More records online each year
• Genealogy by genetics

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Summary

• Hundreds of millions of records exist online
• Maintain a healthy skepticism about family lore
  and internet data. Cross-check facts
• Ask me for help about your particular situation!