The New England Historic Genealogical Society (NEHGS) may not immediately come to mind as a repository for Jewish genealogical materials, but NEHGS does have many resources for Jewish genealogical research and should not be overlooked especially when looking for Jewish ancestors that settled in or passed through the New England region.

Jews began settling in New England in colonial times. There is record of Jewish families in Rhode Island, Connecticut and Massachusetts as early as the seventeenth century. Some helpful resources for tracing early New England families, including Jewish families, can be found in reference works such as the Massachusetts Vital Records to 1850 series; New England Marriages Prior to 1700, by Clarence A. Torrey; the New England Historical and Genealogical Register (pubished continuously from 1847); The American Genealogist (published since 1922); and the New York Genealogical and Biographical Record (published since 1870).

But you don’t need to have early New England ancestry to benefit from the resources at NEHGS. The collection is one of the best in the country for genealogy in general and the depth and breadth of the resources make it possible to do specialized research. NEHGS has many of the standard reference works on Jewish genealogy including: Arthur Kurzweil’s From Generation to Generation: How to Trace Your Jewish Genealogy and Personal History; Dan Rottenberg’s Finding Our Fathers: A Guidebook to Jewish Genealogy; and Arthur Kurzweil and Miriam Weiner’s Encyclopedia of Jewish Genealogy, Volume I : Sources in the United States and Canada. In addition there are several reference works and dictionaries for researching Jewish names; and more than a dozen books containing overviews of American Jewish history.

NEHGS also has long subscription runs for the major Jewish genealogical periodicals including Avotaynu: The International Review of Jewish Genealogy; Toledot; Dorot; Mass Pocha: Newsletter of the Jewish Genealogical Society of Greater Boston; and Publications of the American Jewish Historical Society.

There are also some very good published genealogies on Jewish families. Malcolm Stern’s First American Jewish Families, which covers the genealogies of American Jewish families who arrived before 1840 and Neil Rosenstein’s The Unbroken Chain: Biographical Sketches and the Genealogy of Illustrious Jewish Families from the 15^th – 20^th Century are two larger works of collected genealogies. There are also compiled genealogies for particular families, which are listed in the bibliography at the end of this article.

Local history is a particular strength of the NEHGS collection and the resources for Jewish local history are also very good and not often what would be expected. Specific Jewish local histories are available for Hartford, Connecticut; Savannah, Georgia; Massachusetts; Minnesota; Missouri; New York City and Buffalo, New York; and South Carolina. Outside of the United States, NEHGS has local Jewish histories for Barbados, Canada, and the Netherlands, Amsterdam. The Society’s general collection of state and local history is very vast (taking up the entire fifth floor reading room of the NEHGS Research Library) and should be checked for particular families, even though they are not specifically focused on Jewish research.

Atlases and Gazetteers are also helpful when researching particular areas, and NEHGS has many of these. Some good geographical sources particular to Jewish genealogical research include: Gary Mokotoff and Sallyann Amdur Sack’s, Where Once We Walked: A Guide to the Jewish Communities Destroyed in the Holocaust; Chester Cohen’s, Shtetl Finder Gazetteer; and Martin Gilbert’s Atlas of Jewish History, to name a few. Although it is not particularly focused on Jewish families, NEHGS does have a wonderful collection of Boston property owners’ maps for the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries that are highly detailed and list every building and owner.

Published Passenger Lists are an indispensable source for researching nineteenth-century immigrants. NEHGS has many published indexes to passenger lists, and the actual documents can be found at the National Archives New England Region in Pittsfield and Waltham. The indexes for the nineteenth century are organized by ethnic group or port of origin and include Filby’s, Passenger and Immigration Lists Index: A Guide to Published Arrival Records (one volume is published annually and currently the listing covers over 2.5 million passengers); Boston Passenger Lists, 1848-1891; Rhode Island Passenger Lists: Port of Providence, 1789-1808; 1820-1872; Port of Bristol and Warren [Rhode Island] 1820 –1871; Germans to America: Lists of Passengers Arriving at U.S. Ports; German Immigrants: Lists of Passengers Bound from Bremen to New York; The Wuerttemberg Emigration Index; Migration from the Russian Empire: List of Passengers Arriving at the Port of New York; Hamburg Passenger Lists; New England Naturalizations to 1907; Index to Russian Consular Records; and Dutch Immigrants in U.S. Ship Passenger Manifests, 1820-1880.

NEHGS is also an incredible resource for vital, land and probate records. In 1998, NEHGS undertook a project to complete our holdings of available vital, land, and probate records for each of the six New England states and Canada. To date we have over 40,000 reels of microfilm in the collection with this information. This information is indispensable for researching New England families and is extremely convenient to have comprehensive coverage for all six states in one location.

NEHGS’s collection of City Directories is also extensive and most comprehensive for New England. There are City Directories for other areas too, although these are not as comprehensive as the collection for the New England states. In particular, we have City Directories for New York City for the years 1915-1917, 1920, 1922-1923, 1924-1925, and 1931. Certain directories are also available for other New York cities including Queens, Albany, Buffalo, Rochester, and Syracuse.

Census information is also a widely-used source and NEHGS has U.S. federal censuses for all of New England from 1790-1910 and for New Hampshire to 1920, with Soundexes for 1880 and 1900. Our collection also contains federal censuses for many states outside New England and a complete set of Canadian Census records for 1841, 1851, 1861, 1871, 1881, 1891, and 1901 from the National Archives in Ottawa.

NEHGS also has a wonderful collection of college classbooks, yearbooks, and alumni directories. The collection is strongest for Ivy League schools including Harvard, Yale, and Princeton and many series date to the turn of the century and earlier. Non-Ivy League schools are also represented in the collection.

The NEHGS Manuscript collection contains over one million manuscripts and is an impressive resource that should not be overlooked. A quick search of the catalog produced manuscripts for Jewish families including the surnames Kremen; Gur-Arie, Gurarie and variants; Zusselman/Susselman/Sussman/Sussell and Farber; Heilperin; and Eilenberg. In addition to genealogies, the manuscript collection contains diaries; business papers and account books; military papers; letters; wills and land records; and cemetery transcriptions.

All in all, the New England Historic Genealogical Society can be a hidden resource for the genealogist investigating Jewish ancestry. The broad scope of the collection allows the researcher many avenues for uncovering his or her roots.

American Jewish Historical Society. A Preliminary Survey of the Manuscript Collections Found in the American Jewish Historical Society. New York, 1967. [REF/S662/A5125.]

Clasper, James W. and M. Carolyn Dellenbach. Guide to Holdings of the American Jewish Archives. Cincinnati: American Jewish Archives, 1979. [REF/Z6373/U5/H43]

Cohen, Chester G. Shtetl Finder. Bowie, Maryland: Heritage Books, Inc., 1989. [REF/DS135/R9/C58/1989.]

Directory of Deceased American Physicans, 1804-1929. Chicago: American Medical Association, 1993. [REF/CS5/D56/1993.]

Ellmann-Kruger, Angelika. Library Resources for German-Jewish Genealogy, Teaneck, NJ: Avotaynu, Inc., 1998. [REF/CS 626/J4/Eff/1998.]

Gruber, Ruth Ellen. Jewish Heritage Travel – A Guide to East-Central Europe., Northvale, NJ: Jason Aronson Incl, 1999. [DS135/E83/G78/1999.]

Huhner, Leon. Jews in America in Colonial and Revolutionary Times. New York:Gertz Brothers, 1959.

Kurzweil, Arthur. From Generation to Generation: How to Trace Your Jewish Genealogy and Personal History. New York: Morrow, 1980. [REF/CS21/K87/1980.]

Kurzweil, Arthur and Weiner, Miriam. The Encyclopedia of Jewish Genealogy. Northvale, NJ: J. Aronson, 1991. [REF/CS21/E53/1991.]

London, Hannah Ruth. Portraits of Jews by Gilbert Stuart and Other Early American Artists. Rutland, VT: C. E. Tuttle Co., 1969. [N7593/L6/1969.]

Marcus, Jacob Rader. American Jewish Biography. New York: Carlson Publishing, 1994. [REF/E184.J5/C653/1994.]

Rottenberg, Dan. Finding Our Fathers: A Guidebook to Jewish Genealogy. New York: Random House, 1977. [REF/CS21/R58/1977.]

Sack, Sallyann Amdur and the Israel Genealogical Society. A Guide to Jewish Genealogical Research in Israel, revised edition. Teaneck, NY: Avotaynu, Inc., 1995. [REF/CS1504/S23/1995.]

Shea, Jonathan and William F. Hoffman. Following the Paper Trail: A Multilingual Translation Guide. Teaneck, NY: Avotaynu, Inc., 1994.]

Blatt, Warren. Resources for Jewish Genealogy in the Boston Area. Boston: Jewish Genealogical Society of Greater Boston, 1996. [REF/E 184/J5/R36/1996.]

Chorzempa, Rosemary A. Korzenie Polskie: Polish Roots. Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Company, 1993. [ REF/CS49/C56/1993]

Coser, Rose Laub. Women of Courage: Jewish and Italian Immigrant Women in New York. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1999. [F118/C67/1999.]

Elzas, Barnett Abraham. The Jews of South Carolina: from the earliest times to the present day. 1905, reprinted 1983. [F280/J5/E52.]

Elzas, Barnett Abraham. The Old Jewish Cemeteries at Charleston, South Carolina. 1903. [F279/C4/E5/1903.]

Falk, Sampson. A History of the Israelites in Buffalo. [F129/B8/B88/v.1]

Gardiner, Duncan B. German Towns in Slovakia and Upper Hungary. Lakewood, Ohio: Family Historian, 1988. [REF/ DB2707/ G37/1988.]

Gilbert, Martin. Atlas of Jewish History, revised edition. New York: Dorset Press, 1984. [ATLAS/G1030/E1/G55/1984.]

Gilbert, Martin. Russian History Atlas. New York: Macmillan Co., 1972. [G2111/S1/G52/1972.]

Guide to Vital Statistics in the City of New York. WPA: Historical Records Survey, 1942. [REF/CD3408/N5/H45]

Guide to Newspaper Indexes in New England. The New England Library Association Bibliography Committee, 1978. [REF/Z6293/N38/1978.]

Guzik, Estelle M. Genealogical Resources in the New York Metropolitan Area. New York, NY: Jewish Genealogical Society, Inc., 1989. [R.Rm. REF/ F128.25/G46/1989.] second edition forthcoming.

Hershkowitz, Leo. Wills of Early New York Jews, 1704-1799. New York: American Jewish Historical Society, 1967. [F128.25/H58].

Kaganoff, Nathan M. Organized Jewish Group Activities in 19^th Century Massachusetts: A Checklist… Waltham, MA: American Jewish Historical Society, 1979. [F75/J5/K3.]

Kugelmass, Jack and Jonathan Boyarin, eds. From a Ruined Garden – The Memorial Books of Polish Jewry. Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 1998. [DS 135/P6/F76/1998.]

Levy, B. H. Savannah’s Old Jewish Community Cemeteries. Macon, GA: Mercer University Press, 1983. [F294/S2/L47/1983.]

Makovsky, Donald J. The Philipsons: The First Jewish Settlers in St. Louis, 1807-1858. 1978. [F474/S2/M33.]

Medjuck, Sheva. Jews of Atlantic Canada. St Johns, Newfoundland, 1986. [F1035/J5/M43.]

Mokotoff, Gary. WOWW Companion: A Guide to the Communities Surrounding Central & Eastern European Towns. Teaneck, NJ: Avotaynu, Inc., 1995. [REF/DS135/E83/M652/1995.]

Muller, Friedrich. Mullers Grosses Deutsches Ortsbuch, 7^th edition, Wuppertal-Barmen, 1938. [R.Rm. REF/DD14/M8/1938.]

Personal Name Index to the New York Times 1851-1974, 1975-1989. [REF/Z5301/F28]

Petitions for Name Changes in New York City, 1848-1899. Washington: National Genealogical Society, 1984. [REF/F128.25/S37.]

Pool, David DeSola. Portraits Etched in Stone; Early Jewish Settlers 1682-1831. New York: Columbia University Press, 1952. [F128/J5/P2.]

Plaut, Gunther W. The Jews in Minnesota: The First 75 Years. New York: American Jewish Historical Society, 1959. [F615/J5/P53.]

Roll, Claude R. Manuel Illustré pour la Généalogie et l’Histoire Familiale en Alsace, 1990. [REF/CS627/A1/M42/1991.]

Schlyter, Daniel. Czechoslovakia: A Handbook of Czechoslovak Genealogical Research. 1985. [E184/B67/S35]

Shilstone, Eustace M. Monumental Inscriptions in the Burial Ground of the Synagogue at Bridgetown, Barbados. London, 1958. [F2041/S55.]

Silverman, Morris. Hartford Jews, 1659-1970. Hartford, CT: 1970.[F104/H3/S5/1970.]

Szucs, Loretto Dennis. Chicago and Cook County Sources: A Genealogical and Historical Guide. Salt Lake City: Ancestry, Inc., 1986. [REF/F548.25/S98/1986.]

Tapper, Lawrence F. A Biographical Dictionary of Canadian Jewry 1909-1914: from the Canadian Jewish Times. Teaneck, NJ: Avotaynu, 1992. [REF/F1035/J5/B56/1992.]

Thode, Ernest. Address Book for Germanic Genealogy. Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Company, 1984. [REF/CS611/T48]

United States Newspapers in the Boston Public Library. Massachusetts Newspaper Program. Boston: The Program, 1992. [REF/Z6951/B77/1992.]

Verdooner, Dave. [Jewish Marriages in Amsterdam, 1598-1811.] Trouwen in Mokum. ‘s-Grevenhage: Warray, 1991. [CS826/J4/V47/1991.]

Weiner, Miriam. Jewish Roots in Poland: Pages From the Past and Archival Inventories. New York, NY and Seaucus, NJ, 1997. [REF/CS877/J4/W45/1997.]

Wynne, Suzan F. Finding Your Jewish Roots in Galicia: A Resource Guide. Teaneck, NJ: Avotaynu, Incl., 1998. [REF/CS878/G35/W96/1998.]

Debski, Jerzy. Death Books from Auschwitz: Remnants. Munchen: KG Saur, 1995. [REF/D805/P7/D35/1995.]

Mogilanski, Roman. The Ghetto Anthology: A Comprehensive Chronicle of the Extermination of Jewry in Nazi Death Camps and Ghettos in Poland. Los Angeles: American Congress, 1985. [D810/J4/M6/1985.]

Mokotoff, Gary. How to Document and Locate Survivors of the Holocaust. Teaneck,NJ: Avotaynu, Inc., 1995. [REF/D804.3/M65/1995.]

Mokotoff, Gary and Sallyann Amdur Sack. Where Once We Walked: A Guide to the Jewish Communities Destroyed in the Holocaust. Teaneck, NJ: Avotaynu, Inc., 1991. [REF/DS135/E83/M65/1991.]

Avotaynu: The International Review of Jewish Genealogy, Teaneck, NJ [CS31/A9]

Dorot, New York City. [E84/J5/D6]

Mass-Pocha: Newsletter of the Jewish Genealogical Society of Greater Boston. [F75/J5/M37/1992.]

Publications of the American Jewish Historical Society, Baltimore, etc. [Vault/E184/J5/A5]

Toledot the Journal of Jewish Genealogy, New York City. [CS31/T64.]

Beider, Alexander. A Dictionary of Jewish Surnames from the Kingdom of Poland. Teaneck, NJ: Avotaynu, 1996. [REF/CS3010/B419/1996.]

Beider, Alexander. A Dictionary of Jewish Surnames from the Russian Empire. Teaneck, NJ: Avotaynu, 1993. [REF/CS3010/B43/1993.]

Beider, Alexander. Jewish Surnames in Prague: 15^th – 18^th Centuries. Teaneck, NJ: Avotaynu, c.1995. [CS3010/B43/1995.]

Feldblyum, Boris. Russian-Jewish Given Names: Their Origins and Variants. Teaneck, NJ: Avotaynu, 1998. [REF/CS3010/F45/1998.]

Gorr, Shmuel. Jewish Personal Names: Their Origin, Derivation, and Diminutive Forms. Edited by Chaim Freedman. Teaneck, NJ: Avotaynu, 1992. [REF/CS3010/G67/1992.]

Singerman, Robert. Jewish and Hebrew Onomastics: A Bibliography. New York: Garland, 1977. [REF/CS2010/S5/1977.]

Boston Passenger Lists, 1848-1891. [CS68/I532/M265]; 1902-1906. [I533/T521.]; 1906-1920. [I533/T617.]

Filby, P. William, et al., eds. Passenger and Immigration Lists Index: A Guide to Published Arrival Records… Detroit: Gale Research Co., 1981-present. [REF/CS68/P363/1981.]

Glazier, Ira A. and P. William Filby. Germans to America: Lists of Passengers Arriving at U.S. Ports. Wilmington, DE: Scholarly Resources. [E184/G3/G38/1988.]

Glazier, Ira A. Migration from the Russian Empire: List of Passengers Arriving at the Port of New York. Baltimore, MD: Genealogical Publishing Co., 1995. [REF/E184/R9/M54/1995.]

Kluber, Karl Werner. [Hamburg Passenger Lists] Kleuber index auswanderung Hamburg, 1856-1881) 25 rolls+ (1850-1871) 22 rolls + description 1 roll. [CS68/S735/1994/Microfilm.]

Morton-Allan Directory of European Passenger Steamship Arrivals at the Port of New York, 1890-1930, and at the Ports of Baltimore, Boston, and Philadelphia, 1904-1926. Baltimore, MD: Genealogical Publishing Co., 1987 reprint of 1931 edition. [CS68/M67/1931.]

New England Naturalizations to 1907. [CS68/I53/M1259.]

Sack, Sallyann Amdur. Index to Russian Consular Records. Teaneck, NJ: S. Sack, c. 1988. [E184/J5/S33/1988/microfiche.]

Schenk, Trudy and Ruth Froelke. The Wuerttemberg Emigration Index [1750-1900]. Salt Lake City: Ancestry, Inc., 1986. [REF/CS627/W86S34/1986.]

Smith, Clifford Neal. Reconstructed Passenger Lists for 1850. McNeal, AZ: Westland Publ., 1981. [CS35/S64]

Swierenga, Robert P. Dutch Immigrants in U.S. Ship Passenger Manifests, 1820-1880: An Alphabetical Listing by Household Heads and Independent Persons. Wilmington, DE: Scholarly Resources, 1983. [REF/E184/D9/S95/1983.]

Taylor, Marueen A. Rhode Island Passenger Lists: Port of Providence, 1789-1808; 1820-1872, Port of Bristol and Warren, 1820-1871: compiled from United States Custom House Papers. Baltimore, MD: Genealogical Publishing Co, 1995. [REF F78/T38/1995.]

Tepper, Michael H. American Passenger Arrival Records: A Guide to the Records of Immigrants Arriving at American Ports by Sail and Steam. Baltimore, MD: Genealogical Publishing Co.,1993. [REF/CS68/T49/1993.]

Zimmerman, Gary J. and Marion Wolfert. German Immigrants: List of Passengers Bound from Bremen to New York [1847-1871]. Baltimore, MD: Genealogical Publishing Co., 1985-93. [E184/G3/Z572.]

Carmen, Robert C., Descendants of Movka Kremen, 1841 – [Zoludek?] Russia, many in the Boston, MA area, 1876-1983. Manuscript, 1985. [Mss/C1622]

Curran, Joan F. Jonas and Betty (Kohn) Wollman and Their Descendants. 1986. [CS71/W8595/1986.]

Curran, Joan F. Descendants of Salomon Bloch of Janowitz, Bohemia and Baruch Wollman of Kempen-in-Posen, Prussia. Kansas City, MO: 1996. [CS71/B6517/1996.]

Friedman, Chaim. Eliyahu’s Branches: The Descendants of the Vilna Gaon (of Saintly Memory) and His Family. Teaneck, NJ: Avotaynu, 1997. [BM755/E6/F74/1997.]

Friendly, Natalie Brooks. The Friendly Family: The Descendants of the Freundlichs of Bavaria. Boston: Newbury Street Press, 1998. [CS71/F91/1998.]

Gottheil, Richard James Horation. The Belmont-Belmonte Family: A Record of Four Hundred Years… New York. [Oversize/DS409/B4/1917.]

Gurarie, Donald. Gur-Arie, Gurarie and Variants Genealogy. Toronto: 1987. Manuscript. [Mss/C1965.]

Lobel, Martin. The Krupp Family Chronicles: l’dor v’dor. Massachusetts?: M. Lobel, c.1995. [Cs71/K9555/1995.]

Menton, Arthur F. The Book of Destiny – Toledot Charlap – [Toledot Harlap]. Cold Spring Harbor, NY: King David Press, c1996. [CS71/C474/1996.]

Moise, Harold. The Moise Family of South Carolina. Columbia, SC, 1961. [G/MOI/265.]

Norwalk, Jay Francis. The Paternal Ancestry of Alexandra Leah Aschheim Feld: The Genealogy of the Norwalk, Eilenberg, Heilperin, Gutman, and Kronenberg Families of Ciechocinek and Suwalk, Poland. Alna, ME: Head Tide Press, 1997. [CS71/N8887/1997.]

Norwalk, Jay Francis. Preliminary Introduction to American Descendants of the Heilperin Family of Suvalk, Russia/Lithuania. Newton, MA, 1993. Manuscript. [Mss/C4517.]

Norwalk, Jay Francis. Summary of the Eilenbergs. Newton, MA, 1993. Manuscript [Mss/C4516.]

Rosenstein, Neil. From King David to Baron David: The Genealogical Connections Between Baron Guy de Rothschild and Baroness Alix de Rothschild. Elizabeth, NJ: Computer Center for Jewish Genealogy, 1989. [CS599/R684/1989.]

Rosenstein, Neil. The Unbroken Chain: Biographical Sketches and the Genealogy of Illustrious Jewish Families from the 15^th-20^th Century, revised edition. New York: CIS Publishers, 1990. [CS432/J4/R67/1990.]

Rosenstein Neil. [Zikhron la-aharonim] – Latter Day Leaders, Sages, and Scholars, Born Between Late 18^th and early 20^th Century: Computerized Bibliographical Index, Alphabetized by First Name, Surname, and Town. Elizabeth, NJ: Computer Center for Jewish Genealogy, c1983. [REF/BM750/R67/1983.]

Semigotha. Weimarer historisch-genealoges Taschenbuch des gesamten Adels juhudaischen Ursprunges. Munchen: Kyffhouser-? Verlag, 1912-12. [CS28/S4.]

Stern, Malcolm H. First American Jewish Families – 600 Genealogies – 1654-1988, 3^rd edition. Baltimore, MD: Ottenheimer Publishers, Inc. 1991. [REF/E184/J5/S73/1991.]

Sussell, Mildred S. Zusselman/Susselman/Sussman/Sussell and Farber families. Jackson, MI, 1982. Manuscript. [Mss/C1729.]

___________________

New England Historic Genealogical Society

www.NewEnglandAncestors.org • nehgs@nehgs.org