UpFront with NGS: Jewish

Showing posts with label Jewish. Show all posts

02 June 2017

Digging for Genealogy Gold -- New Resources, 2017 Edition -- Part #1

Digging for Genealogy Gold -- New Resources, 2017 Edition

Part #1

I have my annual present for you ...

For the last couple of years, I have created, about once per year, multi-part series called “20 Free and (Relatively) New Genealogy and Family History Resources” which followed a series previously called Mini-Bytes.

As I trawl genealogy newsletters, blogs, and elsewhere, I keep an email folder of all the news items that aren’t “big enough” for a full post and yet sound useful for genealogists and family historians. These range from how-to type information to databases. There is so much information out there and it’s impossible to fully blog about most of it.

In order that those collected don’t go to waste, I am again creating a few posts where I present you with 20 “relatively” new resources and the associated hyperlink. That’s it; a very no frills list. If the title doesn’t convey enough info I will add a note about what content caught my eye ...

Some of these may seem familiar to you and being reminded of a great resource is never a bad thing! Hopefully many more are new to you.

DUTCH CARIBBEAN

Dutch Caribbean Digital Platform (article) (database)

FINLAND

Military Records [in Finnish, have browser translate]

IRELAND

Ireland Valuation Books Translator

4. Irish Soldiers’ Records

NORWAY

1891 Census

SARAWAK (Malaysia)

6. Launch of the Brooke Archive Online -- Records representing the first 100 years of Sarawak’s history, previously hidden away at Oxford University’s Bodleian Library

UNITED KINGDOM

Staffordshire World War One documents made public (article) (database + check out all the other databases also found on page!)
HEICS – Ships Logs and Journals of the Honorourable East India Company Service

The (British) Jewish Chronicle Archive (back to 1841)
Criminal Transportation [to Australia]

UNITED STATES

Minnesota Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church Online Catalog
Maine WPA Cemetery Plans
Lexington (KY) Early Marriage Indexes of African Americans Available Online
New York Public Library Digitizes 137 Years of New York City Directories
The American Legion Digital Archive
Westmoreland County (VA) Cohabitation Registers (article) (finding aid with link to records)
Houston Herald (MO) Archive (back to 1881)
Historic Luzerne County (PA) records available online in new deeds database (article) (database)
Queens (NY) Library Archives Go Digital (article) (database)
Swedish American Newspapers (English & Swedish)

Editor’s Note: As of today, each of the above links worked. Now, whether the links in any of the identified articles work, I cannot vouch for that. And, armed with the information provided, it should be relatively easy to get to determine where the discussed database currently resides. If you get really stuck, drop me an email and I’ll try to ferret out the recalcitrant link or cross out my entry in the above list!

Editor’s Note: Know of a neat resource that you think might be a hidden gem? Drop an email to UpFront@ngsgenealogy.org.

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NGS does not imply endorsement of any outside advertiser or other vendors appearing in this blog. Any opinions expressed by guest authors are their own and do not necessarily reflect the view of NGS.

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Republication of UpFront articles is permitted and encouraged for non-commercial purposes without express permission from NGS. Please drop us a note telling us where and when you are using the article. Express written permission is required if you wish to republish UpFront articles for commercial purposes. You may send a request for express written permission to UpFront@ngsgenealogy.org. All republished articles may not be edited or reworded and must contain the copyright statement found at the bottom of each UpFront article.

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Think your friends, colleagues, or fellow genealogy researchers would find this blog post interesting? If so, please let them know that anyone can read past UpFront with NGS posts or subscribe!

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Suggestions for topics for future UpFront with NGS posts are always welcome. Please send any suggested topics to UpfrontNGS@mosaicrpm.com

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Unless indicated otherwise or clearly an NGS Public Relations piece, Upfront with NGS posts are written by Diane L Richard, editor, Upfront with NGS.

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16 March 2017

International Tracing Service Expands Online Archive

International Tracing Service Expands Online Archive

From the International Tracing Service (ITS), we learn …

The International Tracing Service (ITS) has published two further resources in its online archive. They include the card index of the Reich Association of Jews in Germany and material on death marches from concentration camps.

What is left of the card index of the Reich Association of Jews in Germany (Reichsvereinigung der Juden in Deutschland) comprises 32,264 registration cards, primarily those of Jewish school pupils, emigrants and deceased persons. Now interested persons all over the world have access to these cards. The ITS has moreover placed an additional 15,000 documents pertaining to the death marches online, thus supplementing the first group of documents on that subject published on its internet portal last year. “We chose two sets of documents that, while they are small, are of especial interest to the public. They conclude the successful test phase of the online archive,” ITS director Floriane Hohenberg explained. “More extensive holdings will follow, with which we aim to make documents on deportations, the Holocaust and forced labor available to people all over the world.”

The archive of the ITS in Bad Arolsen is one of the largest collections of documents on Nazi persecution and the aftermath of those crimes. In order to provide as many interested persons as possible access to this material, which holds the status of UNESCO world documentary heritage, the ITS set up an online archive in 2015. It offers direct access to the documents along with descriptions of the various holdings. The work of indexing the archives goes hand in hand with the continual expansion of the portal. With the new online placement a central search function has been expanded, allowing comprehensive research on names of people and places throughout the available collections. The ITS has placed a total of some 170,000 images (80,000 documents) in its Online-Archive.

A card index full of stories about Jewish victims of persecution

Only a small proportion of the card index of the Reich Association of Jews in Germany has come down to us. In addition to names, the cards contain such information as dates of birth, professions, and addresses from the period before the mass deportations of the Jewish population, which began in 1941. Hermann Göring ordered the founding of the Reich Association of Jews in Germany in 1939. All persons classified as Jews according to the Nuremberg Laws were obligated to register. The card index aided the Gestapo in organizing the deportations. Between 1947 and 1950, 32,264 cards from this index made their way into the ITS archive. They include, for example, the “Berlin school pupils index” testifying to the lives of Jewish children during persecution and containing biographical data on the children themselves and their parents as well as information on the schools they attended.

Before publishing the card index of the Reich Association of Jews in Germany in its online portal, the ITS carried out a pilot project to prepare the cards for use for research purposes.

Documents on the death marches

In the late 1940s, the ITS undertook to reconstruct the death marches and compile eye-witness reports as well as maps showing the locations of graves. In 1950, the so-called “Identification Unit” was founded with the goal of giving the often unknown dead their names back. The documents on the frequently successful efforts to identify the victims of National Socialism now supplement the holdings on the death marches in the ITS’s online archive.

In the online archive of the ITS, the death marches are shown on a map with georeferenced documents. When users click the name of a town or village, the documents related to that place appear on the screen, for example the answers to questionnaires that were sent to the communities or – recently added – the material on the identification program.

Link to the online archive: digitalcollections.its-arolsen.org

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NGS does not imply endorsement of any outside advertiser or other vendors appearing in this blog. Any opinions expressed by guest authors are their own and do not necessarily reflect the view of NGS.

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Think your friends, colleagues, or fellow genealogy researchers would find this blog post interesting? If so, please let them know that anyone can read past UpFront with NGS posts or subscribe!

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Suggestions for topics for future UpFront with NGS posts are always welcome. Please send any suggested topics to UpfrontNGS@mosaicrpm.com

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Unless indicated otherwise or clearly an NGS Public Relations piece, Upfront with NGS posts are written by Diane L Richard, editor, Upfront with NGS.

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18 January 2017

International Tracing Service (ITS) Has Published ENTIRE Inventory Online!!

International Tracing Service (ITS) Has Published ENTIRE Inventory Online!!

Via IAJGS Public Records Access Alert from the International Tracing Service (ITS) …

The International Tracing Service (ITS) has published its complete inventory on the internet. The inventory offers an overview of the ITS’s archival holdings, which comprise some 30 million documents on National Socialist persecution and forced labour as well as the fates of the survivors. The archive’s original documents have been inscribed in the UNESCO documentary heritage register “Memory of the World” since 2013.

“With the aid of the general inventory, archive users can gain a good impression of the structure and contents of our holdings,” explains archive director Dr. Christian Groh. “This will greatly facilitate research into specific subjects and preparation for a visit to the archive.” The inventory offers basic information on the individual sub-collections. This includes, for example, the title, size and access number as well as a brief description of the contents. The searchable structure of the general inventory is shown as a navigable tree. It is also possible to carry out searches on the basis of keywords. The general inventory is available in German and English.

The indexing of the extensive holdings, however, has not yet reached completion. For reasons of transparency, the ITS has deliberately decided to include parts of the holdings that have undergone only preliminary or superficial indexing to date in its general online inventory. One by one, the existing information on the sub-collections will be supplemented with detailed descriptions of the contents to permit more in-depth access to the documents. The general inventory on our website reflects the current status of the indexing process, as the data is retrieved directly from the digital ITS archive.

Link to the general inventory:

www.its-arolsen.org/en/archives/overview-of-the-archival-holdings/general-inventory/

This database will greatly improve access to this massive collection of interest to Jewish and non-Jewish researchers alike.

What did you find in the ITS inventory that might help with your own research?

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NGS does not imply endorsement of any outside advertiser or other vendors appearing in this blog. Any opinions expressed by guest authors are their own and do not necessarily reflect the view of NGS.

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Think your friends, colleagues, or fellow genealogy researchers would find this blog post interesting? If so, please let them know that anyone can read past UpFront with NGS posts or subscribe!

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Suggestions for topics for future UpFront with NGS posts are always welcome. Please send any suggested topics to UpfrontNGS@mosaicrpm.com

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Unless indicated otherwise or clearly an NGS Public Relations piece, Upfront with NGS posts are written by Diane L Richard, editor, Upfront with NGS.

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Want to learn more about interacting with the blog, please read Hyperlinks, Subscribing and Comments -- How to Interact with Upfront with NGS Blog posts!

11 March 2016

20 Free and (Relatively) New Genealogy and Family History Resources, 2016 Version, Part 4

My present continues ... 20 more FREE (or mostly FREE) resources ...

AUSTRALIA

1. Murderers, prostitutes, mothers and paupers: Victorian female prison registers online for first time

BRAZIL

2. LAMP Digitizes Brazilian Newspaper Diario de Pernambuco (1825-1924)

IRELAND

3. Dublin Gazette (1750s-1790s) (via Oireachtas Library & Research Service)

4. Archives of 53,000 Jews who lived in Ireland made available to the public

LUXEMBOURG

5. Luxembourg family history searches easier thanks to online archive -- More than one million Luxembourg birth certificates from 1600 to 1923 have been made available online thanks to a voluntary project

TRINIDAD & TOBAGO

6. 500,000 pages scanned for law library

UNITED KINGDOM

7. Welcome to the Spectator Archives; 180 years of history now online

8. Glasgow Digital Library

9. Was your ancestor a slave owner? A new online database may have the answer

10. National Library of Medicine (NLM) Digitizes Unique Early English Books

11. View the History of Britain from the Air as Bluesky Brings Old Aerial Photos Online

12. Scottish Indexes – Prison Registers, Sheriff Court Paternity Decrees, Kelso Dispensary Patient Records, etc

13. Groam House Museum Out of Print Publications Online [Pictish and Celtic Heritage]

UNITED STATES

14. Landscape of Liberation, the African American Geography of Civil War Tennessee

15. Scroll Through This Online Trove of Old Trade Catalogs

16. Historic maps of Oklahoma go on line for public viewing

17. West Texas Digital Archives

18. Brooklyn Public Library Puts 107 Years of City Directories and Telephone Books Online

19. Providence (RI) House Directories Now Available Online

VATICAN

20. Vatican Library Puts 4,000 Ancient Manuscripts Available Online For Free

Editor’s Note: Know of a neat resource that you think might be a hidden gem? Drop an email to UpFront@ngsgenealogy.org.

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NGS does not imply endorsement of any outside advertiser or other vendors appearing in this blog. Any opinions expressed by guest authors are their own and do not necessarily reflect the view of NGS.

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Think your friends, colleagues, or fellow genealogy researchers would find this blog post interesting? If so, please let them know that anyone can read past UpFront with NGS posts or subscribe!

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Suggestions for topics for future UpFront with NGS posts are always welcome. Please send any suggested topics to UpfrontNGS@mosaicrpm.com

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Unless indicated otherwise or clearly an NGS Public Relations piece, Upfront with NGS posts are written by Diane L Richard, editor, Upfront with NGS.

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Want to learn more about interacting with the blog, please read Hyperlinks, Subscribing and Comments -- How to Interact with Upfront with NGS Blog posts!

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03 June 2015

A Jewish Cemetery That is only Accessible 2 Times a Year!

JUST AN IMAGE -- WORKING LINK TO VIDEO IN BODY OF ARTICLE

We often talk about access to cemeteries, or just as often, lack of access to cemeteries. Most often it’s a case where the cemetery is on private land, in a church cemetery with limited access, etc. Earlier this year we blogged about Hart Island – NYC’s Public Burial Ground – Over 1 Million Burials – Trying to Reveal Their Stories.

HAMTRAMCK, Mich. (AP) — Beth Olem Cemetery is like many aging, final resting places, with assorted tombstones in varying condition, sizes and styles, encircled by a brick wall and iron gate.

Yet surrounding it on all sides is an unusual neighbor: a massive automotive plant.

The serene, green oasis is enveloped by the steel and concrete structures and grounds of General Motors Co.'s Detroit Hamtramck Plant, which makes Chevrolet Volts, Cadillacs and other cars. To maintain plant security, public access to the cemetery is limited to a couple days a year ...

Read the full article and watch the short video clip here to learn more about this fascinating cemetery which handled burials from the 1860s through the 1940s.

FindaGrave does list some of those interred in the cemetery.

Do you know of a cemetery located in a challenging location?

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NGS does not imply endorsement of any outside advertiser or other vendors appearing in this blog. Any opinions expressed by guest authors are their own and do not necessarily reflect the view of NGS.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Think your friends, colleagues, or fellow genealogy researchers would find this blog post interesting? If so, please let them know that anyone can read past UpFront with NGS posts or subscribe!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Suggestions for topics for future UpFront with NGS posts are always welcome. Please send any suggested topics to UpfrontNGS@mosaicrpm.com

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Unless indicated otherwise or clearly an NGS Public Relations piece, Upfront with NGS posts are written by Diane L Richard, editor, Upfront with NGS.

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Want to learn more about interacting with the blog, please read Hyperlinks, Subscribing and Comments -- How to Interact with Upfront with NGS Blog posts!

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11 May 2015

Avotaynu Online -- Wonderful Jewish (and Eastern European et al) Genealogy & Family History Resource

Though I do not have any Jewish ancestry, the announcement below from Avotaynu greatly excited me! This is because I have always found its published articles to have great relevance to my Galician ancestral research. There are often articles published about locating places in what was the Austro-Hungarian Empire (where many of our ancestors originated from), doing Polish Research, the journey from Eastern Europe to

America

via Hamburg and Hull, and so much more of interest to anyone researching Eastern European or elsewhere where Jewish communities were/are to be found.

Avotaynu Inc is pleased to announce the creation of “Avotaynu Online,” an exciting new venture intended to stimulate collaboration among Jewish genealogists in all its forms, including conferences and meetings, DNA studies, online family trees, social networking, the development of genealogical standards suitable for the Internet age, and developments in related fields (i.e., history, law, computer science) that have an impact on Jewish genealogy. Leading participants in these areas will provide in-depth reports on events and discoveries on a regular basis.

Avotaynu Online will be available free of charge from the venture’s website athttp://avotaynuonline.com, which will be shared simultaneously on Facebook and Twitter. Reports will be delivered in different formats, including text, video, and podcasts.

As a bonus to readers, all articles from 2007–2011 published in AVOTAYNU, the International Review of Jewish Genealogy, are available at no charge at the Avotaynu Online website. Articles from all other years will continue to be available on a subscription basis by visiting http://www.avotaynu.com/books/Anthology.htm.

Subscribe Now!
Readers are encouraged to subscribe to the Avotaynu Online news feed by registering their e-mail address at the top of our web page, and to also follow public commentary on its articles by “liking” the official Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/AvotaynuOnline as well as our pages at Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn, Pinterest and other social media outlets.

By virtue of its focus on the in-depth reporting of specific subjects, Avotaynu Online is intended to be entirely distinct from the existing print journal, AVOTAYNU, which for over three decades has covered the broad spectrum of Jewish family history research, and from the weekly Nu? What’s New?, which reports breaking stories in the world of genealogy...

You can read the rest of the press release here. Do check out this incredible new resource.

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NGS does not imply endorsement of any outside advertiser or other vendors appearing in this blog. Any opinions expressed by guest authors are their own and do not necessarily reflect the view of NGS.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Think your friends, colleagues, or fellow genealogy researchers would find this blog post interesting? If so, please let them know that anyone can read past UpFront with NGS posts or subscribe!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Suggestions for topics for future UpFront with NGS posts are always welcome. Please send any suggested topics to UpfrontNGS@mosaicrpm.com

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Unless indicated otherwise or clearly an NGS Public Relations piece, Upfront with NGS posts are written by Diane L Richard, editor, Upfront with NGS.

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Want to learn more about interacting with the blog, please read Hyperlinks, Subscribing and Comments -- How to Interact with Upfront with NGS Blog posts!

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13 November 2014

Jewish Tombstones Repurposed and Now Rediscovered -- Let's Talk Cemetery Relocations

This news article, The Town Making the Horrifying Discovery That It's Built Out of Jewish Tombstones, conveys horrifying news and at the same time represents a cause for celebration.

It’s horrifying in terms of the history involved. It’s a cause for celebration as what was once thought to be lost has now been found and might be preserved for future generations.

After the war [World War II], with Brest's Jewish community devastated, the Communists set about getting rid of the remnants of Jewish culture in the town. In 1959 they dismantled the Jewish cemetery-one of the oldest and largest in Belarus-and turned it into a sports stadium. As the dismantling process got underway, Communist Party members, along with enterprising locals, recognized the high quality of the headstones and "recycled them." As well as in the foundations of houses, these Jewish graves have since been discovered in the makeup of Brest's road surfaces, pavements, and gardens...

... Fifteen hundred headstones have been found in Brest over the past six years...

Tombstone removal is not new and it’s not always undesirable (e.g. 5 Reasons for Relocating an Entire Cemetery) ... think what happens when a river was dammed and/or flooded to create a large body of water (e.g. Cemeteries Relocated by TVA & Kinzua Cemetery Relocations & Falls Dam Project (NC)), or a church sold off the land where it’s graveyard once existed (e.g. The National Archives (UK), Removal of graves and tombstones), etc. Learn more by reading With Reverance and Respect – Relocating a Cemetery.

Granted, the above article is not talking about a scenario with such a mundane genesis and we don’t always find that our ancestors are where they were originally buried, or, that they were even buried (e.g., body donated for science, cremation, burial at sea, etc).

Have you heard of other situations where, for lack of a better term, a hidden cache of previously thought to be lost tombstones has been rediscovered?

Are you aware of other databases (besides the TVA one) for cemeteries relocated as lakes or other large-scale projects requiring cemeteries to be relocated were constructed?

Editor’s Note: Thanks to Elizabeth Shown Mills for posting a link to the original article on Facebook.

Editor’s Note: Many cemetery relocations come about through the work of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. I did not find any “central” repository for cemetery relation records. Most records seem to be held by the various Districts and with varying availability of online information. The US Army Corps of Engineers does seem to have a Digital Library and when I searched on “cemetery relocation” there were 61 results including some plans for cemetery relocations. If you know of a more comprehensive source, please post a comment!

Editor’s Note: Just after this piece was written, I discovered another article, Used to rebuild Warsaw, Jewish tombstones return to cemeteries.

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NGS does not imply endorsement of any outside advertiser or other vendors appearing in this blog. Any opinions expressed by guest authors are their own and do not necessarily reflect the view of NGS.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Think your friends, colleagues, or fellow genealogy researchers would find this blog post interesting? If so, please let them know that anyone can read past UpFront with NGS posts or subscribe!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Suggestions for topics for future UpFront with NGS posts are always welcome. Please send any suggested topics to UpfrontNGS@mosaicrpm.com

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Unless indicated otherwise or clearly an NGS Public Relations piece, Upfront with NGS posts are written by Diane L Richard, editor, Upfront with NGS.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Want to learn more about interacting with the blog, please read Hyperlinks, Subscribing and Comments -- How to Interact with Upfront with NGS Blog posts!

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Follow NGS via Facebook, YouTube, Google+, Twitter