Seeking Jewish records

qAny information, tips, and guidance on researching Jewish records would be most helpful. The period I’m interested in is the 1800s and my husband’s ancestor was called Mordecai Rosenberg. I’m keen to find new places to search where the records are open to the public.

Raye Johnson

Research at the London Metropolitan Archives

ARecords of the Anglo-jewish community have been safely stored and preserved at London Metropolitan Archives (LMA) for more than 25 years. They are well-used by the Jewish community, by academics and other more general researchers, and by people researching their family history. The records are frequently consulted by those wanting to learn about the varied lives of community members, leaders, and their Rabbis, and to find out more about everyday life in these communities, both in London and elsewhere in the UK. Access to some of the collections at LMA requires advance permission of the depositor, and some of the collections hold personal information, so they will remain closed due to data protection regulation requirements, but many other items are freely available and are open for research purposes, both for family history and otherwise.

Not all records are useful

Not all the early synagogue records will be useful for family history research. Often, they only contain information about the establishment of synagogues, burial societies and the running and organisation of the local synagogue, also the elections to their management committees, and some of the charitable activities and local community events that they ran. The records rarely have any information about individual families and the names of congregants or seat holders, so there may be other more useful sources for finding information available about your husband’s family, rather than looking at the communal records held at the LMA.

Study the LMA research guides

That said, LMA has a series of extremely helpful research guides including two specifically on Jewish family history research. One is about the records of the London Jewish community, (no 20), and the other contains useful sources for Jewish Genealogy more generally (no 24). Find them at https://bit.ly/lma_guides

Seek permission in advance

The LMA’S catalogue and research guides both clearly note that specific approval must be obtained from the synagogue authority before researchers are allowed to use quite a few of these Jewish community record collections.

Get help from the JGSGB & more when you join

• You haven’t said exactly which community your husband’s family came from, but the Jewish Genealogical Society of Great Britain https://bit.ly/jgs-gb working in conjunction with Jewishgen https://bit.ly/jewishgen has a joint project called Jewish Communities & Records UK, which is known as JCR-UK https://bit.ly/jcr-uk. It has a separate page for every synagogue community that has ever existed in all parts of the UK.

• We also have a lively and helpful Facebook page, https://bit.ly/ JGSGB-FB. You are very welcome to join us there and to ask the members for more information about the family you are researching.

You never know, you may even find a distant cousin among our members.

• In addition, JGSGB has a mentoring programme for paid up members of the society, where you can gain advice and guidance on a variety of possible locations where you might find further information available about your husband’s Jewish ancestors, https:// bit.ly/jgs-gb-join.

Searching more widely

• Jewish records for family history research in the UK can date as far back as the year 1656, when the Jewish community was readmitted to the UK by Oliver Cromwell. The LMA records cover the years from at least from 1760 up to the start of Civil Registration in July 1837 and beyond.

• Many of the earliest Jews who lived in the UK were of Sephardi origin, with ancestors originating in Spain or Portugal. The Sephardi community hold their records separately, and they can often contain a wealth of information, see https://bit.ly/sephardi-uk.

• In addition to the records at LMA, seek early Ashkenazi synagogue records of the New, Great and Hambro Synagogues of London on the Synagogue Scribes Blog, see https://synagoguescribes. com/blog/ – or look on the British Jewry website https://bit.ly/ Britishjewry.

• It is also possible to locate early records for Jewish communities outside London, including the community in Plymouth, which was extensively researched by the late Rabbi Dr Bernard Susser https:// bit.ly/susser-arch.

• Some other synagogue community records and burial information can be accessed via local archives, and still further information through the JGSGB website.

• Other records are available via the website for the United Synagogue including cemetery records and marriage authorisations, which are a particular document available for marriages according to the Rites and Ceremonies of the Jewish Religion, see https://bit.ly/ Marriage_auth.

• Some of the historic records of the earlier community members are available via the Jewish Historical Society of England, https://jhse. org and still further records of the earlier communities can be read on British History Online https://bit.ly/british-history.

Further guides to read & archives to explore

Finally, the UK’S National Archives also has a useful guide to looking for records about the UK Jewish community https://bit. ly/tna-jewish, and the Hidden Treasures website https://bit.ly/ Hiddentreas is a network/portal bringing together links to more than 50 different state, local and communal archives in the UK that enable you to discover more about the history of Jews and the Jewish community in Britain and possibly also to uncover some of your family’s history. JR