17 March 2015

The Knowles Collection has moved

In the summer of 2007, a new group of records appeared on the FamilySearch Community Trees Website. This database, The Knowles Collection, contained the records of a small section of  the Jewish people of the British Isles. That original set included less than 10,000 people.
Over the last eight or so years, I have been so lucky to have witnessed the incredible growth of the Knowles Collection. What was once a single database, has now grown to be six individual databases that now contain the genealogical records of almost 1.2 million Jewish people. Those databases and the number of people contained  in them;

                          The Jews of the British Isles  208,349   
                          The Jews of North America  489,400
                          The Jews of Europe  380,637
                          The Jews of South America and the Caribbean  21,351
                          The Jews of Africa, The Orient and the Middle East   37,618   
                          The Jews of the South Pacific    21,518     

While I have received many notes from those who have been able to find family names and in some cases link together with distant cousins, I have also heard from some who have had a hard time finding the collection. Well, hopefully that will no longer be an issue. This past week the Knowles Collection has moved to new location which should make finding it and searching the collection much easier. It is now located under the Genealogies tab on the front page of FamilySearch.org. The following steps should help in your search.

1. From the main page of FamilySearch.org, Click on the search tab which will give you a drop down box containing five areas. Select Genealogies. (BELOW)


                         
2. This will take you to the main search page. Once on this page you can search by entering the name you are looking for and at the bottom of the page selecting Community Trees (Below). 



3. The results that are returned include Hugh Charles Knowles, the son of Charles Julius Kino and his wife Louise Essinger (Below) . The family changed their name to Knowles before the birth of Hugh Charles.


4. By clicking on the name in blue, the complete record is given of Hugh Charles Knowles (Below). The area on the left of the page provides the basic information as well as a list of sources and notes for the record.  The center of the page is the individuals pedigree, which can be extended for more generations, or made to show the children. The top Yellow band gives the name of the collection the record came from, in this case it is the Knowles Collection, Jews of the British Isles.




I do believe that by moving the collection, far more people will be able to find their families. I am most grateful to all who have donated their own records to the collection.This databases will be updated as often as needed. I hope this continues to be a valuable resource for all those looking for their Jewish families.

7 comments:

  1. I found my great-grandfather (we called him "Papa") through the Knowles' collection, but it won't allow me to merge my created profile for him with its profile for him. Is this not allowed? It provides me no further information, so I'm curious as to why I cannot merge when I know for certain these two people are the same.

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  2. Where is your Bass family from? Part of my mom's family is also Bass.

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    1. I married into the Bass family. My husband's family is from South Texas, and before that, I don't know. My husband's paternal grandmother recently sent me a huge file of what she has uncovered, but I've yet to look through it (we're in the middle of a move!). I'll look through it as soon as I get a chance to see where their name originates. :)

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  3. Can anyone of the Knowles family shed light. All i know is that my great grandfather and his 3 brothers came from the UK in the 1800s. My great grandfather married a coloured woman, hence my ancestry. The other two married white, hence the white lineage.

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  4. I can't find Leon Weitzberg also written as Waitzberg or Wacjberg. He was born in Novy Korczyn Poland in 1894 or 1896 and died in 1966 on Aruba.Can you help.

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  5. I have an interest in this family as my Gt Grandmother, Sarah Walls was cook to the family during which time she became pregnant with my Grandfather. She left their employment and moved back to Bermonsdey where she gave birth in the workhouse. However she did not remain there, like most women in her circumstances, and on the next Census is living in modest accommodation with her son and earning a living as a Shirtmaker. Seeing as how the Kino family were all tailors in the city of London has given rise to speculation that they helped Sarah in some way - maybe because a member of the family was the father of the child.

    I have done some extensive research on the family and it appears that the son Hugh who benefited from a substantial inheritance married no less than four times and has a living son aged 71 from his marriage to his 3rd wife Eunice Baines.

    I have recently done a DNA test which I have uploaded to several sites in the hope that the mystery of my Grandfather's parentage is solved!

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  6. i am looking for all Julien family especial the ones that went to the caribbean countries im looking for the Julien families that settled in venzuela and grenada

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