The Knowles Collection: March 2014

28 March 2014

Minnesota, County Marriages, 1860-1949

The latest additions to the FamilySearch website include many more databases that contain valuable records for finding our Jewish ancestors. One of the newer collections, Minnesota, County Marriages, 1860-1949 , is a great example.
The collection, which at this time includes marriage records from 13 different counties, contains almost 600,000 images. Of those images, over 280,000 are now name search able. The majority of the records are the applications for marriage licenses. They do not give a great deal of information, however they do include the name of bride and groom, date and place of marriage and in some cases the ages of the new husband and wife. The record below is for the marriage of Emanuel Polikoff and Ida Cohen.

From the marriage license we gain the knowledge that Emanuel was 26 years of age and Ida was 22. We also notice that at the bottom of the document it states "subscribed and sworn to before me this 8th day of January A.D. 1910". With the collection covering 1860-1949, most of the couples should be search able in the various United States census records, which will help verify the information and possibly link them to their families. The collection can be searched for free at www.familysearch.org.

11 March 2014

New Brunswick Provincial Deaths, 1815-1938

The registration of deaths in Canada began in 1887. The government wanted to keep a written record of the population for their own use. With the passing of the Vital Statistics Act of 1887, governments began to collect the records of death. Some of those records predate the act, and because of that the collection includes some records as far back as 1815.

This collection, New Brunswick Provincial Deaths, 1815 - 1938, which has been published by FamilySearch, includes over 177,000 images which are name search able.
I did a basic search for David Cohen, husband of Molly, who I knew died in December of 1935 at just under 50 years of age. The search results gave me the following information.

In addition to extracting all the information from the death record, the results also includes the Family History Library microfilm number (2167255), from which this record was extracted. The original record (below) can also be view by clicking on the view document tab.

This collection can be viewed free of charge at www.familysearch.org.

Growth and Change

In the 12 years since the Knowles Collection was first published, the numbers have climbed from 7,500 to over 1,4000,000. So many of our ancestors left their native lands for new homes. Because of that movement the collection will now be in 6 different databases. All of them will be under the Knowles Collection umbrella. They are Jews of The British Isles; Jews of the North America; Jews of Europe; Jews of South America and the Caribbean; and Jews of Africa and the Orient and the newest one, Jews of the Southern Pacific.. This is a great indication of how universal our families are, and of how much still needs to be done.