United States Passport Applications, 1795-1925

Passport applications have always been a great source of family information. Since they are filled out by living people who are providing current information regarding their own lives, they tend to be very reliable and a great source for people researching their families.
Familysearch has just added a new collection, United States Passport Applications, 1795-1925, which should make finding these records much easier. The collection, which is a combination of two different National Archives and records Administration (NARA) collections, has over 3 million images of which 1.9 million are indexed.
A great example of the information provided in the applicant is the record of Albert J. Cohen (shown below). From his application we learn that he was born on 31 Oct 1874 in Cairo, Egypt. He is married to Krisanti Cohen who was born in 1881 in Crete and that they have a daughter Mary who was born on the 27th of November 1903, also in Cairo. Further we learn the family arrived in the United States in August 1894 on the S.S. Rotterdam. The application also states that Albert was naturalized a U.S. citizen on 11 Mar 1902 in Charleston, South Carolina.

 As with all databases these passport records are available free of charge at www.familysearch.org

Manchester, England Melting Pot of Middle Eastern and North African Jews

In the previous post on this blog it was announced that the information taken from the headstones in the Jewish section of the Southern Cemetery in Manchester, England had been added to the Knowles Collection- Jews Of The British Isles and would be updated soon. However what that information does not completely show is the incredible amount of Jewish families from areas outside the British Isles who made Manchester their home.
The areas represented include some of those with the oldest known Jewish communities in the world. Some of these were once thriving places for the Jews but now because of war and unrest the Jewish populations are not what they once were. In some cases, the clues to the families origins comes directly from the headstones, in others, a little research is needed.

EGYPT. A great example are the Jews of Egypt. The Jewish history in Egypt is one of the oldest of all communities, dating back over 2,500 years. In modern times many Jews fled to Egypt after the expulsion from Spain. The Jewish population of Egypt was over 75,000 as late as 1900.  On the headstone of Samy Sinvor (1921-2012) his birthplace is given as Cairo, Egypt. Other families in Manchester, when filling out the 1911 Census give their place of birth as Alexandria. Today, few Jews live in Egypt.

ALEPPO, SYRIA. Another old historic community, the Jews have been in Aleppo since at least the 4th century when the ancient synagogue was built. The current synagogue was originally built in the 9th century. In modern times the Jews of Aleppo were merchants who

traded throughout the world. They were known to be successful in their work. Much of this changed however in 1869 when the Suez Canal opened. This began the decline of the economic condition of the Jews. Many of the Jews began to move to Western Cities, such as Manchester.
Murad Salem (1860) and his wife Pauline (1866) were both born in Aleppo as was their oldest child Isaac. The next 2 children were born in Beirut as they made their way out of the area. In 1901 their daughter Violet became the first of their remaining 8 children to be born in the Manchester area. There are numerous families buried in Manchester who have ties to Aleppo. Names such as Abadi, Dewik and Harari are easily found, and all are prominent names from the community of Aleppo.

TUNISIA. Another ancient community, however they still had a community over 100,00 people as late as 1950. However, after Tunisia gained its independence in 1956, anti-Jewish decrees were put in place, the Jewish council was abolished and the Ancient Synagogues, cemeteries and Jewish quarters were all destroyed. During this time and in later unrest most Jews fled to Israel. Some however also

fled to cities in the west. Many settled in areas where families had settled earlier. One example of an earlier family to settle in Manchester was the family of Moise and Camille Aboud. They were both both born in Tunis as was their daughter Lucie, who was born in 1908. According to the 1911 Census of England their second child, Victoria was born in Argentina, before the family settled in Manchester.

These are but just a few of the families that have helped make the Jewish community of Manchester what it is. It truly is a place which the rich cultures of old established communities continue to thrive. In addition to these there are other families from old established beautiful areas such as Greece and Turkey. May those communities always prosper, and thanks to the people of Manchester, I am sure they will.

Jews of Switzerland

The Jewish history of Switzerland spans hundreds of years. The first recorded Jews settled there in the very early part of the 13th century. The first Swiss Jews were located in Basel, which was one of the largest Jewish communities in all of Europe,The Jews of Basel, who were mostly from Germany and France arrived in 1213.
Other communities followed soon after, with Bern, St. Gall, Zurich, Schaffhausen, Dissenholfen and Luzerne all having Jewish communities before the end of the 13th century. These communities flourished until the middle of the 14th Century, when events in different cities caused
major changes. In Basel, the community thrived until 1348. Then the Black Death when the Jews were accused of poisoning the water supply. Over 600 Jews were taken to and island on the Rhine where they were burned at the stake. Their children were sparred but were forced to be baptised.
In Bern, at about this same time, the Jewish community was accused of murdering a Christian boy. The Jews were then expelled from Bern, however not much later they were allowed to return.
In the 14th Century, Jews began arriving from places such as Alsace, Nuremburg, France and many of the Southern German cities. During this time Jews were also given limited citizenship. This was not the same that the Christians enjoyed but it did give them some protection and allowed them to live in the cities if they paid certain sums of money. Foreign Jews were not allowed to live in the cities.
During the 14th and 15th centuries, most of the Jews were involved as merchants and money lenders. They did live under restrictions, such as being forced to live in certain neighborhoods and even being told which streets they could live on. They were also persecuted by some of the Swiss people, many times because those same people were in debt to the Jews. These areas became the center of their lives as they built the synagogues and had their shops in these same neighborhoods.
Over the next few hundred years, the Jews who had been expelled returned to their communities. While they did return, it did not always mean that the persecutions had ended. During the early 1400's many Jews faced death. In 1401 all the Jewish residents of Schaffhausen were condemned to death and in fact thirty were burned alive on 25 June 1401.
The community in Geneva wasn't established until the 1780's, but became a thriving community, building a synagogue in Carouge. They later became citizens and had their own burial ground. During the 19th and early 20th centuries, many Jews arrived from Eastern Europe and Alsace. Between 1900 and 1947 many synagogues were built and burial grounds established. In 1947, the Great Synagogue was rebuilt.
During the Holocaust, Switzerland gave refuge to over 20,000 Jews. Because of the neutrality that the government had these Jews were protected. As the war grew the Swiss government took steps to make it harder for Jews to enter the country and over 30,000 were denied access. After the war, things changed somewhat and the Swiss became supportive toward those who faced hardships in their own countries.
In the 1950's they looked after refugees from Egypt and Hungary and then 10 years later they helped those fleeing Czechoslovakia. Today, some 20,000-25,000 Jews live in Switzerland with about a third of those living in Zurich.
Jews from Switzerland will be found in the Knowles Colection - Jews of Europe database.