RootsTech London 24-26 October 2019

Its Time To Plan For London

The Early Jewish People of Oregon

The very first Jews to arrive in the Oregon Territory, Jacob Goldsmith and Lewis May, arrived in 1849, 10 years before Oregon became a state. Both men were German born Ashkenazic Jews who being merchants opened a general Store in the city of Portland. The timing of these men was perfect, as over the next few years many mining camps developed along Jackson's Creek, as miners made their way from San Francisco in search of the gold which had been discovered.

While the gold first brought miners to Oregon, they were quickly followed by Jewish merchants who established stores supplying mining equipment, food and all dry goods to the people. These merchants were able to take advantage of family connections and brought all types of materials into their stores. They also expanded their base of influence and sent other members of the community into other cities of Oregon. Places such as Albany, Eugene and The Dalles soon had Jewish communities established by these new merchants.
These first German born Jews were quickly followed by Jews from Russia, Turkey and the Isle of Rhodes. However, the greater amount of new immigrants came from the Russian empire in the 1890's. They made their homes in Portland, where the community already was established with the things they needed such as synagogues and Kosher food. The Sephardic Jews established their own synagogue in Portland in 1910 and it still exists today. The last big wave of immigrants into Oregon did not happen until the fall of the Soviet Union in the 1980's. Today, the Jewish community is established statewide with congregations in well over 30 different cities. The Jewish Population of Oregon is today somewhere over 40,000 people.
Recently, FamilySearch has added a new database which could help people search for their ancestors who were in Oregon. The collection, Oregon Deaths, 1877-1952 includes over 114,000 images containing the vital records of much of the early Jewish community. As I usually do, I performed a basic search using the surname Cohen. The results that came back showed 227 entries contained in the records. Below, is the death certificate I found by doing a search for Ruben Cohen who I knew died in 1942. It is a very standard certificate and I was also able to find the name of his father (Dave) and spouse (Sophia).

While the death certificate is exactly what we would expect to find, the collection also has a few surprises. In the search of the surname Cohen, the record of Fred Cohen was included, however not with a death date, only a birth date. That would not be the way one would usually find someone on a death index. Following the link to his name, I found that the record for him was not a death certificate, but was a Registration of Birth for him. The record (shown below) is dated 23 Jul 1946 and appears to be the record of Fred Cohen having his birth recorded almost 55 years after his birth.

The beautiful thing about this record for a genealogist is how he has documented the important information about his parents. We now know his father was George Cohen, born in Posen on 18 Feb 1840, and his mother was Mary Lewis, who was born in Abursuitz, Germany on 17 May 1854. This is wonderful information and just reinforces that no matter how much the index provides it is always a great idea to look at the original record.

Delaware Vital Records, 1650-1974

The amount of basic vital records located on sites such as FamilySearch, Ancestry and My Heritage continues to grow. These records are some of the best sources for birth, death and marriage records available to people searching for more complete information on their ancestors. FamilySearch has now added the collection, Delaware Vital Records, 1650-1974 to its free Historical Collections. This collection, which also includes bible and cemetery records, contains over 3.1 million images.
The records are typewritten and give some very good information for researchers. Below, you will see that the information provided on the birth, marriage and death records can be very helpful in identifying family connections. 

 

 

 The images above, come from the FamilySearch wiki page for this collection. In addition to these examples, there is also a good amount of information on this collection. It is always a great idea to read the wiki pages as they can be a great source of information.

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.

Pennsylvania Obituaries, 1977-2010

In recent months, FamilySearch has been contributing a great deal of time and effort toward the indexing of obituaries. These will be a great tool for researchers in located their families. A great example of these records is the new database that FamilySearch has just published, Pennsylvania Obituaries, 1977 - 2010.  This collection, which as of today has over 96,000 images, is the collection of the Old Buncombe County, North Carolina Genealogical Society.
This collection is easily searched and as with all other FamilySearch collections can be searched for free at any time. In the standard search box (shown below), I did a search for all obituaries of the surname Cohen. 

The search results showed 277 different obituaries featuring the surname Cohen. The first few entries are shown below.

At this point, clicking on the name of the deceased will provide some more excellent information. In the example below I clicked on Ruth M Cohen. In addition to many great family relationships, I now also know the name of the newspaper where this obituary appeared, The Reading Eagle/Reading Times.

At this point, we are then able to go one step further and see the original obituary.

What a great source for the family researcher.

The Jews of Guatemala

The Jewish history within Guatemala is shorter and much smaller than most of its Central American neighbors. While there were certainly Jews in the country who came during the Inquisition, the present day community's roots begin in mid 1800's. Those first group of German immigrants were small in number and for the most part isolated from other Jews in the region, and because of this the did not have much influence with other Jews in other countries.
The second wave of Jewish immigrants, those whose impact is still visible in Guatemala started arriving in the early 1900's. The first arrived from Germany and various Middle Eastern countries, and were followed in the 1920's by Jews from Eastern Europe. Many of this latter group did not plan on staying long. They arrived in Guatemala from Cuba and were hoping to have visas from the United States so they could continue on their journey.
Being Jewish in Guatemala has not  

always been favorable. The country has at times acted to limit the arrival of new Jewish immigrants. In the early 1930's, the government ordered the expulsion of all peddlers from the country. This was meant to hurt the Jews as the majority of peddlers were Jewish. The order was not carried out, however laws were passed to ban peddling. This ban forced many Jews to emigrate elsewhere as they could no longer support their families.
In 1936, under pressure from the German community, laws were passed that would limit the number of immigrants of "Asian origin" which included people from Poland, the majority of who were Jewish. Due to these restrictions, the Jewish population was less than 1000 people in 1939. The majority of them lived in Guatemala City, Quezaltenengo and San Marcos.
Guatemala, even with their history of trying to restrict Jewish immigration, was the first country in Latin America to recognize Israel and it was also the first country to open its own embassy in Jerusalem. Today the majority of the 900 Jews still live in Guatemala City still struggle to maintain numbers as many of the Jews still seek ti immigrate for a better future.
Over the last few years more genealogical records of the people of Guatemala have become more accessible to researchers. As of today, FamilySearch has six databases of records from Guatemala, including Civil Registration from 1877-2008. The record shown below is the birth record of Augusta Stahl Cohen, daughter of Adolo Stahl and his wife Rosa Cohen. She was born on 28 Jun 1888 in Guatemala City.

The Stahl family were part of that first group of Jews who immigrated into Guatemala from Germany int the mid 1800's.

New Zealand, Archives New Zealand Probate Records, 1848-1991

Familysearch has just published a collection of probate records held by Archives New Zealand for the time period 1848-1991. The records come from various courts throughout New Zealand. The published collection has over 2.7 million images, however the images for probates issued during the past 50 years are not available for viewing.
The collection is very easy to use as it is name search able. Searching for the name Cohen, there were 158 different probates for that name. The record below is for Siegmund Cohen, whose will was probated in 1903 in the court of Wanganui. The index information (shown below) gives all the vital information.

 

The original record can be found by clicking on the "View the Document" linked located in the upper right corner. The wills are very easy to read and in the case of Siegmund Cohen give a lot of good family information. The record below is page one of the will which gives the name of his wife, Mathilda,  the names of their four sons,  Maurice, Louis, Edward and Leon, and their sons.

Page two of the will also provides the names of his two daughters, Clara and Lena. This collection may not have as many Jewish families as a European collection but it does give great help to those with ancestry in the Pacific.

Happy Valley Jewish Cemetery, Hong Kong

 

  It seems day by day the genealogical world gets smaller and smaller. It really wasn't that long ago that in order to find the records of our ancestors we had to travel to countries worldwide hoping to view that one record that would break through a barrier. Now, through the benefit of the Internet we can bring those same records into our living rooms. A great example of this are the records of burials in the Happy Valley Jewish cemetery on the Island of Hong Kong.

The records of the cemetery do not include a lot of people, however if it is your family member that is buried there, having access to those records is priceless. Now, these records can be accessed through the FamilySearch website. In the Asia and Middle East section of the Historical Record Collection, is the China, Cemetery Records, 1820-1983. As of May of 2013, this collection had over 72,000 browse able images.
The Jewish Cemetery at Happy Valley is just one of dozens that make up the collection. The list below is just a partial list of those cemeteries.

By clicking on the link Jewish Cemetery (Happy Valley), a further list of the years covered is shown.

In the list shown, I selected the year 1958. In that year there were 8 Jewish Foreigner's Interred in the cemetery.

The place of birth is not shown but I believe the majority were born in the British Isles. Again, its not a large collection, but how many of us will ever get the chance to walk through the grounds of this burial ground of our ancestors.