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.

Knowles Collection Updated - Records of 1,000,000 Jews

In August of 2007, the Knowles Collection first went live as a search able database of genealogical records of the Jewish people. At that time the collection was made up entirely of records of the Jews of Great Britain.That introduction of the collection contained the records of about 7,500 Jews. Those first records came from making a computerized record of the Mordy Collection, the wonderful work compiled by the late Isobel Mordy, before her death in the 1980's.
From that first day, the collection continued to grow, but remained solely a record of the Jewish people in the British Isles. As time passed that database grew to contain the records of well over 100,000 Jews. At that time, five additional databases were added to give coverage of the entire world. The collection now consisted of the 6 databases that it has today.
New records continued to be added. These consisted of vital records, synagogue records, civil records, probate, census and family histories. The family histories have been donated by families from throughout the world, all wishing for their records to be preserved. I am extremely grateful to all who have added their own records. The six databases now consist of records from almost 2,000 different sources.
 The six databases that make up the Knowles Collection have now been updated. Thanks to the work of so many people the combined collection now holds the genealogical  records of over 1,000,000 Jewish people. Each of the 6 databases has grown considerably over the years. The amount of people contained in each database is as follows;

• Jews of the British Isles              191,000
• Jews of North America               393,000
• Jews of Europe                           360,000
• Jews of South America and Caribbean   21,000
• Jews of South Pacific                              21,000
• Jews of Africa, Orient and Middle East   37,000

Even after so much growth, an amazing amount of records continue to be submitted to the database. These records will be added as quickly as we can. Of the records now being added a large number of cemetery transcriptions from all parts of the world are included. With those records added to everything else already published, it truly has become a collection that covers the world. The collection is available at the community trees section at www.familysearch.org. The link in the top right corner of this blog will help you access those records.

Thank you to all for your help, and may we never forget our ancestors.

The Jews of Turkey

Recently, I posted about the records of Michigan, Detroit Manifests of Arrivals at the Port of Detroit, 1906-1954, available at www.familysearch.org.  In those records, well over 400 list themselves as being Jewish and having been born in Turkey. In addition, when one searches the records of border crossings into the United States from Canada and Mexico, there are also a good amount of people who come from Turkey.
The fact that Turkey had such an influence should not be surprising, as the Jewish history of Turkey is very long. As far back as biblical times, the people of Turkey were trading partners with the Israelites. During the time of the expulsion the Sultan Bayazid II of the Ottoman Empire offered refuge to the the Sephardic Jews being driven out of Spain and Portugal,  where they would be free from persecution. In fact, over hundreds of years before the expulsion, Jews fleeing many countries found refuge in the land. Some of them included;

• Early 1300's. Karaites from Europe.
• 1370's. Jews expelled from Hungary.
• 1390's. Jews expelled from France by Charles VI.
• 1400's. Sicilian Jews who were expelled.
• 1530's. Jews from Italy arrived

  For hundreds of year after the expulsion, the Jews of the Ottoman Empire were able to flourish, perhaps like they had never flourished before. The majority of the Jews lived in four major cities, Istanbul, Izmir, Safed and Salonica. By 1500, there were more than 1,500 Jewish households in the city of Istanbul and by the middle of the 1500's that number was more than 7500. The Jews became prominent in medicine, politics, business, arts and literature. In fact the Jews established the first printing press in the Ottoman Empire in 1493.
 The country of Turkey became an independent state in 1923, and have been able to maintain its history of neutrality and of being a refuge for those that need help. During World War II, Turkey became a safe haven for those fleeing the Nazis. Today the Jewish population of Turkey, which is over 90% Sephardic, numbers about 20-25,000. The majority are in Istanbul, but smaller communities are in places such as Izmir.
The Knowles Collection - Jews of Africa and the Orient is now beginning to add some records from Turkey. The records of Altindag Jewish Cemetery in the city of Izmir, are now being entered. These incredible records, thousands of them will soon be available.

Jewish Inhabitants of Gibraltar, 1791-1792.

The Knowles Collection - Jews of Africa and the Orient database has been growing of late. In addition to cemetery records from Turkey, the additions have also come from Gibraltar. The Inhabitants of Gibraltar, 1791-1792 have now been added to the collection and will be available after the next update.
This Collection (FHL film #1729538 item 8) was filmed over 20 years ago from manuscripts in the Archive of the Government of Gibraltar. Included are almost 800 people.

South Africa, Natal Province, Civil Marriages, 1845-1955

Over the last year the Knowles Collection - Jews of Africa and The Orient has added many records from South Africa.These records have included burial records, synagogue records, and a few family histories. Now www.familysearch.org has begun to add more records which are a great benefit for researchers with family in South Africa. The records of various provinces have begun to be added. Included in those records are the Civil Marriage records from 1845-1955 for the Province of Natal.

Images of the actual certificates are also included. The certificate below is for the marriage of Barney Cohen and his bride Essie Smolensky, who were married on 6 September 1936 in Durban.

As with most of the Historical Collection databases, a transcription (below) is also available, which gives the basic information from the certificate. In this case we find that the information came from FHL film #1938559.

In addition, a complete list of the South African databases can be seen by visiting the Africa page of the Historical Collections.

Knowles Collection - Jews of Africa and Orient updated

The Knowles Collection continues to grow. Today, the Jews of Africa and the Orient databases has been updated to now include the records of almost 23,000 Jewish people. This is an increase of almost 50% since this database was last updated in February of 2013.  While the increase came from multiple sources the greater part of the growth came from burial records from Turkey.
The remaining databases will all be updated over the next month. The entire collection now contains the records of almost 800,000 people.