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.

Jews of Bratislava

 The Jewish history of the area now known as Bratislava dates back well over 700 years ago. Now the capital city of Slovakia, it was until 1918 in Hungary. Known in Hungary as Pozsony, it was the home of the Kings of Hungary. 
The Jewish community of Bratislava is first acknowledged in 1291, when they were granted a charter by King Andrew III. The members of the community, comprised mostly of merchants, bankers and owners of vineyards became taxpayers and established a solid community. The earliest synagogue was built in the 1330's.
Life in Bratislava was not always peaceful for the Jews living there. In 1360, the Jews were expelled from Hungary, and some residents fled to Austria. They were allowed back in 1367 and were even allowed to return to their homes. However in 1371, laws were put in place that regulated financial transactions between Jews and Christians. In 1392, Christians were exempted for a year from having to pay taxes on money owed to Jews. Later, in the mid 1400's, on two different occasions, all debts owed to Jews were cancelled.

Over the next 300 or so years, the Jews suffered through multiple restrictions on the community. The restrictions included who they could trade with and where they could live. Also, on numerous occasions they were expelled from Hungary. Because of these actions the Jewish population was under 200 hundred by the early 1700's.
In the early 1700's, Jews in the various areas of Bratislava were given some protection and were even allowed to establish small communities. In the 1770's the Jews living in the area of Schlossberg were permitted to settle on land owned by the city and establish their own "Jewish Street". The Jews of Bratislava became very well established. They established the textile trade in Hungary and helped Bratislava become a center of learning for Jews, in fact, for Orthodox Jews it became a major place of importance for the entire world. By 1930, the Jewish population of Bratislava had grown to almost 15,000 which was well over 10% of the entire population.
Now, Marelynn Zipser has transcribed the records of the Jewish community of Bratislava, and made those available to the Knowles Collection. This incredible work is now part of the Jews of Europe database. The collection can be search at the FamilySearch Community Trees site. That link is provided at the top right of this blog. A very special thanks to Marelynn for all her hard work. She is truly blessing so many with her efforts.

Jews of Europe database updated

The Knowles Collection: Jews of Europe database has been updated again. The continued growth has brought the database to now include the records of over 250,000 Jews. The latest additions  include the birth, marriage and death records of the Jews of Bratislava, as well as records from Denmark and the Netherlands.