Mexico, Civil Registration and the Jews.

This past week at the 2018 Rootstech Conference, which was held in Salt Lake City, a lot of publicity was given to FamilySearch for releasing millions of Birth, Marriage and Death records from Mexico. The records are identified by state, and the earliest records date to 1832, however the majority begin in the 1860's. These records are also very modern with many extending into the 21st century. The entire list of the records added is shown below, and includes one database from England, which was also updated at that time.

The history of the Jews in Mexico begins in the early 1800's when those who were forced out of Spain and Portugal during the Inquisition began to arrive. During the Colonial Period in Mexico (1580-1640), many Jews came to Mexico from the Iberian Union, at a time when the Portuguese Jews had somewhat freer movement to Spanish America. However, when Portugal won its Independence from Spain, that led to persecution of the Portuguese Jews. This lasted into the 1800's when the Liberal Reform led to religious tolerance, and Jews were free to immigrate to Mexico. This freedom led to Jews coming from all over, first Europe, then the Ottoman Empire and finally the area that is now Syria. Today, the Jewish population of Mexico is over 67,000, with the majority being in Mexico City and Guadalajara.
The newly posted Civil Registration records are especially help full to those families who had Jewish family who came from Europe. In many cases, some had  after they left Mexico for the United States, but what happened in Mexico has been harder to locate. An example of this is the records of Albert Levy Cohen Hassid, who was born on 20 March 1920 in Marseille, France. He was the son of Jacobo L. Cohen and his wife Rebecca Hassid. This information comes from the Ancestry database, U.S., Social Security Applications and Claims Index, 1936-2007.

Also, we are able to identify him in the Border Crossings: From Mexico to the U. S., 1895-1964 collection, whish is also from Ancestry. The information matches the information found on the previous document.

Now, we do know a lot about his birth and his death, as well as his arrival in the U.S., but very little else. I have not been able to find a marriage for him in the states and if he did marry here, he would have only had a few weeks before the census, so he and his wife would most likely have not been on the 1940 Census together. However, if we take advantage of the new Civil Registration databases we find that by 13 Feb 1946, he had to gone back to Mexico, because on that day he married Luisa Shemaria Bejar, the daughter of Isaac Shemaria and his wife Raquel Bejar in Guadalajara. Jalisco, Mexico (the original is below).

FamilySearch has been kind enough to also provide the transcription for those without a knowledge of Spanish and it is below.

Once again, the information provided can be tied directly to the other documents, which continues to provide us the information to complete his life story. He will never be forgotten. What an incredible time we are in, where so many records are becoming available through so much hard work by everyone.

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.

The Jews of the Philippines

The Jewish history of the Philippines begins with the Spanish Inquisition of the 1500's. These Jews had 2 choices, be forced into Christianity or flee the country to avoid death. Many of these Jews fled Spain to settle in the new Spanish colonies, such as the Philippines.
Those early settlers who fled to the Philippines soon found that it did not guarantee them the freedoms they sought. In the 1590's at least 10 of these Jews were tried and jailed by the Inquisition. Because there was no established tribunal in the Philippines, these court cases were conducted in Mexico City, Mexico. These cases led most of the Jews to practice their faith in secret, in fact the laws of the time would not have permitted any kind of a public Jewish community. This led to there being no organized community until the late 19th century.
The first group of settlers who arrived in the late 1870's were those from Alsace who were escaping the conditions left after the Franco-Prussian War. Some of these Jews were prominent businessmen who were very influential in future business ventures in the Philippines. This was the perfect time for them to establish themselves in the country because the opening of the Suez Canal brought more business from Europe. This also allowed more Jews to arrive which only made the community stronger. Jews from places such as Turkey, Egypt and Syria soon began arriving.
The freedom to be openly Jewish finally came to the Philippines in 1898, when as a result of the Spanish -American War, the United States took control of the islands from Spain. This was truly the beginning of the Jewish community. With the United States in control, many Americans travelled to the Islands. Many were military who stayed after the war, but there were also merchants, teachers and many other trades. The Jewish community in Manila became home to the largest group of Jews in the early 1900's.
In 1901, two men who would become very influential in the Philippines, Emil Bcharach and Morton Netzorg, arrived in Manila. These two men became very successful and were very generous, strong backers of the Jewish people. In fact the synagogue, Temple Emil and the community center, Bachrach Hall, were financed by the Bachrach family and bore his name. The population in the Philippines before 1930, probably never exceeded 500 people.
The period between the mid 1930's and mid 1940's was time that brought the majority of the Jewsto the Philippines. Some of these were the Jews fleeing Shanghai, which was discussed in an earlier post. These German and Polish Jews no longer felt safe living in their new home, having already fled Eastern Europe. The government and people of the Philippines were instrumental in thousands of Jews being able to flee the war. Eventually about 1500 Jews were able to flee Europe and settle in the Philippines. The Jewish population grew to between 2,500 and 3,000. The bravery of the people of the Philippines will long be remembered. Today the Jewish community in the Philippines probably is no more than 500 to a thousand, mostly located in Manila.

Finding Jewish families in the Border Crossing records into the United States.

As we all know, the United States of America became home to so many of our Jewish families in the period from the 1880's till after World War II. For this reason many of us begin our searches in records such as passenger arrivals at Ellis Island and U.S. census records. While these types of records are great sources for locating our families, they sometimes are lacking in the information they provide. Another wonderful source that should be used more often are the Border Crossing records of those arriving into the United States, from Canada and Mexico.

The records of the arrival on American soil from Mexico are available for various time frames for port of entry's in Texas, Arizona and New Mexico. The search able indexes to the record cards can be found on the Family Search website. They can be found in the catalog or www.Ancestry.com also has them available. The information that these records provide is amazing. The records of the arrival in Laredo of the Chayo family shows all the information that can be taken for each record.
On 26 Jun 1920, the family of Ezra and Farida Chayo arrived at Laredo, Texas. The record at left is the card for Ezra Chayo, a merchant. According to the record he is 35 years of age, born in Aleppo, Syria. His family is of Turkish descent and he is a Hebrew who speaks Yiddish. The record also states that they are on their way to Argentina via New York City. It is very doubtful that all of this information could be found on either a record from Ellis Island or a census record.
In addition to Ezra, the cards for his wife Farida, and children Nazilla, Elias, Marcos and Violet are found. The cards for Marcos (b.1917) and Violet (b. 1919) give Mexico as the place of birth while the others list Aleppo. All of this is wonderful information for tracing your family.
The border crossings for those entering the United States from Canada are also available through FamilySearch or Ancestry. many of the records, such as this one for the family of Abraham Abugou are taken from the passenger lists of those arriving at US ports from Canada. This one is from St. Albans, Vermont.
The record shows Abraham, his wife Sonia and their daughter all from Lithuania. It states that they will be living with his sister Eta Abugou Littman at her home in Worcester, Mass.
While this is still great information, it is not quite as detailed as the records from Mexico. Regardless of this, it is another reminder of how important it is to check every possible record when researching our families. The story these documents create can be most vital for researchers.

The Jews of Mexico

The Jewish history of Mexico begins almost 500 years ago when Hernando Cortes conquered the Aztecs. At the time of his arrival in 1521 he was accompanied by some Conversos Jews, who were forced to convert to Christianity during the Spanish Inquisition. Many of these Conversos continued their Jewish practices in secret.


The population of Mexico has had 4 major periods of growth, they are:

• In the 1860's when Maximillian I invited a large group of German Jews to settle in Mexico.
• 1880's when Ashkenazic Jews fleeing places such as Russia and Romania arrived in Mexico.
• After the fall of the Ottoman Empire when Sephardic Jews began arriving from locations such as Turkey, Morocco, and France.
• Those fleeing Nazi persecution in Europe during World War II.

Today the Jewish population of Mexico is approaching 50,000 people, located mostly in Mexico City, but also places such as Guadalajara, Monterrey and Tijuana. The community in Mexico City is home to over 30 synagogues, most of which are Orthodox.

At this time the first records of the Jews of Mexico are being added to the Knowles Collection and will be available soon.