Sephardicgen.com

At the 2012 International Association of Jewish Genealogical Societies (IAJGS) conference held in Paris, France this past year, Dr. Jeff Malka received the lifetime achievement award for his incredible work in Sephardic Genealogy. His work and the work of other genealogists can be found at the  Sephardicgen.com website. The homepage of that site (below) is easy to follow and makes it very simple to find databases for your own are of interest.

The tabs down the side will lead you to an incredible amount of resources, from Sephardic history, surnames and family trees. The websites by country tab is one that I find most useful, as it will take you directly to the databases that exist that will be most helpful for your own research. The list of those countries (below) covers the Sephardic world.

Anyone with Sephardic family should make this site a regular part of your research. Congratulations to Dr. Malka for this great honor.

Gesher Galicia, Inc.

As any researcher knows, its always best to have help as we look for our ancestors. Sometimes that means visiting with family, friends our other s who share the same interests, as we try to expand those family trees.

For anyone who is researching family in Galicia, a great website is now available for you to collaborate with others. Gesher Galicia, www.jewishgen.org/galicia is that site. As the title page says,

While the entire site is looking like a great tool for researchers, I especially enjoy the section titled, Life in Galicia, which includes articles, photos and videos on an assortment of things about the area. Watching the videos had an incredible effect of bringing the area to life, it was easy to imagine where our ancestors once walked. I would strongly encourage everyone to join together with fellow researchers and help this great work along.

Thanks to Pamela Weisberger for bringing this to my attention.

Centropa.org

One of the benefits of being able to research Jewish families from all over the world is finding great new websites. I have just recently been using a wonderful site for those whose families came from Central and Eastern Europe, the former Soviet Union, and the Sephardic communities of Greece, Turkey and the Balkans. That site is Centropa.org.

Through interviews with elderly Jews, Centropa is building collections that will be treasures for many families. By adding photos to the oral histories, they are truly becoming a "Jewish Witness to a European Century" as their websites states.

Centropa.org is very easy to navigate. Simply click on the link in Red, that says, An Interactive Database of Jewish History. By doing so the page below will appear.

By clicking on whichever country you choose, a brief history will appear and you will the be able to search for those records. I clicked on Poland and the following appeared.

The resources available here for families are incredible, and I believe will only get better. Take sometime and get to know the website, even if you don't have family in these locations, remembering those who gave so much, can only help us know ourselves.

HaChayim HaYehudim Jewish Photo Library

I recently was very surprised by a website I found totally by accident. I have been entering the burial records of Bridgetown, Barbados into the Knowles Collection. Needing a break and having a few moments of free time, I put the location in my favorite search engine. What came to sight was most incredible. I was viewing some of the actual headstones.

The search had found the website http://www.jewishphotolibrary.com/. This site is the home of the photo collection of Jono David. It contains as of this writing over 36,000 photographs from 81 countries on 6 continents. Included in his collection are photos on everything Jewish, it is truly a remarkable collection. I have found myself browsing the collections quite often, there is so much to take in. As he says on the website, he is truly "Documenting the Jewish World One Photograph at a Time."

All researchers looking for their Jewish ancestors should visit this site, it would be time well spent.

Museum Of Family History

As we research our Jewish families, eventually we seem to always end up in that cold, dusty archive somewhere in the world. While, the thrill of finding that long lost ancestor makes any location more tolerable, I would still like to stay in the comforts of my own home as long as possible. To me, finding a relative while dressed in my pajamas, is just as fun as being cold. For those who like to start their research from home, the perfect museum has arrived.

The Museum of Family History ( http://www.museumoffamilyhistory.com/) has no walls, you can't drive there to visit, and even if you did, finding a proper parking space would be impossible, because the museum exists only in cyberspace. Its goal is simple, To Honor and Preserve the Memoryof Our Jewish Families and Culture for the Present and Future Generations.

The museum has an incredible collection of records for family research. Some of the records include histories of communities, cemetery collections, memorials of those who died in the Holocaust, and so much more. It is truly an incredible resource for anyone with Jewish ancestry, regardless of country of origin.

Gombin Jewish Historical & Genealogical Society

One of the joys of being involved in Jewish family history research, is always seeing new wonderful webites, and if I am able to come across a site that deals with Poland, that is all the better. So imagine the excitement this morning as I have been reading through the website of the Gombin Jewish Historical & Genealogical Society (www.gombinsociety.org/).

Even though Gombin, may be most famous for its wooden synagogue, which was first built in the year 1710 and restored in 1893, this website is a wonderful place to learn more about the Jewish community there. While some sections appear to still be a work in progress, I have found myself unable to leave the site, and thank them for their incredible work.