Nu? What's New?
The E-zine of Jewish Genealogy From Avotaynu

Gary Mokotoff, Editor

Volume 21, Number 26 | June 28, 2020

Every government puts value on preserving its history. That is why we have national archives. Genealogy preserves history; the history of a family. It cannot be done without access to records, just as historians cannot preserve a nation's history without access to records. It is a greater good than the right to privacy. It is a greater good than the risk of identity theft.

Past issues of Nu? What's New? are archived at http://www.avotaynu.com/nu.htm
Underlined words are links to sites with additional information.

Findmypast Will Publish 1921 Census of England and Wales
Findmypast has been selected as the UK National Archives’ commercial partner to make the 1921 census of England and Wales available online. The census will be published by Findmypast in January 2022.

Taken on 19th June 1921, the census consists of more than 28,000 bound volumes of original household returns containing detailed information on close to 38 million individuals. It provides greater detail than any previous census as, in addition to the questions asked in 1911, the 1921 returns also asked householders to reveal their place of employment, the industry they worked in and the materials they worked with as well as their employer’s name.

The project will see Findmypast capture digital images and transcribe the records in a way that will enable family historians across the globe to conduct searches of these records when they are opened for the very first time.

The announcement can be found at https://www.findmypast.com/1921-census.


Free Access to Certain Ancestry.ca Collections Through Canada Day, July 1
Ancestry.ca is offering free access to more than 100 of its collections through Canada Day, July 1. Search these collections at https://www.ancestry.ca/cs/canadaday. The list of collections available can be found at https://www.ancestry.ca/search/categories/canada_day_2020/.


Online Map of Historic Synagogues in Europe
Jan Meisels Allen notes that the Foundation for Jewish Heritage has posted a map of historic synagogues of Europe at http://historicsynagogueseurope.org/synagogue-map. Clicking on any of the red balloons on the map opens up a photograph and information about that synagogue.

The Foundation for Jewish Heritage is dedicated exclusively to the preservation of Jewish architectural sites, working internationally to ensure a future for historic synagogues, Jewish monuments and places of cultural significance. Its website is at https://www.foundationforjewishheritage.com/.


JewishGen Talks for Week is “Rescue and Resettlement: Researching Refugees from Nazi Europe”
JewishGen will present its weekly “JewishGen Talks” on July 1 at 3pm ET. The speaker is Karen Franklin and the topic is “Rescue and Resettlement: Researching Refugees from Nazi Europe.” The lecture is in partnership with Leo Baeck Institute and the Jewish Genealogical Society of New York.

Franklin is Director of Family Research at the Leo Baeck Institute; co-founder and president of the jury of the Obermayer German Jewish History Awards; Past co-chair of JewishGen's Board of Governors; Past president of the International Association of Jewish Genealogical Societies, and recipient of its Lifetime Achievement Award; Past President of the Council of American Jewish Museums.

Register for the lecture at https://zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_9Es21EueSpqQHz9MqtOavg.


1921 Czech Census for Subcarpathia Online
Lara Diamond notes that if you have family from what was pre-WWI Hungary, Czechoslovakia between the wars, and is now Zakarpattya Oblast, Ukraine, the 1921 Czech census is online. She has created at her website instructions on how to navigate the site. It is located at https://tinyurl.com/Diamond1921Census. Diamond notes that persons who want to work with her to create an index to the Jewish entries in the census, should contact her through her website.


Reclaim The Records Makes Accessible Birth/Death Records for Yonkers, New York
Using the New York State Freedom of Information Law, Reclaim The Records has acquired birth and death indexes and registers for 19th and 20th century Yonkers. The city is a northern suburb of New York City.

The announcement can be found at https://tinyurl.com/RTRYonkers. It includes a list of which collections were acquired and which are now available to be searched. There are also links to the individual collections now online.


Robinn Magid Appointed Assistant Director of JRI-Poland
The board of JRI-Poland has unanimously elected Robinn Magid to assume the new position of assistant director and member of the JRI-Poland executive committee. Executive director Stanley Diamond noted that Magid “has been a mainstay of JRI-Poland from the earliest days of our organization, taking on countless roles along the way. Becoming assistant director is a natural evolution of her growing responsibilities over the years.”

She is best known to the general Jewish genealogical community as chair of the 2018 International Conference on Jewish Genealogy in Warsaw and the chair once again for the 2020 virtual conference originally scheduled for San Diego.

Launched in early 1995, JRI-Poland is the largest fully searchable database of indexes to Jewish vital records accessible online. 6.1 million records from more than 550 Polish towns are now indexed or fully extracted. More are being added every few months.

Its website is located at https://jri-poland.org/.


FamilySearch Adds 8.5M Records This Week
A list of recent additions to FamilySearch, 8.5M million index records, can be found at https://tinyurl.com/FamilySearch062220. This site provides direct links to the individual collections. They include records from American Samoa, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Dominican Republic, England, Honduras, Jamaica, Micronesia, Niue, Paraguay, Peru, Poland, Puerto Rico, South Africa, Switzerland, United States and Zambia.

Significant additions include 2.3M records added to the Find A Grave index. Also
New York, Southern District, U.S District Court Naturalization Records, 1824–1946, 392,223 records.

Note that at the website, announced collections may not be complete for the dates specified and will be added at some later date. Also note that counts shown in the announcement are the number added, not the total number available in the collection, which can be greater.


New Collections at Ancestry.com
Ancestry has added/updated the following record groups at their site. The list with links to individual collections can be found at https://www.ancestry.com/cs/recent-collections. Announced collections may not be complete for the dates specified and will be added at some later date. There is also no indication of how many records were added to the updated collections.

New Collections
Indiana, Deaths, Pre–1882
Limbach–Oberfrohna, Germany, Residence Records, 1869–1932

Updated Collections
Find A Grave Index for various countries, 1600s–Current
1921 Census of Canada
U.S., World War II Army Enlistment Records, 1938–1946
Louisiana, Compiled Marriage Index, 1718–1925, 1946–1961
New Orleans, Louisiana, Index to Death Records, 1804–1964
1880 United States Federal Census
UK and Ireland, Find A Grave Index, 1300s–Current
Australia and New Zealand, Find A Grave Index, 1800s–Current
Limbach–Oberfrohna, Germany, Marriages, 1876–1922
Limbach–Oberfrohna, Germany, Births, 1876–1904
Limbach–Oberfrohna, Germany, Deaths, 1876–1952

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