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More than 3,000 copies sold. It is not a beginner’s guide. A beginner’s guide to Jewish genealogy would undoubtedly take many more pages and cost much more. Instead it is a getting started guide meant to convince the reader that tracing one’s Jewish ancestry can be done. The resources described are primarily Internet resources. The Internet has revolutionized family history research. What used to take days or weeks now takes minutes or hours because of the wealth of resources on the Internet. It describes in detail such resources as JewishGen, Morse One-Step site, FamilySearch, Ancestry.com, MyHeritage and many more sites. It alerts the readers to what types of documents of their ancestors will aid in their research—such records as birth, marriage, death, Immigration, census and naturalization records. Special focus is given to two problems often uttered by neophyte Jewish genealogists: (1) My name was changed at Ellis Island and (2) I do not know the town my family came from. 7" x 10" 104 pp. softcover $29.00

Contents
 
INTRODUCTION vii
IF I CAN DO IT, SO CAN YOU 1
 Four Myths of Jewish Genealogy 3
GET STARTED BY INTERVIEWING PEOPLE 4
 Ask for Documents 4
 Ask for Photos 4
RECORDS OF YOUR ANCESTORS 8
 Vital Records 8
 Federal Census Records 10
 Non-Federal Censuses 13
 Naturalization Records 13
 Passenger Lists 14
 Other Resources 15
JEWISHGEN: THE INTERNET HOME OF JEWISH GENEALOGY 18
 Searching JewishGen Databases 19
STEPHEN P. MORSE ONE-STEP SITE  26
 A Strategy for Using the Morse Site to Search the Ellis Island Database 27
SOME OTHER ONLINE GENEALOGY SITES 31
 FamilySearch and the Family History Library System 31
 Routes to Roots Foundation 33
 Jewish Records Indexing-Poland 34
 American Joint Distribution Committee 35
 SephardicGen.com 35
 Compendium of Jewish Genealogy 36
 Geni 36
 Cyndi's List 36
 Facebook Goups 36
COMMERCIAL ONLINE GENEALOGY SITES 38
 Ancestry.com 38
 MyHeritage 39
 DNA Testing for Genealogy 40
 FindaGrave.com and Billion Graves.com 41
 Findmypast.com 42
 Fold3.com 41
 Association of Professional Genealogists 42
 JewishData.com 42

IMPORTANT NON-INTERNET RESOURCES 43
 Jewish Genealogical Societies and Annual Conference 43
 Avotaynu 43
HOLOCAUST RESEARCH 46
 Shoah Victims’ Names Database 48
 International Tracing Service (ITS) 49
 Yizkor Books 50
 Other Resources 50
SPECIAL PROBLEM: MY NAME WAS CHANGED AT ELLIS ISLAND 51
SPECIAL PROBLEM: FINDING YOUR ANCESTRAL TOWN 54
GETTING STARTED PROPERLY 57
 Genealogy Software 57
 Cite Your Sources 58
 Standards 59
 Maintain a Research Log 60
GLOSSARY 61
APPENDIX A: HOW TO SEARCH ONLINE DATABASES 63
APPENDIX A: DAITCH-MOKOTOFF SOUNDEX SYSTEM 66
APPENDIX B: CASE STUDY– THE PATERNAL HISTORY OF BERNARD MADOFF 70
ILLUSTRATIONS 78
 Birth Record 79
 Marriage Record 80
 Death Record 81
 Death Index: 82
 Russian Census 83
 Passenger Arrival Record 84
 Census Record 85
 Petition for Naturalization 86
 Tombstone Inscription 87
 Page of Testimony (Holocaust) 88
 Holocaust Document: 89
 JewishGen Discussion Group 90
 JewishGen Family Finder 91
 Consolidated Jewish Surname Index 92
 Social Security Death Index 93
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