JEWISH ANCESTORS

Many Jewish people have settled in the UK over the last 500 years, particularly from the late 19th century onwards. To trace your Jewish ancestors, you should follow many of the same principles as tracing non-Jewish ancestors, although we have suggested some additional advice below.

The website Moving Here has useful information about how to trace Jewish ancestors.

Gather as much information as you can from family members. It might be helpful to ask them about spelling variants, as names may have been anglicised. This is particularly important when searching indexes and census records, for example.

You can use online translation aids to decipher Hebrew, Russian, Yiddish and other languages.

Birth, marriage and death certificates

Civil registration began on 1 July 1837 in England and Wales, and no central records of births, marriages or deaths exist before that date. Birth, marriage and death certificates cannot be viewed or ordered at The National Archives. The General Register Office (GRO) keeps all certificates of births, marriages and deaths in England and Wales since 1837.

Find out where to search birth, marriage and death indexes online at Directgov
Order certificates from the General Register Office

Census records

A census of the population of England and Wales has been taken every ten years since 1801 with the exception of 1941. The 1841 census was the first to list the names of every individual. Earlier censuses covering 1801 to 1831 only recorded the number of people in each area.

Search census records for England and Wales from 1841 to 1911 online

Wills

Wills proved from 1858 to the present day are held only by the Probate Service. The National Probate Calendar may also contain details including the full names of executors, administrators and relationships to the deceased; the date and place of the death; the date and place of the probate or administration grant; and the value of the estate. A complete set of calendars (from 1858) is available for public inspection at Record Keeper's Dept, Principal Registry of the Family Division, First Avenue House, 42-49 High Holborn, London WC1V 6NP, Tel: 020 7947 6948. Most District Probate Registries have calendars covering at least the last fifty years.

Additional sources of Jewish records and advice

You could try searching naturalisation records by name in The National Archives’ Online Catalogue. The relevant record series are HO 1, HO 45 and HO 144 (1801 to 1935) and the selection of files in HO 405 (1934 to 1948).

As well as the usual sources of family history records listed above, you could also refer to Jewish communal record archives and various Burial Society records.

The Jewish Genealogical Society of Great Britain promotes and encourages the study of Jewish genealogy, and publishes a journal. They also have a library and resource centre that can be used by members and non-members.

A useful international resource is JewishGen, which offers basic genealogy advice and features free-to-search databases of relevant records.

At the show

Exhibitors to visit include:

You can also go to a workshop on top tips for tracing Jewish ancestors (Sunday 28th).

See the workshop programme for more details.

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