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Jewish genealogy

May 28, 2023 393 Time to read: 8 min.

The growing popularity of genealogical research is noted today throughout the world. At the same time, the scope of research often outgrows the borders of modern states, since the turbulent events of the 20th century not only redrawn these borders, but also forced large masses of people to move around the world, leaving their places of original residence. For this reason, jewish genealogy database and ancestry jewish records are international and popular today.

The development of such search tools is most characteristic of the Jewish genealogy. The jewish genealogy database created to date contain hundreds of thousands of surnames and thousands of genealogical trees of Jewish families.

Jewish roots

working on a business planEven in childhood at school, children are often offered to make a family tree with their families. This activity really unites and helps to learn more about your family and about yourself. Among the adult generation, conducting DNA tests to find out one’s nationality has become a very popular activity.

This is how people can continue the customs and traditions of their people. After all, we all want to know who we really are. The construction of a Jewish family tree also has practical value. If you want to immigrate to Israel, you need to prove your Jewish identity. In this article, we will tell you more about the history of the Jewish people and how to find out if you have Jewish roots.

You can start your to explore your jewish identities  by yourself. There are a number of indirect signs by which one can assume the presence of Jewish roots.

  1. The first thing you should pay attention to is your last name. Perhaps you don’t know that it was changed after your ancestors immigrated, or perhaps you managed to keep your Jewish surname. In any case, take a look at the following list of surnames. If yours is one of them, there is a good chance that you have Jewish genes.
The most obvious surnames from the list of “typically Jewish” ones end in “-ovich”, “-man”, “-mer”, “-ner”, “-shtein” (Kramer, Steiner, Rabinovich, Koganovich, Vaisman, Grossman, Rubinshtein). As well as the names of Cohen, Levi, Kogan, Katz, Schwartz, Weiss, Roit, etc.
  1. Of course, the Jewish people have their own unique characteristics in appearance. As a rule, many representatives of the Jewish people have curly dark hair, but other shades can also be found. Jews often have bright blue eyes, full lips, a hooked nose and an elongated oval face.

However, you should not rely only on external signs, this may be just a hint so that you start looking for more serious confirmation of your connection with the Jewish people.

Romanian jewish genealogy

As for romanian jewish genealogy,e Jews in the Roman Empire were numerous and had a major impact on Roman life. Among the Jews were officials, generals, actors, merchants, financiers, writers, historians, philosophers, artists, etc.

The Jews of Rome were engaged in trade, both small and large, for example, the import of bread, as well as crafts (tailors, butchers, etc.).

Judaism was popular in Rome not only among the Jews, it was accepted by many residents of the city (mostly women), including representatives of the upper classes of Roman society.

Russian jewish genealogy

After the divisions of the The Polish – Lithuanian Commonwealth, the Russian Empire included lands where a large number of Jews lived. By the end of the 19th century, the largest Jewish community in the world existed in the Russian Empire. However, as a result of mass pogroms from 1881 to 1906, and then during the Civil War, more than 2 million Jews left the territory of the Russian Empire, who emigrated mainly to the United States.

Russian jewish genealogy spread all over the world. A significant part of Russian-speaking Jews currently lives in countries such as the USA, Israel, Canada, Germany, Austria, Australia, New Zealand, Great Britain, Belgium, the Netherlands, etc.

Sephardic and Ashkenazi genealogy

Ashkenazi jewish genealogy is represented by descendants of the Jews of medieval Germany, northern Italy and northern France, historically bearers of Yiddish and their own liturgical tradition.

Sephardiс began to be called the descendants of Jews who were expelled from Spain at the end of 1492, and then from Portugal. The descendants of the expelled Sephardic genealogy are a significant part of the Bulgarian Jews, Jews of the western part of Turkey, Greek Jews, Yugoslav Jews, Italian Jews.

Mizrahim is a conventional name for Jews living and living in the countries of the Middle East and North Africa.

Ancestry DNA jewish

In recent years, DNA tests have become increasingly popular. Everyone wants to know about their roots. A DNA test helps you find out who your ancestors were in a short time.

pensioners in Israel If you suspect that your ancestry DNA  jewish, a test can help. Imagine a situation where you learned about the benefits of living in Israel and wanted to move to this sunny country. Here you will be very lucky if you can take advantage of the repatriation program. Remember if any of your relatives mentioned your Jewish origin. And in order to strengthen your confidence, do a DNA test. So, take the test first. If the results confirm that you have Jewish blood, it will be possible to start looking for documentary evidence of this in the archives.

However, if you come to the Israeli Embassy with one DNA test result, you will unfortunately be denied. At the legislative level, this test is taken into account only when proving paternity. In the case of repatriation, first of all, documentary evidence will be considered, and then a DNA test.

Jewish ancestry search

Before starting to collect documents with information about Jewish roots, it is worth talking with the closest relatives and studying family archives. If they do not have the necessary papers, you should contact specialized storage facilities. Archives containing information about a Jewish ancestor can be federal, regional, city and special. Sometimes the archives are in a bad state, and it is quite difficult to find anything there. In many places the documents are not translated into electronic form. In such difficult situations, professional workers of WRAI help to carry out a quality search and find evidence of Jewish kinship:

  • If you want to know where your ancestors lived, who they were, and whether you were a member of the Jewish genealogy, you need complete information to perform an archival search.
  • Full names of your mother, father, siblings, as well as your spouse and child.
  • Then enter your birth information.
  • In this way, you will be able to carry out a primary search and may immediately know that you and your family belong to the Jews.

Jewish family tree

Many people want to make a jewish family search in order to better understand themselves and their personality and, of course, to learn more about their ancestors and family history. Modern technology allows you to find a lot of information on the Internet and make jewish ancestry. First of all, you can start by simply asking relatives and looking at a family photo album, where there may be evidence of belonging to the Jewish people.

Professional archivists help you find any existing document anywhere in the world, make your jewish family search,  build your family tree and document your Jewish roots. The search may even begin with the assumption that there may be roots. And even if the relatives in whose line you can have these roots are no longer alive.

Our archivists know where to send a request, what database to use, they even have access to closed archives and will definitely find evidence, if any.
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