Jewish Genealogy

Genealogy is history from the perspective of the family. NMJHS invites you to learn about your Jewish roots, to document the details of your family tree, and to understand the context of history and geography that influenced your family migrations.

Korn family, Manchester, England, 1903. Photo courtesy of Dorothy Corner (Korn) Amsden

How much do you know about your Jewish ancestors? Do you know where they came from, how they got here, why they came? Were your ancestors Sephardic Jews avoiding the Spanish Inquisition in the 1600s and 1700s? Were they German Jews seeking their fortune as merchants in the mid-1800s? Were they Eastern European Jews fleeing pogroms in the late 1800s? Whatever their backgrounds, they brought rich and fascinating heritages to the New World, which you can explore.

Jewish transplants to New Mexico have contributed their talents to the Land of Enchantment in many ways, as pioneers, farmers, ranchers, merchants, military, teachers, professors, scientists, lawyers, doctors, bankers, artists, writers, musicians and retirees. Some citizens have roots in New Mexico that go back centuries. Others are more recent arrivals. NMJHS provides courses and resources to help its members learn more about their ancestors.

Until fairly recently, genealogical research was conducted manually by searching documents and microfilms, writing countless letters for information, traveling to far-flung locations to search records, and keeping track of the research in multiple file folders or notebooks. The computer revolution has added a new dimension of convenience and accessibility to genealogical research. Read about recent developments in “Genealogy Corner,” a regular feature in Legacy, the NMJHS newsletter.

Following are selected web sites where you can learn more about Jewish genealogy than you ever wanted to know. There is no Jewish genealogy society here in New Mexico, but you can learn the basics of research at local genealogy organizations, two of which are located in Albuquerque. Online courses for beginners are offered at JewishGen.

The Albuquerque Genealogy Society
http://abqgen.swnet.com

New Mexico Genealogy Society
www.nmgs.org

JewishGen is a major source of Jewish genealogical research
www.jewishgen.org

Cyndi’s List of genealogy sites on the Internet
www.cyndislist.com

Ellis Island database of immigrant records from 1892 to 1924
www.ellisislandrecords.org

Quarterly International Review of Jewish Genealogy
www.avotaynu.com

A one-step portal for online genealogy
www.stevenmorse.org

Online database of Holocaust victims
www.yadvashem.org

Annual Jewish genealogy conference
http://www.iajgs.org

Tracing the Tribe, Jewish genealogy blog by Schelly Talalay Dardashti
http://tracingthetribe.blogspot.com

Sephardic genealogy, web site by Dr. Jeffrey S. Malka
www.sephardicgen.com

European Sephardic Institute (in French)
www.sefarad.org

JewishGen Sephardic special interest group
www.jewishgen.org/sephardic/general_sites.htm