UK: British Library, FindMyPast to digitize 5 million pages

The British Library and findmypast.co.uk will digitize 5 million pages of family history records.

For the first time, India Office Records and 100 years of electoral registers will be online and fully searchable.

The British Library holds the national collection of electoral registers covering the whole UK. These registers offer a huge number of names, addresses and other genealogical information.

"Digitisation of the electoral registers will transform the work of people wishing to use them for family history research," said Jennie Grimshaw, the Library's curator for Social Policy and Official Publications. "Printed electoral registers are arranged by polling district within constituency and names are not indexed, so the process of finding an address to confirm names of residents is currently incredibly laborious. Digitisation represents a huge breakthrough as users will be able to search for names and addresses, thereby pinpointing the individuals and ancestors they're looking for."

The project will involve the scanning of UK electoral registers covering the century that followed the Reform Act of 1832, along with records of baptisms, marriages and burials drawn from the archives of the India Office. When available online, these collections will enable historians, genealogists and family history researchers to make connections and track down details of ancestors and others at the click of a mouse - work that would previously have necessitated visits to the Library's Reading Rooms and many hours of laborious manual searching.

Also included are holdings from the East India Company archives and the India Office. These 18th, 19th and 20th century records offer information on Britons living and working in the Indian sub-continent up to the 1948 independence. There are more than 1,000 volumes of ecclesiastical returns of births, marriages and burials; applications for civil and military service; and pension payment details.

The resources will be available online at findmypast.co.uk and in the Library's Reading Rooms from early 2012. Online requires a subscription or pay-as-you-go. Library access will be free and it will receive copies of the digitized images of this project.

For more information, click here.

Ancestry.com: New Jewish collections added

Searching Jewish ancestors? Have an Ancestry.com subscription? The subscription website has added four record groups from the American Jewish Historical Society (AJHS).

You'll need a subscription to Ancestry.com to view the records, although a name search is free.

What other Jewish records are on the site? View the entire collection here. [NOTE: This may take a long time to load; be patient]

Here are the new records:

-- WWI Serviceman Questionnaires, Jews and Non-Jews, 1918-1921, and Undated,
-- WWII Jewish Serviceman Cards, 1942-1947

Some 550,000 Jewish Americans served in WWII. The Bureau of War Records collected records on 106,000. There was also additional documentation from War Department records, newspapers, Anti-Defamation League, manuscripts, correspondence, POW lists and other documents. Remember that not all servicement may have filled out a card or questionnaire.

-- Jews in Colonial America, Brazil, and Surinam (1650-1850) (Oppenheim Collection),

Samuel Oppenheim took research notes from primary sources on Colonial American and  Brazilian  Jewry. Data includes names, dates, residence places and spouse data.

-- The New York Hebrew Orphan Asylum Records, 1860-1934 

These records were indexed by Ancestry to make them more accessible to researchers.

Do let Tracing the Tribe know if you've found records of interest in the new groups. This encourages researchers to check out new or updated resources.

Another relatively unknown record group on Ancestry is the Industrial Removal Office Records. The images are online, but there is no index ... yet.

The IRO helped immigrants through relocation efforts to find them work. Among its tools were networking with successful Jewish businessmen to offer the newcomers jobs. Some communities wanted specific trades, sometimes no trade was specified. Families went to towns all over the US. The records illustrate immigrant life and the road to assimilation.

The original records are at the Center for Jewish History's website and readers can search here for names of interest. This will show the box, page and entry number and then search here on Ancestry for those relevant images.

As we look for our relatives, the mantra should be "leave no stone unturned." Search whatever you can search and you might find some interesting information.

Miami: Sharing two life stories, Dec, 5

There are always two sides of a story.

The next program of the Jewish Genealogical Society of Greater Miami - on Sunday, December 5 - will demonstrate this old adage.

The meeting begins at 10am at the Greater Miami Jewish Federation, 4200 Biscayne Boulevard. There is free, secure parking.

Speaker Dr. Bernd Wolschlaeger's autobiography, "A German Life," demonstrates his two life stories and how history can both impact and devastate a family.

His first story tells of his life as the Christian son of a WWII German highly decorated tank commander who fought in Poland, France, and Russia and who received the Iron Cross personally from Adolf Hitler.

His second story is of becoming an officer in the Israeli Defense Forces, converting to Judaism, moving to Israel, marrying a Jewish woman and having two children.

In his quest to find answers to questions about his parents and his nation's past, Bernd set out to find the truth and, in doing so, found a new life.

His attraction to Judaism created a turmoil within him that centered somewhere between personal guilt for what had taken place and a true sense of belonging to a people and their beliefs. When his children began asking about his parents and his past, he made the decision to tell them the truth about his family and his upbringing. He wanted them to understand what so dramatically changed his life, to give them a sense of knowing their family history in a way that was different from his own experience.

Sharing with them in this way caused him to explore his relationship with his father, and how that relationship was overshadowed by the Holocaust and everything associated with it.

Today, he is a family physician in North Miami Beach, Florida, and was past president of the Dade County Medical Association. A question and answer session will follow.

The society's annual Hanukah celebration and gift exchange follows. Guests and friends are always welcome. There is no admission fee.

For more information, see the JGS Greater Miami website.

Family Tree Magazine: Best state websites for 2010

Location, location, location! A new best-of list hits the newsstand and cyberspace, covering every US state from Alabama to Wyoming.

Family Tree Magazine has published its 2010 list of best US state sites for genealogy, with 75 sites and at least one from every state.

There are vital records, archives, museums, state encyclopedias, databases, historic newspapers, state libraries, memory projects, digital libraries, special collections, county clerk databases, historical societies, obituary indexes, genealogical societies, military sites, public health sites and more.

State-level government resources offer vital records, wills and probate records, court records, military records; early land records, legislative and other government records; records of orphanages, asylums, prisons and other state institutions; state censuses, and naturalization records, while non-governmental resources may include old newspapers, city directories, biographies, historical maps and photos and oral histories. 

Click the link above to access each of the sites and see what you can find.

Click to your roots from Alabama to Wyoming on these 75 stellar state-focused websites. In genealogy, as in real estate, it’s all about location, location, location. Finding where your ancestors lived is the first step in identifying records about them. Fortunately, the internet-ization of America also has swept over the nation’s state archives, historical and genealogical societies, libraries, vital-records offices and other keepers of genealogical gold. Many of the resources that once gathered dust in various statewide repositories now can be accessed without changing your own location—in front of your computer, that is.

Washington DC: Civil War Jews, May 27

Are you familiar with Civil War General Ulysses Grant’s Order No. 11? It called for the expulsion of all Jews in his military districts comprising areas of Tennessee, Mississippi, and Kentucky.

On December 17, 1862, Major General Ulysses S. Grant issued General Orders No. 11. The New York Times called it "one of the deepest sensations of the war."

The order read:

The Jews, as a class violating every regulation of trade established by the Treasury Department and also department orders, are hereby expelled from the department within twenty-four hours from the receipt of this order.

Post commanders will see to it that all of this class of people be furnished passes and required to leave, and any one returning after such notification will be arrested and held in confinement until an opportunity occurs of sending them out as prisoners, unless furnished with permit from headquarters. No passes will be given these people to visit headquarters for the purpose of making personal application of trade permits.

To commemorate Jewish American Heritage Month, a panel will discusses the contributions of Jewish men and women during the Civil War, including the infamous order above. Each panelist will discuss a key text, including documents and events.

The program takes place Thursday, May 27, at 7pm, in the William G. McGowan Theater

The moderator will be Dr. Gary P. Zola, executive director of the Jacob Rader Marcus Center of the American Jewish Archives and Professor of the American Jewish Experience at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institution of Religion.

Panelists:

-- Eli Evans, former president of the Revson Foundation and author of "Judah P. Benjamin: The Jewish Confederate;"

-- Dr. Pamela S. Nadell, director of the Jewish Studies Program at American University and co-editor of "Women and American Judaism: Historical Perspectives."

For more information about the program, click here.

For more information on Grant's Order, click here for images of the document and here for the background and chronology of the order and its revocation.

Iraq: Jewish archive's return sought

Iraq wants its Jewish archive returned. What should be done? And who owns the materials?

A Washington Post story, by Glenn Kessler, quotes well-known Jewish genealogist and former Defense Department official Harold Rhode was in Baghdad when the archive was found in a basement "floating in three feet of sewage water" in the Mukhabarat, the secret police headquarters, as a result of bombed pipes.

"They represent part of our history and part of our identity. There was a Jewish community in Iraq for 2,500 years," said Samir Sumaidaie, the Iraqi ambassador to the United States. "It is time for our property to be repatriated."


A high-level Iraqi delegation, led by Deputy Culture Minister Taher al-Humoud, met Thursday with senior State Department officials to press for the return of the artifacts.


But others, including many involved in saving the materials, say that they belong to the Jews who fled, or their descendants -- many of whom live in Israel.

The Jewish archive contained Torah scrolls, Haggadas, marriage records, university applications, financial documents - the records of a community taken by the secret police from Jewish homes as the community fled the country under pressure and persecution. Many went to Israel or the US, while thousands also went to Teheran, until Iran's revolution again forced them to move.

What should be done with these materials?

The soaked documents, some 3,500 tagged items, were taken out of the country with a vague promise of return after restoration. Today, they are stabilized (although with mold) in a Maryland office building, and the Iraqi government wants them back.

"I don't see any reason for it to go back to Iraq, because if it is the patrimony of the Jewish community of Iraq, then wherever they are it's theirs," Harold Rhode, a former Defense Department official, told the Jerusalem Post last month. "When they left, they would have taken it with them had they been able to take it with them. You don't abandon Torahs."

The State Department doesn't dispute Iraq's claim. NARA takes no position on who owns them, but says the items need much more preservation work, and spent less than $1 million on stabilizing the materials.

The agency's staff members recently completed an item-by-item assessment and are in the final stages of estimating the cost of a full preservation, including digitizing images of the pages. An NARA estimate in 2003 pegged the cost at $1.5 million to $3 million.

Sumaidaie said he thinks the items are stable enough so that no "further damage or decay can take place" and that Iraq can handle additional restoration.

Rhode, in Iraq at the time, received help from Iraqi exile leader Ahmed Chalabi, who provided equipment. At first, the material was placed to dry in the sun, but when Rhode learned that freezing kills mold, they were placed in a refrigerator truck. When Natan Sharansky and Vice President Cheney got involved, things moved quickly.

Eventually, and with the approval of the remnants of the Iraqi Ministry of Culture, the materials were taken to Texas, freeze-dried and transferred to Maryland for preservation and restoration. According to the State Department, when the Coalition Provisional Authority transferred sovereignty to Iraq in June 2004, it gave the Ministry of Culture the right to demand the documents' return.

A former senior Pentagon official, during George W. Bush's term, Dov. S. Zakheim is opposed to returning the items.

Sumaidaie said Iraq would consider individual claims for the documents but that giving them to descendants is "not for us a matter for dispute or discussion." He also said that the documents would be made available in Iraq to researchers.

If NARA completes preservation and digitization of the items, that means copies of these precious records would be available to Iraqi Jews and their descendants outside of Iraq.

What do you think?
-- Return them now although restoration is incomplete?
-- Complete the restoration, digitize, keep copies and return them?
-- Not return the materials?
-- Make sure Jewish Iraqis and their descendants receive their records?

Read the complete story at the link above.

Footnote: Free census access ... for awhile!

Footnote.com is making all of its US census documents accessible for free for a limited time.

No end date was announced, and the Interactive Census Collection is available to all after a simple registration.

According to Footnote.com, this collection provides a unique ability to connect people related to ancestors found on the historical documents. By clicking the “I’m Related” button for a name on the document will identify you as a descendant and also list others that have done the same.

Click here to get started, and you too may find a record bearing an ancestor's name and your own personal connection to the past.

Interactive tools on Footnote allow viewers to enhance documents and add photos, stories, comments and other records.

Each contribution from a Footnote member means that people can find each other and connect to exchange information about their mutual ancestors.

Footnote CEO Russell Wilding says, “TV programs including ‘Who Do You Think You Are?’ on NBC and ‘Faces of America’ on PBS will surely increase the interest in family history in the United States.”

He believes that the interactive census collection is a great way to get started for newcomers to family history research.

If you haven't checked out Footnote.com recently, there are now 63 million historical records, including military documents, historical newspapers, city directories and naturalization records.

Check out the census collection for free now - you just might find some interesting connections!

Military Jews: 39th Royal Fusileers

My grandfather, Sidney (born Szja) Fink (left) lied about his age and joined the 39th Royal Fusileers, which fought with the British against the Turks in Palestine in 1918.

Steve Lasky of the online Museum of Family History has a link to a great 1919 article from the New York Daily Tribune about the experiences of Reuben Bushmitz, who perhaps knew my grandfather as they served in the same battalion.

Grampa's experiences are displayed at Bet Hagdudim in Avichail, near Netanya, Israel, where there is a museum dedicated to these young men. Some of them did not return to the US after their service, settled in Avichail, and created the museum.

This story about Bushmitz answered many questions I had about Grampa's experiences.

One story Grampa told was that during one battle, a voice called out from across the trenches - from the Turkish side - asking "Szja, is that you? This is your cousin David." I never understood how that was possible. Two Jews from Suchostaw in Galizia (Austro-Hungary at the time), each fighting on opposite sides?

Bushmitz's story explained about Jews impressed by the Turks to fight in their army. So Grampa's cousin, who had obviously arrived much earlier in Palestine, was in the Turkish army and fighting the Brits.

Here's just a bit of the long story:

From the East Side to Jerusalem and Return: Wearers of the "Mogen David" Enlisted in a British Contingent to Fight the Turks

Reuben Bushmitz, of Flat No. 9, 135 Eldridge Street, late private of the 39th Battalion, Royal Fusileers, is going back to cutting knee pants next week. He expects to be a bit rusty at it, because he has been crusading in the Holy Land and against the Turk for considerably more than a year.

Part of the crusading, the last part, wasn’t so interesting, he said. It consisted merely of feeding and exercising a compound full of formerly Terrible Turks who had run themselves ragged for several months up to October, 1918.

More than three hundred crusaders like ex-Private Bushmitz have come back from Turk-taming in the last ten days and will resume knee plants cutting, or delicatessen store keeping, or shipping clerking, just where they left off when some voice which had been silent a couple of thousand years or more called to them to come and free the Holy Land.

The voice was penetrating. It was heard even above the sweatiest of sweatshop machines, and above the assorted whimperings of a dozen children of the noisiest family which ever crowded into three rooms. Young men whose shoulders were on a lateral line with the backs of their heads and whose only exercise had been some footwork on a pants sewing machine, got up, straightened their spines in a tentative style and went out to fight.

The British Canadian Recruiting Mission, then situated at 220 West Forty-second Street, became the objective for these young men who wanted to win back from the infidel the land sacred to Abraham and Isaac and David. ...

Do read the entire story.

Thank you, Steve, for this story which explains so much.

Home Again: A faked photo, an orphanage, Part 3

Errol Morris' investigation of a photograph found on a dead soldier at Gettysburg in 1863 continues in the third installment here. In addition to the text, it is richly illustrated with photographs and documents.

There is something magical and sad about chronicling the history of a man who went more than halfway around the world on a whaling ship and then died (presumably alone) in a small town, a couple of hundred miles from his home.

Morris writes about a fascination with last words. In this story, it is all about last images - as Amos Humiston held the photo of his children. Morris asks:

By looking at the faces of the Humiston children, we can see what Humiston was seeing as he died. Or perhaps they can provide a glimpse of what was in his mind. Does linking his experiences with ours allow us to better know him or only to imagine ourselves as him?

As most genealogists and family historians know - and Morris reminds us - most historical mysteries stay in that state. What is fascinating is that although author Mark Dunkelman could learn so much about this one soldier and his family, there are so many about whom nothing is known.

Dunkelman writes about two cases of soldiers found on the same battlefield and how they were identified.

A Pennsylvanian was identified by a silver medal found clutched in his hand. Another soldier was found missing his hat, shoes, and socks, but inside one of his pockets the burial squad found a gold locket with a photograph of his wife or sweetheart, along with her name and address.

Others were identified by a letter, photo, diary, or other personal item. But it appears no other case resulted in such a major story.

Even before the days of PhotoShop, photos were altered. Through family members, Dunkelman found photos of Humiston before the war; one with a beard, one without, which Bourns had obtained from the widow. Dunkelman says Bourns wanted to issue a photo of him as a soldier, so he had a photo retouched, adding a beard and uniform. The possible reasons are revealed.

The carte-de-viste was sold and funds went to the Orphan's Homestead as explained on the back of the photo. Bourns wanted to raise money for an orphanage for the children of deceased soldiers. The article goes on to provide information on the Homestead Association, incorporated in 1866, three following Humiston's death. Bourns was the general secretary, while Humiston's widow Philinda was a housekeeper and the three children lived at the Homestead.

Philinda eventually married an older man in 1869, and sent for the children. Here, according to the author, the story takes a sinister turn. Stay tuned for Part 4.

Read the complete article at the link above and view the photographs and documents.

Washington DC: Arlington National Cemetery

Marlene Bishow of the Jewish Genealogy Society of Greater Washington (JGSGW) has provided information on new records added to the group's website for the "Ken Poch Index of Jews Buried in Arlington National Cemetery" (ANC).

This project is important enough that I have also posted this announcement (and ANC photographs) to the International Jewish Graveyard Rabbit

Bishow is the group's immediate past president, current ANC project manager, and will co-chair the 31st IAJGS International Conference on Jewish Genealogy in Washington, DC.

Self-proclaimed historian of Jews buried in ANC, Kenneth Poch began the project more than 10 years before his 2003 death. His family donated 12 boxes of his work to the JGSGW.

Based on that research, webmaster Ernie Fine developed the website with a Steve Morse-model search engine. Currently, there are more than 2,600 entries; an additional 600 will go online in January 2009. More than 2,000 grave marker photos (taken by Poch) have been scanned by volunteers and will be added with links to view them online, and new photos will also be added.

Genealogical data is being added to the database using Poch's data and that of the group's volunteers. Visitors to the website are encouraged to submit names and additional information about Jews buried in ANC. For the present, the search is limited to the names of the interred.

For more information, click here. To submit information, follow contact page directions.

DNA: More than you bargained for

The Boston Globe's story on DNA testing, "Unearthing bones can also unearth family secrets," by Alan Wirzbicki, demonstrates some ethical quandries on what testing might reveal and how to handle those revelations.

WASHINGTON - It started off as a routine DNA test to help two parents from a wealthy Southern family decide whether to have children. But the saga that unfolded as a genetic counselor investigated the family's biological roots became a tale of long-concealed secrets worthy of a Faulkner novel.

The counselor discovered that the husband, who was in his 40s, was not the biological son of the man who had raised him from birth. His real father was the man he had grown up calling uncle. The lab results posed a dilemma, the counselor recalled, forcing her to decide whether to break the news to the unsuspecting husband about the true identity of his biological father. In the end, she decided not to.

"You just can't be prepared for each and every case like this," says counselor Debbie Pencarinha.

The story goes on to discuss new technologies to help identify fallen soldiers, and how it faces the possibility that unearthed bones from far-away places could expose family secrets from World War II, such as false paternity cases.

"You could really do a lot of damage to a family," says Johnie E. Webb Jr., the deputy director of the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command, the military unit responsible for identifying the remains of American soldiers, which has imposed a moratorium on the most powerful tests while drafting ethical guidelines. "We haven't totally come to grips with how we're going to handle it. We're going to make sure we don't do anything that's going to be embarrassing to anyone."

Ethical quandaries are emerging from increasing use of DNA tests. The tests have created dilemmas for physicians, genetics counselors and medical ethicists who are sometimes forced to reveal such cases.

Counselors and medical ethicists say that in the rapidly evolving field there are no firm guidelines for how to handle such inadvertently discovered information. In many cases, physicians simply withhold potentially traumatizing information unless disclosing it is medically necessary.

An American Association of Blood Banks official is quoted as saying that "about 25 percent of the roughly 400,000 familial DNA tests conducted every year result in an "exclusion." An Australian researcher says the number of misattributed fathers is between 1 and 3%.

The story claims that the number is believed to be higher for older generations, before abortion was legalized, and when social stigmas concerning illegitimacy and adultery forced couples to keep these events a secret.

Illegitimacy, according to the story, in the war generation may be higher for several factors. The military would uncover misattributed paternity cases in ID'ing war dead on the basis of DNA samples from their children.

Misattributed parentage is not the only secret that can be accidentally unmasked by testing. Angela Trepanier, president of the National Society for Genetic Counselors, said in one of her cases a World War II veteran who had covered up his Jewish ancestry when he joined the Army had been forced to reveal his background to his family after tests showed that his children carried a genetic disorder found in Jews.

"You sometimes get more than you bargain for," Trepanier said.

Counselors often decide to withhold such findings, but ethicists argue patients have a right to their genetic information. An article in the British medical journal Lancet said that all patients should be informed about their paternity, "no matter how embarrassing or awkward the revelation may be."

The military today has avoided the dilemma because it can't yet use the same kind of nuclear DNA used by forensic labs and genetic counselors. It was too hard to extract samples from long-buried bones and the military has relied on mtDNA (mitochondrial DNA), which is more commonly found and easier to recover. This test is used in 75-80% of missing soldier cases, helping to identify 531 missing military.

Nuclear DNA testing is on hold while the military develops a protocol for collecting samples from family and handling the results.

Read more here.

Conference: The Soviet Jewish experience

Masses of rich material have become available since the dissolution of the Soviet Union, providing new insight into previously under-researched aspects of the Holocaust on Soviet territory. These materials include information on individuals, families and communities.

A call for papers has gone out for a conference (English language) focusing on "Soviet Jewish Soldiers, Jewish Resistance, and Jews in the USSR during the Holocaust," organized by the Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies, the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum and Skirball Department of Hebrew and Judaic Studies, New York University. The event will be held November 16-17, in New York City.

It will examine the Soviet Jewish experience during World War II and the Holocaust, including Soviet Jewish soldiers at home and abroad; Jewish soldiers in press, literature and films; contextual issues such as German, Axis and Soviet policies and attitudes during the Holocaust; Soviet Jewish combatants in the struggle against Fascism; camps and ghettos in the Soviet Union; Soviet Jewish life and culture; collaboration as a Soviet and post-Soviet issue; and the Soviet Shoah and the evolution of Soviet Jewish consciousness.

Proposals are welcome from scholars in all relevant academic disciplines, including advanced graduate students. For more details on the event and proposal process, click here. The deadline for proposals is March 15, and participants will be notifed by April 15.

Italy: Jews in the military

The Jewish Magazine has a detailed article on Jews in the Army of the Kingdom of Italy (1848-1923), by Dr. Andrew J. Schoenfeld.

The Italian Jewish community, particularly the Jews of Rome, is the oldest diaspora community. According to the author:

Nowhere in Jewish history, perhaps not even in the United States, have Jewish citizens displayed the type of military ardor evident in Italian Jewry. In no other country have so many Jews achieved martial prestige, become commanding generals, or served in the capacity of Minister of War or Chief of Naval Intelligence.

Jewish names mentioned in the article: ALMAGIA, ANAU, ARBIB, ARCHIVOLTI, ASCOLI, BACHI, DE BONFILI, CANTONI, CAPON, CARPI, CASTELLO, COEN, FINZI, FIORENTINO, FOA, FRANCHETTI, GUASTALLA, LEVI CHIERINO, MANIN, MASSENA, MARANI, MAUROGONATO, MODENA, MONDOLFO, MONTEFIORE, MORTARA, NUNES, OLIVETTI, OTTOLENGHI, PESARO, PINCHERLE, PUGLIESE, REVERE, ROSELLI, ROVIGHI, SEGRE, TODROS, USIGLIO and VENEZIANO.

"The Italian Jews of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries were one of the most fervent nationalist groups in the nascent Italian State. As a result, they actively enlisted in the army of the Kingdom of Italy and its predecessor, the army of the Kingdom of Sardinia-Piedmont. Indeed, their valorous and inspired service has prompted some authors to liken the Italian Jews of the nineteenth century to a type of military caste.

"Many Jews, such as Giuseppe Ottolenghi, Cesare Rovighi and Enrico Guastalla attained high levels of command in the Italian military and were even counted among the King's most trusted martial advisors. Unfortunately, the events of World War II and the attitude that modern scholars maintain towards the Jews of Italy has resulted in the achievements of these inspired individuals and communities being lost to posterity."

The article details the very high ranking posts and achievements of these men. Often, several family members are listed.

The enlightened Savoyard Kings of Sardinia-Piedmont and later Italy allowed Jewish Italians to achieve success in a dizzying number of fields, most notably government administration and the military.

Yet, for all their great achievements and dedication to the land of their birth, the history of the Italian Jews remains one of the least well documented in all of Europe, with perhaps only the Jews of the Balkan states receiving even less attention in the historical literature.

According to the author, Jews were influential in the revolutionary movement all over Italy, but nowhere was their military effort as concerted as it was in the Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia:

235 Jews volunteered for service in the army as war loomed with Austria, among them Giuseppe Finzi and Enrico Guastalla, who would go on to enjoy an outstanding military career. The Chief Rabbi of Turin, Lelio Cantoni, actively recruited amongst the city's Jews and helped organize volunteers into three battalions of sharpshooters.

A fascinating read!!