Australia: History of Jewish publications

Looking to trace Jewish ancestors in Australia? The University of Sydney, Archive of Australian Judaica has just issued its 2008 edition of some 400 Jewish publications that have been published in Australia.

Each may hold the keys to your family's details!

For background and history, click here, to see the variety of periodicals, including English and Yiddish newspapers, synagogue publications, journals and more.

To see the list of the 400 publications in a 208-page PDF, click here

This is just one section of the listings and the date runs:

Communal Newspapers - State and National

The Australasian Hebrew, v.1, no 1-v.2, no 26 (Nov 1895 - Nov 1896)
Australian Hebrew Times, Jan 1894 - Dec 1894?
The Australian Israelite, v.1, no 1-v.4, no 44 (1871 - May 1875)
The Australian Jewish Chronicle, v.1, no 1-v.9, no 2 (Mar 1922 - June 1930); ns v.1, no 1-v.11, no 77 (June 1930 - Feb 1931)
The Australian Jewish Herald, v.1 (1920-1933); ns v.1-90 (1935 - Aug 1980). Supersedes The Jewish Herald, v.1, no 1- v.40 (1879-1919)
Australian Jewish News, v.1 (May 1935)+. Supersedes The Jewish Weekly News, (Oct 1933 - May 1935)
Australian Jewish News. Melbourne edition, Apr 1990+. Continues
Australian Jewish News
Australian Jewish News. Sydney edition, v.9, no 6 (Apr 1990)+. Continues the Australian Jewish Times
The Australian Jewish Times, v.61, no 48-v.9, no 5 (1935 - Mar 1990). Continued by The Australian Jewish News. Sydney edition. Incorporated Sydney Jewish News from 1971. Continues The Jewish Times, v.60, no 16-v.61, no 47 (1953-1955). Continues The Hebrew Standard of Australasia, v.1, nos 1-2 (Nov, Dec 1895); v.2, no 1-v.60, no 15 (July 1897 - Oct 1953)
The Communal Opinion, v.1, no 1-v.2 (Oct 13, 1913-1914)
Hebrew Standard of Australasia, v.1, nos 1-2 (Nov, Dec 1895); v.2, no 1-v.6, no 15 (July 1897 - Oct 1953). Continued by The Jewish Times
JNF: The Link with Israel, v.1, no 1 (1950s-1960s). Superseded by Shalom The Jewish Herald, v.1, no 1-v.40 (1879-1919). Superseded by The Australian Jewish Herald
The Jewish Observer, v.1, no 1-v.5 (1918-1924).
The Jewish Times, v.6, no 16-v.61, no 47 (1953-1955). Continued by The Australian Jewish Times
152 Jewish Times. Wellington, 1926-1932. Superseded by The New Zealand Jewish Chronicle
The Jewish Weekly News, Oct 1933 - May 1935. Superseded by The Australian Jewish News
The Judean Bulletin, pre-1941. Superseded by The N.Z. Judean Bulletin
Kesher-Connections: Newsletter, Sydney (Jewish Communal Appeal), no 1 (1992)+
Menorah: Monthly Magazine for Jewish Children, Hunters Hill, NSW (Isabella Lazarus Home), nos 1-2 (Dec 1941 - Feb 1942)
Shalom, Sept 1964-Jy 2004?
The Sydney Jewish News, v.1, no 1-v.34, no 21 (1939-1973). Incorporated Oystralier Leben. Incorporated in Australian Jewish Times
The Voice of Jacob, nos 1-3 (May - Sept 1842)
The Westralian Judean, v.1, nos 1-27 (Nov 1924 - Sept 1955)

Look at the complete listings and details for each publication. If you are looking for family members who may have gone to Australia, these publications may be very important to your quest.

Remember that life cycle events (birth, engagement, marriage, death) were a big part of such publications' content and may hold many genealogical clues.

Ancestry: Find your Australian relatives

Ancestry may have made it easier for you to find information on your Australian ancestors.

Several of the First Fleet - Australian's convict transports - were Jewish men and women. See an earlier Tracing the Tribe post here.

In a Jerusalem Post story in 2004, I included many details from another volume about these early settlers, and I'll do a separate posting on that story, which may provide more clues to searching the Ancestry.

Some were sent down under for as minor a crime as stealing bread.

Here's the official Ancestry press release:

PROVO, UTAH – July 25, 2007 – Stealing sheep or wool or cloth in 18th- and 19th-century England could land you a minimum seven-year sentence at an Australian penal colony, according to Ancestry.com’s newest online collection of Australian convicts records. For those interested in uncovering the criminal ancestors lurking in their past, the world’s largest online resource for family history today released the largest collection of Australian convict records, indexed and searchable online for the first time. Records detail the some 165,000 convicts transported to Australia from 1788 to 1868.

An estimated 22 percent of Australians are descended from these British exiles. Their sentences served, many convicts remained Down Under, becoming Australia ’s first western settlers.

The British government deemed transportation, as the practice was known, just punishment for a mixed bag of crimes from marrying secretly to burning clothes. Although “felony,” “larceny” and “burglary” described the overwhelming majority of crimes, a few records include juicy details, such as, “obtaining money by false pretences,” “stealing heifers” and “privately stealing in a shop.” The convict records typically contain convict’s name, date and place of sentencing, length of sentence – usually 7 years, 14 years or life – and, sometimes, the crime committed.

“By today’s standards, many of these crimes are minor misdemeanors or are no longer illegal, and the severity of punishments seem ludicrous,” said Megan Smolenyak, Chief Family Historian for Ancestry.com. “No wonder Australians consider a convict in their family tree a badge of honor and seek to uncover the amusing, quirky and outrageous details in their family’s ‘criminal’ past.”

But as notorious as the Australian convicts might be, England first disposed of its felons in the American colonies. High crime rates and over-crowded jails led the English government to transport small-time criminals to British colonies. By 1775, England had shipped some 50,000 convicts to America . They worked as indentured servants, typically on tobacco plantations in Virginia and Maryland .

Tired of England deporting unwanted citizens to America , Benjamin Franklin suggested sending rattlesnakes to England in return – a sentiment shared by many Colonial leaders. The American Revolution ended convict banishment to the United States , and the British began shipping their criminals some 15,000 miles to newly discovered Australia .

Unique Attributes of Australian-Bound Convicts:

- A vast majority of Australia-bound convicts were English, Irish and Scottish men between the ages of 20 and 24

- Women accounted for some 15 percent of Australian convicts but were outnumbered by men, six to one

- 39 percent of male and 35 percent of female convicts had no prior convictions

- The oldest convict transported was approximately 60, and the youngest nine

- 1,321 convicts were from other parts of the British Empire

- The majority of convicts were illiterate and convicted for crimes of poverty (theft)

- In the first years of transportation, convict ships were unsanitary and disease ridden; conditions improved in the later years

- Convicts typically served their sentence building roads, bridges and buildings or for free settlers

- When transportation ended, convicts made up 40 percent of Australia ’s English-speaking population

Melbourne: State Library of Victoria

Tuesday was tour day for conference attendees.

While some visited the National Archives of Australia (NAA) and the Public Records Office of Victoria (PROV), others visited the State Library of Victoria (SLV).

SLV genealogy librarian Anne Burrows - who presented her institution's holdings to conference attendees on Monday - was the guide for our group. Her colleague Grant led another group.

The SLV's main reading room is a busy place, offering desks, computers as well as comfortable chairs for visitors. The room was full of people busily working away on their own laptops as well as the library's computers.

Just off the main reading room is the Genealogy Library, which is located in a former outdoor courtyard, now roofed over. Once considered for a restaurant, the space features elegant marble floors and tall stained glass windows of the surrounding buildings' exterior walls. Sunlight streams through the roof's glass panes into the room which holds shelving units, microfilm and microfiche cabinets and readers, as well as computers.

In honor of the Australian Jewish genealogy conference, a dual-sided display of Jewish genealogy books, journals and newsletters was at the entrance to the room.

Standing by the book display (left) is an old genealogy friend - Dr. Albert Braunstein of Melbourne - whose family, like mine, has roots in Mogilev, Belarus.

Anne took us through the room describing holdings in more detail.

In addition to the display at the entrance, there are more Jewish genealogy books on shelves, including many of Avotaynu's publications - even Jeff Malka's "Sephardic Genealogy" - and the Avotaynu journal. Of course, there are extensive general genealogy reference works and materials.

Microfiche includes holdings of the Australian Jewish Historical Society and other resources as indicated on this drawer label.

Computers also hold reference materials for those searching Jewish genealogy, such as databases on this computer in the center. A search for Australian Jewish Historical Society pulled up hits in the manuscript collection.

Patrons and researchers have access to printers for microfilm and microfiche images; digital cameras are allowed or users may download images directly to their own flash drives or memory sticks.

There are numerous GenieGuides covering Australian states and topics, such as convict material. Each binder holds many pages of additional sources of information (including selected microfiche, microfilm, CD and online records in the Genealogy Center. Although now only in hardcopy, future plans include online accessibility to this information.

Although I'm focusing in this post on the specific Jewish resources at the SLV, its extensive holdings include immigration records, vital records and much more, including the Ancestry.com Library Edition, available to all library visitors.

While the SLV's Genealogy Collection focuses on sources from Australia, the UK and New Zealand, it also reflects Victoria's ethnic diversity with an expanding range of Italian, Vietnamese, Chinese and Jewish material.

Core sources include indexes to civil registration for all Australian states and territories (as they are released), Australian cemetery and immigration records, electoral rolls and directions, and much more, including collective biographies and "how-to" guides.

The SLV's Newspaper Reading Room holds more than 91,000 newspaper volumes in its Newspaper Collection - almost every newspaper published in the state since 1882, as well as earlier papers 1838-1880 (with some gaps).

Australia: Jewish convicts and ghosts

Convicts and ghosts: Early Australian Jews were a colorful lot.

In August 2004, I wrote an "It's All Relative" column on this subject for the Metro weekly of the Jerusalem Post, after meeting then 90-year-old Louise Rosenberg of Sydney at the 2004 International Conference on Jewish Genealogy held in Jerusalem that summer.

On January 26, 1788, 15 adult Jews and a baby arrived in Australia on the First Fleet of convicts transported from England.

The stories of some of those Jews, those who followed and their descendants are included in Of Folktales and Jewish Folk in Australian History, by Louise Rosenberg of Sydney. The book details aspects of both early and contemporary Jewish life and, as befits an author deeply immersed in genealogy, aims to preserve traditions and history for future generations.

It's well worth the search for this book; information on obtaining a copy is below.

In 1974, Victoria's Rabbi John Simon Levi and Dr. G. Bergman of New South Wales identified 10 Jews, including the baby Rosanne (born in Newgate prison to Esther Abrahams. Researchers at the Australian Jewish Historical Society identified another 12 Jews, and Rabbi Levi estimated that 463 people, who could be identified as Jewish, came to Australia in the first four decades of European settlement, including 384 convicts, 52 free settlers and 27 children.

"What became of the First Fleet's Esther Abrahams and her baby Rosanna and of Esther's seven children with Scottish-born Lt. George Johnstone? Her son Robert became the first Australian-born officer of the Royal Navy and a renowned explorer. The Sydney suburb of Annandale took its name from a land grant to Johnston in 1793. The farm, with Esther in charge, provided meat and produce during the settlement's early years.

OF some 1,000 Jews arriving in Australia among 146,000 convicts transported 1788-1852, few were convicted of violent crimes. Most, say scholars, were Sephardi rather than Ashkenazi, and some believe that the petty crimes with which they were charged were part of a deliberate plan to leave England, an opportunity for a new life.

Among early Jewish convicts were Sarah Burdo, Rebecca Davidson, Henry Abrams, Daniel Daniels, Aaron Davis, Sarah Davis, David Jacobs, John Jacobs, Thomas Josephs, Isaac Lemon, Amelia Levy, Joseph Levy. Jacob Messiah and Joseph Tuso. Daniels may have been a Hebrew scholar. A 1789 letter found in Gloucester, 100 miles west of London, refers to the nephew of Ephraim Daniel of Mile-End who 'has leave to teach the children of some of your nation to read and write Hebrew.'"

Joseph Levy was the first Jew to be buried in Australia, dying three months after arriving, followed by Simon Bocerah in July 1791, and by 1817, when 30-40 Jews were resident, the Hevra Kadisha (burial society) was founded in Woollahra.

Joseph Samuel, the man they couldn't hang, was convicted of murder, and sentenced to hang September 26, 1803. The first attempt, as did the second and third tries, ended in a broken rope. "It would seem there has been Divine Intervention," said the governor and granted a reprieve. The ropes were tested; each supported nearly 400 pounds without breaking.

Genealogist and author Rabbi Shmuel Gorr visited Sydney some 174 years later and calculated the Hebrew date as Yom Kippur 5564.

Philip Joseph Cohen arrived in May 1828 to perform Jewish marriages, and brought a chumash, inscribed with centuries of his family's genealogy. Today it is in the Great Synagogue's Rosenblum Museum.

Among colorful personalities were:

Barnett Levey, the first free Jewish male to arrive in 1821, became a successful businessman, shipbroker, storekeeper and ship owner, encouraged migration of free settlers, and built the first theater in Sydney.

Israel Chapman, the colony's first police detective, was appointed in 1827. His adventures were featured in the Sydney Gazette and The Australian.

Edward Davis, 18, arrived in 1833 and became leader of a gang of Jewish bushrangers (robbers) north of Sydney. Captured in December 1840, he was hanged and buried in a corner of the Jewish Devonshire Street cemetery.

Isaac Nathan, called the "father of Australian music," arrived in 1841 with his own piano, having set to music Lord Byron's "Hebrew Melodies." Nathan, born in 1790, was the eldest child of Cantor Menahem Mona, who believed he was the illegitimate child of Stanislaus Poniatowski, the last Polish King.

The Sephardi Montefiore family went to the West Indies and to New South Wales (in 1828), headed by Joseph Barrow Montefiore. In Adelaide, graphic artist E.L. Montefiore established the first circulating public library and the Adelaide Art Galley in 1844.

Rosenberg's book also highlights early Jewish women: kindergarten education pioneers Lillian Daphne de Lissa and Zoe Benjamin as well as Gladys Marks, the first woman lecturer at the University of Sydney's Faculty of Arts and the first female professor in Australia (1929).

In 1830, Rabbi Aaron Levy of the London Beth Din, arrived in Sydney, sent by London's chief rabbi to find the husband of an Englishwoman who required a get. Levy brought the first sefer Torah and prayerbooks, located the missing husband and stayed for four months.

In the early community, according to Rosenberg, there was one woman to seven men, with frequent intermarriage. The leadership declared that children of a mixed marriage would be regarded as Jews, a tradition also followed among Caribbean Sephardim. However, Levy's arrival meant that, after 1833, this would cease; the mother must be Jewish for the children to be recognized.

A fascinating contemporary woman is Nanette Green, whose search for her biological father Issachar Weingott led to her intense connection to Judaism. Although never converting, she continued learning and lecturing on the Jewish experience, and served as president of a synagogue steering committee in 1997. A pharmacist, she founded many cultural companies in a rural city.

Along with the living, came a few ghosts:

Joseph Levy, 20, arrived in August 1820, married a non-Jew in 1832. His daughter Rebecca, born 1833, married Maurice Solomon in 1853 and died in 1930, at 97. Her descendants and those of her brother are counted among today's Jewish community. Joseph died September 25, 1862. Within a month, strange noises were heard on Friday nights at the Victoria Inn, Berrima. On July 9, 1967, the Sydney Daily Telegraph wrote about the ghost, "Is the ghost looking for a minyan?"

Says Rosenberg, another spirit was industrial pioneer Abraham Davis, who arrived from Poland in 1857. He was one of Melbourne's Jewish pearl buyers in northwest coastal Broome. While returning to his sheep station, he was caught on a boat during a March 1912 cyclone; the ship sank with 138 passengers and crew. Abraham had carried a number of pearls, including a priceless one, with the legend that it was cursed and would bring tragedy to its owner.

His Broome home was sold in 1914 to became the home of Anglican Bishop Gerard Trower, who relates Rosenberg, was the first to see the spirit, a tall, handsome, bearded Jew wrapped in a tallit, carrying a prayer book. In 1957, after the building was demolished and an apartment building was built there, the ghost disappeared. Rosenberg believes Davis' ghost was his annoyance that his home was used by a Christian clergyman.

Here's the information for the book. It is a great read.

Of Folktales and Jewish Folk in Australian History, Louise Rosenberg. (Printworthy, 2004). About AU$35. Available through www.printworthy.info.

Australia: Jewish genealogy conference, March 7-9

The weather in Melbourne couldn't be better, sunny and breezy. Tracing the Tribe is blogging away and getting ready to speak at the second Australian National Conference on Jewish Genealogy, March 7-9.

The Australian Jewish News reported on the conference in a story on February 22.

The story focused on Israeli Ambassador Yuval Rotem who will also speak at the conference and describe his search for long-lost relatives in Australia.

Rotem, 50, was posted to Canberra in 2007; he spoke at the first conference in 2008, which the Australian Jewish Genealogical Society held in that city. The embassy hosted a reception for attendees at the conference.

Lionel Sharpe, secretary of the Australian Jewish Genealogical Society (Victoria) said in the story that the conference theme is "Our Jewish Roots," and that it will look at ways that genealogists - from beginners to experts - can use today's resources most effectively.

One important point that Lionel stressed is that there are so many new sites appearing and more archives are becoming accessible. Many experienced genealogists did a lot of work decades ago and couldn't find anything then, but they are not aware of the new sources.

He says that the conference will recommend that researchers start looking again, but through different glasses.

Dr. Sallyann Amdur Sack-Pikus and myself are among the international speakers.

Other speakers include:

Writer-lecturer Arnold Zable (media as a resource for finding family); researcher Krystyna Duszniak (locating relatives in Poland); journalist-filmmaker Daniela Torsh (genealogy in the Czech Republic and Austria); Holocaust researcher Jenni Buch (Belarus); and Gary Luke (Australian Jewish colonial period.

Tracing the Tribe is very excited to be here and to take part in this event.

Australia: new list of essential genealogy Web sites

A new Australian genealogy blog is focused on New South Wales research.

The latest posting, "Five essential websites for NSW genealogy," offers information on:

*NSW Registry of Births Deaths and Marriages Historical Index Search, allows searching for 1788-1906 births by name and/or parents’ names; 1788-1976 deaths in the same manner, and 1788-1956 marriages. If an entry is found, you can order the certificate and pay for it online, $AUS$25.00.

*NSW State Records (formerly the Archives Office of NSWA)offers many such indexes as: some censuses; Colonial Secretary Correspondence; Convicts; Court; Police and Prison records; Deceased Estate files; Education and Child Welfare; Immigration and Shipping; Indigenous Australians; Insolvencies; Land records and Naturalization. This is a work in progress, and additional records are added as indexing projects continue.

*Society of Australian Genealogists (Sydney) is an Australian resource (especially for NSW). Online databases include Convicts’ Tickets of Leave, Electoral districts for Sydney Streets, Soldiers and Marines (1787-1830) and NSW Ships Musters (1816-1825).

*State Library of NSW has resources for both Australia and the UK, and it has collections of maps and plans, photos, pictures and newspapers.

*NSW Department of Lands allows limited property searches, and has historical Parish Maps. First find the correct parish using the Geographical Names Board. Towns are included to the street level, and portions have the original owners' names. Map CDs are also available.

Read the complete article for more information, and for another on Australian land records.

Of course, Don't forget about the Australian JGS groups in Sydney and Melbourne. Each society's Web site offers information on local Jewish resources.

Australia: Jewish genealogy conference

I know this is somewhat late, but it's important to note that the first-ever Australian Jewish Genealogical Conference was held in Canberra in early November. An article describing the meet was carried in the Australian Jewish News here.

Participants at the first Australian Jewish Genealogical Conference held in Canberra discovered some surprising family connections.

The conference included a reception hosted by Israeli Ambassador to Australia Yuval Rotem, special interest group sessions and guest speakers from the National Archives of Australia, National Library and Australian War Memorial.

It was nice to see the names of good friends and acquaintances from down-under: Rieke and Peter Nash, as well as Martha Lev Zion from Beersheva.

This conference - as do many genealogy conferences - produced some surprises. Two delegates discovered they were born in the same hospital in Shanghai to refugee parents. Peter and Prof. Ben Selinger found a connection through their fathers' professional lives in pre-war Berlin.

Sharing the same great-grandfather were Enid Yoffa Elton and Cecily Parris. He had arrived in Australia in 1847 from Krakow via England.

“It was unbelievable,” Elton told The AJN. “I found about four or five relatives from the same family tree.”

Israeli Ambassador Yuval Rotem - whose family name was Frenkel - hosted a reception for attendees. He told how he found surviving Polish family members in Melbourne, while another attendee wondered if she was related to Rotem through her mother's family.

Dr. Martha Lev Zion was the keynote speaker and discussed two modern tools for genealogical research: the growth of online records and DNA analysis.

Read the complete article for more information.

Boston: Australian research seminar, Sept. 22

Two programs on Australian genealogy will be presented at the New England Historic Genealogical Society (NEHGS) on Wednesday, September 22.

The seminar, free and open to the public, will run from 10am-noon at the NEHGS, 99-101 Newbury St., Boston.

Australian Helen D. Harris, OAM will offer "Beginning Your Family History Research in Australia," and "Finding your Long Lost Relatives in Australia."

She has lived in Whitehorse for more than 30 years, with the past 13 years in Elgar Ward. Her areas of interest include heritage, health and environmental issues.

Harris is affiliated with the Box Hill Historical Society, ELGAR Contact, Australian Institute of Genealogical Studies and the Whitehorse Branch of the Greens. She holds the Order of Australia Medal (OAM) (1993, for services to community history); MA (History); founder/honorary life member Avoca and District Historical Society; inaugural 2004 Frances Brown Award for Excellence from the Victorian Association of Family History Organizations.

For more information visit AmericanAncestors.org.

Australia: Early Jewish archives now online

Researchers with a family connection to Australia may be able to find many more records as early Australian Jewish records are now online, according to this story by Naomi Levin in the Australian Jewish News.

The file includes information fascinating to those with an interest in Jewish history.

Hard-to-find documents detailing the history of Australia's Jewish community are becoming more readily available since the National Archives in Canberra commenced digitising its massive collection.

The National Archives maintains such a large number of government records that immigration documents alone fill 22 kilometres of shelf space.

Senator John Faulkner launched the Making Australia Home project earlier this month -a plan that will progressively make Australia’s immigration records available on the Internet.

There's a 1933 census document listing Jewish demographics prior to World War II:

According to the file, Australia had 23,553 Jewish residents in 1933. Of those, 10,305 lived in New South Wales, 9500 lived in Victoria and 2105 lived in Western Australia, with the rest scattered around the country.

In 2006, the census revealed that 88,000 people declared themselves to be Jewish, and the actual number was predicted to be closer to 100,000.

Other documents include records of Jewish arrivals to Australia and cabinet ­documents, such as a 1926 "form of application for registration for alien resident in Australia," as well as 1943 confidential cabinet minutes giving permission to the Australian Jewish Welfare Society to bring 150 young Jewish refugees to Australia.

For more information, click here .

Geneabloggers.com: 23 new genealogy blogs

Thomas MacEntee of Geneabloggers has discovered another 23 genealogy blogs, making the total of geneablogs at his site now 1,629.

Tracing the Tribe experienced a technical glitch with the last group of more than 30 new blogs, but will fix and post that previous list in the near future.

This week's batch includes one for the MOT's - Ancestral Discoveries - by Tracing the Tribe's friend and professional genealogist Janice M. Sellers, who will focus on genealogy education, Jewish genealogy and professional genealogy, using more than three decades of broad experience.

My blog hopes to inform people about interesting things in genealogy and to connect them with professionals who can help them find the information they are looking for. I have 35 years of experience with a broad range of research and specialize in Jewish research.

Her credentials include editorship of The Galitzianer (the quarterly newsletter for Gesher Galicia) and ZichronNote (newsletter of the San Francisco Bay Area Jewish Genealogical Society).

She's the SFBAJGS publicity director, and is a member of the Association of Professional Genealogists, Genealogical Speakers Guild, California State Genealogical Alliance, California Genealogical Society, and Gesher Galicia. For 11 years, she's been a staff member of the Oakland Regional Family History Center.

The other newly discovered blogs' topics include individual family history, Australia, New Zealand, UK, genealogy education, writing your family history, Pacific Island, Idaho, Arkansas and Missouri:

-- A Hoyt Family Genealogy . . . and Related Surnames
Individual family history

-- Aquamarinesteph
Individual family history

-- Australian History for Genealogists
Australian genealogy

The author is an undergrad student of Australian history, volunteers at the Public Records Office of Victoria, and has interests in genealogy, oral history, local history, history preservation and museums.

-- Benjamin Kingman Curtis
Individual family history

-- Elrod Family History
Individual family history (ELROD of Kulmbach, Germany->America)

-- GeneaCircle
Individual family history

-- Genealogy at Tivel.org
Genealogy education blog, Individual family history (TIVEL)

-- Generations of Stories
Genealogy education, Writing Your Family History blog

-- I’m Related to Whom?
Individual family history (BERKHEIMER, WILDASIN, MONATH)

-- iwiKiki
Individual family history, New Zealand genealogy, Pacific Islander genealogy

-- Mahogany Box
Individual family history, UK genealogy

-- Mam-ma’s Southern Family
Individual family history (LANCASTER)

-- Meridian 14th Ward Genealogy
Idaho genealogy

-- Ozarks’ History
Arkansas genealogy, Geographic location genealogy, Missouri genealogy

-- Remembering This Day In Our History
Individual family history

-- Shaking Leaves: My Adventures in Genealogy
Individual family history (BRITTAIN)

-- Thames NZ Genealogy Resources
New Zealand genealogy

-- The Family Shrubbery
Individual family history

-- The Ridouts of Bath
Individual family history (RIDOUT), UK genealogy

-- Uibles Family Blog
Individual family history (UIBLES)

-- William Lindsay
Individual family history (LINDSAY)

-- Wise-Stewart Genealogy
Individual family history

In what seems to be a recurring omission, many individual family history blogs do not clearly list the family surnames being researched in the blog introductions. Providing those names upfront might help readers who are also searching the same names.

Read more about each blog at the Geneablogger link above.

Australia: 'Catskills' destroyed by fire

Burned to the ground on February 7 during the terrible Australian fires, the once-upon-a-time gold mining center of Marysville was known as the Australian "Catskills."

Many Melbourne Jewish families and groups went there for Passover and other holidays, traveling the 100 kilometers northeast of Melbourne (Victoria's state capital) in about 90 minutes.

The town was established in the 1850s after gold was discovered and, by 1861, some 6,000 miners had living there.

Before the fire, the population was 518. At least 15, and possibly up to 100 residents, may have lost their lives in what officials believe was an act of arson, according to this Jerusalem Post article.

By the 1920s, Marysville had become a popular tourist resort, largely due to its proximity to the Yarra Valley, dozens of wineries and Stevenson's Falls, Victoria's highest waterfall. The Cumberland opened in 1917, and was always booked out during school vacations, often 12 months in advance.

For the local Jewish community, Marysville was the equivalent of the Catskills for east coast Americans. Over the last 21 years, on Pessah and other holidays, dozens of Jewish families, primarily from Melbourne, would drive up to the scenic resort for a week of eating, schmoozing, bush walks and horse riding.

Sydney's Rabbi Chaim Ingram summed up the uniqueness of the experience in a letter to the Australian Jewish News last year.

"One hundred and sixty men and women of all ages and varying native languages, prayer rites, synagogue affiliations and shades of observance bonded together as one havura - the very opposite of the old joke about a man who builds two shuls on a desert island, one of which he would not be seen dead in," he wrote.

Read the complete story at the link above.

On the road again: Hong Kong, Australia

Tracing the Tribe's first-ever trip to Hong Kong and Australia begins tomorrow and I'll be blogging every day.

In Hong Kong, my schedule includes:

• Wednesday, February 24, 8pm, at the Jewish Community Center: "The IberianAshkenaz DNA Project: So You Think You're Ashkenazi?"


• Thursday, February 25, 8pm, at the Jewish Community Center: "Introduction to Jewish Genealogy," for the community.


• During the week, I'll also present "Intro to Jewish Genealogy" for students at Carmel College.

I'll do some sightseeing (weather permitting), enjoy the cuisine, meet interesting people and spend Purim in Hong Kong. Of course, I'll be blogging, so stay tuned.

On March 1, I fly to Melbourne, Australia, for the Second Australian National Jewish Genealogy Conference (March 7-9). I'm honored to have been invited for this event and look forward to seeing the Australian Jewish genealogy community.



My presentations include the IberianAshkenaz DNA Project as well as social media for today's genealogists.

Friends and family are part of the Australian schedule, including cousins who come from Bobruisk, Belarus and from America (in Sydney). I'll be visiting the Sydney cousins for the second part of my trip, and may do some additional talks there.

On the return flight, I will speak on MyHeritage.com, presenting an overview of its tools and features and encouraging people to participate in the new Beit Hatfutsot-MyHeritage.com partnership.

Family trees created with a special version of the free MyHeritage software will be periodically transferred to Beit Hatfutsot for digital archiving for ever.

This should be a very exciting trip, new sights, fascinating people and much much more.

Blogging will be on the menu in Australia as well.

Readers who either live in these destinations or who have been there before, are invited to suggest their favorite experiences - things to see, places to eat, etc.

Next week in Hong Kong!

Australian obituary notices online

On this Web site, every obituary, death and funeral notice from every Australian newspaper is published daily. Also, beginning this month, probate notices are also included.

More than 32,000 notices are currently available.

There is a Geneaology section (in that quaint spelling), but access requires a one-time-only fee of A$19.95. This payment provides access to what the Web site describes as "advanced searches of our extensive full transcript database of all Australian Obituary, Death and Funeral Notices as they are published or from our Archives."

Something to keep in mind if your research involves Australia.

Australia: National Jewish genealogy conference

Are you an Australian searching your Jewish roots? Or do you live elsewhere on the globe and have discovered Australian relatives during your research?

Here's a good idea that may be perfect for both groups of researchers. It will take place in October - which is spring in the Southern hemisphere.

The Australian Jewish Genealogical Society has announced that a national Jewish genealogy conference will be held Sunday and Monday, October 26-27, in Canberra, followed by two days of optional visits to archives and cemeteries.

The program will offer lectures, seminars and panel forums, as well as visits to national institutions and genealogical resources.

Genners around the world who might attend are asked to email conf2008@ajgs.org.au to express their interest (this is not a conference registration).

The conference program will be posted soon; an accommodations list is available now on the AJGS website, which offers more information.

This is an excellent idea to attract and encourage the growing number of genealogists searching their Jewish roots in Australia.

This may be the time for us to meet cousins in Melbourne and Sydney who, for years, have been asking us to visit.

New York Nostalgia: Sublime Jewish food

While this story is a bit late for the Hanukkah theme it follows, your tastebuds will still be happy. There's also a photo gallery if you've forgotten what these amazing delights look like.

In the 1930s, New York had some 3,000 kosher delis; today, there are about a dozen. The 2nd Avenue Deli - which closed last year - reopened a few weeks ago. Is a resurgence on the way?

Read on for sublime East Broadway Kosher Bakery's chocolate babka, Yonah Schimmel's knishes, Zabar's matzo ball soup, Katz's pastrami sandwich, Barney Greengrass's bagels and lox, Russ & Daughter's chopped liver, Sarabeth's cheese blintzes and Guss's pickles.

I first saw this story on the Australian Jewish News site, which features Jacqui Gal's blog.

Among the soundbytes:

And then there was the knish. This was my favourite discovery. Correct me if I am wrong, but knishes are not typical of Australian Jewish cooking.

I had never even heard of one before my first visit to New York. I experimented by tasting one at a bagel place, soon after arriving here, but that lumpy bit of potato, broccoli and dough did the humble knish no favours.

Gal then discovered Schimmel's knishes:

One bite and I could see why. The lump of spiced and mashed potato was fluffy and warm and encased in a light pastry. Served with coleslaw and pickles (for an extra dollar) it was a satisfying meal, for the grand total of $3.75 (plus tax).

Note: I'm not sure if this price is in Australian or US dollars!

To read Gal's complete "Festival of Lights and Bites" review, click here.

Our ancestral food is good any time on any day of the year - except Yom Kippur, of course!

Australia: Document detectives

The Sydney Morning Herald wrote about document detectives in Australia:

According to the story, Australian genealogy societies have tens of thousands of members, and some 6,000 belong to the Society of Australian Genealogists.

Although not mentioned in the story, there are also very active Jewish genealogy associations in Sydney and Melbourne. For details concerning groups in Adelaide, Perth and Canberra, click "contact details" here. See "links" on that page for many useful Jewish genealogy links.

Driven by digitising and the internet, genealogy has become a global obsession - but Australians might be losing access to valuable records, writes David Humphries.

Among the dozens of "live" files about dead people on Jan Worthington's North Shore desk is a job from England, where an aristocrat wants to know if any of a long-departed ancestor's vast Sydney land-holdings might still be available for inheritance.

"The family contacted me to search for any Sydney land still in the family but previously overlooked," says the document detective, a professional genealogist for 24 years, who says her Worthington Clark consultancy is always inundated with work.

It's a work in progress, given the huge task of checking every bit of property that was in the ancestor's enormous holdings.

But the presumably cash-strapped Brits should not give up hope, even if such inquiries can open the gate to competing claims. "I did a case years ago where a strip of land in central Sydney had been overlooked because of faulty title," Worthington says. "I had to chase down this huge family tree over several generations, because each and every survivor was entitled to a share. Everything had to be proved."

Worthington's business is an eye-opener to anyone who thinks genealogy - the tracing of pedigree - is a fuddy-duddy world of cobwebs and indexes, where participants might appear as dead as those they pursue.

New South Wales just finished History Week, and five events related to genealogy, including information on tracing family members.

According to the story, "There is an army on the march, rolling back the details of generations lost or obscured by the dust of time."

"It's something you become terribly wrapped in," says Malcolm Sainty, the president of the Society of Australian Genealogists, who got his start 45 years ago through curiosity about his family origins and now runs a publishing business built on joining the dots of lineage.

"It becomes like a detective story, and it sort of grabs you because you've got various bits of evidence and they don't quite fit. Why they don't fit, and where to find the missing bits, becomes an all-embracing interest."

When he worked on his family history, he wrote hundreds of letters to find documents and traveled frequently to England, from where his great-grandfather had immigrated.

In these amazing days of internet resources, such searches are much easier although the question of accuracy still remains, and not everything is available online ... yet!

The story also brings up some points of contention:

Therein is one pitfall of internet research. Global attempts to suck up all detail, to index and catalogue it, and to digitise each record, have met resistance for reasons that range from intellectual property argument and disputes over compensation, to jealousy and interdenominational suspicion.

For instance, in the middle of the last century the Mormons started filming English parish registers of baptisms, marriages and burials - which can go back to 1538 - so they could baptise ancestors into their faith.

"What's there is pretty accurate, but a lot of churches in England didn't like the idea and refused to have their records filmed by the Mormons," Sainty says. "So there are big holes in it, and that can lead to big errors."

The story deals with record digitization and its challenges. One archive staffer says of her materials: "If the cartons of records were put side by side, they'd stretch for 60 kilometres," adding that 75 percent of clients - some 20,000 - are doing family histories. Her archive has negotiated with Ancestry.com which arrived in Australia about a year ago and "has been buying access to records at a hectic pace."

Lack of public investment is discussed, and one official worries that private entrepreneurs will obtain large collections and charge premium prices, denying access to those who can't afford it. He adds that only large state libraries and universities can afford the fees, and the problem is balancing private interest and public good.

The document detective who figures in the story reveals that some clients have paid up to Aus$20,000 for their family trees, with cases ranging from heirlooms to attempted false identity. "Every family has its skeletons in the closet."

Read more here.

Australia's Jewish museum receives grant

The Australian government will contribute $200,000 to develop the Zelman Cowen Gallery of Australian Jewish History at the Jewish Museum of Australia.

According to this announcement, the contribution to this cultural project marks the 90th birthday of Sir Zelman Cowen on October 7.

Cowen has contributed immeasurably to Australia as a naval intelligence officer during World War 2, a Rhodes Scholar, Dean of Law at Melbourne University, Vice-Chancellor of the University of New England and University of Queensland, and Governor-General from 1977 until 1982. He has been a patron of the Museum since its inception in 1982.

The museum is planning to raise $1.5 million to bring the project to life. The government hopes its contribution will encourage the Jewish and general Australian community,State government and other sectors to support the project.

The Jewish Museum of Australia was established to explore and share the Jewish experience in Australia and benefit Australia's diverse society.

Australia: Jewish Museum to receive major funding

The Jewish Museum of Australia, in St. Kilda (Melbourne), will receive major government funding to create a new gallery and online learning portal.

The state of Victoria will provide AU$400,000 to the Museum, according to an article on J-Wire.

Two major museum projects are planned. The Zelman Cowen Gallery will tell the Australian Jewish story, from the First Fleet's Jewish convicts through today. The museum will also develop a new online learning portal which will make the collections and education resources more accessible.

The new museum director, Rebecca Forgasz, said the government contribution will enable work to progress on curating, designing and building the Zelman Cowen Gallery of Australian Jewish History. It is a story that is not well known even within the Australian Jewish community.

Additionally, the new Gallery will create a hub for education and discussion on the issues of community, identity and civics in a multicultural society, and to tell that story to school students using accessible exhibits.

Learn more about the Museum here.

Geneabloggers: 27 new blogs discovered!

Among the newest 27 genealogy blogs just discovered by Thomas MacEntee of Geneabloggers.com, Tracing the Tribe readers will be interested to find a Sephardic one.

To read more about each of the new blogs in this post, click here. The new crop includes blogs devoted to Jewish, Portuguese, Sephardic, individual family history, professional genealogists, Massachusetts, New England, West Virginia, crafts, Maine, technology, Indiana, Midwest US, Irish, Canada, southeastern Massachusetts cemeteries, Mississippi, Civil War, Acadian, French Canadian,

Of course, here's my favorite of this bunch:

Maduro Family Branches
Individual family history, Jewish genealogy, Portuguese genealogy

Welcome to my blog about branches on the Maduro family tree. This blog is about the Maduro family and associated families. Some of these include Brandon, Cardoze, de Castro, Delvalle, Fidanque, Halman, de Leon, de Lima, Lindo, Piza, Robles, Sasso, de Sola, and Toledano.

Over the years I’ve collected genealogical information about the Levy Maduro family of Amsterdam, their Portuguese ancestors, and their Maduro descendants around the world. In this blog I’ll describe the Maduro connection to some of those other families.

Click on Thomas' post above to read more about each of the rest. Visit the blogs and welcome them.

A Couple of Whiles
Individual family history

4 Hall Cousins
Individual family history, Massachusetts genealogy, New England genealogy
African-American Genealogy – West Virginia
African-American genealogy, West Virginia genealogy

Ann’s Scraps of Time
Craft blogs, Individual family history

Demarais Fish on Genealogy
Individual family history

Downeast Ancestors
Individual family history, Maine genealogy, New England genealogy

Easter Family Genealogy Blog
Individual family history, UK genealogy

Family History Across the Seas
Australian genealogy, Individual family history

Family Tree Rings: An Ancestral Birthday Blog
Individual family history

GenealogyNext
Technology blog

Gol Gol Girl
Individual family history

Hunting Ancestors
Australian genealogy, Individual family history

Indiana Dillmans
Indiana genealogy, Individual family history, Midwest genealogy

Irish Genealogy News
Irish genealogy

Accompanying blog to the Irish Genealogy Toolkit - a free online guide to Irish family history research, including news about latest record releases, occasional features and interviews with genealogy specialists, along with tips and hints.

Kathryn’s Quest
Individual family history

My interest in family history has spanned almost 30 years and I thought I would share some tips through this medium to my friends of how to enjoy the thrill of the chase of those elusive ancestors.  Starting week one of 2011, I will share ideas and tips of how to start your family history and to record it.  This knowledge is all self-taught by experiencing the journey myself. ...

Leaves of Heritage
Professional genealogist

Letters from Home
Individual family history

No More Wriggling Out of Writing Woman ...
Individual family history, UK genealogy

Norma Jean’s Genealogy
Canadian genealogy, Individual family history (BENOY)

The Genealogy Dude
Professional genealogist

The Old Colony Graveyard Rabbit
Cemetery blog, Massachusetts genealogy, New England genealogy

A blog devoted mainly to the cemeteries of Southeastern Massachusetts with occasional forays elsewhere in New England. A member of the Association of Graveyard Rabbits.

The Sand Creek Sentinel Oktibbeha County Genealogy
African-American genealogy, Mississippi genealogy

The USCT Chronicle
African-American genealogy

Tomorrow’s Memories
Individual family history

Whispers Through the Willows
Acadian genealogy, Canadian genealogy, Cemetery blogs, French-Canadian genealogy, Individual family history, Massachusetts genealogy, New England genealogy; New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Massachusetts cemeteries.

Yankee Cousin’s Adventures in Ancestry
Individual family history

If any of these blogs coincide with your own research interests, do visit them.

Thanks, Thomas, for another great list!

Telling African American Civil War Stories, of Soldiers, Civilians, Contrabands, First Days of Freedom, and the Events that led to Freedom.

The Four Hall Cousins blog has been created to present the history of Edward Hall of Rehoboth, Bristol County, Massachusetts, formerly of Henbury, Gloucestershire, England, who arrived in Plymouth about 1636/37. ... We hope that this blog will provide additional information to those researching these families, as well as allied families and other branches and stimulate productive discussions; we hope also that it will attract new cousins who will help add to our information base.

Massachusetts: Searching Australia, Dec. 2

The Jewish Genealogical Society of Greater Boston will host Judith Romney Wegner speaking on “Jews Down Under: Tracing My Australian Forebears” at 1.30pm, Sunday, December 2, at Temple Emanuel in Newton Center.

Wegner gave up law to pursue Judaic studies and was professor of Judaic and Comparative Religious Studies at several New England colleges. She holds law degrees from Cambridge and Harvard universities as well as a Judaic Studies PhD from Brown University. In her retirement, she continues to conduct research in Judaism and Islam and to follow her own genealogical research.

Her great-grandparents sailed to New Zealand as British colonists in the mid-19th century. Although some family members returned to England, others moved to Australia. She'll share the process used to conduct research using information from tombstones, newspapers, service records from the Australian Jewish Historical Society, and even coroner's inquest proceedings.

Wegner is an expert source when it comes to Hebrew, other languages and Jewish history; she contributes frequently to JewishGen's discussion groups and has assisted many researchers in their quests.

For address, direction and fees, click here.