Israel: New database

In a collaboration that could be the model for other genealogical societies in other countries, the Israel Genealogical Society (IGS) has developed a special relationship with Petah Tikva's Oded Yarkoni Archive, which focuses on the city's history.

The IGS hopes other municipal archives will follow. This model is also useful for encouraging individuals to join genealogical societies, as these particular databases are accessible only to IGS members, in its online Members' Corner.

In recent years, the Oded Yarkoni archive has made a number of databases available - through the IGS website - with information about the city's population in its first 50 years. This is important to those searching family that lived there.

The current databases are the 1922 census, various registries, the 1923-34 birth registry and the 1923-1939 death registry. The 1922 census database has been translitered from Hebrew to English, but the others are only in Hebrew.

Here is additional information about the archival registries which are nine Hebrew-only lists, mostly undated, from the files of the town council.

They include the craftsmen's association, the vegetable marketing branch, the weighers, tradesmen, farmers, Maccabi Avshalom, automobile owners, horse-drawn wagon owners, and farmers living on the moshav. IGS has combined them into one database, including details found in each.

As an example, the tradesmens' list included the type of business and address for most individuals. In the craftsmen's registry, only the address was listed. For weighers, the addresses were given with the year (1943-44), while Maccabi Avshalom's list was dated 1939-1940.

The database includes 947 names. It is in Hebrew and can only be searched in Hebrew.

Some tips: If a surname is a compound, such as Ben Ezer, search for "contains Ben." A joint ownership or partnership with two surnames is listed twice - under both the first and second surname.

There is useful information here for those who can access it. Take a look around the IGS website for its English resources and databases.