04 December 2009

UK: CemeteryScribes.com

In London, noted Jewish researchers Gaby Laws and Angela Shire have shared information on their new site, SynagogueScribes.com, as well as updates on CemeteryScribes.com, formerly known as GenPals.com

Tracing the Tribe has previously posted about GenPals.com.

CemeteryScribes.com has been around for three years, with more than 10,000 individuals listed along with 3,330 headstone photos. Many more will be added and several new burial grounds will be catalogued.

While work on CemeteryScribes will keep Gaby and Angela Shire busy for several more years, they are now going to launch the new SynagogueScribes.com, billed as a "one-stop gateway to Anglo-Jewish community records."

Its unique, fully-searchable database of London Ashkenazy synagogue records, focusing on pre-UK civil registration (from July 1, 1837).

The database already contains the names of over 11,500 marriage partners, drawn from the major London communities (The Great, The New, The Hambro and the Western Synagogues); more than 1,500 birth records from the Great and New Synagogue registers: more than 1,800 circumcision records from two mohel registers.

Additionally, there are 600 never-before-published burial records (1774-1810), from one of two registers held at the University of Southampton Library Archives & Manuscripts Department. They are still being transcribed and many more will be added over the coming months.

Gaby reports that they have made several links to burials in Brady Street Cemetery. Many record the deaths of children, stillborn or miscarried births and may help to explain apparent age gaps between children. One example is that of Jewish schoolmaster Hyman Hurwitz of Highgate, who suffered such losses.

Sometimes they have been able to connect a "missing" spouse to their partner:

CemeteryScribes I7647 Samuel b. Zachariah was buried in Brady Street 1799-1800. We have not located a grave for his widow but, from the Burial Register, we now know she died some 9 years later [DPL 0563 Burial 1809 [2 Jul] Widow ZACHARIAH Widow) of Samuel ZACHARIAH Samuel (Samuel b. Zachariah) Gun Street Spitalfields.
An interesting find is the listing of the 1801 death of R. Feivel b. Abraham Goldsticker. The record shows the death date for one of the Great Synagogue's earliest members and also adds two additional generations to the family of Avigdor ABbrahams with information on their unusual business as gold embroiderers. Not yet on SynagogueScribes, it will be added on the next update.

SynagogueScribes is a transcribed record database not open to change. Although there is no discussion list and the site does not collect family trees or genealogies, Gaby and Angelea would be happy to hear from Tracing the Tribe's readers who are able to link to any of the new burial records. Go to the "Contact Us" page at the site to provide information.

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