About 25 years ago, if you came from Eastern Europe, you were told you can't do any research, said Sephardic genealogy pioneer Dr. Jeffrey S. Malka. "Sephardic genealogy is in the same place now."
The potential today is better than ever, he said, with more accessible archives in many countries, although Spanish and Turkish Ottoman Empire archives are still underutilized.
Not so long ago, says Malka, Sephardim were a majority in European Jewry. "In the Roman Empire, they were 25% of the Eastern Mediterranean population, and 20% of the entire Roman Empire population, about 8 million Jews worldwide. As late as the 12th century, Sephardim were 90% of world Jewry. When Toledo and Granada had 12,000 Jews each, the two largest German communities counted only 700 and 1,500 individuals."
As Sephardim suffered from conversions, persecutions, exiles and dispersion, their numbers fell to 50% of the world Jewish population by the 1700s.
“It is not a stretch to see that if Ashkenazim could trace their roots, they would find Sephardim,” Malka stressed. “This has already been discovered in rabbinic genealogy.”
Spanish archives hold approximately 3,000 notarial records per year per town, with Jews clearly identified, he said. The records aren’t hard to read once researchers become familiar with the handwriting, but they must understand historic spelling, naming conventions and languages.
Using his own family research as an example, he said that Malka in Hebrew is queen, but the Malka in his last name is Aramaic (spelled with an aleph) and means king. He traced the 1482 sale of a house in Toledo, in which all records referred to a single individual with many name variations: Aben Malka, Aben Maleque, Abenmaleq, Abenmalek, Aben Rey. Malka is Aramaic, Maleque/Maleq is Arabic and Rey is Castillian. All mean “son of Malek.”
Researchers should identify the original names of Conversos in various communities. Some are currently available in books on Barcelona, Mallorca and other places.
For other countries:
* Italy: Largely unstudied, although Nardo Bonomi of Florence is now working on archiving Jewish records.
* Egypt: Records remain inaccessible, with permission refused by elderly leaders. “It is imperative that backup copies be preserved,” Malka said. “In the past, fire destroyed a portion, and mice are eating the rest.” A very small portion of the records are at Yeshiva University. Stones from Cairo’s oldest cemetery have been used in construction.
* Curacao: Cemetery inscriptions were fortunately published long ago. Today, because of erosion, many are illegible, and the only source is the original research.
In many countries, village cemeteries are ignored and should be documented. Some have been documented by academics who refuse to share their work.
Most research is done by amateurs, said Malka, adding that they should be assisted through development of Sephardic genealogy tools, linguistics, methodology, record-keeping and documentation of sources
Researchers require knowledge of Hebrew, Arabic, Ladino, Spanish, and the ability to read Sephardic scripts. Malka also suggested that Israeli schools might teach the unusual scripts to develop a field of fluent Hebrew speakers who can read ancient records.
Malka’s recommendations: Elderly Sephardim should be interviewed; cemeteries should be photographed and documented; at-risk records should be copied; archives in Spain and Italy should be catalogued; name variants, geographic prevalence and sources should be developed; a Sephardic Jewish genealogical curriculum and access tools should be created; and support is needed for Mizrahi genealogy (Oriental Jews of Syria, Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, etc.).
15 September 2006
Resources: Looking for relatives?
Two newspaper archives will help you find details on relatives known and suspected: www.newspaperarchives.com (fee-based) and a new Google service: www.news.google.com/archivesearch.
The Google service returns results from newspapers and other sources, such as World War I Registrations (Ancestry.com), and results from newspaperarchives.com, which cannot be searched directly until you sign up with that Web site.
How can it help you?
With the new Google feature, I found not only myriad Tollin, Talalay, Talalaj, Talalai individuals, but in addition to the previously known WWI registrations, I learned about a relative who got a speeding ticket in 1958, obits containing brand-new details on spouses and families, court cases, patents, social notes, awards and much more.
On the Dardashti side, I not only found a long list of my past articles, but the information that our architect cousin John in California had won a cooking contest in 1974 for his Persian chicken and much more.
You can choose "all dates" or search by specific decades.
With the 219 results for Talalay and 318 for Dardashti on newspaperarchives.com, however, I couldn't access them until I signed up. As far as I can determine, the Google search showed all of that site's relevant listings.
Using Google, the newspaperarchives.com results will show in a new window. It takes a bit of time as all the text on the page must be scrolled through, but at least the name and the context can be seen.
Some earlier papers on Google show numerous OCR scanning errors in the search results -- so many that some entries look like a foreign language. However, the name being searched is in bold; you can click on the search and look in the text box. Just wear your thinking cap to decipher what it really says.
Well worth a search. Happy hunting!
And thanks to Dick Eastman who provided the Google link!
The Google service returns results from newspapers and other sources, such as World War I Registrations (Ancestry.com), and results from newspaperarchives.com, which cannot be searched directly until you sign up with that Web site.
How can it help you?
With the new Google feature, I found not only myriad Tollin, Talalay, Talalaj, Talalai individuals, but in addition to the previously known WWI registrations, I learned about a relative who got a speeding ticket in 1958, obits containing brand-new details on spouses and families, court cases, patents, social notes, awards and much more.
On the Dardashti side, I not only found a long list of my past articles, but the information that our architect cousin John in California had won a cooking contest in 1974 for his Persian chicken and much more.
You can choose "all dates" or search by specific decades.
With the 219 results for Talalay and 318 for Dardashti on newspaperarchives.com, however, I couldn't access them until I signed up. As far as I can determine, the Google search showed all of that site's relevant listings.
Using Google, the newspaperarchives.com results will show in a new window. It takes a bit of time as all the text on the page must be scrolled through, but at least the name and the context can be seen.
Some earlier papers on Google show numerous OCR scanning errors in the search results -- so many that some entries look like a foreign language. However, the name being searched is in bold; you can click on the search and look in the text box. Just wear your thinking cap to decipher what it really says.
Well worth a search. Happy hunting!
And thanks to Dick Eastman who provided the Google link!
14 September 2006
At the IIJG: What's in a name?
Author Alexander Beider’s presentation on Jewish onomastics (the study of names), was introduced by Professor Aaron Demsky, Jewish Name Project director at Bar Ilan University, who underlined the importance of names in the Jewish people’s tribal framework, proving our identity and our place in the tribe.
Beider has authored a series of Avotaynu www.avotaynu.com books on Jewish surnames of the Russian Empire, Poland, Galicia, Ashkenazi given names and more, now standard Jewish genealogy reference.
He spoke on Jewish names and their relation to history (migrations, relations with non-Jews, languages, etc.), sociology, genealogy and linguistics (phonetics, morphology, semantics, etymology), and suggested future research projects:
* Ashkenazi names in the Hapsburg Empire, such as Czech lands (Bohemia and Moravia), Austria, Hungary, Slovakia, Translyvania and Transcarpathian Ruthenia, since name adoption in 1787.
* Hungarian surnames since the mid-19th century.
* Alsace-Lorraine archival data for 19th century name lists.
* Romania, following immigration from Galicia and local surnames.
However, he said, the most important will be a comprehensive list of Sephardic and Oriental names to include Arabic literature, medieval Spain and Portugal sources, Ottoman Empire and Italian sources. Linguistic analysis will include phonetics, morphology of diminutive forms and patterns, and cover historical periods, countries and languages.
Beider compared six major Sephardic onomastics books indicating their conflicting information:
* Adda: Considered an Arabic male given name, an Arabic word meaning custom, an Arabic female given name and a place name.
* Azulay: Considered a Berber place name in Algeria, a Berber dialectal word meaning good, and Spanish azul=blue.
Crucial problems, said Beider, include where and when the names were first used (Iberian Peninsula, Ottoman Empire, Converso communities in Europe, North Africa). Are they toponymics, patronymics, matronymics, occupations, Iberian suffixes or common nouns?
The only fault in his comprehensive list of sources was lack of Persian literature and the rich material in Judeo-Persian sources.
Beider has authored a series of Avotaynu www.avotaynu.com books on Jewish surnames of the Russian Empire, Poland, Galicia, Ashkenazi given names and more, now standard Jewish genealogy reference.
He spoke on Jewish names and their relation to history (migrations, relations with non-Jews, languages, etc.), sociology, genealogy and linguistics (phonetics, morphology, semantics, etymology), and suggested future research projects:
* Ashkenazi names in the Hapsburg Empire, such as Czech lands (Bohemia and Moravia), Austria, Hungary, Slovakia, Translyvania and Transcarpathian Ruthenia, since name adoption in 1787.
* Hungarian surnames since the mid-19th century.
* Alsace-Lorraine archival data for 19th century name lists.
* Romania, following immigration from Galicia and local surnames.
However, he said, the most important will be a comprehensive list of Sephardic and Oriental names to include Arabic literature, medieval Spain and Portugal sources, Ottoman Empire and Italian sources. Linguistic analysis will include phonetics, morphology of diminutive forms and patterns, and cover historical periods, countries and languages.
Beider compared six major Sephardic onomastics books indicating their conflicting information:
* Adda: Considered an Arabic male given name, an Arabic word meaning custom, an Arabic female given name and a place name.
* Azulay: Considered a Berber place name in Algeria, a Berber dialectal word meaning good, and Spanish azul=blue.
Crucial problems, said Beider, include where and when the names were first used (Iberian Peninsula, Ottoman Empire, Converso communities in Europe, North Africa). Are they toponymics, patronymics, matronymics, occupations, Iberian suffixes or common nouns?
The only fault in his comprehensive list of sources was lack of Persian literature and the rich material in Judeo-Persian sources.
11 September 2006
At the IIJG: In the archives
Monday at the symposium began with a discussion of archival priorities, including acquisition and accessibility, by Central Archives of the History of the Jewish People director Hadassah Assouline, and Jean-Claude Kuperminc, director of the Alliance Israelite Universelle Library.
While Assouline and Kuperminc were to discuss Ashkenazi and Sephardic records respectively, it was apparent that there was much overlap, with Assouline stating that CAJHP is the history of one people, not to be divided.
Seemingly Ashkenazi repositories hold records from both communities. In the Lviv archives, there is material on the Belgrad Sephardic community, while there are Sephardic materials in Russian archives.
Assouline mentioned some of the fascinating CAHJP archival holdings:
* Partial list of ledgers of the Jewish Colonialization Association in Argentina, began by Baron Hirsch in the 1890s, which could help descendants to trace back to Europe.
* A list of Vilna Jewish residents who paid taxes in the 1790s, indicating patrynomics, occupations and amount paid.
* A register of the Alexandria, Egypt rabbinical court, shows the betrothal of a couple from Galicia, whose names are written in Ashkenazi script while the record itself is in Sephardic script.
* The Zionist Archives gave a list of 1919 pogrom victims to the CAHJP. From a small town near Bobruisk, Belarus, the list of wounded and murdered gives names, ages and occupations.
* A survey of documents from books and Polish court registers revealed the Lvov District, Chortkov, court records listing plague victims in 1770.
* The property inventory list of a noble family -- owners of the town of Shklov -- list a synagogue, Jewish names and more. These are very early records from 1668.
* A 1913 file contains correspondence of Austrian Jewish organizations with other communities, such as a list of taxpayers in Irkutsk, Siberia.
Assouline’s priorities are acquiring new resources and making the archive accessible by deeper indexing and computerization.
Kuperminc’s efforts have been focused on modernizing records of a wide range of mainly Sephardic countries. Although not a genealogy specialist, he focuses on issues of Sephardic archives for genealogy research, proposes clues and priorities to solve questions.
In 1992, the commemmoration of the Expulsion created new interest. Sephardic studies are taught in universities along with Ladino, while several Sephardic onomastics books have been published. Sephardic genealogy now has to be taken seriously, Kuperminc added.
AIU holds 19th century records for the Ottoman Empire, North African and Middle Eastern. Kuperminc added that the AIU website, www.aiu.org, offers access to some databases.
The AIU covers a great range of geography -- Balkans, North Africa, Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, Syria, France.
Resources include lists of subscribers, schools and material received from Moscow which was stolen by the Nazis and then captured by the Russians.
Kuperminc also wants to see a Sephardic equivalent to the ground-breaking Jewish atlas WOWW (Where Once We Walked, Avotaynu), which focuses on Russian Empire geography.
While Assouline and Kuperminc were to discuss Ashkenazi and Sephardic records respectively, it was apparent that there was much overlap, with Assouline stating that CAJHP is the history of one people, not to be divided.
Seemingly Ashkenazi repositories hold records from both communities. In the Lviv archives, there is material on the Belgrad Sephardic community, while there are Sephardic materials in Russian archives.
Assouline mentioned some of the fascinating CAHJP archival holdings:
* Partial list of ledgers of the Jewish Colonialization Association in Argentina, began by Baron Hirsch in the 1890s, which could help descendants to trace back to Europe.
* A list of Vilna Jewish residents who paid taxes in the 1790s, indicating patrynomics, occupations and amount paid.
* A register of the Alexandria, Egypt rabbinical court, shows the betrothal of a couple from Galicia, whose names are written in Ashkenazi script while the record itself is in Sephardic script.
* The Zionist Archives gave a list of 1919 pogrom victims to the CAHJP. From a small town near Bobruisk, Belarus, the list of wounded and murdered gives names, ages and occupations.
* A survey of documents from books and Polish court registers revealed the Lvov District, Chortkov, court records listing plague victims in 1770.
* The property inventory list of a noble family -- owners of the town of Shklov -- list a synagogue, Jewish names and more. These are very early records from 1668.
* A 1913 file contains correspondence of Austrian Jewish organizations with other communities, such as a list of taxpayers in Irkutsk, Siberia.
Assouline’s priorities are acquiring new resources and making the archive accessible by deeper indexing and computerization.
Kuperminc’s efforts have been focused on modernizing records of a wide range of mainly Sephardic countries. Although not a genealogy specialist, he focuses on issues of Sephardic archives for genealogy research, proposes clues and priorities to solve questions.
In 1992, the commemmoration of the Expulsion created new interest. Sephardic studies are taught in universities along with Ladino, while several Sephardic onomastics books have been published. Sephardic genealogy now has to be taken seriously, Kuperminc added.
AIU holds 19th century records for the Ottoman Empire, North African and Middle Eastern. Kuperminc added that the AIU website, www.aiu.org, offers access to some databases.
The AIU covers a great range of geography -- Balkans, North Africa, Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, Syria, France.
Resources include lists of subscribers, schools and material received from Moscow which was stolen by the Nazis and then captured by the Russians.
Kuperminc also wants to see a Sephardic equivalent to the ground-breaking Jewish atlas WOWW (Where Once We Walked, Avotaynu), which focuses on Russian Empire geography.
At the IIJG: A forest of family trees
Genealogy leaders from several countries gathered Sunday night in the intimate atmosphere of Hebrew University’s Beit Belgia. Although many had recently attended the recent New York conference, this event was ground-breaking.
Some 80 guests attended the opening of the International Institute for Jewish Genealogy's symposium on "Jewish Genealogy: Research and Teaching Priorities." The conference would, as Gary Mokotoff of Avotaynu commented, be remembered as the day genealogy emerged from a hobby to an academic pursuit.
Israel’s President Moshe Katsav sent a message commenting that despite exiles, deportations and persecutions, the Jewish people had preserved their heritage. He wrote that research into family roots emphasizes and supports Jewish continuity.
Douglas E. Goldman of San Francisco spoke about his initial connection to genealogy, at the age of 12 or 13, when he interviewed his three living grandparents. “I felt that this was an important thing to do,” he said.
Institute director Neville Lamdan said that, beyond the immediate horizon of deciding how to teach genealogy, the greater challenge is gaining recognition of Jewish genealogy as a distinct field in Jewish studies, and as an equal academic partner rather than as a mere hobby popular with the masses.
Although there are more than 60 universities with strong Jewish studies programs, not one teaches genealogy. Lamdan said it must be made a field of inquiry that contributes to Jewish learning in general and to the continuity of the Jewish people.
While Jewish history is the focus of Jewish studies, it is not the only discipline, added Lamdan. “We look at Jewish history through the prism of genealogy at the human and intimate level, extend Jewish family history to communities, then to the realm of Jewish social history.”
Contemporary historians study ordinary men and women who lived through history and survived, developing a subculture while preserving personal lineages and family histories.
Genealogy links to oral history, economic history, intellectual history, even to military history. Its connections are not only to social disciplines or humanities, but also to exact and medical sciences. Multi-disciplinary, inter-disciplinary and cross-cultural, it provides, for example, comparisons between Ashkenazi and Sephardic research, Jewish and non-Jewish communities in the same geographical area.
Some 80 guests attended the opening of the International Institute for Jewish Genealogy's symposium on "Jewish Genealogy: Research and Teaching Priorities." The conference would, as Gary Mokotoff of Avotaynu commented, be remembered as the day genealogy emerged from a hobby to an academic pursuit.
Israel’s President Moshe Katsav sent a message commenting that despite exiles, deportations and persecutions, the Jewish people had preserved their heritage. He wrote that research into family roots emphasizes and supports Jewish continuity.
Douglas E. Goldman of San Francisco spoke about his initial connection to genealogy, at the age of 12 or 13, when he interviewed his three living grandparents. “I felt that this was an important thing to do,” he said.
Institute director Neville Lamdan said that, beyond the immediate horizon of deciding how to teach genealogy, the greater challenge is gaining recognition of Jewish genealogy as a distinct field in Jewish studies, and as an equal academic partner rather than as a mere hobby popular with the masses.
Although there are more than 60 universities with strong Jewish studies programs, not one teaches genealogy. Lamdan said it must be made a field of inquiry that contributes to Jewish learning in general and to the continuity of the Jewish people.
While Jewish history is the focus of Jewish studies, it is not the only discipline, added Lamdan. “We look at Jewish history through the prism of genealogy at the human and intimate level, extend Jewish family history to communities, then to the realm of Jewish social history.”
Contemporary historians study ordinary men and women who lived through history and survived, developing a subculture while preserving personal lineages and family histories.
Genealogy links to oral history, economic history, intellectual history, even to military history. Its connections are not only to social disciplines or humanities, but also to exact and medical sciences. Multi-disciplinary, inter-disciplinary and cross-cultural, it provides, for example, comparisons between Ashkenazi and Sephardic research, Jewish and non-Jewish communities in the same geographical area.
08 September 2006
On the horizon: Higher education for Jewish genealogy
An invitation-only symposium organized by the International Institute of Jewish Genealogy www.iijg.org will take place September 10-12 in Jerusalem.
"Jewish Genealogy: Research and Teaching Priorities" is being held jointly with the Centre for Migration and Genealogy, Isaac and Jessie Kaplan Centre for Jewish Studies and Research, University of Cape Town, South Africa.
The institute’s goal is to is to take genealogy beyond the leisure or hobby category and create a higher education curriculum for Jewish genealogy.
In particular, the symposium will investigate elements of university courses, and necessary tools and technology required to teach Jewish genealogy classes. This will add to resources developed over the past two decades, such as the increasingly frequent publications of reference and history books, yizkor book translations, online databases and DNA studies.
The event will bring together international genealogy leaders to develop goals for the next few years and create a list of research topics.
Officers of the three Jewish genealogy societies in Israel and other experts have been invited.
I will be attending and reporting from the seminar, so stay tuned for interesting developments.
Participants include:
"Jewish Genealogy: Research and Teaching Priorities" is being held jointly with the Centre for Migration and Genealogy, Isaac and Jessie Kaplan Centre for Jewish Studies and Research, University of Cape Town, South Africa.
The institute’s goal is to is to take genealogy beyond the leisure or hobby category and create a higher education curriculum for Jewish genealogy.
In particular, the symposium will investigate elements of university courses, and necessary tools and technology required to teach Jewish genealogy classes. This will add to resources developed over the past two decades, such as the increasingly frequent publications of reference and history books, yizkor book translations, online databases and DNA studies.
The event will bring together international genealogy leaders to develop goals for the next few years and create a list of research topics.
Officers of the three Jewish genealogy societies in Israel and other experts have been invited.
I will be attending and reporting from the seminar, so stay tuned for interesting developments.
Participants include:
- Haifa University, Professor Gur Alroey
- Central Archives for the History of the Jewish People, director Hadassah Assouline
- Hebrew University, Professor Israel Bartal
- Author Alexander Beider
- Hebrew University, Avraham Hartman Institute of Contemporary Jewry chairman Sergio DellaPergola
- Bar Ilan University, Project for the Study of Jewish Names coordinator, Professor Aaron Demsky
- Jewish National University Library, deputy director Rosalind Duke
- Douglas E. Goldman Genealogy Center at Beth Hatefutsoth, founder Douglas E. Goldman
- Moshe Carmilly Institute, director Ladislau Gyemant (Babes-Bolyai University, Cluj, Romania)
- Board for Certification of Genealogist and teacher at Samford Institute of Genealogy and Historical Research Thomas Jones
- JewishGen managing director Susan E. King
- Alliance Israelite Universelle Library, director Jean-Claude Kuperminc
- IIJG director Neville Lamdan
- Hebrew University, History Professor Dov Levin
- Sephardic researcher/author Dr. Jeffrey Malka
- IAJGS past president/genealogist/publisher Gary Mokotoff
- Technology expert/researcher Dr. Stephen P. Morse
- IIJG president Sallyann Sack
- University of Cape Town (South Africa), Department of Hebrew and Jewish Studies head Milton Shain
- Rabbinic genealogy expert Rabbi Shlomo Englard
- Technion Faculty of Medicine, Nephrology and Molecular Medicine director Dr. Karl Skorecki
- Israel Genealogical Society past president Jean-Pierre Stroweis
- Sephardic genealogist/author Matilde Tagger
- Weizmann Institute of Science, Department of Materials and Interfaces, Livio Norzi Chair Professor H. Daniel Wagner
- Hebrew University, retired senior librarian/Galician Jewry expert Rabbi Meir Wunder
- Open University of Israel, Center for Technology in Distance Education, director Yoav Yair
Race against time: Millions still unidentified
Since 1955, Yad Vashem www.yadvashem.org has worked to preserve the memory of six million Jews who perished.
It now needs volunteers to help collect Pages of Testimony to increase the Shoah Victims Database, which currently identifies some 3 million of the Jewish Shoah victims. An international campaign is aimed at recovering as many names of additional Holocaust victims as possible before the generation that remembers best is lost.
International Jewish communities, organizations and Jewish genealogists are being asked to lend their expertise to the historic project, encourage friends and family members to join in and add names to the database.
Yad Vashem believes that by cooperating and spreading the word, many missing names can be recovered. It is also cooperating in research projects to reconstruct pre-war Eastern European Jewish communities.
Volunteers will be working through synagogues, Holocaust centers, Jewish community centers, Jewish student organizations, senior centers, social service agencies, schools, camps, next generation groups, etc. Resource materials are available to assist volunteers; see the Community Outreach Guide, www.yadvashemorg/names/whyCollect.htm
To volunteer, send contact information to names.outreach@yadvashem.org.il (subject heading: Names Volunteer), which will reach outreach manager Cynthia Wroclawski of the Shoah Victims’ Names Recovery Project.
It now needs volunteers to help collect Pages of Testimony to increase the Shoah Victims Database, which currently identifies some 3 million of the Jewish Shoah victims. An international campaign is aimed at recovering as many names of additional Holocaust victims as possible before the generation that remembers best is lost.
International Jewish communities, organizations and Jewish genealogists are being asked to lend their expertise to the historic project, encourage friends and family members to join in and add names to the database.
Yad Vashem believes that by cooperating and spreading the word, many missing names can be recovered. It is also cooperating in research projects to reconstruct pre-war Eastern European Jewish communities.
Volunteers will be working through synagogues, Holocaust centers, Jewish community centers, Jewish student organizations, senior centers, social service agencies, schools, camps, next generation groups, etc. Resource materials are available to assist volunteers; see the Community Outreach Guide, www.yadvashemorg/names/whyCollect.htm
To volunteer, send contact information to names.outreach@yadvashem.org.il (subject heading: Names Volunteer), which will reach outreach manager Cynthia Wroclawski of the Shoah Victims’ Names Recovery Project.
Was Zayde a Mormon? Removing names from the IGI
Readers have asked how to remove names they feel were inappropriately entered into the International Genealogical Index (IGI). The method is contained in an informative JewishGen InfoFile, www.jewishgen.org/InfoFiles/ldsagree.html, written by genealogist Bernard Kouchel.
The specific mechanism to request removal of names, along with additional information on searching the IGI, is at www.jewishgen.org/InfoFiles/ldsagree.html#A.
Kouchel writes:
If you feel a special connection to those who have gone before you and an increased responsibility to those who will follow, you will insist on removal of their names from the baptismal lists.
We were informed that requests for removal of your family's names from the IGI may be honored, and a confirmation notice may be sent if requested.
Removed names may reappear at a later date, so recheck the IGI periodically. Some say that the Ordinance Index contains historical records of Church activity and those recorded names will never be removed.
E-mail specific requests for IGI name removal to help@productsupport.familysearch.org.
LDS recommends that you submit the following information, if known:
The individual's name
The individual's birth date and place
The individual's parents' names
The individual's spouse's name
Your name, address, and daytime phone number
Your relationship to the mentioned individual
The reason you think the individual should be removed
Alternate address:
Family and Church History Department
Attention: Family History Support, IGI Corrections
50 East North Temple Street,
JSMB 3W
Salt Lake City, UT 84150-3460
The specific mechanism to request removal of names, along with additional information on searching the IGI, is at www.jewishgen.org/InfoFiles/ldsagree.html#A.
Kouchel writes:
If you feel a special connection to those who have gone before you and an increased responsibility to those who will follow, you will insist on removal of their names from the baptismal lists.
We were informed that requests for removal of your family's names from the IGI may be honored, and a confirmation notice may be sent if requested.
Removed names may reappear at a later date, so recheck the IGI periodically. Some say that the Ordinance Index contains historical records of Church activity and those recorded names will never be removed.
E-mail specific requests for IGI name removal to help@productsupport.familysearch.org.
LDS recommends that you submit the following information, if known:
The individual's name
The individual's birth date and place
The individual's parents' names
The individual's spouse's name
Your name, address, and daytime phone number
Your relationship to the mentioned individual
The reason you think the individual should be removed
Alternate address:
Family and Church History Department
Attention: Family History Support, IGI Corrections
50 East North Temple Street,
JSMB 3W
Salt Lake City, UT 84150-3460
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