It’s exciting to start researching your family tree but you soon realise it can be a daunting undertaking. 

Researching Jewish ancestry presents unique challenges as Jewish families migrated widely, especially during the 18th and 19th centuries, and many were torn apart by the momentous events of the 20th century. Countless records, if they existed at all, may have been lost or destroyed… Names changed as people migrated and the many languages spoken created multiple spellings and translations of those names. Towns changed jurisdictions and also acquired new names or altered spellings.

Unfortunately, for some localities, it’s almost impossible to find records. For example, records for Sephardi communities from the Middle East are scarce, however moves are afoot to access, digitize and index hitherto inaccessible resources.

Extensive records do exist for the U.S., UK and Australia. There are excellent online resources to search available records for Europe – both east and west – and resources are also available for some Asian regions; for example the Jews of China.

As complex as all this sounds, we are here to help you uncover your Jewish roots and understand the rich cultural context in which your ancestors lived.