JewishGen

JewishGen is a nonprofit international resource devoted to Jewish genealogy, family history, and the documentation of Jewish communities. It provides a free, open-access digital platform used by amateur researchers, professional genealogists, historians, educators, and people seeking information about family members and communities affected by migration, war, persecution, and the Holocaust. Its resources combine searchable historical records, collaborative databases, educational materials, translation projects, discussion forums, and volunteer-led research groups. The organization began in 1987 when Susan E. King established a Fidonet bulletin board in Houston, Texas. The early service was accessed through telephone connections and attracted approximately 150 people interested in Jewish genealogy. Users were asked for modest annual donations to help support the operation. Around 1989 or 1990, the project moved into internet-based mailing-list and forum activity under the name Jewish Genealogy Conference. Its administration was initially informal and depended heavily on founders, volunteers, and specialists in Jewish genealogy, including Warren Blatt, Bernie Kouchel, Gary Mokotoff, Michael Tobias, and others. JewishGen had established a website by 1995. A major institutional transition occurred in 2003, when JewishGen became an affiliate of the Museum of Jewish Heritage – A Living Memorial to the Holocaust in New York City. The relationship gave JewishGen a durable institutional home and connected its genealogical mission with the museum's broader work in Holocaust memory, Jewish history, and public education. In 2005, the International Association of Jewish Genealogical Societies recognized Susan E. King with an achievement award for JewishGen's worldwide impact. King retired from active leadership in 2008, and JewishGen's administrative office moved to facilities associated with the museum. JewishGen's principal offering is not a conventional consumer product but an interconnected information and research ecosystem. Its databases include the JewishGen Family Finder, which helps researchers identify others investigating the same surnames and localities; the Family Tree of the Jewish People; the JewishGen Gazetteer, formerly known as ShtetlSeeker; the JewishGen Communities Database; the JewishGen Online Worldwide Burial Registry; Holocaust-related databases; and country-specific collections of civil, religious, census, military, immigration, and other historical records. Search technologies such as phonetic matching and fuzzy matching are important because Jewish names and place names often appear in multiple languages, alphabets, transliterations, and historical spellings. The organization also supports digitization, preservation, and interpretation. Its Yizkor Book projects make translations and other materials from postwar memorial books available online. KehilaLinks creates virtual community histories for towns and regions. ViewMate allows users to post photographs and documents for help with translation, transcription, or identification. Family Pages, discussion groups, and regional or thematic Special Interest Groups help researchers exchange information and build collaborative networks. JewishGen also provides beginner guidance and structured online education in genealogical methods. In 2008, JewishGen entered a hosting and licensing partnership with Ancestry.com. Ancestry assumed data-center hosting for JewishGen's computerized assets, addressing performance problems and creating a revenue-generating licensing arrangement while expanding Ancestry's access to Jewish genealogical materials. JewishGen remained a distinct nonprofit resource within its museum affiliation. In October 2022, JewishGen and the Museum of Jewish Heritage announced the Peter and Mary Kalikow Jewish Genealogy Research Center. The center provides a physical home for JewishGen at the museum and combines professional genealogical assistance with the organization's established online services. JewishGen's present positioning rests on accessibility, collaboration, historical preservation, and specialized expertise. It serves users worldwide while concentrating on Jewish family histories and communities across Europe, North Africa, the Middle East, and other regions shaped by Jewish migration. Its significance comes from linking dispersed records and volunteer knowledge into a shared public research infrastructure rather than from commercial sales or proprietary consumer products.

JewishGen was founded in 1987 by Susan E. King in Houston, Texas, as a Fidonet bulletin board for people researching Jewish genealogy. The original system was accessed through telephone connections and had roughly 150 users. Donations were requested to maintain the service, which was initially a small community project rather than a formal commercial organization. By approximately 1989 or 1990, JewishGen had moved toward internet-based communication through a mailing list and online forum known as the Jewish Genealogy Conference. The project was managed in a relatively informal fashion by founders and volunteers. Participants included Warren Blatt, Bernie Kouchel, Gary Mokotoff, Michael Tobias, and other contributors who helped develop Jewish genealogical resources and support researchers. JewishGen had a website by 1995, allowing its information-sharing model to expand beyond bulletin-board and mailing-list users. The organization broadened its purpose from communication among researchers to the creation and maintenance of shared databases. These resources addressed the particular difficulties of Jewish genealogy, including changing borders, multilingual records, transliteration differences, destroyed or scattered archives, migration, and the effects of the Holocaust. JewishGen developed collections covering family records, localities, cemeteries, community histories, Holocaust documentation, and country-specific historical sources. It also created tools that connect researchers working on the same surnames and towns. At the end of 2002, Susan E. King announced that JewishGen would become an affiliate of the Museum of Jewish Heritage in 2003. The affiliation placed JewishGen within a major Jewish historical and educational institution in New York City. It also aligned the genealogy project's work with the museum's public mission of preserving Jewish memory and teaching about the Holocaust. The International Association of Jewish Genealogical Societies presented King with an achievement award in 2005, recognizing JewishGen's international effect. King retired in March 2008, and JewishGen's administrative office moved to the museum's facilities. That year also brought a technical and commercial partnership with Ancestry.com. Ancestry took over data-center hosting for JewishGen's computerized assets, helping address website performance problems. The parties also established a licensing arrangement that created a revenue stream for JewishGen and increased Ancestry's ability to access and integrate Jewish genealogical material. The arrangement was a technology and data-access partnership, not a change of JewishGen into a conventional commercial brand. JewishGen's resource base has continued to include the JewishGen Family Finder, Family Tree of the Jewish People, JewishGen Gazetteer, JewishGen Communities Database, JewishGen Online Worldwide Burial Registry, Holocaust databases, country databases, Yizkor Book translations, KehilaLinks, Family Pages, ViewMate, discussion groups, and Special Interest Groups. These projects combine professional administration with extensive volunteer participation. Researchers can search records, compare alternate spellings, identify historical localities, request translations, publish family information, and collaborate with others investigating related communities or surnames. In October 2022, JewishGen and the Museum of Jewish Heritage announced the Peter and Mary Kalikow Jewish Genealogy Research Center. Located at the museum, the center became a physical base for JewishGen and provides access to professional genealogists with different areas of expertise. The center complements JewishGen's online infrastructure by offering in-person research support and a visible institutional setting. Today, JewishGen operates as the genealogical research division of the Museum of Jewish Heritage. Its international audience includes family historians, professional genealogists, academics, educators, and members of communities seeking to preserve local and family memory. The organization remains primarily a public-service and nonprofit information platform, with its influence derived from open access, historical depth, specialized search tools, and collaboration between staff and volunteers.

• 2022

  Kalikow Jewish Genealogy Research Center is announced

  [1]JewishGenen.wikipedia.org

  JewishGen and the Museum of Jewish Heritage announce a dedicated physical research center at the museum.

• 2008

  Ancestry.com hosting partnership begins

  [1]JewishGenen.wikipedia.org

  Ancestry.com assumes data-center hosting for JewishGen's digital assets and enters a licensing arrangement with the organization.

• 2008

  Administrative operations move to the museum

  [1]JewishGenen.wikipedia.org

  After King's retirement, JewishGen moves its administrative office to facilities of the Museum of Jewish Heritage.

• 2005

  International genealogy award recognizes the founder

  [1]JewishGenen.wikipedia.org

  Susan E. King receives an achievement award from the International Association of Jewish Genealogical Societies for JewishGen's worldwide impact.

• 2003

  Museum of Jewish Heritage affiliation begins

  [1]JewishGenen.wikipedia.org

  JewishGen becomes an affiliate of the Museum of Jewish Heritage in New York City.

• 1995

  JewishGen has a website

  [1]JewishGenen.wikipedia.org

  The organization maintains a website, extending its genealogy resources beyond earlier bulletin-board and mailing-list formats.

• 1989

  The project moves toward internet-based discussion

  [1]JewishGenen.wikipedia.org

  JewishGen develops into an internet mailing list and forum known as the Jewish Genealogy Conference.

• 1987

  JewishGen is founded

  [1]JewishGenen.wikipedia.org

  Susan E. King establishes JewishGen in Houston as a Fidonet bulletin board serving an initial community of approximately 150 Jewish genealogy researchers.

A free, open-access, nonprofit research ecosystem specializing in Jewish genealogy, Jewish community history, Holocaust documentation, and collaborative family-history research.

• Genealogy database

  JewishGen Family Finder

  The JewishGen Family Finder connects researchers investigating related Jewish surnames and localities. It indexes entries by both surname and town and uses phonetic and fuzzy-matching methods to account for spelling variation, transliteration, and historical name changes. The service is designed to encourage contact among researchers whose family-history projects overlap.

• Family-tree database

  Family Tree of the Jewish People

  The Family Tree of the Jewish People is a collaborative database of Jewish family trees. Its purpose is to help researchers identify relationships, reconnect branches of families, and contribute information that can support broader genealogical investigation. It forms part of JewishGen's effort to make family-history research collaborative rather than isolated.

• Geographic reference database

  JewishGen Gazetteer

  Formerly known as ShtetlSeeker, the JewishGen Gazetteer helps researchers identify historical and contemporary place names. It covers localities across Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East and is especially useful when a town has had multiple names, spellings, jurisdictions, or national affiliations over time.

• Community-history database

  JewishGen Communities Database

  This database provides historical information about Jewish communities, including population figures, former town names, administrative jurisdictions, maps, and links to related JewishGen resources. It gives genealogists geographical and historical context for records connected with particular towns and regions.

• Cemetery and burial database

  JewishGen Online Worldwide Burial Registry

  The JewishGen Online Worldwide Burial Registry gathers names and identifying details from cemeteries and burial records around the world. It supports searches for relatives, helps document Jewish cemeteries, and preserves information that may otherwise be difficult to access because of geographic distance, deterioration, or historical disruption.

• Holocaust historical database

  JewishGen Holocaust Database

  The Holocaust Database brings together records concerning victims and survivors, including concentration-camp, transport, ghetto, census, and identification-card materials. It supports family research while also contributing to the documentation and remembrance of Jewish life and persecution during the Holocaust.

• Digital translation and preservation project

  Yizkor Book projects

  JewishGen's Yizkor Book projects make translated and related materials from Jewish memorial books available online. These books, many produced after the Holocaust, preserve recollections, community records, photographs, and accounts of towns whose Jewish populations were destroyed or dispersed.

• Online community-history resource

  KehilaLinks

  KehilaLinks creates virtual histories of Jewish towns and communities. Pages may include photographs, maps, memories, local history, research findings, and links to genealogical records, allowing users to assemble community-focused resources that function similarly to digital memorial books.

• Collaborative document and image service

  ViewMate

  ViewMate allows users to upload photographs and historical documents and ask other JewishGen participants for assistance with translation, transcription, handwriting, identification, or interpretation. It applies the organization's volunteer network to difficult source materials that individual researchers may not be able to read or identify alone.

• Genealogy education

  JewishGen Education Center

  The JewishGen Education Center provides beginner guidance and interactive instruction in Jewish genealogy. Its educational materials address research methodology, source evaluation, search strategies, and the organization of family-history evidence.

• 2022

  Creation of the Peter and Mary Kalikow Jewish Genealogy Research CenterStrategy

  Background

  JewishGen sought to complement its digital platform with a permanent physical base for professional genealogical assistance.

  Action taken

  JewishGen and the Museum of Jewish Heritage announced a dedicated research center at the museum, staffed by professional genealogists and a full-time director.

  Aftermath

  The center became JewishGen's physical home and expanded the organization's ability to provide in-person and expert research support.

  Source

• 2008

  Hosting and licensing partnership with Ancestry.comStrategy

  Background

  JewishGen's website and computerized assets had experienced performance problems, creating a need for stronger technical hosting.

  Action taken

  Ancestry.com took over data-center hosting and entered a licensing agreement covering access to JewishGen resources.

  Aftermath

  The arrangement improved site performance, generated a revenue stream for JewishGen, and increased Ancestry.com's access to Jewish genealogical materials.

  Source

• 2003

  Institutional affiliation with the Museum of Jewish HeritageStrategy

  Background

  JewishGen had grown from a volunteer-led genealogy project into an international online resource requiring a stable institutional framework.

  Action taken

  JewishGen became an affiliate of the Museum of Jewish Heritage, linking its genealogy work with the museum's Jewish history and Holocaust education mission.

  Aftermath

  The affiliation provided JewishGen with a continuing institutional base and ultimately supported the relocation of administrative operations to museum facilities.

  Source

1. 1JewishGenen.wikipedia.org
2. 2JewishGen official websitejewishgen.org