Genealogy Tool Kit

Start Your Search

Jewish genealogy is a wonderfully enriching project that takes people on a journey into their own past and helps them discover their own personal histories. ANU – Museum of the Jewish People offers some helpful resources in this exciting project. Here are some tips for getting started:

– Write down what you know about your family. Start with you and your close relatives: parents, grandparents, siblings, spouse, children, and grandchildren. Then add uncles, aunts, cousins, in-laws, etc. Interview elderly relatives or other family members who might know more about the family history.

– Look for documents at home. Look for things like birth, marriage and death certificates, family bibles or prayer books, old photos, ketubbot, old passports, immigration papers, newspapers clippings and so on.

– Find gravestones. Visit or ask family members to visit the graves of deceased relatives and note down the inscriptions as they may contain valuable information.

– Broaden your search. Look into municipal and state archives, libraries, and Jewish community records. Keep in mind that sometimes you will need help from experts as old handwritten documents generally are difficult to read and in some cases might be written in languages that you do not understand.

– Trace names. Remember that most Jews started using family names only during the last two hundred years or so. Therefore tracing back relatives that lived before the introduction of hereditary family names could be very challenging. Nevertheless understanding the meaning of family names could provide valuable clues in disclosing family’s roots, its former places of residence, the occupational and social status of its members and more.

– Search the Internet for genealogy sites. Some have valuable genealogical databases online

– Ask for advice and guidance at your local Jewish genealogical society. They may be instrumental in providing further assistance on how to search your family and where to find specific sources of information in your area and around the world.

– Use a genealogy software program. This is useful to help you record all data and organize your family tree. We recommend the use of a program that can generate GEDCOM files.

Build your Family Tree with Family Tree Builder from MyHeritage.com

Build your family tree and share it with the database of the Douglas E. Goldman Jewish Genealogy Center at ANU – Museum of the Jewish People. Family Tree Builder is an advanced genealogy software that offers an innovative and user-friendly approach to Jewish genealogy. It enables building a family tree in one or more of the 36 languages that are supported by this software and sharing your family tree with your relatives anywhere in the world.

Building a family tree is easy and free of charge (except for the Premium version). There is no limit to the number of individuals that you can record on your computer. You may add photos, events and other documents to bring your family tree to live and preserve your vintage family photos in a safe place. You may choose between downloading Family Tree Builder and building your family tree locally on your computer or building your family tree online.

Build your Family Tree on your computer:
1. Download the free software Family Tree Builder – click here
2. Install Family Tree Builder on your computer
3. Sign in for a free registration
4. Start entering your own details
5. Make sure that names of individuals and places are entered in Roman characters.
6. Choose the option “Publish your family tree” to make sure you have a backup and enjoy exclusive features like the Smart Matching.
7. You may continue building your family, adding photos and other material.

Build your Family Tree online:
1. Go to MyHeritage

2. Agree to ANU – Museum’s terms & conditions and start entering your own details. Click on GO and a free account will be created for you.
3. Once signed in, you may continue building your family tree, adding photos and other material that will be saved automatically as you proceed. Note that some of the features, like bi-lingual data entry, are only supported from within the “Family Tree Builder” software.
4. Make sure that names of individuals and places are entered in Roman characters.

DO NOT FORGET TO ALLOW SHARING YOUR TREE WITH ANU

Create a GEDCOM file

It is very simple to “plant” your family tree in the Douglas E. Goldman Jewish Genealogy Center at ANU. All you have to do is to enter all the data you have on your family with the help of almost any genealogy software program, to create a GEDCOM file of your family tree, and then to send this file to us.

IMPORTANT: when submitting your family tree to the Douglas E. Goldman Jewish Genealogy Center make sure that all relevant data is entered in Roman characters; data in Hebrew characters would not be recognized.

GEDCOM (Genealogy Data Communication) is a file format used to exchange data between genealogy programs.

We accept standard GEDCOM files created with the help of any genealogy software program. Family trees should be sent in a GEDCOM 5.5 format file.