Jewish Genealogical Resources with an Emphasis on Cincinnati & Hamilton County, Ohio

Much appreciation and many thanks are due Kathy Spray, Associate Archivist of the Jacob Rader Marcus Center of the American Jewish Archives for helping compile the information on this page! Thanks again Kathy!

GENERAL SOURCES

JEWISH GENEALOGY ORGANIZATIONS

CINCINNATI JEWISH GENEALOGY SOURCES

PERIODICALS

JEWISH CEMETERIES IN GREATER CINCINNATI

JEWISH GENEALOGY WEBSITES

GENEALOGICAL SOURCES IN ISRAEL

MANUALS AND SOURCEBOOKS - Recommended Reading List

If you would like to see something listed here or would like to volunteer your resource services please let me know!

GENERAL SOURCES

AMERICAN JEWISH ARCHIVES
Archives and Libraries
3101 Clifton Avenue, Cincinnati OH 45220-2488.
phone: (513) 221-1875, fax: (513) 221-7812
www: http://home.fuse.net/AJA
Hours: M-F 8:30-4:30
HOLDINGS INCLUDE: Genealogies, congregational and communal records from the Americas, with emphasis on materials from Cincinnati, the Reform Movement and the United States.

AMERICAN JEWISH HISTORICAL SOCIETY
2 Thornton Road, Waltham MA 02154 (on Brandeis University campus)
(617) 891-8110
HOLDINGS INCLUDE: newspapers, records of Jewish farming communities in New Jersey, Industrial Removal Office records and Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society of Boston documents. Request guide to its genealogical sources.

FAMILY HISTORY LIBRARY
35 Northwest Temple Street, Salt Lake City UT 84150 (For the nearest branch see your local telephone book under LIBRARIES-Church of the Latter Day Saints)
HOLDINGS INCLUDE: Jewish records on microfilm that go back several centuries, including births, marriages, deaths, divorces, cemetery and census records; circumcision records; family names and school records for Germany, Poland, Hungary and France indexed by present town name. Microfilm can be brought by request to the nearest branch library upon payment of a small fee.

JEWISH THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY OF AMERICA
Library
3080 Broadway, New York, NY 10027
HOLDINGS INCLUDE: Largest collection of Hebraica-Judaica in the Western hemisphere, including records of French and Moroccan Jewish communities; yizkor books; vital records of congregations; rabbinic records and communal records from Europe.

LEO BAECK INSTITUTE
129 East 73rd Street, New York NY 10021
(212) 744-6400
HOLDINGS INCLUDE: Records of Jews in German-speaking lands.

UNITED STATES HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL MUSEUM
Research Institute
100 Raoul Wallenberg Pl., SW Fifth Floor, Washington DC 20024-2150
(202) 488-0400

YESHIVA UNIVERSITY
2520 Amsterdam Avenue, New York NY 10033
ARCHIVES: Collections of Orthodox Jewish institutions and individuals; records of the Central Relief Committee and rescue efforts and biographical data on famous American Jews.
GOTTESMAN LIBRARY OF HEBRAICA-JUDAICA: Rabbinic materials, family histories, biographies, Jewish community histories, yizkor books and data on tombstones in Jewish cemeteries.

YIVO Institute for Jewish Research
555 West 57th Street, New York NY 10019
(212) 246-6080
HOLDINGS INCLUDE: Records of Jews in Yiddish-speaking lands, including yizkorbooks, landsmanshaftn records, rabbinic encyclopedias, extensive photo collections, HIAS immigration records, regional histories, biographies and periodicals.

JEWISH GENEALOGY ORGANIZATIONS

Association of Jewish Genealogical Societies (AJGS)
1485 Teaneck Rd, Teaneck NY 07666
International umbrella group of all Jewish genealogy societies, maintains information concerning societies worldwide. For a list of the society nearest you, send a self addressed stamped envelope to the AJGS above.

Computer Center for Jewish Genealogy
654 Westfield Avenue, Elizabeth NJ 07208
(908) 353-5575

Jewish Family Name File
c/o National Jewish Post & Opinion
238 South Meridian Street, Suite 502 Indianapolis, IN 46225

Jewish Genealogical Society, Inc.
P.O. Box 6398, New York NY 10019
(212) 330-8257

National Genealogical Society
4527 17th Street North, Arlington VA 22207-2399
(703) 525-0050

Jewish Genealogical Society of Greater Cincinnati
c/o Bureau of Jewish Education
Jewish Community Center
1580 Summit Road, Cincinnati OH 45237

CINCINNATI JEWISH GENEALOGY SOURCES

American Jewish Archives
Archives and Libraries
3101 Clifton Avenue, Cincinnati OH 45220-2488.
phone: (513) 221-1875, fax: (513) 221-7812
www: http://home.fuse.net/AJA
Hours: M-F 8:30-4:30
HOLDINGS INCLUDE: Genealogies, congregational and communal records from the Americas, with emphasis on materials from Cincinnati, the Reform Movement and the United States.

Hebrew Union College/Jewish Institute of Religion
Klau Library
3101 Clifton Avenue, Cincinnati OH 45220-2488
phone: (513) 221-1875, fax: (513) 221-0519
Hours: M-Th 8-10, F 8-5, Sa closed, Su 2-10 (summer hours are shorter)
email address for Genealogy Reference Librarian, Allan Satin: asatin@cn.huc.edu
HOLDINGS INCLUDE: yizkor books, published family histories, genealogical periodicals, Jewish periodicals on microfilm (American Jewish Periodical Center), genealogy manuals, city directories on microfilm (scattered), and Israeli telephone books.

PERIODICALS

Most issues of Jewish periodicals are available on microfilm by interlibrary loan through your local library. One source of the microfilm copies is the American Jewish Periodical Center at Klau Library, on the Cincinnati campus of HUC-JIR. Non-Jewish periodicals are usually available at a repository in the communities in which they were published. Your local library may have access to microfilm copies by interlibrary loan. Ask your local librarian.

GREATER CINCINNATI AREA - Jewish Newspapers: The American Israelite/ The Israelite, published 1854-present
Die Deborah (German language), published 1855-1903

JEWISH CEMETERIES IN GREATER CINCINNATI

The Hamilton County Recorder's Office has maps of the following Jewish Cemeteries and a list of veterans' graves (with their locations). Excluding the pages for United Jewish Cemetery there are 25 pages total and the Recorder's Office charged $.50 per page to copy in 1992. Burial records for some of these cemeteries are available at the American Jewish Archives.

KK Adath Israel

Ahabeth Achim (Society of Brotherly Love), Clifton Cemetery [now administered by United Jewish Cemetery -- see below)

American Jewish Burial Association

Bet Hamedrash Hagadol

KK Bet Tefillah (Schachne's Shul)

B'nai Jacob

Cincinnati Hirsch Hoffert

Galician Society

Jewish Cemetery (on Chestnut Street) This is the oldest Jewish cemetery in Cincinnati, burials from 1821-1849. A list of burials is at the American Jewish Archives. There were about 100 burials under the auspices of the first congregation in Cincinnati, K.K.

Bene Israel (Rockdale Temple, est. 1824). The cemetery is located at the corner of Chestnut and Central Avenue/Western Row in the West End of Cincinnati. First cemetery west of the Allegheny Mountains.

Jewish Cemeteries or Lick Run Cemeteries , 1625 Sunset Avenue (in Price Hill off Rapid Run Road, also called by names of plots belonging to individual congregations including Judah Touro, Love Brothers, the Spanish, Russion and Polish Hebrews, K.K. Shearith Israel, Montefiore Mutual Relief Society, Hirsch Hoffert)

Judah Touro - burials made in this cemetery as early as 1855.

Kenesseth Israel

Love Brothers (Congregation Ohav Shalom)

Montefiore

Sisters Chesed Shel Emes

Spanish Hebrew

Tifereth Israel

United Jewish (Reform, 3400 Montgomery Road, referred to as being in Walnut Hills, but actually in Evanston). Older records for this cemetery are available at the American Jewish Archives. Earliest burial in the Walnut Hills section was in 1850 following the close of Chestnut Street Cemetery (see Jewish Cemetery above), also maintained by United Jewish Cemeteries. The cemetery was a joint venture of Bene Yeshurun (Wise Temple) and Bene Israel (Rockdale Temple) congregations as per agreement of 1854. Includes Clifton Cemetery on Ludlow (established by K.K. Ahabeth Achim- Society of Brotherly Love, located on Ludlow between Morrison and McAlpin).

United Roumanian Hebrew

Yad Charutzin

AJGS Cemetery Project - http://www1.jewishgen.org/cemetery/

Also see Cemetery Resources for Cincinnati & Hamilton County, Ohio

JEWISH GENEALOGY WEBSITES

JewishGen - http://www.jewishgen.org/
JewishGen includes link to the following:
AJGS Cemetery Project - http://www1.jewishgen.org/cemetery/
(Cincinnati has a separate page on the AJGS Cemetery Project database)

GENEALOGICAL SOURCES IN ISRAEL

See Jewish Gen for more information on some of these - http://www.jewishgen.org/

BETH HATEFUTSOTH (Museum of the Diaspora)
P.O. Box 39359, Tel Aviv 61392, ISRAEL
HOLDINGS INCLUDE: Computer registry of family names and their meaning; database of Jewish communities based on entries from Encyclopaedia Judaica, yizkor books (memorial books for synagoguyes or towns) and local histories; personal interviews; atlases, and gazeteers.

DOUGLAS E. GOLDMAN JEWISH GENEALOGY CENTER (at Beth Hatefutsoth, see above) (DOROT)
Computerized repository for Jewish genealogies from around the world. Access information on-site or by mail requests.

CENTRAL ARCHIVES FOR THE HISTORY OF THE JEWISH PEOPLE
P.O. Box 1149, Jerusalem 91010, ISRAEL

European and Middle East records including extensive collections for Germany, France, Poland, and Italy: published genealogies and family histories.

ISRAEL STATE ARCHIVES
P.O. Box 1149, Jerusalem 91919, ISRAEL
HOLDINGS INCLUDE: Turkish census records; German and British consulate records and Mandate Citizenship Index.

SEARCH BUREAU FOR MISSING RELATIVES
P.O. Box 92, Jerusalem 91920, ISRAEL

Index to all Jews resingin in Israel, including biographical data.

YAD VASHEM
P.O. Box 3477, Jerusalem 91034, ISRAEL

Memorial to victims of the Holocaust, extensive library and archives includes more than 2.5 million Pages of Testimony completed by surviving relatives and friends; largest collection of yizkor books in the world; landsmanshaftn records; extensive collection of victim and survivor lists; thousands of eyewitness accounts from survivors indexed by family name and location; duplicates of records from the International Tracing Service in Arolsen, Germany.

MANUALS AND SOURCEBOOKS - Recommended Reading List

Cohen, Chester G. Shtetl Finder Gazetteer. Bowie MD: Heritage Books, Inc., 1989.

Kurzweil, Arthur. From Generation to Generation. Revised edition. New York NY: Harper Collins, 1994.

Kurzweil, Arthur and Weiner, Miriam. The Encyclopedia of Jewish Genealogy. Volume I. Northvale NJ: Jason Aaronson, 1991.

Guzick, Estelle M. ed. Genealogical Resources in the New York Metropolitan Area. New York NY: Jewish Genealogical Society, Inc., 1989.

Mokotoff, Gary. How to Document Victims and Locate Survivors of the Holocaust. Teaneck NJ: Avotaynu, Inc., 1995.

Mokotoff, Gary. WOWW Companion: A Guide to the Communities Surroundeing Central & Eastern European Towns. Teaneck NJ: Avotaynu, Inc., 1995.

Mokotoff, Gary and Sack, Sallyann Amdur. Where Once We Walked: A Guide to the Jewish Communities Destroyed in the Holocaust. Teaneck NJ: Avotaynu, Inc., 1991.

Rottenberg, Dan. Finding Our Fathers: A Guidebook to Jewish Genealogy. Baltimore MD: Genealogical Publishing Company, 1986.

Sack, Sallyann Amdur. A Guide to Jewish Genealogical Research in Israel. Revised Edition. Teaneck NJ: Avotaynu, Inc., 1995.

Stern, Malcolm H., compiler. First American Jewish Families: 600 Genealogies, 1654-1988. 3rd edition. Baltimore MD: Ottenheimer Publishers, Inc., 1991.

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This page was last updated and edited on 16 December 1999