United States Passport Applications, 1795-1925

Passport applications have always been a great source of family information. Since they are filled out by living people who are providing current information regarding their own lives, they tend to be very reliable and a great source for people researching their families.
Familysearch has just added a new collection, United States Passport Applications, 1795-1925, which should make finding these records much easier. The collection, which is a combination of two different National Archives and records Administration (NARA) collections, has over 3 million images of which 1.9 million are indexed.
A great example of the information provided in the applicant is the record of Albert J. Cohen (shown below). From his application we learn that he was born on 31 Oct 1874 in Cairo, Egypt. He is married to Krisanti Cohen who was born in 1881 in Crete and that they have a daughter Mary who was born on the 27th of November 1903, also in Cairo. Further we learn the family arrived in the United States in August 1894 on the S.S. Rotterdam. The application also states that Albert was naturalized a U.S. citizen on 11 Mar 1902 in Charleston, South Carolina.

 As with all databases these passport records are available free of charge at www.familysearch.org

Maine, Vital Records, 1670-1907

For those with Jewish ancestry in the State of Maine, one of the newest collections at Familysearch will be of great benefit. That collection, Maine, Vital Records, 1670-1907, contains over 1.8 million images of birth, marriage and death records from Maine. Also included in the collection is a complete name index which makes it a lot easier to search for your family.
The records in the collection come from 2 sources, the State Board of Health, Division of Vital Statistics and the State Archives. The collection is divided into three parts, Vital Records Prior to 1892, 80 towns, Vital Records, 1892-1907, and Delayed returns for births, deaths, and marriages, 1670-1891.The records themselves, are very easy to understand. The 2 examples shown below, are a birth and death.

 

The marriage records are slightly different, they are actually a two part document. The first part is a simple record of the marriage. The record below is for the wedding of Max Cohen, a 37 year old widower, and Rebecca Povich, a 30 year old widow. The marriage took place on 16 November 1903 in Ellsworth, Maine.

 

This marriage record provides very good information, however the second part of the marriage record adds even more vital information. The document below, gives the information on the parents of both the bride and groom. With that information and due to the fact most of these records are during the census years, it makes it possible to locate the families in the various United States censuses.

 

As with all of the collections at www.familysearch.org, these records are available for free from any computer.

United Kingdom, World War 1 Service Records, 1914-1920

As this year marks the 100 year anniversary of the beginning of World War 1, a lot of well deserved attention is being given to those who served. This has also led to more and more records becoming available. As part of this, FamilySearch has just added a wonderful new collection, United Kingdom, World War 1 Service Records, 1914-1920.
This collection is a little unique in that even though it has been added to FamilySearch, the custodian of the record, The National Archives in London, has restricted the use of the images to only include the Family History Centers and the main Family History Library in Salt lake City. To locate the closest Family History Center to where you live, visit the link below;

Find a Family History Center 

This collection, which contains the records of W.O.  363 and W.O. 364 contains over 43.5 million images. However, its very important to remember that many of the soldiers had multiple records so the number of people covered is far smaller. The collection is not name search able however it is alphabetical by surname.

The records do provide some very good information on the soldiers. In the case of Jack Gluckstein, there are about 20 pages of documents. Some examples of the type of information in those is shown below.

 

 From his records we now know where he was born, the name of his father, his current address, and his age at enlistment, which when subtracted from the date of enlistment will give us his birth date.

If your ancestry is from the British Isles, this is a very important database for you. If you are attending the International Association of Jewish Genealogical Societies (IAJGS) conference later this month in Salt lake City, who will be able to visit the library and review these documents.

Croatia, Church Books, 1516-1949

A very interesting new database has been added to the Historical Records section at FamilySearch. The database,  Croatia, Church Books, 1516-1949, not only includes the records from various religions but also has the records of the Jews from 16 different cities.

The religions included are listed below:

By clicking on the Jewish title above the cities with Jewish records are listed (below):

Clicking on any of the locations will take you to the records for that community. The records for Zagreb, include the following records;

The records are very high quality and easy to read, even for those who do not read the language. From the collection for Zagreb comes the following entry.

In record #10 we have Rudolf Bernstein, born on 1 November 1858 to Marcus Bernstein and his wife Pauline Hertman. Also included is the date of his Bris, which was 8 November.

As of today, the collection has not been indexed, so it is not name search able. However, with over 1.4 million images it is well worth the time to browse through the records.

South Africa, Cape Province, Civil Deaths, 1895 - 1972

In South Africa, the birth, marriage and death records are held by the National Archives, on behalf of the Department of Home Affairs. In 1894, the registration of births and deaths was made compulsory and the record keeping itself began in 1895. These registers are available up to the early 1970's. 

Now, the Civil Death records for the Cape Province of South Africa, have started to be added to the Historical Records collection at FamilySearch.  As of 16 May 2014, the collection contains over 2.2 million records, however only about 11,000 have been indexed at this point.

 A simple search of the collection shows the quality of the information provided.  I knew that Leah Cohen died on 2 Jul 1954 in Cape Town. Using that information, I found the entry below that also gives me her age and her last place of residence, the Cape Jewish Aged Home. The information also provides the Family History Library Film number (1,796,463).

 I was further able to click on the link to view original document. By doing so I was able to view the original record of her death. In that document (below) we also find out that Leah Cohen, was born in Russia. We also find that she is a widow and that her maiden surname was Gradner.

This record should be most helpful more many families. As so many of the Jewish community of South Africa were from places such as Russia, Lithuania and England, their impact is very far reaching. As always these records are available free at www.familysearch.org.

Minnesota, County Marriages, 1860-1949

The latest additions to the FamilySearch website include many more databases that contain valuable records for finding our Jewish ancestors. One of the newer collections, Minnesota, County Marriages, 1860-1949 , is a great example.
The collection, which at this time includes marriage records from 13 different counties, contains almost 600,000 images. Of those images, over 280,000 are now name search able. The majority of the records are the applications for marriage licenses. They do not give a great deal of information, however they do include the name of bride and groom, date and place of marriage and in some cases the ages of the new husband and wife. The record below is for the marriage of Emanuel Polikoff and Ida Cohen.

From the marriage license we gain the knowledge that Emanuel was 26 years of age and Ida was 22. We also notice that at the bottom of the document it states "subscribed and sworn to before me this 8th day of January A.D. 1910".  With the collection covering 1860-1949, most of the couples should be search able in the various United States census records, which will help verify the information and possibly link them to their families. The collection can be searched for free at www.familysearch.org.

South Africa, Natal Province, Civil Marriages, 1845-1955

Over the last year the Knowles Collection - Jews of Africa and The Orient has added many records from South Africa.These records have included burial records, synagogue records, and a few family histories. Now www.familysearch.org has begun to add more records which are a great benefit for researchers with family in South Africa. The records of various provinces have begun to be added. Included in those records are the Civil Marriage records from 1845-1955 for the Province of Natal.

Images of the actual certificates are also included. The certificate below is for the marriage of Barney Cohen and his bride Essie Smolensky, who were married on 6 September 1936 in Durban.

As with most of the Historical Collection databases, a transcription (below) is also available, which gives the basic information from the certificate. In this case we find that the information came from FHL film #1938559.

In addition, a complete list of the South African databases can be seen by visiting the Africa page of the Historical Collections.