Ashkenazi, or Ashkenazic Jews (Ashkenazim, plural) are the largest identifiable Jewish culture whose ancestry goes back to Eastern Europe. Although local churches were required by law to keep records of the general population, local Jewish congregations created their own records and kept them in their own custody.
Many of these records are being gathered into the Knowles Collection at FamilySearch. Genealogical research on Ashkenazi Jews is aided by understanding their migration paths, record keeping systems, language, and traditions developed over time.
Who Are the Ashkenazi Jews?
In the Middle Ages, Jews settled in the Rhine River valley and in neighboring Northern France. They gathered into self-sustaining communities tied together by language, religion, and tradition and staunchly maintained their Jewish identity. These settlers became known as Ashkenazi, a term from the Hebrew “Ashkenaz,” meaning Germany. Gradually, they adapted their historical customs from the Holy Land, Babylon, and the Western Mediterranean into the customs of their new environment, developing a group culture that set them apart from Jewish groups in other areas. Groups who settled in other areas of the world developed their own subcultures known as Sephardic, Crypto, and more.
In the 17th century, persecution mounted, driving the Ashkenazim farther and farther eastward into areas of modern-day Poland, Germany, Russia, Ukraine, Moldovia, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, and Belarus. For centuries, Hebrew was the sacred language, but as they mixed with the cultures of Eastern Europe, a dialect known as Yiddish emerged. Yiddish is Germanic—a mixture of Hebrew, Aramaic, and Slavic languages.
Ashkenazi Jewish Records
Local laws, policies, and customs forced the Ashkenazim into certain occupations. For example, in many places, they were prohibited from owning land or engaging in certain occupations, so they tended to engage in specific businesses. In some cases, governments strongly suggested or mandated that the country’s predominant religion had to record their information for taxation and census purposes. Compliance was often lax, and Jewish vital events may have been recorded in separate sections or not at all.
Meanwhile, the Ashkenazim maintained their own records, language, internal governmental, educational structures, and cemeteries. Research for the Eastern European Jewish community may include numerous languages, cultures, and record sets.
When Did Ashkenazi Jews Get Last Names?
Further confusing research is that the Ashkenazim did not adopt consistent surnames until recent times. Until the early to mid-1800s, they followed a patronymic system. The child’s first name was followed by either ben- or bat- ("son of" and "daughter of," respectively), and then the father's name, mother's name, or both. For example, Aaron ben Joseph would be the son of Joseph. Rachel bat Benjamin would be Benjamin’s daughter. In the late 1700s and early to mid-1800s, the Ashkenazi Jews in Poland, Germany, and Austro-Hungary were forced to take surnames. In genealogical terms, this is a relatively recent trend limiting the time period for research by surname.
Adopting a surname became a political necessity, but since family surnames were not culturally important to them, they were chosen at random. Members of the same family often chose different surnames. They might have selected a town name (not necessarily their birthplace), a tribal name like Levi, or a local surname. They may have chosen something appealing and adapted it to produce names like Goldstein, Goldburg, Silverstein, or Rosenbaum (rose bush).
How to Find Your Ashkenazi Ancestors
Rabbis and other officials within the communities kept records, but no request was made to add them to public registrars. The Jewish records kept by the rabbis might be in Hebrew, Yiddish, the local language, or a mixture of them. They carefully preserved and maintained these records through change and hardships. As the Jewish population dispersed around the world, their records remained in former synagogues, Jewish institutions, cemeteries, burial societies, and family collections.
Perhaps due to the resurgence of interest in genealogy and family history in recent years, Jewish record holders are anxious to better protect and save copies of these records before the ravages of time, climate, fire, or other damaging events destroy them. Collections have been preserved and added to the Knowles Collection, which contains more than 1.5 million Jewish records, on FamilySearch.
There are 2 ways to access these records in FamilySearch. One way is by searching the FamilySearch catalog. The FamilySearch catalog holds the record sets that contain the name. The Knowles Collection is a Community Tree set under Genealogies that shows family connections.
You can find names in specific Jewish record sets by using the Place option in the catalog. Insert the place-name you are searching, and then click Search. Then select the records titled Jewish Records in the resulting list.
The second way to access these records is by going to the Knowles Collection itself. In the Knowles Collection, you can find your Jewish ancestors by looking up their name and seeing their family associations instead of searching directly in the records. To access the Knowles Collection, follow the instructions detailed in the Knowles Collection article.
To learn more about researching your Ashkenazic ancestors, check out this free video series on rootstech.org.
