Many of the menus that used to be on the top level have been moved into the Features menu. It wasn’t also clear what these features of the site were, so I’m writing brief descriptions of these menu option here on the Features page, and you can find them all in the Features menu at the top of the page. The one features of the web site that has remained in its own top-level menu is the B&F Compendium of Jewish Genealogy.
Forms
Even with the many genealogy programs and web sites available, my printable B&F Genealogy Forms System is one of the more popular features of this site. I recommend the forms for two main purposes. First, when you’re starting out in genealogy it’s helpful to use printed forms to allow you to fill out what you know, and quickly see what you need to research. Second, when you’re requesting information from relatives, whether remotely or even when you’re sitting right next to them, having a paper form to fill out is many times easier. For older relatives it might be the only way they can do it, and even you’re sitting there, the form makes sure you don’t forget to fill in any details.
Search
This Search page is not to search this web site (you can do that from the search field , but rather a genealogy-focused search engine for the whole web. It leverages Google search tools, but focuses the search on known genealogy-relevant sections of the Internet. It’s not perfect by any stretch of the imagination, but if you’re searching for a name across the entire web you might get way too many hits, while if you use this search engine you might find a more manageable number of hits to look through.
Names
The Names page is a list of all the articles on this site that are related to names. Most recently this has includes my mostly annual articles on Israeli Jewish boys and girls names, but more important than those lists, are my articles such as Don’t get stuck inside the box, Pursuing Genealogical Red Herrings, Variations in Jewish Given Names, Animals and Name Pairs in Jewish Given Names, and Name Changes at Ellis Island. Check out the page for the full list.
Hebrew Resources
The Hebrew Resources page collects all the special resources on this web site for the Hebrew language. These fall into a few categories. Resources for genealogy in Hebrew, including Hebrew Forms and Hebrew family and genealogy terms (I particularly like the chart of terms there, useful in both Hebrew and English). Help in using Hebrew on the computer, particularly the Mac (which I use). This includes Using Nikud (Vowels) in Hebrew on a Mac. Lastly, this list also includes the lists of Israeli Jewish names (they fall under both Names and Hebrew).
Naturalization
The Naturalization page which is a guide to what US Naturalization files are available, and where to find them. This page was a lot of work to put together and is still very useful, but be aware the information might not be fully up to date. If you’re interested in US naturalization records, also see my article Finding US Naturalization Records.
Belgium
The Belgium page was originally put together to list the resources mentioned in a lecture I gave on Belgian Jewish records at the IAJGS Conference on Jewish Genealogy in Washington, DC in 2011. For those who have family that spent any amount of time in Belgium, even a few weeks, this page gives information for finding amazing records available in Belgium, including the ‘Immigrant Police’ files. I’ve tried to keep this page up to date as resources have changed over the years.