B&F: Jewish Genealogy and More

B&F Compendium of Jewish Genealogy
    > About the Compendium

This compendium consists of Topics and Resources. Topics currently include all the countries in the world (and for a few countries, also the provinces/states within them). For one country, Poland, there is an additional type of topic, City. When viewing a Topic (i.e. Italy) you will see a list of resources divided into nine potential sections:

• History – Related to the history of the Jewish presence in the country or region.
• Genealogy – Sites that contain specific genealogical information on the Jews from this area, such as vital records, census records, cemetery indexes, etc.
• Cemeteries – Information about Jewish cemeteries from the location.
• Holocaust – Resources specific to the Holocaust.
• Diaspora – Places where former Jewish residents of this region now can be found, and where they communicate (community organizations, facebook groups, etc.)
• Contemporary – Information on the current Jewish community in this area, such as synagogues, Jewish communal organizations, etc.
• Military – Jewish military resources
• Newspapers – Newspaper archives from this area
• Books – Books about the Jewish presence in this area.

For Poland, which has the addition of Cities, there is also an additional section, General. General contains links about the city that are not specifically Jewish, and is meant to give objective data on the city to help you insure you are looking at the correct city (since many cities have either the same name or several similar names). Submissions will not be accepted for the General category, as it is meant to be limited to a few simple sources such as Wikipedia and the official government web sites for the towns. Keep in mind there is no distinction on this site between City, Town and Village. The terms are used interchangeably. In reality most of these lists are towns and villages, not cities.

Note that there is potential overlap between these sections. Sites may have both genealogical data and historical information. A cemetery database could have a lot of useful genealogical data. A book might fit into any of the sections. In general, if a site contains genealogical data, it is listed under Genealogy. If a resource is a history museum, it will generally show up in History, even if it has genealogical data (which some do). Cemeteries are cemeteries, whether there is data or not. As such, you should not assume anything by the section a resource shows up in, as it might very well have fit in multiple sections but can only appear in one. In short, section placement is somewhat subjective.

Each resource listed has (at least) two links that can be clicked:

The first link, under the Resource column, is a link to the resource itself. This will take you away from the compendium and will load the resource. In cases where there are links to the same resource in different languages, there are also links to those other languages. The first link is always the primary or original language of the resource.

The second link is on the far right in the Comments column (the link is a number that shows the number of comments made on that resource), which goes to the page for that resource in the compendium. The resource page shows you the details of the resource, and allows you to comment on the resource. One of the goals of this compendium is to encourage the sharing of information about available resources. If it’s a book, you can write a review. If it’s a database, you can share how best to search it, or what records you found there that were useful. If it’s a Wikipedia entry, tell people what you’ve added to it. It’s a primary goal of the compendium to be interactive and to promote discussion.

For more detailed information on this compendium, see the posts about it below. The most recent post is at the top.

Jewish cemeteries in Poland

Updates to Polish archive links

Speaking at Rootstech Connect

JDC Warsaw Office Locality Files 1939-1941

Watch my FB Live video explaining how to use the B&F Compendium of Jewish Genealogy

More newspapers, Landsmanshaft cemetery sections, and convenience

Links to local Jewish newspapers added to the Compendium

Yad Vashem Shoah Names Database

Introducing archival records info in the Compendium

Improved notes for Polish towns

The Encyclopedia is now the Compendium

When was the last time you updated your JGFF listings?

Over two hundred new Polish towns added to the compendium

New Polish cemetery resources

Bad places for snails, and the ephemerality of the Internet

A year on from introducing the B&F Compendium of Jewish Genealogy

How you can help

About those 10,000 Polish resources

A bit about how the compenidum came to be (and where it's going)

Introducing the B&F Compendium of Jewish Genealogy