Genealogy resources
The mandate of the
Canadian Jewish Archives is to collect archival and reference
material on Jewish life in Canada. As a general rule, birth, death
and marriage records are not available here. We offer a limited
amount of information about current and past Jewish communities
outside Canada. Many of our most useful resources for family
research are now available on-line through the Family History section
of the Canadian Jewish Heritage
Network.
RESOURCES AVAILABLE:
On-line Resources:
Jewish
Immigrant Aid Services Files. These case files include
immigration, social service and family-tracing request files. The
earliest information in this collection dates to 1920-1921. A large
proportion of Jewish immigrants to Canada were assisted by JIAS,
and a large proportion of these immigrants passed through or
settled in Montreal. The greater part of the index to these 97,000
cases is available through the Canadian Jewish Archive's internal
database, and a name index to the cases that are over 60 years old
is currently searchable on-line through the Canadian Jewish
Heritage Network's genealogy database. Information about more
recent files and earlier files that have not yet been indexed is
available only through direct contact with Archives staff. As these
are personal files, access to all JIAS case file material is
restricted and can only be accessed at the discretion of the
Archives.
Jewish Colonization Association
individual farm settler reports are now searchable on-line through
the Canadian Jewish Heritage Network's genealogy database. These reports include
family details on settlers in Western agricultural colonies circa
1906-1951, for farms in the Laurentian mountain area of Quebec from
1909-1973, as well as around the Niagara Peninsula, Ontario,
1939-1977.
Hebrew Sick Benefit Association
files. The records of this large Montreal burial and mutual aid
society cover the years 1892-1989 and include membership books
(containing address, country of origin, profession, spouse's name,
etc.) and registers of death and burial plot information. A large
proportion of the early records are in Yiddish. All the available
membership records, from 1997-1945, are available on-line through
the Canadian Jewish Heritage Network's genealogy database. The death register
information is in the process of being indexed as well. Work on
this project has been made possible by a grant from the Jewish Genealogical
Society of Montreal.
Translated Yiddish Obituaries from the Keneder
Adler (Jewish Daily Eagle). This index was produced in 2001 and
2004 with funding from the Ottawa Jewish Genealogical Society and
is now available on the CJHN genealogy database. It contains all the
information found in the 2,838 death and unveiling notices that
appeared in the Adler from November 19, 1908, to December 31, 1935,
though as obituaries rarely appeared before 1917, most of the
information dates from 1917 onward. The data include the obituary
date, date of death or unveiling, name, maiden name, age, spouse's
name, number of children, siblings or other relatives (sometimes
with their names), place of death and last residence, parents'
names, cemetery and shiva information, memberships and affiliations
of the deceased, and additional notes. Additional notes often
provide a poignant glimpse into early-20th century Montreal. The
information was translated from the original Yiddish by Eiran
Harris and Aaron Krishtalka, and was indexed by Hélène Vallée.
Harry Hershman War Orphan case
Files. All of these files are listed by name (many with
images) on the Canadian Jewish Heritage Network at this location. These files include the
approximately 150 child immigrants who came to Canada in 1921
from the Polish Ukraine after WWI. Mostly in Yiddish, the files
often include identification photos, forms filled out in Europe
about the child, post-immigration correspondence, and reports.
These case files are semi-restricted, at the discretion of the
Archives staff.
Canadian Jewish Casualties in the Canadian Armed
Forces can be searched on-line through the Canadian Jewish
Heritage Network's genealogy database. The information in this
database includes date of death, place of burial, and often many
other life and heroic action details relating to over 550
individuals. In addition, researchers visiting the Canadian Jewish
Archives can access the Canadian Jewish Congress War Efforts
Committee files, for which there is a finding aid
prepared at the file level. These additional records include
nominal lists of Jewish servicemen in each branch of the Canadian
Armed Forces during WWII, in all around 10,000 names. While
the lists themselves are not indexed on computer, information on
particular individuals can be searched in archival files and with
the help of the two volumes of Jewish servicemen biographies which
were produced by CJC right after the war (Canadian Jews in World
War II, Casualties and Decorations.) These volumes are available
for purchase in photocopied format.
United Restitution Organization
claim files are indexed by name in the Archives' internal database.
This collection includes approximately 11,000 Montreal and
Vancouver case files, and also some from Toronto and Ottawa. The
documentation includes family and immigration information, as well
as a chronicle (usually in German) of the claimant's WWII
experiences. These files are restricted to direct family members
and are only available for consultation at the discretion of the
Archives staff. However, for those who have copies of
correspondence with the United Restitution Organization in their
possession, we have created "The
Interpretive Guide to the United Restitution Organization Claims
Files," an online guide which assists non-German speakers in
translating and interpreting these documents.
Resources available through contacting the
Archives:
"Personalia" files of
clippings, obituaries, and occasional correspondence for
approximately 10,000 individuals. All of these are indexed on
computer.
Pre-1900 personalia
files, including many family trees of the first Jewish families to
settle in Canada, particularly in this province. Much of the
material in these files is photocopied from originals in other
archives.
United Jewish Relief Agencies
files, listed by name on computer. This includes case files for
individuals who came here during and after WWII as refugees, War
Orphans, and German-Jewish internees. These case files are open to
the public (with restrictions at the discretion of the
archives).
Synagogue birth registers, including microfilmed
copies. For Sherbrooke, Quebec, synagogue (1907-1985) and
Hamilton, Ontario (1924-1940). Also, two Winnipeg synagogues have
deposited copies of their birth and child-naming certificates with
us, going back to the 1970s. We also have register books from the
Montreal congregation Adath Jeshurun and microfilm copies of the
earliest synagogue registers from Montreal, covering the years
1841-1883. Through the Archives computer, information about how to
locate other synagogue records can be obtained.
Burial register, Baron de Hirsch cemetery
Montreal 1906-1964 (microfilm and paper copy). This valuable
copy was made in 1998 from the original old register belonging to
this historic cemetery, the burial place for a large proportion of
Montreal's less affluent Jewish inhabitants from the earliest years
of the 20th century onwards.
The Montreal
Synagogue Finder. This computerized document functions as
a guide to synagogues past and present in Montreal, by permitting
searches by name or nickname of congregation, address or partial
address, and often by name of rabbi. Tracing a synagogue which has
moved or merged with others can provide a means of locating
circumcision, bar-mitzvah, and marriage records where civil records
are unable to help. This guide is not available in complete form
due to security considerations but can be searched by contacting
Archives staff. (archives@cjarchives.ca).
Baron de Hirsch
School, Baron de Hirsch Institute minutes and lists, some on
microfilm. These records, from approximately 1895-1917, contain
many names of immigrants and recently immigrated Montrealers. No
index to these names is currently available. (Many researchers
write that they were settled or helped by this organization.
However, the records do not usually say anything about the family
aside from the name.)
Combined Jewish
Appeal Honour Rolls and Prospect lists, Montreal.
The Jewish fund-raising campaign in Montreal produced lists of
contributors and potential contributors, including addresses. The
Archives has donor books from 1951-1968, as well as "prospect
lists" of synagogue members and mutual aid society members, for
1959 and 1960 only. The synagogue and organization names are listed
on computer, but the names are not. (Note: as of 2015 most of this
category of records has been transfered to the Federation
collection of the Jewish Public Library Archives.)
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES:
Other name registers, in
addition to those listed above:
Jewish residents of Toronto in the
1861-1901 census of Canada - on microfiche
Jewish residents of the Maritimes in the 1901 census of Canada -
on microfiche
Jewish residents of Montreal, Quebec City in the 1871-1901 census
- on microfiche
Published
sources:
Reference books on tracing
Jewish roots
Includes Where Once We
Walked, Gilbert's Atlas of the Holocaust, back
issues of AVOTAYNU genealogy magazine (USA and
international) and SHEM TOV newsletter (Toronto).
Also recommended: for 1909-1914 references: Lawrence Tapper's
Biographical Index to the Canadian Jewish Times
(#CJC-LIB-TAP) for 1920s references: A.D. Hart's The Jew in
Canada.