Laura Arnold Leibman

36th IAJGS International Conference on Jewish Genealogy

Seattle, Washington, USA

August 7, 2016, 4:30-5:45 pm

Sheraton Seattle Hotel, Cedar B

 

Today multiracial Jews make up 12% of U.S. Jewry, with nearly 87,000 nonwhite, Hispanic, or multiracial Jewish households in the New York area alone. The history of multiracial Jews, however, has often been presented as occurring primarily after the Vietnam War. This emphasis ignores the wealth of resources available regarding early multiracial Jews in the Americas. In this workshop I discuss (1) how definitions of race have changed between the colonial era and today and how this impacts what types of sources you will find, (2) strategies and resources for locating primary sources related to family histories of Jews of mixed African and Jewish descent in the early United States and Caribbean with attention to family history resources prior to 1840, and (3) strategies for interpreting primary sources. Hands-on examples of sources are included in the workshop.

 

Resources

 

• Main Feeder Communities for the Colonies

• Manumission Records

  • Suriname: Nationaal Archief, The Hague

  • Curaçao: Nationaal Archief, The Hague

  • British West Indies

    • Jamaica: Originals PRO at Kew (UK); Partial Transcription

    • Barbados: Barbados Department of Archives under references RB7/26 & 27; Partial Transcription

• Slave Registers

  • Slave Registers of the former British Colonial Dependencies, 1813-1834

  • Suriname Census 1811 (includes slaves per household)

  • Suriname Emancipation Database (interface in Dutch)

  • Suriname Manumissions (interface in Dutch)

  • Philadelphia Manumissions Book

  • New York Manumission Society Registers, 1785-1849

    • New York Historical Society, Maunscript Collections Relating to Slavery

    • Yoshpe, Harry B. "Record of Slave Manumissions in New York During the Colonial and Early National Periods." The Journal of Negro History 26, no. 1 (1941): 78-107.

• Church Records

  • Barbados Church Records, 1637-1887

  • Jamaica Church Records

    • Jamaica Births and Baptisms (FamilySearch Historical Records)

    • Jamaica Church of England Parish Register Transcripts (FamilySearch Historical Records)

  • Suriname Church Records, 1688-1792 (interface in Dutch)

• Early Jewish American Marriage Records

  • What Are Marriage Contracts For?

  • Suriname: Nationaal Archief, The Hague (originals); P. A. Hilfman, "Some Further Notes on the History of the Jews in Surinam," PAJHS XVI (1907): 7-22. Copies and Microfilm at AJA

  • Barbados: London Metropolitan Archives (originals by permission only); Edgar Samuels, "Marriages at the Nidhe Yisrael Synagogue, Bridgetown, Barbados" Jewish Historical Studies 45 (2013): 163-171.

  • New York: Congregation Shearith Israel (originals by permission only); Congregation Shearith Israel. New York. New York, Register of Births, Deaths, and Marriages, Vols. 1-111, 1759-1946. Microfilm AJA

  • Philadelphia: Mikveh Israel Archives (U Penn, pdf) Copies at AJA

  • Curaçao: Congregations Mikvé Israel-Emanuel. Summary in Volume 2 of Emmanuel, History of the Jews of the Netherlands Antilles. Copies of originals at AJA.

• Early American Death Records

  1. Early Jewish American Cemeteries

  2. Early African American and Multi-Racial Cemeteries with Ties to Jewish Communities

     • Creole Cemetery, Jodensavanne, Suriname

     • God's Little Acre, Newport RI

  3. Gravestones by Family Name

  4. Gravestones by First Name

• Early American Synagogue Records

  • Suriname: Nationaal Archief, The Hague (originals)

  • Barbados: London Metropolitan Archives (originals by permission only)

  • New York: Congregation Shearith Israel (originals by permission only); Congregation Shearith Israel Records (AJHS); Congregation Shearith Israel. New York. New York, Register of Births, Deaths, and Marriages, Vols. 1-111, 1759-1946. Microfilm AJA;

  • Philadelphia: Mikveh Israel Archives (U Penn, pdf). Copies at AJA

  • Curaçao: Congregations Mikvé Israel-Emanuel. Copies at AJA

• Jewish Atlantic World Database

• Stern, First American Jewish Families: 600 Genealogies, 1654-1988

• Print and Online Sources

 

Reading Sample Sources

 

• How to Read an Early American Gravestone

• Gravestone Worksheet

• Houses Worksheet

• Early American Handwriting

• What's in a Name Part 1; Part 2