NATIONAL ARCHIVES OF AMSTERDAM - NOT JUST FOR "DUTCH" : JEWISH GENEALOGY post #3

NATIONAL ARCHIVES OF AMSTERDAM

The story of the Portuguese Sephardic Jews being converted or being expelled is that they went wherever they were welcomed and Holland and Amsterdam was one of those places. (Greece and Italy were also popular and generally you will find that some Sephardic Jews also lived in Germany, Poland, and Russia.) Sephardic means Spanish speaking.  Over decades of marrying within their own people, Sephardic Jews sometimes feel they are distinct genetically and culturally from German Jews or Jews of Slavic lands. They may have changed their surnames or used one name as a kind of civic name and another among their brethren.

For genealogists the search is for IMMIGRATION RECORDS.

Within the National Archives of Amsterdam site, you may find the following that will be helpful to that quest.

NAME CHANGES as a means of assimilation to a new culture.

LETTERS OF RECOMMENDATION or SPONSORSHIP.  Not so different from the requirements of immigrants in the United States during the 19th and early 20th century, you had to know someone who would write that you had a good character or that they would support you financially.  Find one of these letters and you may verify where the people came from.

Also within this archives are a huge collection of SURNAME oriented collections.  So use the surname, be it Belmonte or Schonenberg, to see what others have given over.

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NATIONAL ARCHIVES OF AMSTERDAM - NOT JUST FOR "DUTCH" : JEWISH GENEALOGY post #2

Last month I posted about the National Archives of Amsterdam and said I would post more as I myself learned more about this site.  I mentioned that there are resources for those who are not "Dutch" including Jews - Dutch Sephardic Jews and Jews of the Holocaust including people who escaped to Holland may be represented.  Like many other databases that are offered by Country or Ethnic Group (Ukrainian, Irish, etc.) the data will continue to be loaded on and so checking back every so often is a good idea. There may also be spotty information due to the temporary or permanent loss of records. Still, we can be grateful for what is given as there is usually no charge, Google translate can help English-speakers quite a bit, and a person no longer has to afford to travel to go to an archive.

Today I want to mention some items within this on-line archives which are interesting!

POPULATION REGISTERS start at 1851 and are spotty. (civil)
BIRTH REGISTERS - both religious (baptismals) and others that are not (civil). These include Mennonites and Portuguese (Sephardic) Jews.
THERE MAY BE PHOTOS OF THE FAMILY included.

House numbers are NOT the same as today.

MARKET PERMITS or "Cards" say what it is your merchant ancestor was selling.  There are also PHOTOS included in this collection.  I suggest that if the market permit coincides with the history of the Holocaust you do some cross-checking with records elsewhere.

"UNDERLYING REGISTERS" important and searchable.

These include marriage bonds, contracts put out to the public (so if anyone objects, because they know someone is already married for instance, which is still done in some churches in their bulletins.) This ends in 1811 when Napoleon changed the laws.  Witnesses will be listed, as will it say if a person is divorced and to whom the bride or groom this time around was married to before! That is so valuable and unexpected.

A little more on this archive next month!

NATIONAL ARCHIVES OF AMSTERDAM


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NATIONAL ARCHIVES OF AMSTERDAM - NOT JUST FOR "DUTCH" : JEWISH GENEALOGY post #1

NATIONAL ARCHIVES OF AMSTERDAM - NOT JUST FOR "DUTCH"

Wow!  Though the headings such as "research,"  "archives," or "search" are in English, English speakers will need Google Translator to go further.  As part of an effort to share culture and European and Jewish history, the National Archives of Amsterdam has plentiful resources in which you may find family history and genealogy even if you are not "Dutch."

In particular, Portuguese Sephardic Jews who were expelled or left Portugal and settled in Amsterdam, Holland, where people were more tolerant of religious differences, are recorded here.  And - this is wonderful - I'm told there are entries in which the person's Jewish surname in Netherlands is listed as is the surname they used in Portugal. On the marriage records there can be information such as a previous spouse, a divorce, the names of these persons, and where they came from.  

I'll give more details later as I explore the site myself.

A word about European Jews.

In the United States we easily identify surnames that are or "sound" Jewish, as we are used to "German Jewish" surnames.  As a result Colonial American Jews (of which there were some) with surnames that are not clearly German Jewish are not so easily identified.  Some time ago I posted on a book called "When Scotland was Jewish" which is quite interesting - the surnames of some Jews are Scottish. In the Southern United States, pre-civil war, some of the slave owners were Sephardic Jewish.

Then there are Italian Jews; reading around DNA it's said that about 40% of Italians - particularly in the South of Italy - have some Jewish ancestry though they may have been practicing Catholics for generations.  The Italian Jews are usually from Sephardic origins. Some of them came from Salonika, Greece, where they first went after the expulsions. 

When we think Polish Jews, we think of German Jews  because some German Jews were living in Poland and visa versa, but Polish Jews had surnames that were Polish; surnames were not used, needed, or the law until rather late in Jewish history.  If you live in a small community where everyone knows everyone, why a surname?  Surname requirements get tied into registrations for civil reasons.  Besides the expelling of Jews (or forced conversions) from Spain and Portugal (and other countries) Jewish people could chose a surname (while also having their Jewish name). Then there are a variety of spellings used by the same family to consider. And that to this day some Jews have the name the world knows them by as well as a more secret name known to their fellow Jews.

Last but not least, some Jews in Poland and other areas effected by the Holocaust made their way to Holland - such as the famous Anne Frank - hoping they would be safe there - but eventually they were not.

So you realize that the NATIONAL ARCHIVES OF AMSTERDAM can be useful for Jewish genealogy.  You may be able to cross reference your research with Vad Yasham and other Jewish Genealogy and Holocaust oriented sites.

More later!

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THE BATTLE FOR CHRISTMAS : STEPHEN NISSENBAUM : ANCESTRY WORSHIP BOOK REVIEW

THE BATTLE FOR CHRISTMAS by STEPHEN NISSENBAUM 

Stephen Nissenbaum takes wassailing, an English custom, to the early American colonies where Christmas was a day for reversing roles, and the gift giving was more like a Halloween trick or treat. Perhaps the idea was to let off resentment?

Christmas as we know it to be was invented by New Yorkers who leaned on a myth that the holiday was from the Dutch heritage of early residents of Dutch New York. In early new England the day was not celebrated because the festivities were not considered to be Christian behavior.

Perhaps no better a day of the year existed for slaves. A good portion of this book by Stephen Nissenbaum, a Professor of History at the University of Massachusetts, is devoted to the relations between slaves and their masters.

Genealogists will learn more about the Freedman Bureau too!

Maybe you'll want to read this one after the holidays?

Book is C 1996 by the author Stephen Nissenbaum and published by Borzoi/Alfred A. Knopf.

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