Customer Reviews

Avotaynu Guide to Jewish Genealogy

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PACKAGING: Nicely bound. Good cover art. When teh dust jacket tears, the hardcover beneath it is identical. Attractive, readable font.

SCOPE AND FORMAT: The first few hundred pages cover all the basic topics concisely: naming traditions, migration history, rabbinical genealogy, immigration records, American vital records, overseas records, etc. Very few topics are missed (I would have liked to have seen more on photos and family hierlooms).

The majority of this massive book, however, is an alphabetical treatment of the specific issues of research in various country -- everything from Norway, with a handful of Jews, up to the major spots like Russia, Poland, and the Ukraine. Each country gets about 1-8 pages.

Therefore, if your known Jewish ancestors are from just 2 or 3 countries, as is the case for most, then 95 percent of the last 400 pages of the book will be irrelevant to you.

My biggest complaint: NO INDEX! But the chapters are short and well-organized, making it easy to navigate. GREAT bibliographies at the ends of each chapter suggest trails of further research.

QUALITY: VERY high. The contributors are all masters of their topics. The writing style, for the most part, is clear and lively. The essays are written to be assible for beginners, but also contain plenty of helpful material for even the most experienced genealogist.

The articles are pretty current. Most seem to have been written in 2003.

My advice -- please get this book. Its a joy. If purchased along with Barbara Krasner-Khait 's Discovering Your Jewish Ancestors (2001) its all you need for general handbooks. (Krasner-Kahait covers other topics like heirlooms and photos in more depth and takes a more anecdotal, case-study approach, which complements and illustrates this Avotaynu nicely).

Added bonus -- we really need to support Avotaynu. They are doing such important work. Consider buying a copy for your public library too. And subscribe to the excellent Avotaynu journal.