The (UK) National Archives announced, that they are making digital records available online for free as long as Kew is closed due to the Coronavirus.

To manage the demand, registered users will be able to order and download up to 10 items at no cost, to a maximum of 50 items over 30 days.

To access the service and download free, users are required to:

Register/sign in to their Discovery account before adding items to their basket (maximum ten items per basket);

Complete the order process to receive a download link, which will remain active for 30 days. (The link will also be saved in ‘Your orders’ in your account for 30 days); and

Abide by their fair use policy. 

See: https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/about/news/digital-downloads/

To register for a free account and be able to download documents go to:

https://secure.nationalarchives.gov.uk/Login/Register

This requires your name, email address, country and password.  No credit card information is required.

You may also find their latest blog posting of interest as it has posts on various records, research , technology and more:

https://blog.nationalarchives.gov.uk/

Jan Meisels Allen

Chairperson, IAJGS Public Records Access Monitoring Committee

Dear Jewish Genners,

I would very much appreciate your help with the translations of the following birth and death records from Russian into English:

http://www.jewishgen.org/viewmate/viewmateview.asp?key=VM80455

http://www.jewishgen.org/viewmate/viewmateview.asp?key=VM80456

http://www.jewishgen.org/viewmate/viewmateview.asp?key=VM80457

http://www.jewishgen.org/viewmate/viewmateview.asp?key=VM80458

http://www.jewishgen.org/viewmate/viewmateview.asp?key=VM80459

Please reply only via ViewMate.

Ms Terry Ashton, Melbourne, Australia

SEARCHING: PRASHKER: Kalisz, Poland/SZUMOWSKI: Gorki, Zdunska Wola, Lomza,  Poland/WAJNGOT: Poland/WIERZBOWICZ: Gorki, Lomza, Poland/GOLDMAN: Blaszki, Poland/SEGAL/SEGALOVITCH: Vilnius, Lithuania/HOLTZ: Dvinsk, Russia

     JewishGen is proud to announce its “2020 Pesach Update” to the JOWBR (JewishGen’s Online Worldwide Burial Registry) database, (previously known as the “2019 Year-End Update”). Therefore, please keep in mind that this update only includes submissions received by November 30, 2019.  All subsequent submissions will be part of the next update. The reason for the delay is that JewishGen’s databases were being reviewed, and in many cases, code was rewritten, to make the updating process more efficient for future updates.  We hope to get back to our usual semi-annual update schedule as follows:

            Data received by May 31                Update in July (pre-conference)

            Data received by November 30     Update in December

Please visit www.jewishgen.org/databases/Cemetery/ to access the JOWBR database. If you’re a new JOWBR user, we recommend that you visit our screencast page at www.jewishgen.org/databases/Cemetery/Screencasts/  and take a look at the first two explanatory screencasts.

     This update, adds approximately 120,000 new records and 52,000 new photos.  The database is adding and/or updating 550 cemeteries.  This update brings JOWBR’s holdings to 3.71 million records and 700,000 photos from approximately 8,670 cemeteries / cemetery sections representing 133 countries! 

     Once again, donors for this update include a mix of individuals, Jewish genealogical societies, historical societies and museums.  We appreciate all our donor’s submissions and the transliteration work done by a faithful group of JewishGen volunteers. 

Of special note, this update includes the first installment from the Lasky Collection.  His submission will include approximately 125,000 records, the vast majority with photos.  For more information on Mr. Lasky's current work, please see www.museumoffamilyhistory.com (the Museum of Family History website.)

          Significant additions to JOWBR by country include:

• Australia – approximately 800 records and 2,400 photos from new and existing cemeteries.
• Canada – 400 additional records and 4,300 photos, mostly from Montreal, Quebec area cemeteries.
• Czech Republic – approximately 5,000 new records and 3,400 photos from 14 cemeteries.
• England – 1,250 records and 250 photos from 6 cemeteries.
• France – 3,000 new records covering 121 new or existing cemeteries.
• Germany –10,000 new records and 2,000 photos covering 70 new or existing cemeteries including 6,000 records from Jüdischer Friedhof Schönhauser Allee in Berlin.
• Moldova – added 1,5000 new records and photos from 2 Bessarabia cemeteries.
• Morocco – added 1,600 new records and photos from 2 Moroccan cemeteries.
• Netherlands – added 4,400 new records, including 4,300 from Wassenar.
• Poland –approximately 6,200 new records from 23 new and existing cemeteries including 5,100 from 3 cemeteries in Wroclaw.
• Russia – added 2,500 new records from 7 Russian cemeteries including 2,000 from Astrakhan.
• United States - approximately 100,600 new records and 4,250 photos for 24 new and 42 updated cemeteries including 91,200 records from Mount Sinai Memorial Parks and Mortuaries in Los Angeles.

Please see www.jewishgen.org/databases/Cemetery/tree/CemList.htm for a complete listing of all cemeteries in JOWBR.

     I want to particularly thank Eric Feinstein who has been helping me to find and gain permission to add many non-US records from Germany, France and under-represented countries.  Eric’s group of volunteers includes Sandra Bennett, Lineke Bos, George Goldschmied, Ann Meddin Hellman, Maurice Kessler, Hans Nord, Deborah Ross, Marylin Shalks, and Suzanne Tarica. In addition, a big thank you to our volunteer transliterators, led by Gilberto Jugend, without whom we would not be able to add the information from some very difficult to read photos.

     We appreciate all the work our donors have done and encourage you to make additional submissions.  Whether you work on a cemetery / cemetery section individually or consider a group project for your local Society, temple or other group, it’s your submissions that help grow the JOWBR database and make it possible for researchers and family members to find answers they otherwise might not.  Please also consider other organizations you may be affiliated with that may already have done cemetery indexing that would consider having their records included in the JOWBR database.

Nolan Altman

NAltman@...

JewishGen Director for Special Projects - JOWBR

April, 2020