Finding Our Fathers A Guidebook to Jewish Genealogy

by Dan Rottenberg

Most American Jews believe they can only trace their families back for two or three generations. In this work Dan Rottenberg proves that they are wrong and shows how to do a successful search for probing the memories of living relatives, by examining marriage licenses, gravestones, ship passenger lists, naturalization records, birth and death certificates, and other public documents, and by looking for clues in family traditions and customs. Supplementing the "how to" instructions is a guide to some 8,000 Jewish family names, giving the origins of the names, sources of information about each family, and the names of related families whose histories have been recorded. Other features included a country-by-country guide to tracing Jewish ancestors abroad, a list of Jewish family history books, and a guide to researching genealogy in Mormon records and in Israel.

Genres: Jewish, Nonfiction

434 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1998

Reviews

[Joan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well-researched and full of interesting material. A useful reference but dated now, as it was written before both the fall of the USSR and the other former Communist states, and the arrival of the Internet.

[M.K. Beker · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book--this resource is phenomenal and priceless.

My wife's family, beyond her grandparents, is lost in the shrouds of time. That fact is a dark cloud that has haunted her all her life. With a complete dearth of familial history, we had little hope to ever discover anything of value, but we recently decided now was the time to at least try searching.

But where to begin?

After searching Amazon, I came up with Finding Our Fathers: A Guidebook to Jewish Genealogy by Dan Rottenberg. Although 22 years have passed since the updated edition of this book was published in 1998 (with previous publications in 1995, 1986, and 1977), still in 2021 this remains a treasure of inspiration, education, history, guidance, landmarks, direction, and motivation.

As evidence of that claim, I have dog-eared so many pages that my paperback copy of the book is nearly impossible to keep closed; I've highlighted so many selections that nary a page is without a smattering of semi-transparent, blue markings.

Will all of the periodicals, books, institutions, people, and resources discussed in Finding Our Fathers still be viable at present? Of course not. But please do not let that deter you. If you plan to search out the branches and roots of your Jewish family tree, I promise you will want your own heavily-highlighted, thoroughly-bent-paged copy of this book in your reference library. The litany of references to places and people and publications is so long that you will have plenty of still-relevant starting points to begin your journey, and the advice that Mr. Rottenberg provides throughout the book is all by itself invaluable.

The best thing I can say about this book, as a summary to my review, is that where before reading it we were sunk in a state of dire hopelessness about finding my wife's family, now we feel as though we are standing on solid ground, with a plan in our heads and a series of maps in our hands.

Now on to Google and answers to questions that have plagued my wife for far too long. On to discover mothers and fathers....

[Matty · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very interesting info, excellent array of information