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Sephardic Databases for genealogy

Captured 2025-11-22

18

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Sephardic Databases for genealogy

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## SephardicGen Resources: A Comprehensive Digital Archive for Sephardic Jewish Genealogy This webpage serves as the central database hub for SephardicGen Resources, a specialized genealogical website created by Jeff Malka dedicated to helping people trace their Sephardic Jewish ancestry. The primary purpose is to provide researchers, genealogists, and individuals of Sephardic descent with access to extensive databases containing surnames, given names, community records, and historical documentation spanning the global Sephardic diaspora. The site functions as both a research tool and historical preservation project, collecting and organizing genealogical information that might otherwise be scattered or lost. The centerpiece of the collection is the Consolidated Index of Sephardic Surnames (CISS), which contains over 170,000 names compiled from various databases on the site. The resources are remarkably comprehensive, featuring specialized surname databases for different regions including over 12,000 North African Jewish surnames (based on onomastic studies by scholars like Maurice Eisenbeth and Joseph Toledano), 5,372 Balkan surnames, and collections from Caribbean, Portuguese, and Northern European Sephardic communities. Additionally, the site offers 1,484 Sephardic given names with their meanings and diminutives, a gazetteer of localities with Jewish communities, and country-specific databases covering places from Algeria to Austria, Bulgaria to Egypt, with detailed records including cemetery inscriptions, wedding registers, deportation records, and rabbinical directories. The databases represent an extraordinary collaborative effort, with the page acknowledging that most were provided by Mathilde Tagger, described as the result of "many years of careful dedicated work." This highlights the academic rigor and community-driven nature of the project. The target audience includes genealogists, historians, and descendants of Sephardic Jews seeking to understand their family histories and cultural heritage. The site's historical significance is particularly notable in its documentation of communities disrupted by the Holocaust, the Spanish Inquisition, and various migrations throughout the Mediterranean, Middle East, and beyond. What makes this resource particularly valuable is its integration of diverse historical sources, from Ottoman Empire records to French colonial archives, cemetery inscriptions to newspaper indices. The site includes unique features like calendar conversion tools, links to off-site databases such as "Les Fleurs de l'Orient" containing 200,000 individuals from the Ottoman Empire, and specialized collections like the "Given Names of Jewish Women of Damascus (1583-1909)." This represents not just a genealogical tool but a digital preservation effort capturing centuries of Sephardic Jewish life across multiple continents, making previously inaccessible historical records available to researchers worldwide.

Citation (APA Style)

Sephardic Databases for genealogy. (2025, 11 22). www.sephardicgen.com. https://www.sephardicgen.com/databases/databases.html

Technical Metadata

Domain www.sephardicgen.com
File Size 149 KB
Archived 2025-11-22T00:17:41.797486
Document ID #18
Languages 5 available