Infofiles4Bibliography

Previous | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | Index | Next

Bibliography

Family Genealogies, Part 2

4General Resources
4Jewish Encyclopedias
4Bibliographies of Hebrew Books
4General Bio-Bibliographical Works
4Chassidic Rabbis
4Biographies
4Family Genealogies, Part I
4Family Genealogies, Part II
4Sephardi and Mizrahi Sources
4Yizkor Books
Regions
4Austria
4Belarus
4Galicia/Ukraine
4Germany
4Hungary
4Israel
4Italy
4Latvia/Estonia
4Lithuania
4Poland
4Romania
4Russia
4Slovak/Czech
4South Africa
4United States

Periodicals
4Jewish Historical Periodicals
4Journals of Jewish Genealogy
4Articles

Audiotapes

CD-ROMs

LANGUAGE KEY:
(H) = Hebrew, (E) = English, (G) = German, (Y) = Yiddish, (F) = French, (R) = Russian, (P) = Polish

To locate resources, see How to Locate Rabbinic Information Sources in Libraries and Archives.

  • Margolis/Margolioth, Efraim Zalmen. Maalot Hayukhsin (Degrees of Genealogy). Lemberg, 1900. (H)
    • Detailed genealogy of the Margolis and Ettinger families. [Comment by Chaim Freedman, F1]
    • An early, oft-quoted source. The author states his descent from a number of famous rabbis and from Rashi and Yohanan Ha-Sandler on the title page. He cites the fragmentary list of Rashi's ancestors, then leaps to the Lurias, Landaus, and himself. He mentions families Schor, Heschel, Margulies, Itinga, and Horowitz. This work has been criticized as containing errors. [Comment by David Einsiedler, F2]
    • See also: Elef Margoliot, by Rabbi Meir Wunder.
  • Michelsohn, Tsvi Yekhezkel. Tsvi Letsadik. Pietrkov, 1904. (H)
    • One of a series of books by this renowned classical genealogist. Includes very detailed information on the descendants of Rabbi Tsvi Hersh Berlin. [Comment by Chaim Freedman, F1]
  • Menton, Arthur F.
    • The Book of Destiny: Toledot Charlap. Cold Spring Harbor, NY: King David Press, 1996. (E)
    • Ancilla to Toledot Charlap. Cold Spring Harbor, NY: King David Press, 1999. (E)
    • Details of research of ancient rabbinic families of Sephardic origin, their settlement in Europe and current descendants. Includes scholarly explanation of many versions of the family’s descent. The second volume consists of genealogical charts. [Comment by Chaim Freedman, F1]
  • Munk, Baruch P. Toldot Mishpakhat Munk. Jerusalem: 1985. (H)
  • Perles, Meir. Sefer Toledot Ve-Niflaot Maharal (The Book of History and Wonders of the MaHaRaL). Bilgoray, 1911. (H)
    • Right on the title page it proclaims Judah Lowe, the MaHaRaL of Prague, as the descendant of both Rashi and the other Davidic line. It goes into much detail to describe the family, the stories, and the genealogy of the related families. Some derivative families are: Cohen (Katz), Bachrach, Margulies, Karo, and Edels. [Comment by David Einsiedler, F2]
  • Rapaport-Hortschtein, M.E. Shalashelet Hazahav. Munkatz, 1931. (H)
    • The descendants of Rabbi Naftali Katz, the author of Smikhat Khakhamim. [Comment by Chaim Freedman, F1]
  • Rivlin, Eliezer. Sefer Hayakhas Lemishpakhat Rivlin Vehagaon Mivilna. Jerusalem, 1935. (H)
    • Genealogical lists of many Litvak, Belarus and Eretz Yisrael families related to or descended from the Vilna Gaon. Includes about 3,000 people whom the author was able to trace at the time. [Comment by Chaim Freedman, F1]
  • Rosenstein, Neil. The Gaon of Vilna and His Cousinhood. New Jersey: Computer Center for Jewish Genealogy, 1997. 430 pp. (E)
    • A work on the ancestry, collateral relatives, and descendants of the Gaon of Vilna, Elijah ben Solomon. Includes 100 genealogical charts and a surname index of more than 1,800 surnames. Includes narrative, numerous reproduced documents, photographs, and portraits. [Comment by Neil Rosenstein]
  • Rosenstein, Neil. The Unbroken Chain: Biographical Sketches and Genealogy of Illustrious Jewish Families from the 15th-20th century. New York: CIS Publishers, 1990. 2 Vols. (E)
    • One of the best-known published Jewish genealogies. It traces the descendants of Rabbi Meir Katzenellenbogen of Padua through more than 16 generations to the present. More than 30,000 people are identified as descendants. "While the majority of those mentioned have Eastern European roots, there are generous sprinklings of important German families (e.g. Riesser, Mendelssohn), as well as Dutch and English ones (among them, the well-known British cousinhood that includes Rothschilds, Phillips, Samuels, Waleys, etc.). This is truly a compilation of the elite of Ashkenazic Jewry, and it is no surprise that one finds among their offspring some of this century's most important Jews in Europe, Israel, and America. A very high proportion of genealogies are those of the leading Hassidic dynasties: Levi Isaac of Berdichev, Halberstam, Rabinowitz, Horowitz, Rokeach, Shapiro, Spira, Teitelbaum, Twersky, etc. Each chapter is introduced with a somewhat detailed explanatory genealogical chart showing the relationships of the families mentioned in the chapter to other families elsewhere in the book. So exhaustive has he been in pursuing every conceivable descendant of the first Rabbi Isaac of Katzenellenbogen, that anyone with Ashkenazic ancestry, especially from Germany, Poland, or Russia, should search here before moving on to other sources." --Rabbi Malcolm H. Stern. [F3]
  • Rozenkrantz, Aharon. Sefer Yukhsin. Warsaw, 1885. (H)
    • Detailed and often rare material about a number of interrelated eastern European rabbinical families. [Comment by Chaim Freedman, F1]
  • Rubinstein, Mordechai. Sefer Nitey Ne'emanah (Seedlings of Fidelity: A Shoot Out of the Stock of Jesse). Jerusalem, 1910.
    • The author cites descent from King David on the title page. His genealogy includes most [well-known family] names plus Teomim, Halberstam, Frenkel, Ish-Zvi, and Klausner. [Comment by David Einsiedler, F2]
  • Sackheim, George S. Scattered Seeds. Skokie, Illinois: self-published, 1986. (E)
    • Genealogy of the descendants of the famous martyr Rabbi Israel of Rossienoi who perished in 1659. Includes genealogical tables and biographical details of prominent rabbinical families, many updated to current generations. A useful English accompaniment to Daat Kedoshim. [Comment by Chaim Freedman, F1]
  • Shapira, Yaakov Leib. Mishpakhot Atikot Beyisrael. Tel Aviv, Israel: 1981. (H)
    • Traces the ancestry and principal descendants of the classical rabbinical families commencing with Rashi. Summary charts are followed by detailed biographical information about each successive generation and its marital connections. Aside from its genealogical value, this book is an excellent and concise summary of rabbinical biography. [Comment by Chaim Freedman, F1]
  • Schwerdscharf, M.J. Hadrat Tsvi. Sighet, 1909. (H)
    • Genealogy of part of the Schwerdscharf family with considerable material on ancestral rabbinic lines. [Comment by Chaim Freedman, F1]
  • Shlesser, Shimon. Sefer Otsar Harebi R. Heschil. Jerusalem: self-published, 1996. (H)
    • Family genealogy, biography of R. Avraham Yehoshua Heschel (1596-1663). [Comment by Werner L. Frank]
  • Slonim, Menachem S. Toledot Mishpakhat Ha-Rav Mi-Liady (The History of the Family of the Rabbi from Liady). Tel Aviv: Zohar Publishing Co., 1964. (H)
    • The Schneerson dynasty genealogy. It includes more than 1,500 names, beginning with the founder of the dynasty, down to his eighth generation descendants and their relatives in the 1940s. It describes the putative descent from the Maharal of Prague, Judah Loew ben Bezalel (1525–1609), source of the claim to Davidic lineage. [Comment by David Einsiedler, F2]
  • Stern, Y. Zekher Leyehosef. Warsaw, 1898. (H)
    • Very detailed material on the descendants of several eastern European rabbinical families. Includes an extensive introduction which traces many sources for the concept of genealogy in Jewish tradition. [Comment by Chaim Freedman, F1]
  • Teitelbaum, Mordechai. Ha-Rav Mi-Liady U-Mifleget Chabad (The Rabbi From Liady and the Chabad Movement). Warsaw: Tushiyah Publishing, 1914. (H)
    • The claim of Davidic descent in Menachem S. Slonim's Toledot Mishpakhat Ha-Rav Mi-Liady (The History of the Family of the Rabbi from Liady) is questioned by Mordechai Teitelbaum. [Comment by David Einsiedler, F2]
  • Twersky, Rabbi Aaron D. Sefer Ha-Yikhus Mi-Chernobyl ve-Ruzhin (The Genealogy of the Chernobyl and Ruzhin Dynasties). Lublin, 1938. (H)
    • Deals with the Chassidic families Twersky and Friedman, and related families. It mentions descent from King David of Nathan Nota Schapiro, ABD Grodno, Aaron of Karlin, Abraham (Twersky) of Chernobyl, Isaac of Drohobycz, and Abraham Joshua Heschel of Opatow. [Comment by David Einsiedler, F2]
  • Weill, Ernest B. Weil-deVeil, A Genealogy, 1360-1956. Scarsdale, NY, 1957. (E)
  • Weinstock, Moshe Yair. Tiferet Beit David (The Glory of the House of David). Jerusalem, 1968. (H)
    • Lists all generations from Adam to Judah Lowe the Elder, then links them to the dynasty of Samuel Shmelke HaLevi Horowitz, ABD Nikolsburg, and that of this brother Pinchas Horowitz, ABD Frankfurt am Main ("Haflaa"). Their descendants include the Biedermans, Adlers, Rotenbergs, Bernsteins, and Mintzbergs, to name a few. [Comment by David Einsiedler, F2]
  • Wunder, Meir. Elef Margaliot. Jerusalem: ha-Makhon le-hantsahat Yahadut Galitsyah, 1993. (H)
    • Traces the ancestry of one of the rabbis of the Margolis family. Extensive biographical information, sources and genealogical charts present an authoritative summary of many ancient rabbinical families. [Comment by Chaim Freedman, F1]
    • This book contains biographies and genealogical charts of more than a thousand ancestors, a lineage of Jewish leaders from ancient times until Rav Israel Arie Margulies, Admur of Premishlan in London. The book also includes, as an annex, a copy of the book Maalot Hayukhsin, by Rabbi Ephraim Zalman Margaliot, originally published in Lemberg (Lviv) in 1900. [Comment by Ilan Ganot]
  • Zeligman, Y. Megilat Yukhsin. (pre-Holocaust) (H)
    • The history of the publication of this priceless book is rather unclear. It would appear that the author sent the first forty-nine pages from Latvia, where he lived, to his son in Baltimore. The rest of the book appears to have disappeared in the Holocaust. The book covers a number of repeatedly inter-related rabbinical and scholarly families who lived in the Latgale region of Latvia and several towns of adjacent Vitebsk Gubernia such as Altshul, Brauda, Donchin/Don-Yechia, Druyan, Eizenstadt, Kissin, Levin, Margolis, Reizes, Rovinson, Shoyer, Sternim, Tzioni, and Zeligman. The structure of the book comprises the main text written by Zeligman under the title Megilat Yukhsin with extensive footnotes written by his relative Rabbi Benzion Don-Yechia under the title Yakhas Avot. Don-Yechia was an erudite rabbinic scholar who wrote a number of historical articles. His notes to this book portray a keen insight into the historical perspective of the events the members of the families were involved in. Limited copies of the incomplete book exist, held mainly by members of the families. [Comment by Chaim Freedman, F1]
  • Ziv, Asher. Rabbeinu Moshe Isserles. New York: Yeshiva University, 1972. (H)
    • Traces selected descendants of Rabbi Moshe Isserles (the Rema). [Comment by Chaim Freedman, F1]
    • His maternal grandmother was the daughter of Jehiel Luria ABD Brest-Litovsk (d. 1740), a descendant of Rashi. This is stated in the first few paragraphs of the book. It has two chapters about his descendants, too many to name them all. Here are a few: Morgenstern, Reines, Meisels, Mirkes, Ehrenreich, Friedland, Rabinowitz (of Lida), Zifferstein, Heilprin, Margulies, Rokeach, Parnas, Schor, Horowitz, Itinga/Ettinger, Rubin, Glickman, Ehrlich, Moskowitz. [Comment by David Einsiedler, F2]

4Information on rabbinical genealogy published on the Internet may be found separately in the extensive Links section of the Rav-SIG web site. See: Links Index.


FOOTNOTES

1. All comments by Chaim Freedman are used with permission from his book, Beit Rabbanan: Sources of Rabbinic Genealogy. Petah Tikva, Israel: self-published, 2001.

2. Einsiedler, David. "Are You a Descendant of King David? A Look at Rabbinic Sources." Roots-Key: Journal of the Jewish Genealogical Society of Los Angeles. Spring, 1988.

3. Stern, Rabbi Malcolm. "Book Review: The Unbroken Chain." Avotaynu: The International Review of Jewish Genealogy. Spring, 1990.

Previous | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | Index | Next