Received a notification that Ancestry now has just released a collection of Holocaust records.

Question

Not sure if anyone has posted about this yet - I know that many WikiTree members that are researching as part of the Holocaust project may find this beneficial.

This is the link that I received today  - https://www.ancestry.com/cs/alwaysremember?o_xid=100489&o_lid=100489&o_sch=Email+Campaigns

I hope this may be of help to someone.

Comments

These are behind the paywall. There is no free access

---

Hi Eddie,

   You may be right - I did a test search without logging in and it did do a search and came up with results... BUT, when I went to view one it said - there is more to see - create a free account. Not sure if this is just a ploy to get people to sign up. If so - I view it as a BAD move on Ancestry's part to use something both as historically important and sensitive due to the subject matter for monetary gain.

Has anyone tried accessing with the "free account" ?

---

A few months ago I filled out the "free" account sign up form. It asked for a credit card number and was "free" for 30 days. Needless to say, I exited quickly. I don't put my Visa number on anything online LOL

---

Well that is a shame.

Like Rhonda below, I also have a paid account that I use for doing research on my DNA matches. If anyone wants me to look up something for them I would be more than happy to do it. Just drop me a PM with the details on what you need me to look up.

Answer 1

I can look up names or places for anyone since I do have paid access.

Comments

Records on Ancestry also available for free access on Yad Vashem and Bundesarchiv

---

Thanks, Rhonda and Eddie.

---

And of course there is the extensive resource list on our Holocaust Project page.

Answer 2

Thanks for letting us know, Mike. I have a number of Jewish friends who have asked me to do some research for them and this may well be really helpful to them.

Comments

Thank's Susie, It popped up in my Email this morning and I thought I should let you all know. If its a help to anyone it was worth the 30 seconds on my part.

I am a little concerned though with what Eddie brought up about it possibly being behind the pay wall. - I did a test run and it did bring up a request to create a "free" account, I hope that is all they are asking of people. It would be in bad taste to "bait" people with something of this subject matter just to try to gain paying subscribers.

---

Mike, I hate to burst your bubble, but that is precisely how Ancestry set up their business model - bait is the name of their game.

Susie, add jewishgen.org to the sites that Eddie mentioned.  That is free, but you have to sign up for an account and the "price" of the free account is that they'll pester you unmercifully with emails begging for donations.  By the way, not a whole lot of people seem to be aware of this, but jewishgen is now owned by LDS, which seems kind of strange to me.

---

Hi Gaile - I think my "bubble" burst quite some time ago - I now just hope for the best but expect the worst. I guess that makes me an optimistic-pessimist?

---

Thanks, Gaile. Will do. :-)

---

Oh, Dear. Just by way of our (in USA) culture that is mothered by money, I am so sorry that jewishgen "is now owned by LDS." It seems to me that that undercuts the strain (as in music) of "beautiful" or "great" connections.

Pardon me while I feel a little sad and a little irked. I must own, however, that I'm glad that someone started and supported genealogical research, despite their wish to be admired for it. Doing so was really another way to amplify their prominence and their capacity to earn--My intuitive judgment is, plainly speaking, "Yuk!."

Answer 3

I saw it and I have an account with Ancestry. I tested it on my Great Grandfather that I know was murdered at Auschwitz. It came up with nothing on him.

Meanwhile https://yadvashem.org/ has listings that were very helpful in finding more about his family and even led me to making contact with a 1st cousin once removed who had survived Auschwitz who is still alive.

Comments

Bravo and onward, Dave! --AND your link takes anyone directly to the correct place to start their research--THANKS so much from all of us.

---

Dave (and others), My father and I (incredibly) never talked about it, but I was aware that he might have Jewish roots the entire time. I believe I have 16% jewish roots, as it happens.  How would I begin to research that part of my genealogy, and who (a person and an .org) be able to get me started? I'm 80 (!) and I'd like to know what my linear family members did not care to know. (I've told my sons what I thought but they didn't seem interested or alarmed.)

The kink in my learning anything about it is that my paternal GM has stopped her family line with her, and his father is unknown (which seems to give a fairly secure sense that someone in that line wishes to hide this or some other fact).

---

I originally asked some question that I was able to answer. Is FTDNA where you learned of your Jewish ancestry?