your advice solicited...

[grasswire]

I've jumped into the weeds of genealogy. My goal is to trace all my various lines back to 1600. Everything has been very easy to do; mostly in the U.S. with a few in Canada after the American Revolution. (Oh yes, I had a few Loyalists.)

Only one line has stumped me. My great great grandfather in Canada ends there. I can't find any records on him. Now, he has a name that I must assume is Jewish -- the only Jewish name in all my ancestry AFAIK. I just can't find out anything about him but a name. Not on census lists. Not at find a grave. Can't find any immigration data, although it's possible he came from Eastern Europe somewhere.

If anyone has hints about researching 19th century Jewish-Canadians, I'd appreciate a hand. I know his daughter's vital statistics. I think I have his wife's first name unless it is a diminutive.

AFIK, the only way to access vital statistics is to order microfilm from the Ontario Archive via inter-library loan. But I don't even think the birth records are available for that era. I am a registered researcher for the Ontario Archive.

[GentryDixon]

1. Did you try familysearch.org? n/t

[grasswire]

2. yes, thanks....it gets me to the same dead end.

His name, his wife's first name, location. Nothing beyond.

[kdmorris]

3. I don't know much about Jewish Canadian Ancestry

But wanted to wish you luck. I know Ancestry.com has a Canadian site, but you have to pay for it and many people aren't willing to do that. They do have a 14 day free trial, but you still have to give them credit card info which they will charge automatically if you don't make a point of telling them to cancel your trial. http://www.ancestry.ca/

Did the synagogues keep track of births/deaths, like the catholic churches did?

Good luck!

[grasswire]

4. I have a world membership on ancestry.com

I thought that included all Canadian info.

[retrogal]

5. Not sure if this will help...

but there is a good chance he changed his surname. My French Canadian ancestors shortened theirs when they came to NH.
Also another line moved back and forth from VT and Canada.
Good luck!
Oh and my father isn't even listed on the 1940 census for some reason... UGH

[Spider Jerusalem]

6. I've had a similar issue in tracing some of my ancestry...

my great-great-grandfather came to America as a child from Ireland; he left during the Famine, as far as I know, and ended up in Louisville, Kentucky. I found him in the census, so I have his mother's name...but not his father's; he, his mother, and brother don't appear on any lists of Irish immigrants to New York, Baltimore, or Philadelphia I've been able to find, nor are there any naturalisation records; I have no idea if they came through New Orleans, or possibly even through Canada. He died sometime before 1900 (when his wife appears in the census as a widow), and Kentucky didn't keep a centralised record of deaths then. I know the county he came from in Ireland, but he has a common surname (Dillon); he was a Catholic, and records were only kept, officially, of people baptised in the Anglican Church of Ireland...and the Irish Records Office in Dublin burned during the Irish Civil War in 1921. So I've pretty much given up on finding anything further.

I'd expect that for a Jewish emigrant from Europe in the mid-19th century the situation is probably not dissimilar, with the war destroying a lot of records and in many cases records being kept by the local Jewish community but not officially (especially in Tsarist Russia where Jews were confined to the Pale of Settlement).