The Montefiore Censuses Are On-line!

Censuses of the Jewish inhabitants of the Holy Land, Alexandria, Sidon (Saida) and Beirut, were compiled by Sir Moses Montefiore between the years 1839 and 1876. The Montefiore Endowment commissioned the Israel Genealogical Society to transliterate the censuses into modern Hebrew and English scripts and to translate them.
They are now being published on-line in stages by the Endowment with a search engine in Hebrew and English. So far, years 1839, 1840, 1849 and 1855 have been completed and work continues on 1866 and 1875/6.

The Israel Genealogical Society is proud to announce the launching of the online Beta website of the 19th Century Montefiore Censuses of the Jewish Population of Eretz Israel, Alexandria, Beirut and Sidon (Saida).

The details recorded include personal and family particulars, occupations and countries of origin, The censuses are unusually comprehensive as it is estimated that fewer than 1% of the Jewish inhabitants of Eretz Israel refused to participate because of religious scruples. Some others may not be included for personal or political reasons.

The manuscripts belong to the Montefiore Endowment and are held in its library in London, where they can be seen by appointment. They are written in Hebrew, in a variety of scripts. Many of the pages are difficult to read and, lacking any index, the tracing of individuals is time-consuming.

Beginning in 2008, the Israel Genealogical Society, under the auspices of the Montefiore Endowment, has been working on transcribing the censuses into a modern Hebrew font, transliterate the names, and translate the data into English. This immense labour is being undertaken by teams of dedicated volunteers; and the censuses are now in the process of being published on-line for the first time, together with a search engine in Hebrew and in English to facilitate the finding of individual names and families.

Extended families are linked together, and there is a link to the digitized manuscript page.

In all, there are 5 censuses of Eretz Israel (including Beirut and Sidon), and one of Alexandria. At present, the census of 1839, 1840 (Alexandria) and 1855 are on line at  http://www.montefioreendowment.org.uk/census/

The census of 1849 will follow in the next few months.

Mathilde Tagger
Israel Genealogical Society
http://www.isragen.org.il/