The Ackman & Ziff Family Genealogy Institute

Have you ever wanted to know more about your heritage or family history? The Center for Jewish History offers a landmark genealogy institute that is open to all.

Visit us to get unparalleled free, personalized assistance from a skilled librarian who can help you navigate resources and databases, and show you how to access materials that live in the five partner collections housed at the Center. Our librarians can also help you contextualize your findings and understand how your family’s story fits into world history. 

We can help you find:

• Travel and immigration documents – many available through Ancestry.com
• Census forms – including US forms, the German minority census of 1938, and others
• Birth, marriage, and death records dating back hundreds of years – including microfilms on loan from the Church of Latter Day Saints’ Family History Library, many of which were indexed on JewishGen
• Holocaust records
• Yizkor books from across Eastern Europe
• Periodicals that include family information such as birth announcements and obituaries
• Orphan records and records from other charitable organizations
• Other genealogical and family documents including memoirs, correspondence, and personal papers from the collections of the Center’s five partners – in dozens of different languages

Reference services specialists can also direct you to reference books, including guides for translating vital records and name dictionaries, and original materials in the Lillian Goldman Reading Room.

Visit us at 15 West 16th Street in Manhattan. We are open to the public at the following times:

• Sunday: 11:00am – 4:00pm
• Monday: 9:30am – 7:30pm
• Tuesday – Thursday: 9:30am – 5:30pm
• Friday: 9:30am – 1:30pm

Note that not all resources and collections are available at all times. We encourage you to call in advance (917-606-8217) to ensure access to all of the documents you’re interested in seeing.

Prepare for your visit: Preparing in advance will ensure that we can expedite your research. Review the self-help resources available on our website for tips for interviewing family members and information on starting your research. We also highly recommend that you come with a completed family chart. 

Can’t visit in person? Visit the Ackman & Ziff Family Genealogy Institute Center’s website, genealogy.cjh.org, which offers a number of do-it-yourself tools, including:

• Step-by-step online research guides
• The ability to email the Center’s staff with questions, gi@cjh.org, and chat with an information professional on cjh.org anytime during open hours
• Search the collections at search.cjh.org