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May 23, 2008
Genealogy research intrigue
There are some fascinating resources for Sephardi information.
ARASH SHAUL
The most interesting thing about genealogical research is not finding out whether you are the ancestor of great kings or nobles, but the search itself. It connects you to your roots and you become interested in things that change your life, said Dr. Jeffrey Malka, a pioneer in Sephardi genealogical research.
Malka was speaking to a group of about 50 people at a Jewish Genealogical Institute of British Columbia (JGI) event at Beth Hamidrash Synagogue on May 15. Catherine Youngren, president of the JGI, began the evening with a short talk highlighting the mandate and activities of the institute.
Judaism is about tradition and history, she said, therefore, Jews naturally take a keen interest in genealogy. The JGI exists to help Jews discover their roots, by enabling them to successfully research their origins, she explained, and the institute also works for the preservation of the vast archives of Jewish records and resources, which are essential for research. Youngren invited the audience to visit the JGI, where, each Sunday, staff is present to assist visitors with compiling their family trees.
Malka, a retired professor of orthopedic surgery, is the creator of the Sephardic Institute of Genealogy, which works with the JGI. Born to a Sephardi father and Ashkenazi mother, Malka became interested in genealogy when he noticed his elderly father laboring to put together a family history. "My father, in his eighties, started writing a family history," said Malka. "The problem was, he was old and not very computer literate, so you can imagine putting together a family genealogy was not an easy job for him."
To help his father, Malka himself got involved in genealogical research, and he shortly fell in love with the task of discovering and connecting to his roots.
Malka completed a genealogy for his mother's side of the family, but ran into a brick wall on his father's side. "My mother, being Ashkenazi, it was easy to do the research and get all the information I needed, but I couldn't really put together a history for my father's side," said Malka, "because all the genealogical resources available were mainly for Ashkenazi Jews, and there was little or no tools available to do genealogical research for Sephardic Jews, so I decided to go and find completely new resources to do that."
Malka was told that no significant documents existed to do an adequate genealogy for Sephardi Jews and, therefore, that putting together a reasonable Sephardi genealogy would be very difficult, if not impossible. Malka, however, was undeterred.
"And here's what I found," he said, "Not only do documents exist for Sephardic Jews to do a genealogy, but also there are far more documents and sources to do a genealogy for Sephardic Jews than there are for the Ashkenazim."
He shared some of his discoveries. He said that traditional Jewish genealogical research relies on six sources of information: interviewing the elders, marriage certificates, Shoah records, civil records, citizenship and voting records, and passenger lists of various ports of entry and exit. "These resources are usually approached for both Ashkenazi and Sephardic genealogies," said Malka. "What people don't realize is that the Sephardim actually have many more resources beyond these to do a genealogy. In fact, complete and accurate documents for Sephardic genealogies are available for as far back as 1,000 years, not just the few centuries that these conventional sources can take us."
Sephardi Jews lived mostly in Spain and North Africa which, under Arab rule between 711-1492 AD, were centres of culture and civilization. Extensive legal, notary and financial documents from that era are, therefore, a goldmine for Sephardi genealogical research. The Ashkenazi, by contrast, lived mostly in other parts of Europe, which, during the same period, were shadowed by the Dark Ages, Malka explained. The absence of any vibrant civilization meant that there were no documents or recordkeeping in the rest of Europe and that it is virtually impossible to do an Ashkenazi genealogical research that dates earlier than the 16th century.
"So if you're Sephardic, good news," said Malka. "You have a better chance of finding out about your origins and of finding out a lot more about your origins."
Malka said that, at times, his search led him to the unlikeliest places. For example, he ended up looking through records of the Spanish Inquisition. "If you think the Nazis were obsessive records keepers, think again," he said. "The Spanish inquisitors were far more obsessed with keeping complete and accurate records of everyone, especially their Jewish victims, than anyone else."
The Inquisition records, which document complete histories of Jews living in the Spanish empire at the time, including in the Americas, are available for public research in archives in Spain. Malka informed the audience that almost all of these documents, numbering in millions of pages, have been digitized and are available in computer databases that can be very easily searched.
Malka then showed slides of some rare historical documents that he encountered along his research journey, and Youngren opened the floor to questions. In response to several queries relating to royal or priestly heritage, Malka advised the audience to keep an open mind when approaching matters of genealogy. "Basically, keep in mind that genealogy is different from mythology," he said. "Genealogy relies on accurate documents, on proofs. Mythology, while it may be true, cannot be researched or proved in any way."
He continued, "What I'm trying to say is this: the greatest reward of getting involved in your genealogy is not that you find out that you are descended from David. The greatest reward is that the search itself makes you grow, it connects you to your roots and, as you discover new things about your origins, you become interested in things that can change your life."
Malka said he discovered many things about his own lineage, which consists of a long line of rabbis, authors, kabbalists and even Catalan blacksmiths and moneylenders. "When I was doing my family tree, I, for example, found out some of my ancestors were kabbalists," he said. "Kabbalah is something I knew nothing about, so I started learning about it, and it opened up a whole new way of looking at the world. Same thing can happen to you when you go out to uncover your past."
Malka has written a prize-winning book, Sephardic Genealogy: Discovering Your Sephardic Ancestors and their World. He also has a website, www.sephardicgen.com, and a section on the JGI's website, www.jewishgen.org.
Arash Shaul is a Vancouver freelance writer.
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