Research: Peoples, Groups, & Cultures: Jewish History Resources
Jewish History Resources
Historical and Genealogical Societies
with Collections from Local Jewish Individuals and Communities
Back to Non-governmental Historical Records Repositories
- Bronx County Historical Society
3309 Bainbridge Ave.
Bronx, NY 10467
(718) 881-8900
The Society collects material relating to the history of the Bronx, including records of Bronx organizations and companies, papers of political, business and civic leaders, all forms of printed media about The Bronx (e.g.: books, reports, brochures, pamphlets, newspapers, magazines), photographs and slides, microfilm, post cards, real estate atlases (e.g., Bromley's) and maps, and video and audio tapes. The Society also maintains and continually updates a vertical file on Bronx topics. Access to the collection is by appointment only. The Society is open Monday through Friday, 9:30-4:30.
- Lindenhurst Historical Society
Old Village Hall Museum
P.O. Box 57
Lindenhurst, NY
(631) 957-4385
The Lindenhurst Historical Society collects material relating to the history of the village of Lindenhurst, New York. The Society's Breslau Cemetary collection includes a typed and manuscript list of tombstone inscriptions of the Breslau Cemetery (non-sectarian, Jewish, and Catholic sections) of burials from 1870 to 1901, 1955-1956, cards and slips with tombstone inscriptions, 1955-1956, bills, estimates, and correspondence for Bicentennial Memorial Plaque, 1975-1976, notes and receipts for cemetery plots, 1915, and genealogical and biographical notes about some local citizens buried in the cemetery, 1965.
- New York Genealogical and Biographical
Society Library
122 East 58th Street
New York, NY 10022-1909
(212) 755-8532
The collection consists of over 70,000 published works and 25,000 manuscript items. The manuscript collections include New York church and cemetery records, personal papers, and the notes of several prominent genealogists and historians. The Library maintains microfilmed copies of the federal and New York State censuses, city directories, land records, New York City vital records, early court records of New Amsterdam and New York City, the International Genealogical Index, and computer media containing downstate census indexes, military records, state marriage indexes, the 1703 masters of New York families and the index to upstate Valley quarterlies. The Society's hours are Tuesday-Saturday, 9:30-5. Users of manuscript materials must be members of the society. Membership is open to all for a fee of $50. Non-members can use manuscripts if they were donated by a relative. Non-manuscript items may be used by non-members for a $3 per day fee.
- New-York
Historical Society
170 Central Park West
New York, NY 10024
(212)873-3400
The Society book collection includes collections of local history and genealogical material document housing and public health reform, and religious and benevolent societies in late 19th-century New York City. The manuscript collections include Records documenting New York City's Gilded Age culture, the Spanish-American War and the city's dominance as a mercantile port. Diaries document early and mid-20th-century social life, customs and politics. There are selections of World War I and World War II personal letters. The map collection includes maps documenting crowded housing conditions and turn-of-the-century New York City housing reform. Also included is an extensive collection of nineteenth and twentieth century New York City property maps. The Newspaper collection includes several indexes to New York City newspapers, including a unique card index to the New York Sun, 1913-1920, and New York Herald, 1920-1924. The Society's hours are Tuesday to Saturday, 11-5(after Labor Day weekend until Memorial Day weekend) Summer hours are Tuesday to Friday, 11-5:00.
- Ossining Historical Society
196 Croton Ave.
Ossining, NY 10562
(914) 941-0001
The Historical Society collects material relating to the history of Ossining, N.Y. and vicinity. The Ossining oral history project, 1977-1987 includes taped interviews with 105 Ossining residents. Subjects discussed include schools, the Depression, Sing Sing Prison, farming, experiences of women doctors, the Jewish community, political figures, artists, the black community, business, Cuban immigration in the 1960s, boats and the Hudson River, churches, urban renewal, and woman suffrage. Finding aids: Name and main topic index. Access to the collection is by appointment only.
- Oyster Bay
Historical Society
20 Summit Street
Oyster Bay, NY 11771
(516) 922-5032
The Historical Society collects material relating to the history of Oyster Bay, including papers and photographs of local families. The Society's Everett L. Perry papers include a mimeograph report to the Nassau County Christian Council on churches in the county giving analysis of population and growth trends, politics and economics, with maps and graphs showing the location and size of Protestant, Catholic, Jewish and various ethnic congregations. Other sources of interest to genealogists include the Oyster Bay Town Records, 1653-1878, cemetery records, and archival files. Manuscripts are available by appointment only.
- Rockland County Historical
Society
20 Zukor Road
New City, NY 10956
(914) 634-9629 or (914) 634-9645
The Rockland County Historical Society collects material related to the history of Rockland County, N.Y. The collections include records of local organizations including the Bicentennial Commission, Good Roads Association, G.A.R. post, and a women's club, account books of individuals and businesses, public records from local towns and villages, and collections of ephemera, genealogy, maps, photographs, and miscellaneous documents. The society's vertical file, 1815-1988 contains clippings, programs, notices, brochures, pamphlets, autograph letters, other correspondence, bills and receipts, deeds, reports, articles, maps, and other items pertaining to Rockland County and its towns and villages. Subjects include artists, authors, bicentennial, black history, brick industry, business, cemeteries, churches, disasters, elections, fire departments, Hudson River, Indians, Jewish community, music, the Palisades, railroads, Ramapo Mountain People, Revolutionary War history, roads, schools, ships, slaves, sports, women, World War I, and World War II. Access to the collections is by appointment only. The Society's hours are: Museum: Tuesday-Sunday 1-5, Library: Tuesday 1-5, Offices: Tuesday-Friday 9:30-5.
- Staten Island Historical Society
441 Clarke Avenue
Staten Island, NY 10306-1198
(718) 351-1617
The Staten Island Historical Society is the main repository for the historical records of Staten Island. The collection includes approximately 50,000 photographs, 12,000 linear feet of paper records documenting the social, civic religious, business and governmental history of Staten Island. Record types include wills, diaries, correspondence, receipts, ledgers, deeds, property maps, inventories, tax ledgers, school records, and advertising material.
- Suffolk County Historical Society
300 West Main St.
Riverhead, NY 11901
(631) 727-2881
The library and archives contain an extensive collection of historical and genealogical holdings about Suffolk county's history and its people. The diverse collections include books, periodicals, newspapers, photographs, and family papers of many different types, including a typescript of Temple Israel of Riverhead by Isidore and Sophie Scheinberg, 1975. The Society's hours areWednesday, Thursday, Saturday, 12:30-4:30.
