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Latest news:

January 10, 2011:
Individual pages for children of David and Raytzel Bellman are now being coordinated. Samuel Issac Bellman is the first to be highlighted with a in-depth history of his life. If you have material to contribute for other offspring, such as photos or stories, please let us know!

August 12, 2010:
New documents are now online. Click the Documents button above to view.

July 23, 2009:
We note with sorrow the passing of Samuel Irving Bellman, son of Max and Bessie (Levenson) Bellman, husband of Jeanne Lisker Bellman, in Claremont, California. An obituary from the Los Angeles Times is here.

Nov 11, 2007:
Mariampol, Lithuania birth record (in Russian) for Rachel (Rae) Bellman, daughter of David Jacob Beilman and Raytzel Markson, January 1890. View record here.

July 14, 2007:
Corran Bellman's bar mitzvah is today! Photos coming soon. Check out Corran's bar mitzvah page.

Mar 5, 2006:
New photos added to the Photo Gallery and History page.

Jan 27, 2006:
Family trees updated, Benjamin Bellman photo added to Gallery.

Jan 10, 2006:
Bellman web page launched.

Nov 5, 2005:
Benjamin Bellman celebrated his bar mitzvah in Colorado; see photo on the Photo Gallery page.

Contribute:

If you have family stories, photos or documents that you'd like to share, we'd love to have your input. Please contact the webmaster.

Links:

- Ellis Island online
- Castle Garden immigration
- JewishGen
- Cyndi's List genealogy resources
- familysearch.org

Last update:

January 10, 2011

Resources

There are a number of resources, online and in libraries, to help you with your own personal genealogical searches. The list at right has links to some of the more useful sites. The ones listed here are free of charge. Others, such as ancestry.com or genealogy.com, require a subscription to access their databases, although you can use their resources without subscribing if you access them through any LDS Family History Center.

Ellis Island

Some of our ancestors came through Ellis Island when emigrating to the USA (Raytzel Bellman and her son Max did so). Ellis Island records, beginning from 1892, are now online and images of ship manifests are available. You can sign up for a no-cost registration at the Ellis Island site and search for surnames to find more ancestors.

Castle Garden

Castle Garden was the processing center for New York immigrants prior to Ellis Island. They now have records from 1830 through 1913, overlapping occasionally with Ellis Island's era. Searches and detailed reports are free, though advanced searches require a fee. Note also that not all Jewish immigrants came through New York harbor; Baltimore was another popular processing point, and there were a number of other ports available to immigrants. The subscription-based ancestry.com is a good resource for other ports.

JewishGen

This site is a must for anyone beginning the search for Jewish ancestors. Resources are plentiful. There's even a mailing list that brings you regular letters from others researching their family trees, with lots of useful tips, translation services, etc.

Cyndi's List

Cyndi's regular site has comprehensive links to all categories of genealogy. Her links for Jewish genealogy are first-rate.

www.familysearch.org

This site is maintained by the LDS Family History Center group. It's helpful more often for non-Jewish records but also contains indexes of the 1880 census (helpful if your ancestors were in the USA that early). There's a search feature for microfilm and microfiche of ship passenger lists, civil registries throughout Europe, and transcriptions of Jewish cemeteries in various cities throughout the USA. The Family History Center library catalog is also online and is worth a look.

Please let us know if there are any other resources you need.