Sephardic Genealogical Society

The Sephardic Genealogical Society exists to promote, encourage and support research into Iberian Sephardic ancestry. Sephardic Jewish genealogy overlaps with other Jewish genealogies, as well as those of Spain, Portugal, the Mediterranean and Atlantic worlds.

The Sephardic Genealogical Society are considering holding a Sephardic symposium in the summer of 2024 in Lisbon. Should it happen, this event will be for patrons and invited guests only.

Goals

The Sephardic Genealogical Society seeks to:

Encourage people with Sephardic origins to research their family histories.
Provide free educational resources on Sephardic history and genealogy for everyone.
Offer a fun and supportive community to both beginners and experienced researchers.
Support the highest possible research and ethical standards.
Encourage the preservation of historic archives relevant to Sephardic history.
Build bridges to those in related fields of study.
Offer a distinctive Sephardic voice within the world of Jewish genealogy.
Offer a Jewish voice in the worlds of Iberian, Mediterranean and Atlantic genealogy.
Be a pioneer in applying new technologies to genealogy.
Be supportive and respectful of the Sephardic community and tradition.

Special Projects and Philanthropy

Our Sephardic World series of free weekly online meetings hosts speakers on Sephardic genealogy, history and culture. You can join the mailing list here. You can watch recorded videos here. We are the leading source of free audiovisual educational material on Sephardic history, heritage and genealogy.
We are training Transkribus artificial intelligence software to read 17th and 18th Century Portuguese-language documents. Our work has been commended by the software's creators. The first results are now public on the A Nacao Hebraica website.
We are building a family tree of the early modern Western/Portuguese Sephardic diaspora.
We urgently seek funds to digitize at-risk genealogical records and to record tombstones in certain Arab countries.
We need funds to support digitization projects in Curacao, Israel, Germany and the United States.

We are happy to provide our services for free to everyone, but they are not without cost to us. To provide us with monthly or annual financial support, please click here. If you can offer substantial support to help us finance our important work in preserving and sharing Sephardic Jewish heritage, please contact us at the email address below.

Email: contact@sephardicgenealogy.com