Leo Baeck Institute

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Contact Information
E-mail: Ask a Librarian form

Address:


 * Leo Baeck Institute Center for Jewish History 15 West 16th Street (Between 5th & 6th Avenues) New York, NY 10011

Telephone: 212-744-6400 or 212-294-8340

Hours and holidays: Monday through Thursday 9:00am – 5:00pm and Friday 9:00am – 3:00pm.
 * The LBI is closed on national holidays and on Jewish holidays.

Directions, maps, and public transportation: Click here.

Website and databases:


 * Leo Baeck Institute—New York|Berlin about, research, collections, publications, news, exhibitions, and visit.
 * Search (Center for Jewish History) including the Leo Baeck Institute. Search by subject, author, title, or call number. An Advanced Search is available.
 * DigiBaeck | German-Jewish History Online including personal documents, correspondence, family and community histories, genealogical materials, business records, diaries, memoirs, art, objects, non-copyrighted books, and photos.

Collection Description
The Leo Baeck Institute in New York has a collection of 50,000 German Jewish records, primarily from Baden, Berlin, Schleswig-Holstein, Westpreußen, and Württemberg. These include circumcision, marriage, death, and memorial records. Their holdings include 10,000 archival records, 2,000 memoirs, 25,000 photographs, 80,000 books and 1,600 periodicals. The Archives have papers, community histories, personal correspondence, genealogical materials, and business and public records. The Library collection deals with central European Jewry during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. It also includes material dating back as far as the 16th century.

Tips
The Guide to Research and Reference Services describes several ways to use their collection.

Guides

 * Fred Grubel, et al., Catalog of the Archival Collections [of the Leo Baeck Institute]. (Tübingen, Germany: J. C. B. Mohr, 1990). ;

Alternate Repositories
If you cannot visit or find a source at the , a similar source may be available at one of the following.

Overlapping Collections


 * New York Public Library, NYC, has one of the best genealogy collections in the USA, including Revolutionary War soldiers and Irish research. The Genealogy Division has an outstanding collection of American history at national, state and local levels; international genealogy and heraldry in Roman alphabets; Dorot Jewish collection; photos; New York censuses, directories, vital records, and the Holland Land Company deeds.
 * YIVO Institute for Jewish Research, NYC, East European Jewish immigrant studies, gazetteers, yizkor books (Holocaust town memorial books), biographical directories, Landsmanshaft records. Fosters the study of the history, language, religion, folkways and material culture of Jews in Eastern Europe and Russia.

Neighboring Collections


 * New York City Department of Records has New York County Manhattan births July 1847-1848, July 1853-1909, marriages July 1847-1848, July 1853-1937, deaths 1795, 1802-1804, 1808, 1812-1948, the 1890 police census; city directories; voter registrations; almshouse records; and municipal government records.
 * NYC Health Department has New York County (Manhattan) births 1910-present, and deaths 1949-present.
 * The City of New York: Office of the City Clerk has New York County (Manhattan) marriages 1930-present.
 * Supreme Court, Civil Branch, New York County Clerk has New York County (Manhattan) divorces and other civil case records.
 * New York County Surrogate's Court has New York County (Manhattan) probate records.
 * NYC Office of the City Register has New York County (Manhattan) land records.
 * New York City Municipal Reference and Research Center can provide street name origins, city council minutes, serials, books, and 400,000 documents focused on the history of New York City.
 * U.S. District Court Southern District of New York has recent civil, criminal, and bankruptcy cases for New York County (Manhattan).
 * New York City New York Family History Center has premium online services for free and offers research guidance.
 * Children's Aid Society, NYC, an institution which from 1853-1930 sent children on orphan trains to homes in other parts of America and Canada. The New-York Historical Society has most of the CAS archival records.
 * Holland Society of New York, NYC, has 7,000 New Netherland family and local history books, Dutch Reformed Church records. Good collection for other ethnic groups along the Atlantic coast.
 * Huguenot Society of America, NYC, open by appointment: history, settlement, genealogy, biography, theology. They have the largest Huguenot collection outside London, including 1600s records of France, Belgium, the Netherlands, and colonial America.
 * National Archives at New York City, has Holland Land Company deeds, federal censuses, Ancestry.com, military, pensions, bounty land, photos, passenger indexes, New York port records, naturalizations, inventions.
 * New York Foundling Hospital, NYC, an orphan train sending institution, can do records research for close relatives only. NYHS houses some of their records.
 * New York Genealogical and Biographical Society, NYC, has donated their collection to the New York Public Library. NYGBS now offers educational programs, publications, and digital communication.
 * New-York Historical Society, NYC, houses the Children's Aid Society archives, and some New York Foundling Hospital records, both orphan train sending institutions, as well as has the largest manuscript collection in New York State, many town records, colonial records, newspapers, periodicals, biographies, histories, directories, maps, photos.
 * Repositories in surrounding counties: in New York State: Bronx, Kings, Queens, Richmond (Staten Island), and in New Jersey: Bergen, Essex, Hudson, and Union.
 * Albany Institute of History and Art with the best indexes and colonial Albany records of the 1600s.
 * Archives of the Archdiocese of New York, Yonkers, includes parish register births, confirmations, marriages, and deaths, school records, and leadership papers.
 * Bronx County Historical Society has a large manuscript collection, biographical files, family folders, obituaries, cemetery transcripts, city directories, and marriages.
 * Brooklyn Historical Society includes finding aids and collections guides to archives, manuscripts, oral histories, photographs, paintings, oral history database, and maps. They have sources for New England immigrants to Long Island, NY.
 * Buffalo and Erie County Public Library has a good collection with good indexes including biographies, family folders, county and local histories for all of New York.
 * Cornell University Library, Ithaca, has a large collection of Protestant church records for western New York as well as an excellent collection of histories, maps, newspapers, and New York censuses. Rare books and manuscripts are outstanding, and they publish the best research guides to New York counties.
 * Historic Hudson Valley Library, Tarrytown, has unique early Hudson River migration sources such as steamboats, industries, and culture.
 * Montgomery County Department of History and Archives, early Montgomery (formerly Tryon) County had jurisdiction over much of upstate New York. These archives have an extensive genealogy section.
 * New York State Archives, Albany, has manuscripts, vital record indexes, land grants, maps, military, court, alien depositions, prisoners, Erie Canal passenger lists, wills, estates, and state censuses.
 * New York State Library, Albany, has local histories, genealogies, atlases, church, cemetery (including DAR), city directories, microfilmed newspapers, censuses, passenger lists, periodicals, and copies of the Holland Land Company deeds.
 * Onondaga Historical Association, Syracuse, has the best collection of family folders (10,000) on the East Coast
 * Queens Historical Society, Flushing, This large facility has many indexes to biographical and historical sources in their collection.
 * SUNY Fredonia Reed Library preserves most of the original deeds of the Holland Land Company in western New York and northwestern Pennsylvania.
 * Staten Island Historical Society is the best place for Staten Island research. Because many immigrants settled there, they have a strong immigration collection.
 * Steele Memorial Library, Elmira, has a good collection of indexes to biographies, genealogies, family folders, books, periodicals, and manuscripts.
 * Vital Records Section of the New York State Department of Health, Menands, NY, for outside New York City births and deaths (1881-present), and marriage licenses (1880-present). Also, all divorces since 1963.
 * Repositories in surrounding states (or provinces): Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Ontario, Pennsylvania, Quebec, and Vermont.
 * Library of Congress, Washington, DC, the world's largest library including 50,000 genealogies, 100,000 local histories, and collections of manuscripts, microfilms, maps, newspapers, photographs, and published material, strong in North America and New York (such as the Holland Land Company deeds), the British Isles, and German sources.
 * New England Historic Genealogical Society (NEHGS), Boston, Massachusetts, is national in scope. Over 100 million name database, of vital records, genealogies, journals, over 200,000 books, 100,000 microfilms, and over 20 million manuscripts with emphasis on New England and a good New York collection since the 1600s.
 * Stadsarchief Amsterdam (Amsterdam Municipal Archives in the Netherlands) Some of the earliest New York (New Netherland) records are also stored here. Also, the earliest European New York settlers often lived in Amsterdam before their move to the New World. Includes the Holland Land Company 1801-1840 deeds from western New York state, and northwestern Pennsylvania.