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JGS Pittsburgh is a member of:

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 Jewish Genealogy Society of Pittsburgh

Pittsburgh Jewish Newspaper Project

The PJN project went online in April 2007 and is the most extensive online archive of English Language Jewish newspapers in the USA. The project had been funded primarily by Carnegie Mellon University and the Pittsburgh UJF, but due to the recent economic challeges new sources of money are needed for the project to continue. 

Although primarily focused on the Pittsburgh area Jewish community there is a wealth of information on many Jewish topics and  institutions of higher learning as well as genealogists throughout the world are us.ing it heavily. Currently more than 160,000 images have been digitized:

  • The Jewish Criterion - complete from 1895 to 1962 
  • The Jewish Chronicle - complete from 1962 to May 1980
  • The American Jewish Outlook (1946 only)

Plans had included adding the Jewish Chronicle through at least 1989 and the AJO thru 1962 as well as other website improvements.

You can get further information on the project, how to contribute, and how to search from this link: Pittsburgh Jewish Newspaper Project 

Naturalization Papers Online

Now available online from Ancestry.com: Naturalization Petitions of the U.S. District Court, 1820-1930, and Circuit Court, 1820-1911, for the Western District of Pennsylvania; (National Archives Microfilm Publication M1537, 437 rolls); Records of District Courts of the United States, Record Group 21; National Archives, Washington, D.C,   see http://tiny.cc/Ilsku

You need a personal paid subscription to Ancestry or check with your local library.

Links to Online Pittsburgh Resources

Pittsburgh Area Jewish History

Jacob S. Feldman, The Jewish Experience in Western Pennsylvania A History 1755-1945, [1986], 331pps.

Barbara S. Burstin, Steel City Jews 1840-1915, [2008], 366 pps.

Robertt Perlman, From Shtetl to Milltown: Litvaks, Hungarians, and Galizianers in Western Pennsylvania, 1875-1925. 124 pps.

Amy Hill Shevitz, Jewish Communities on the Ohio River, [2007], 266 pps.

Diane Ashton Jewish Life in Pennsylvania [2007], 75 pps.   [read online at Google Books]

Ida Cohen Selavan, editor My Voice Was Heard  [Pittsburgh Community Oral History Project], 1981, 278 pps.  

Pittsburgh History

Stefan Lorant,  PITTSBURGH The Story of an American City [1964, 1975, 1988]

George H. Thurston,   Pittsburgh and Allegheny in the Centennial Year. [1876].  Click here to read a short excerpt about a 21 year old major in the Virginia military who arrived at the forks of the Ohio River in 1753. 271 pps. (Google Books download) 

George Thorton Fleming  History of Pittsburg and Environs: From Prehistoric Times to the American Revolution. Vol.I, 1922, 574 pps.  (Google Books download),

George Thorton Fleming  History of Pittsburg and Environs Vol II, 1922, 474 pps.  [especially see Chapter 22 The Ecclesiastical History, 378-464 with  436-441 on Jewish History]  (Google Books download),



©2003-2010 Jewish Genealogy Society of Pittsburgh.  Last updated  January 16, 2010
Robert Zavos, webmaster