Jews’ Free School, Spitalfields — Admission Registers

School Records · Spitalfields · London

The Jews’ Free School is Europe’s largest and most successful Jewish secondary school. It was established in 1732 as the Talmud Torah of the Great Synagogue of London, serving orphans of the community. In 1822 the School was relocated to Bell Lane in the heart of the East End where, throughout the 19th century, it absorbed thousands of immigrant children. At one time JFS had 4,000 children on roll and was the largest school in the world. In the inter-war period, children often came straight from the Kindertransport to JFS.

“In late 2013 my friend and fellow genealogist Angela Shire pointed out to me that although the registers of the JFS had been available online in PDF form, on the Moving Here website, they had not been transcribed and indexed for data searching. I therefore approached the school to ask for permission to transcribe the registers. Over the past year I have worked my way through some 20,000 records and hopefully, in the future, will continue transcribing both backwards and forwards.

“I have done my best to read the sometimes extremely difficult handwriting but rather than take a guess you may find ‘?’ where it has proven impossible to do so. The writing of the boys’ school registrars has been more legible than those of the girls’. The first tranche of searchable records covers the period circa 1856 to circa 1907.”

— Louise Messik, 30th March 2015

This database can be searched via the All-UK Database or the JewishGen Unified Search.

These records are provided in partnership with JCR-UK, a joint project of JewishGen and the Jewish Genealogical Society of Great Britain. For more information, visit the JCR-UK website.