Jewish Genealogy
The London and Metropolitan Archives has a wide collection of archives on Jewish settlement in London and the UK, and the Society of Genealogists also has records. The names and addresses of synagogues throughout the British Isles are in the Jewish Year Book and you can get help generally from the Board of Deputies, Jewish Information Department. The United Synagogue has records from the main London synagogues founded before 1837 and you can search these for a fee. The Anglo-Jewish Association and the Jewish Genealogical Society of Great Britain may also be able to help.
No records date back before the expulsion of Jews in 1290, but you can get information abut that early community in the PRO Guide. Two sorts of immigrants can be researched: Sephardim were Portuguese, Italian and Spanish arriving from 1656 onwards; Ashkenazim were from Central and Eastern Europe, arriving from the 1680s. A large wave of Ashkenazim were Russians and Poles arriving towards the end of the nineteenth century. The PRO Guide and above resources should be enough to get you off to a confident start in this specialised area.
