GO TO YIVO INSTITUTE HOME

The Miriam Weiner Genealogy Collection

In 2006, pioneering Jewish genealogist Miriam Weiner, founder of the Routes to Roots Foundation, generously donated books, maps, photographs, and other resources from her extensive personal library to establish The Miriam Weiner Genealogy Collection at YIVO.

Among the resources in this collections are:

As Ms. Weiner wrote in 2006:

“The books in this collection are part of my personal library that I began more than thirty years ago.  As I collected these books, they became treasures to me because often it was the first time that I had found information or a photograph of some obscure place.  Periodically, I send more cartons of books, maps, brochures, etc. to YIVO and it is my hope that you will find treasures among this collection.

Many of the books were acquired during my travels to Ukraine, Poland, Belarus, Moldova and Lithuania, dating back to my first trip to Poland in 1989.  Since that time, I have developed close relationships with archivists in all five countries and many of the books in this collection include detailed holdings of the archives in these countries.

Beginning in 1990 in Poland, I began organizing both individual and group tours to Eastern Europe (including Ukraine, Belarus and Moldova) and collected numerous travel books, maps, pamphlets and brochures from many villages and towns.

I expect this collection at YIVO to grow substantially in the future and invite you to check back again to see what new treasures are here.”

Guide to the resources in the collection: