In Memory of Professor Achi Racov z"l

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Change of Names - Palestine Gazette
 
Jean-Pierre Stroweis and Eitan Shilo - June 2004

 
During the period of the British Mandate in Palestine (1921-1948) people who legally changed their name had this information posted in the British/Palestinian publication called the "Palestine Gazette." Some 28,000 names were published showing the old name, new name and sometimes country of origin. Not everyone legally changed their name, perhaps fewer than 50% did so. Most of them were Jews. For example, the list does not include Golda Meir or David Ben Gurion. The names were extracted by Gary Mokotoff and the late Rabbi Shmuel Gorr in the 1980s and published on microfiche by Avotaynu. The repository is of value to genealogists who know that relatives went to Eretz Yisrael and changed their name but the new name is not known.

For the 2004 Conference, the Israel Genealogical Society has scanned these microfiches, and converted them into digital format via optical character recognition. The result is an easily accessible, searcheable database.

Pictures of Lists from the Palestine Gazette