The First and the Last Montefiore Censuses of Eretz Israel Jewish Population – 1839 and 1875
Introduction
Jews began to return to Eretz Israel especially during the 19th century, although some families had lived there for centuries. Five censuses were commissioned by the Jewish philanthropist, Sir Moses Montefiore, before giving assistance to the very poor Jewish population of country. Five censuses were conducted in 1839, 1849, 1855, 1866 and 1875. In the frame of the 2004 Jerusalem International Conference on Jewish Genealogy, the Israel Genealogical Society has translated and indexed the 1875 for only Jerusalem, that covered more than two third of the whole country Jewish population. This year we have completed the whole census. IGS has also translated and indexed the first census of 1839 that was deciphered and printed in 1987 by the Dinur Center of the Hebrew University.

The division of the censuses is by locality and each locality according to “Kollel” which means those who belong to a specific group of Talmudic students. Some of the people worked while others were indeed learning full time. The breakdown of groups is according to Jewish communities abroad. There are Kollelim from: Minsk, Volhynia, Sobalk, Vilna, Karlin, Zamut-Courland, Germany-Holland, Austria as well as those which specify groups such as: “Prushim” or “Habad”. The Sephardim and Oriental Jews are all listed as one group, Sephardim, without subgroups. The kind of information to be obtained is the following: family name, first name, age, date of Aliya, place of birth, marriage, name of spouse, children and their ages, occupation, financial status and notes. There are also lists of leaders, widows, orphans.
 
Disclaimer : Please take into account that as with all human endeavour, mistakes might occur. Therefore, we encourage you to look at the original sources themselves, and not depend solely upon our databases.