State archives release details of pre-state Israelis

The Israeli State Archives releases a new online archive made public and searchable of the names of over 206,000 Jews who lived in the country before the founding of the State of Israel.

The archive spans ten years, from 1937 to 1947, and is made up of about 67,000 requests for citizenship in British Mandatory Palestine. Some of the requests came from famous future Israelis like the late president Shimon Peres.

Each request includes the names of family members, dates and places of birth and a treasure trove of other information. The documents themselves – requests could reach 20 pages each – also include the names of two sponsors for each aspiring citizen.

The project is a collaboration of the State Archives and the ancestry startup MyHeritage, whose staff has worked for the past year to scan and index the 67,000 requests.