*Contact your oldest relatives and interview them. Capture this conversation on video or audiotape if at all possible. Ask relatives who else you should call. Encourage them to tell you the names of as many people, towns and villages as they can remember.
*Check family documents such as birth certificates, death certificates, naturalization papers, citizenship papers, marriage contracts, Bibles and prayerbooks.
*Attend local meetings of the San Francisco Bay Area Jewish Genealogical Society.
*Check out Web sites:
Jewish genealogy: www.jewishgen.org and www.jewishgen.orgs/sfbajgs
Ellis Island Database: www.ellisisland.org
National Archives and Records Administration: www.nara.gov
Library of Congress: www.lcweb.loc.gov
Cyndi’s List: www.cyndislist.com
Latter-day Saints Family History Library: www.lds.org
YIVO, Center for Jewish History: www.cjh.org
Beth Hatefutsoth Douglas E. Goldman Jewish Genealogy Center: www.bh.org.il
U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum: www.ushmm.org
*Where to find records in the Bay Area:
National Archives and Records Administration, 1000 Commodore Dr., San Bruno, CA 94066, (650) 876-9001
Western Jewish History Center, Magnes Museum, 291 Russell St., Berkeley, CA 549-6050, (510) 549-6050
Jewish Community Library, 601 14th Ave., S.F., CA 94118, (415) 751-6040