The wide range of document collections in the Israel State Archives also contains many documents of genealogical value, which can be used to help research your ancestry and family history.
Often, however, these records include documents with restricted access, due to considerations of the right to privacy. Therefore it is worthwhile finding out in advance whether any authorisations are required in order to view the material.
For your information: the navigation aids and much of the material available on-line are in Hebrew.

The list below presents the main collections where you may find large amounts of documents of distinct genealogical value. However, other collections not appearing on this list may well also contain files and documents which can assist in researching family history.

1. Ottoman Nufus books (Census and Population Registers) (Record Group 39)

2.  Mandatory Government of Palestine, Immigration Department (Record Group 11)

3. Palestine Police, Illegal Immigrant Records (Record Group 17)

4.  Mandatory Government of Palestine, Custodian of Enemy Property (Record Group 91)

5. Mandatory Government of Palestine, District Commissioner of Lydda (Lod) – District Officer of Tel Aviv (Record Group 24)

6. State of Israel, Ministry of Immigrant Absorption: Lists of Immigrants (Record Group 136)

7. Census of the Committee of the Jewish Community in Jerusalem (Record Group 172)

8. The German Consulate in Jerusalem (Sub Group 67.1)

9. State of Israel, Ministry of the Interior , Population Registry 1948 – 1949 (Series 73.0/6)

10. State of Israel, Ministry of the Interior, Department of Immigration and Registration (Series 73.0/4)

11. The Central Elections Committee for the Knesset – Electoral Register for the Knesset (Record Group 52)

1. Ottoman Nufus books (Census and Population Registers) (Record Group 39)
The Israel State Archives has a unique collection of books containing raw data from Ottoman censuses conducted in Palestine from 1875 to 1918. These books, called Nufus books (literally "souls", as in the Hebrew word nefesh) contain records mainly on Turkish subjects : Muslims, Jews and Christians of all sects and communities. The residents were recorded according to ethnic group and religious affiliation, sub-divided according to families. There are 465 volumes, with a geographical index. The registration was made for purposes of taxation and military service.
Among other details found there are the resident's full name, his parents' full names, their date and place of birth, marital status, and sometimes distinguishing characteristics such as height, colour of eyes, and so forth.
All these records are written in Turkish, in Arab script, except for seven books of the Ashkenazi community in Jerusalem, which are in Hebrew.
The Israel State Archives has published a detailed guide called "Ottoman Population Censuses in Palestine, 1875 – 1918", edited by Jonathan Pagis, which is of great help to anyone wishing to read this material.

2. Mandatory Government of Palestine, Immigration Department (Record Group 11)
The Immigration Department, which began operating in 1920, dealt among other things with registration and change of names and naturalisation applications and processes. In addition to files with correspondence on these issues, this Record Group contains about 50,000 files of naturalisation applications. These files contain photographs and forms with personal details from 1934 –1948, mostly submitted by Jews who came to Palestine legally. However, there are also some files of persons born in the country who applied for Palestinian citizenship.
For the most part, the files are family files, that is, they contain the application forms and photographs of the entire family, indexed by the name of the head of the family (generally the father).
Valuable genealogical material is also to be found in other files of the Record Group which deal with the issuing of passports, visas, laissez-passer documents and the registrations of tourists and immigrants arriving in Palestine. The material in this Record Group is not complete as the offices of the Immigration Department were subject to attack by the Jewish underground organisations, and many files were destroyed during these attacks. Moreover, British officials destroyed or took with them an unspecified amount of material in the final days of the Mandate.
These files are subject to reading restrictions according to the Archives Law and the reading rules and regulations.

3. Palestine  Police, Illegal Immigrant Records (Record Group 17)
Illegal immigrants caught by the British armed forces (mainly on ships caught by the navy) were handed over to the Palestine Police for registration and identification. The Israel State Archives has 295 files, arranged according to the names of the ships which arrived between 1938 and 1947. These include forms with personal details, and sometimes also photographs. Some of the files concern illegal immigrants brought back to Palestine after being deported to Cyprus in 1946-1947.

4. Mandatory Government of Palestine, Custodian of Enemy Property (Record Group 91)
A series of files of the British Mandate Administration, dealing with claims of Palestinian citizens from European countries for the return of their property stolen by the Germans or nationalised by Communist governments after WWII. Some of the claims were submitted during the War, and the processing of other claims continued even after the establishment of the State (up to 1949). These files contain a large amount of personal information on the claimants, mostly Jews of European extraction, Holocaust survivors and relatives of Holocaust victims.
A small number of these files are also kept in the Central Zionist Archives.

5. Mandatory Government of Palestine, District  Commissioner of Lydda (Lod) District, Tel Aviv District Officer(Record Group 24)
During the period of the British Mandate copies of marriage and divorce certificate issued by the Rabbinate were sent to the offices of the Tel Aviv District Officer. The files of the Lydda (Lod) District Commissioner kept in the Israel State Archives also contain a few thousand marriage and divorce certificates issued by the Rabbinate of Tel Aviv and some of the surrounding towns (Ramat Gan, Petach Tikva, and others) during  1933 – 1945. The certificates are indexed geographically (by city name).
These files are subject to reading restrictions according to the Archives Law and the reading rules and regulations.

6. State of Israel, Ministry of Immigrant Absorption, Lists of Immigrants (Record Group 136)
The books in which names of all immigrants to Israel were written down by Jewish Agency clerks at the ports of entry and border crossings were deposited with the Israel State Archives and are available to the public. These books contain the names of Jews who came to pre-State Israel legally (that is, had the appropriate "certificate" or were allowed by the British to disembark from illegal immigrant ships) from 1919 to 1948; and also all immigrants to Israel since the establishment of the State in 1948 until 1975. The lists are arranged by date and by ship, or by ports of entry. Some of these books are kept in the Central Zionist Archives.

7. Census of the Committee of the Jewish Community in Jerusalem (Record Group 172)
Between February – April 1947, the Jerusalem Vaad HaKehila, the committee of the Jewish community in Jerusalem – which was in effect the autonomous Jewish administrative body in the city – conducted a census. Most of the city's Jews took part in the census, including some non-Zionist groups from among the Haredi (Ultra-Orthodox) Jews. The census cards are categorised by Jerusalem neighborhoods and carry the personal details of each of the family members, by household. For children, the information also includes the name of the school and the grade in which they studied. The general forms were supplemented by later complementary forms and corrections which were sent to the Committee by Jerusalem residents.
 Several card files from the "Mishmar Ha'Am" census conducted between April – May 1948 in Jerusalem, and which contains mainly information on Jewish-owned businesses in the center of Jerusalem were added to this material.
 These files are subject to reading restrictions according to the Archives Law and the reading rules and regulations.

8. The German Consulate in Jerusalem (Sub Group 67.1)
For about a hundred years consular offices of the German states operated in Ottoman Palestine. When these offices closed down at the beginning of World War II in 1939, Consulate files passed from hand to hand until they were finally deposited with the Israel State Archives in the late 1950s. Most of the material is comprised of the files of the German Consulate in Jerusalem. Files from the 19th century contain considerable amounts of records documenting the life of Jews of the "Old Yishuv" (the "Old Settlement", ultra-Orthodox Jews who came to study and die in the Holy Land), such as marriage and divorce files, birth and death notices and changes in personal (marital) status. Consulate files from the 1920s and 1930s contain many records of Jews from Germany who immigrated to Palestine, including forms with various personal details, matters of passports and citizenship, and more. The material is organised into series by subject matter.


9. Government of Israel, Ministry of the Interior, Population Registry 1948 – 1949 (Series 73.0/6)
In November 1948 the Israeli government carried out a general census, for the purpose of population registration and issuing and distributing ID cards. The Israel State Archives has in storage more than 300 boxes with the personal forms of all Israel's residents at the time of the census. The material is organized in keeping with the method in which the census was conducted, i.e. geographically. Each form carries a serial number corresponding to the person's ID number.
These files are subject to reading restrictions according to the Archives Law and the reading rules and regulations.



10. State of Israel, Ministry of the Interior, Department of Immigration and Registration (Series 73.0/4)
The Israel State Archives has a series of thousands of passports, ID cards, immigration, emigration and other certificates of Jews from all over the world, especially from the late Forties to the middle Fifties of the 20th century. This material apparently came into being due to the procedure in effect at the time, whereby receiving Israeli citizenship required the waiving of any other citizenship. People had to waive their previous citizenship and hand in their passport (or any other identifying document) in order to obtain an Israeli ID card and/or passport. Some of the passports must have come from the Immigration Department of the Palestine government which enacted a similar naturalisation procedure during the British Mandate. In addition to passports and other documents issued by sovereign states, this series includes other cards and certificates issued by other organizations and agencies: the League of Nations "Nansen Passport"; the "Victims of Fascism" organisation; the British military administration in Cyrenaica, Libya; the military administration in occupied West Germany, and more. The above is an arbitrary list of examples.
These files are subject to reading restrictions according to the Archives Law and the reading rules and regulations.

11. The Central Elections Committee for the Knesset – Electoral Register for the Knesset (Record Group 52)
One by-product of the Knesset election campaigns is the electoral register of eligible voters in Israel. These lists contain a relatively small amount of personal information: name and surname, father's name, year of birth, ID number and address. These registers contain information on all the adult population of Israel between 1948 and 1989. They are arranged by area of residence, to which numbered polling booths are assigned. Since the information in these registers is based on the database of the Population Registry of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, they have not been individually registered with the Israel State Archives, and access to them is therefore limited.