Mapping Bristol's Jewish Community, 1720-1881

As part of her PhD research, Caroline Gurney has compiled a database of over 1,600 members of Bristol's Jewish community between 1720 and 1881. She is now adding the information she has collected to Bristol's historic mapping website, Know Your Place, a project for which she has been awarded the 2022 David Hyman Prize by the JHSE. Caroline will speak about using genealogy skills and sources to reconstruct a community for whom no congregational records survive prior to the 1830s. In the process, she has uncovered fascinating microhistories which challenge the current historiography of provincial Anglo-Jewry.

After a first career as a diplomat and senior civil servant, Caroline Gurney became a professional genealogist, historical researcher, and international speaker. Her work includes family history, house history, and research for the media, businesses, authors, and collectors. She is a Director of the Register of Qualified Genealogists and Editor of The Journal of Genealogy and Family History. Caroline obtained an MLitt with Distinction in Family and Local History at the University of Dundee and is now researching for a PhD at the University of Bristol on Bristol’s Jewish community, 1720-1881.