Reunion
Reclaim a Piece of Your Personal History . . .
The HIAS Location Service was established early in the twentieth century to help émigrés re-establish contact with family and friends with whom they had lost touch during the years of massive Jewish migration. Following World War II, we helped thousands of displaced persons locate relatives in the United States.
Today, we assist people from around the world trying to locate their relatives and friends. Inquiries also come from those engaged in genealogical research who wish to learn about the origins and experiences of ancestors who immigrated to this country early in the last century.
Begin Your Search for Friends & Family
If you are looking for someone with whom you have lost contact, HIAS can conduct a search in the United States as well as abroad. We will need some basic information about the person you are seeking, such as first and last name, birthdate and birthplace, country of immigration, and when contact last occurred.
Learn more about how to Locate Family & Friends.
Request a HIAS Arrival Card
HIAS archives are rich with nearly a century of Jewish history. They chronicle the modern day drama of a people who have migrated for centuries throughout the world. Please note: We only have access to arrival cards from 1909 to the present.
After the Holocaust, HIAS assisted thousands of Jews to leave a devastated Europe to find new homes and build new lives in freedom. Working in the displaced persons camps, HIAS helped survivors to locate family in the United States, to secure visas and to travel to their new homelands. HIAS archives contain the arrival cards for those individuals and families that migrated from the displaced persons camps to the United States. These cards can be located by the HIAS Location Service and copied as a testament to your family’s endurance.
NEW!
During the last wave of immigration when HIAS was instrumental in bringing hundreds of thousands of Soviet Jews to America, some unfortunately passed away in transit. We now have the opportunity to locate these individuals’ burial sites in Rome. To make a request, please fill out an Immigrant Record Search form and include the date of death for the person in question.
Learn more about obtaining Immigrant Records.
Help Find a Missing Person
Many requests do not provide enough information to initiate an individual location search. To assist such inquirers, we place the provided information in a special database. If a person sought of his/her descendant browses our database and finds needed information, he/she may contact us and we consequently reunite with the inquirer.
Browse our database of Missing People.