Family history is one thing.
Jewish family history is another.

Let’s join the dots.

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Research Roots is a family history practice specialising in Jewish ancestry, run by professional genealogist Naomi Leon.

Jewish families are harder to trace than most. They crossed borders and oceans, scattered on arrival and changed their names, their languages and their identities. The usual rules of genealogy do not apply.

This is detective work as much as genealogy.

Get good at that and you can find almost anyone, living or dead, which is why my work goes well beyond Jewish families. As a probate researcher I locate heirs to estates left without a will, trace beneficiaries and find the owners of land, shares and other assets. I also take on adoption, missing persons and tracing work for families.

An unbroken paper trail

Citizenship by descent and ancestral research for aliyah turns on the same evidence: an unbroken paper trail, proved generation by generation. People usually come to me before they instruct a lawyer. I build the cited evidence file, and a specialist in that country’s law takes the application.

I work with public and private records in the UK and overseas, and if necessary, bring in specialist researchers, archivists and translators in whatever language the records are in. I also take on Holocaust-related research.

No client is typical

Some come to me knowing a great deal, others have nothing but a name. I can help whether you are starting out, stuck on one puzzle, or commissioning research from scratch.

My clients are individuals, families, companies and organisations from across the globe. I work regularly with legal professionals, academics, biographers and memoirists, journalists, programme-makers and screenwriters.

Every project starts with a question you want answered.

Find out about how I work

About Naomi Leon

I did a Master’s in History at Cambridge, before becoming a professional genealogist. I founded Research Roots in 2012.

I have worked as a specialist researcher for Ancestry ProGenealogists, BBC’s Who Do You Think You Are? and was a lead genealogist on the TV series, The Secrets In My Family.

I am a long-time area coordinator for JRI-Poland and am currently leading a project to digitise the Jewish community records of Brighton and Hove.

read More about me

Naomi unlocked a door for our family. What we found behind it was beyond our greatest hopes. From knowing only the name of my great-grandfather, we now have many details about him and his 8 siblings, their parents and even their grandparents.

With Naomi’s help, I have contacted about 20 new family members, all distant cousins who had no idea there were more of us. Stories and photos are emerging every week, filling in more details about the descendants of these Polish Jews who emigrated to America in the late 1800s.

— Madelyn Postman, author of Staring Into The Sun

Detail from George Arkell’s 1899 map of Jewish East London

What I do

  • Jewish family history research, reports and books
  • One-off consultations and brick-wall reviews
  • Citizenship by descent and ancestral research for aliyah
  • Probate research, tracing beneficiaries and other legal research
  • Adoption and missing persons tracing
  • Holocaust research
  • Obtaining certificates and archive records
  • DNA testing and interpretation
  • Translation services, including Russian, Polish, Yiddish and Hebrew
  • Roots trip itineraries
  • Family history tours of Jewish London

What clients say

  • “It’s been an amazing journey of discovery, and I can’t think of anyone else I would have wanted to lead me on it.”

    — C. Glover, London

  • “The results gave our 89-year-old aunts the name of their grandfather and their Polish family history back to 1776!”

    — L. Gould, Chingford, Essex

  • “You are like Tom Cruise in Mission Impossible! I am very grateful to you and amazed at your ability to find people so quickly.”

    — D. Murray, Adams & Remers Solicitors, East Sussex

  • “Any professional writer attempting to unpick and reweave real-life histories should give Naomi a call.”

    — N. Jaworski, London

  • “Thanks to you, I spoke to my brother this afternoon on the telephone. It was over 50 years ago that I last saw him.”

    — J. Cerrato, France

  • “All your information was spot on. I have been in contact with my birth mother, we have exchanged letters and spoken on the telephone.”

    — Anonymous

  • “Naomi is a tireless and creative researcher. She unearthed information which my family had not been able to find in several years of research.”

    — H. Harvey, New York

  • “Naomi helped me piece together some really tricky evidence of my ancestors which, ultimately, helped me and my family to gain ancestral citizenship.”

    — D. Williams, London

  • “I have been engaged in genealogical research for 45 years, and rarely have I come across someone who works with such a high degree of professionalism, efficiency and speed.”

    — M. Denn, Dallas, Texas

  • “I asked Naomi to do a small amount of research on my paternal grandfather’s side of the family. She came up with a wealth of detail that was way beyond my expectations.”

    — N. Pistrang, London

  • “Probably the best present I’ve ever given. It was supremely well received.”

    — R. Womack, London

  • “I am going crazy with all of this. I was a normal person before I met you but I’m so glad I did.”

    — F. Hirsch, Yorktown Heights, New York

“The Jews are not a historical people … the Jews are a geological people with rifts and collapses and strata and fiery lava. Their history must be measured on a different scale.”

— Yehuda Amichai