ABOUT

Naomi Leon, genealogist

I got the bug for genealogy when I began tracing my own Jewish family history from the ‘old country’ (Poland) to the new (Britain, America, Canada, Israel and France). While it is true that every family story is different, over the years I have realised how archetypal in many ways my own family story is. To this day, the lessons learned during that initial personal research inform a great deal of my professional work.

After graduating with a Master’s in History from Cambridge University, I worked at a number of literary, film and television agencies in London, before becoming a professional genealogist. I founded Research Roots in 2011 and have not looked back.

I am a specialist in researching Jewish family history, and I research almost exclusively for private clients. I am passionate about the work, and if I’m honest I would do it whether I was paid or not.

In fact, I already spend a lot of my spare time volunteering. As a long-time area coordinator for Jewish Records Indexing-Poland, covering Lodz and the surrounding towns, the part of central Poland where my grandfather’s family originated, I help to index vital records and make them accessible, so that other people can find their own. I also lead Sussex Jewish Records, a not-for-profit project I founded to digitise the Jewish community records of Brighton & Hove, and which I plan to make the basis of a PhD in due course.

at a glance

MA History, Cambridge University
A historian’s training: interpreting records, not just finding them.

Associate, AGRA
Association of Genealogists and Researchers in Archives.

Member and mentor, JGSGB
Jewish Genealogical Society of Great Britain.

Specialist researcher
Ancestry ProGenealogists.

Area coordinator, Jewish Records Indexing-Poland
Lodz, Piotrkow Trybunalski and Czestochowa research areas.

Founder, Sussex Jewish Records
Digitising the Jewish community records of Brighton & Hove.

“While I had been trying to research my elusive Jewish grandfather for years and getting nowhere, his habitual misdirection proved no defence to Naomi’s enthusiastic and persistent searching. Once she had found a deed poll with his name change she broadened my family tree from fewer than 20 individuals to over 500 spread across six generations in the UK, US and Israel.

In doing so she uncovered numerous family stories, put me in touch with long-lost cousins, suggested further reading, set up a Facebook group and all-in-all went way beyond simply combing through archives. It was a life-changing day when I stumbled across Naomi’s service.”

— D. Gardner, Surrey

On TV

I have worked on the UK television series Who Do You Think You Are? and in 2017 I was one of the lead genealogists on the British television series The Secrets In My Family, sponsored by Ancestry and broadcast on W.

What our clients say

  • “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

  • “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 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 things you are passionate about are not random.
They are your calling.”

— Fabienne Frederickson