This collection contains materials of genealogical research from six different families. They include: genealogical information, photographs, birth, death and naturalization records, family sheets listing basic biographical information as well as census records and passenger manifests.

The Elias Tcherikower Collection documents the professional and personal life of Elias Tcherikower, a scholar, communal activist, and one of the founders of the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research, and to a smaller extent personal life of his wife, Riva Tcherikower, née Teplitski. Collected here are Tcherikower’s writings, professional and personal correspondence, photographs, manuscripts by other scholars, research materials, printed materials, financial documents, conference and exhibit materials, minutes of meetings, bibliographic materials and personal materials of Riva Tcherikower, née Teplitski, and Chaim Tcherikower.

This collection contains Holocaust-related research materials, predominantly on Volchin and Bronna Góra, from author Andrea Simon.

The bulk of the collection consists of extensive card bibliographies relating to the personal lives and careers of hundreds of Jewish writers. There are an estimated 300,000 entries in this bibliography. Clippings of biographical articles about Yiddish writers and of literary reviews. Materials (mainly clippings) for a volume on Vilna which Jeshurin edited and published in 1935. Photographs of personalities active in the Workmen's Circle. Correspondence, including Simon Dubnow, Chaim Grade, Mani Leib, Melech Ravitch, Dov Sadan, Abraham Sutzkever, Uriel Weinreich.

The Vilna Collection represents fragmentary materials that were part of the original YIVO Archives in Vilna before WWII. The collection includes a wide array of materials dealing with a great variety of aspects of Jewish life in the Pre-revolutionary Russian Empire and post-revolutionary Poland, Ukraine, Lithuania, and Soviet Russia. The Collection consists of personal correspondence, official correspondence with organizations and governmental institutions, financial and statistical reports, minutes of meetings of Jewish communal and political organizations, bibliographic materials, including card catalogues and bibliographies. Also included here are vital documents, such as birth certificates and birth registers, affidavits, certificates, diplomas, and travel documents. Additionally, there are petitions, resolutions, appeals, printed materials, manuscripts, lists, and questionnaires. There is a wealth of materials dealing with Jewish book trade and publishing, youth and sports organizations, education, Jewish communal life, and political activities.