Hello! I'm hoping someone more knowledgeable than myself can help point me in the right direction. I've done some research on my family and am stuck as to how to approach researching Jewish German connections.

I am researching one branch of my family: the Blumenfelds. I believe they are connected to the Circus Blumenfelds, a famous Jewish-German circus family, based on the fact that they share the last name and were circus/music hall artists. I'm assuming they were Jewish, again because of the Blumenfeld name/occupation connection.

Basically, I have:

Simon Blumenfeld, circus/musichall artist (? Germany - 1911 England) --
married to Wilhelmina Blenon (? Germany - 1915 England).
3 children:
1. Baptist Blumenfeld, musichall/vaudeville performer (1868 Braunschweig Germany - 1943 New York);
2. Paul Blumenfeld, ditto (1875 Eulendorf Germany - ? US);
3. William Blumenfeld, ditto (1876 Rentlingen Germany - ? US).

I have a decent amount of data on their time in England (they immigrated sometime in the 1890s) because of English census and birth/marriage/death records. I've found information on their immigration to the US (1910s) due to Ellis Island records, and on their lives in the US due to census and birth/marriage/death records.

However, I'm stuck on how to approach researching the German connection. I do have dates and cities where each of the three brothers were born (I'm assuming different cities because the family travelled with the circus?). How could I find birth records for the brothers, if they were or were not Jewish? I'm guessing that would tell me a lot more than I know now about them, as well as their parents.

Of course, I don't speak German, which doesn't help -- but I am willing to travel to Germany! So any advice on online/mail/in person research in Germany would be much appreciated, as well as any advice on researching Jewish and circus family history.

Thanks so much!