Genealogy Chat

Hope I spelt that right.

Just for a change, off to research husband's Jewish side. The Welsh lot are impossible - all John Jones marries Mary Evans, their daughter Mary Jones marries John Evans etc. with a few Thomas Williams and William Thomases thrown in. English side are the elusive Carters who started off as McCarthy and don't seem to have come from anywhere. BUT the Jewish lot!!! Same narrow set of first and surnames, but just Jewish ones, so instead of Williams and Thomas and Jones, I've got Hart and Phillips and Isaacs and Joel all intermarrying and living next door to people with the same names. One of them is called Zalig, not many of them to the pound, but poor chap hasn't been recorded properly on any census. There's Zalji, Telig, Zelek... Where's the aspirin?

Trust me Helen, the jewish lot are just as difficult... I have an isaac Levy & thats like looking for John Smith!!! Good luck

Oh dear Nell......... Thought I had problems lol Lin

Maybe we should post a suggestion that if anyone is going to get married and is interested in their family history, they should check out their prospective partner's tree BEFORE they tie the knot??? Making sure they marry someone with an unusually (but not impossibly) named set of ancestors from a small village somewhere a long way from a town............................. Then I would be single! LOL Merry

Merry I think in future, when you go to register a baby, the registrar should have a list and say 'No, you can't name your baby John. We've exceeded our quota of Johns. Here is a list of less used boy's names which are acceptable. Oh, sorry, your surname is Blenkinsop-Smythe-Rawkins? Of course you can name your son John.' nell

I know the feeling. I have a jewish ancestor whose surname was spelt differently on the census, my grandmother;s birth certificate and her marriage certificate. Fortunately we were able to close in on it due to a very unusual - but consistently spelled - first name. Next problem, half the family anglicised their name around the time of the 1st WW.

talking of anglicising (probaby spelt wrong)your name any one have any ideas what Lancer wwould have been in Hebrew have tried for ages to find my grandfather

Val, if they were German jews, then it might have been Lantz before (this is Lancer in Yiddish) Merry

thanks for that Merry I shall have another look for him Val

Valerie, you might also wish to check the name Langer.

I think somebody with a jewish name was responsible for sinking the Titanic. Let me think, who was it...? ... Goldberg, Weinberg.... oh yes!.... Iceberg!

think you meant oi vey, and if i was jewish ...or an iceburg i may be rather offended by that last comment!

It gets better. I was looking for Zalig's marriage and thought I'd found it - bride named Margaret which fitted in nicely with census info - then realised the marriage was dated AFTER the census, on which I'd found the couple with 2 children. So I did another search and found poor Zalig/Telig/Zalji/Zelek has been wrongly recorded yet again, this time as Zael!!!!!!!!! But I did find that his marriage was registered in the same reg district and month and year as his younger sister Rose (my husband's gt grandmother) who also has 2 children by the 1901 census. Maybe they had a double wedding? Rose and her groom married in Strand register office as he was a gentile. nell

Just googled and found its 'Oy vey!' at least it is with Ashkenazim Jews, which is the branch that Rose came from. nell

unusual for those days, for someone to marry out of the jewish faith

looks like you have got some interesting searching to do there nell, good luck, hope you get to the bottom of it

you dont know where they origianlly came from do you.. ashkenazi jews come from eastern Europe & sephardis from Spain

Karrie I don't, but I believe they were Ashkenazim Jews because Rose's parents married in the Great Synagogue in Duke's Place, which was for Ashkenazim Jews. [Sephardi Jews went to Bevis Marks synagogue, which is still there, the Great Synague was destroyed in the war, sadly]. I also found a site about Jewish settlers in London, which said that surnames Hart, Phillips, Joel and Isaacs - all of which feature with this lot - were Ashkenazim Jews. The Zalig name is apparently likely to be a Dutch Jewish one. I've found them all as far back as the late 18th century, all born in Aldgate/Whitechapel area, but don't yet know exactly when they came to London. Zalig's father Zusman is also a much-mistranscribed chap - no two censuses the same. He is Zuseman/Tuseman/Luisman/Juseman as well as Zuesman in a directory! nell

all mine were married in the great synangogue too... have you tried looking for naturalisation papers... I saw my gt grandfathers a couple of weeks ago..fantastic...they also tell you where they were born