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Messages - JSFinn

Pages: [1] 2
1
Europe / Russian immigrants
« on: Tuesday 19 October 04 00:07 BST (UK)  »
Hello

Some guidance and direction from the experts is required

I've discovered my great-grandparents and three of their children were born in "Russia" (1901 census), and arrived here sometime between my grandmother's birth (Helena, 1892) and her sister's birth in Whitechapel (1895). They lived for some while in a couple of rooms in Hanbury Street, Spitalfields, in a house full of other Polish and German immigrants, and Antony Kellert, the father, is listed in the census as a cabinet maker. The oldest child, Milly, married a Polish hairdresser here in London. One of the sons, born here, is given the name Hieronim, apparently a Polish form of Jerome, so maybe they were Polish.

I've read the information on this site about the problems of the definition of Russian, Polish, etc borders in the late 19th century. I've looked on the naturalisation lists at the FRC and no mention there of Antony and Annie Kellert.

I have no other information about my Kellerts yet. I don't know if they were Jewish, because although they appear to follow a classic pattern of where they settled and what they did for a living once here, any history of this didn't get passed on to their children. Some of their children, including my grandmother were married in church, Church of England too.

A couple of tries of the name in various Jewish and Polish lists doesn't return anything, but I haven't made a detailed search yet.

How typical are they, and what might be a useful way forward?

John

2
Completed Census Requests / Re: 1891 FINN Sunderland look-up request
« on: Thursday 07 October 04 21:47 BST (UK)  »
Thanks for all that work, folks. These are not the Finns I'm looking for, but I had to be sure because there is no other George William Finn born in England and Wales that fits the dates of later censuses and marriage.

I've obviously got other directions to pursue now, either change of name (there's a William George Finn who otherwise fits the bill, but how do I double-check he's the right one?), or maybe he's Irish? I'll need to read up on checking Irish ancestry.

And I thought the Finns would be the easy bit!

Many thanks for your research

John

3
Surrey Completed Look up Requests / Re: Chertsey 1900
« on: Thursday 07 October 04 00:51 BST (UK)  »
Thanks Lewy, I may take you up on that.

I've had an e-mail from Chertsey museum, thanks to Nell's recommendation, confirming the Alwin Lane stuff, and offering more information.  In 1881 census, Meeting House Lane doesn't seem to have house numbers, so I don't know if there was just one dwelling  or what.

John

4
Europe / Re: Austria/Poland
« on: Thursday 07 October 04 00:26 BST (UK)  »
I too am looking at my maternal grandmother's family, the Kellerts, who are variously mentioned as Polish or Russian, from the time around 1893 when they must have arrived here. I haven't begun yet to look at their history before they pitch up in Whitechapel, and the first questions I'll have to sort out will be where they actually came from, their religion, etc etc before I can begin. I'm only just getting to grips with the Londoners in the family, so I'm putting it to one side, and reading up the advice on the postings here for when I can get my teeth into it.

By the way, the Family Records Centre also hold indexes of names of those applying for naturalisation, who are successful in their application. They are on the shelves in the library on the first floor. Unsuccessful applications are somewhere in the Home Office records at Kew. I couldn't find my family at the FRC, so either they didn't apply or were turned down. I wonder what proportion of Eastern European immigrants applied for naturalisation. A likely cause of having your application refused was, apparently, that the Home Office thought you would be a bomb-totin' anarchist or the like!

John


5
Family History Beginners Board / Re: Choosing where to post a request
« on: Tuesday 05 October 04 22:03 BST (UK)  »
Thanks, Kazza for the info

And especially thanks for moving my request to somewhere more useful, where I got an immediate reply with helpful information.

Showing, not telling, I think they calll that!

Many thanks

John

6
Completed Census Requests / Re: 1891 FINN Sunderland look-up request
« on: Tuesday 05 October 04 21:53 BST (UK)  »
Thanks for looking that up for me, Ruth. I still can't quite 'eliminate him from my enquiries' so to speak, because his father, name William, is my only link here and he's died by the time of this census. What I'm learning from all this is not to rush to judgement with some of the info you get from a census but to view it from several angles. Some of my family have changed their names, altered their ages, even their places of birth for some reason or other! It's all fascinating stuff, and I've only started on this a month ago!

Thanks again
John

7
Family History Beginners Board / Choosing where to post a request
« on: Sunday 03 October 04 19:33 BST (UK)  »
Many apologies if this question has been dealt with before, but I don't think so - well, I couldn't find it!

As a beginner, about a week ago I put my first request onto a county board, to look up some information for me from a census, but unfortunately haven't had any replies. Perhaps I'm just being impatient.

How do people decide where to post a request? Maybe I should have put it on the general request for a look-up. Do you stand a better chance on these general boards on the site? How does it work?

This site is a great idea, and I'm hoping I'll be able to add to the general store of information as time goes on.

all the best

John

8
London and Middlesex / Re: george reed
« on: Saturday 02 October 04 13:50 BST (UK)  »
Sooze

Not what you're really after, but a bit of extra colour perhaps.

I don't have any Reed connection, but at the same time as your George Reed, my Banbury family were living in Galway Street and Lizard Street which are on the other side of Bath Street from Peerless Street near to Old Street in Finsbury.  The women from this part of my family, in the 1890s, also were in the boxmaking trade so there must have been a big factory nearby. This is one of the things I planned to look into, so if you've any more info I'd be pleased to hear it.

Peerless Street is still there but almost all of this area was redeveloped in the 1950s and 1960s. I remember it from my childhood visits to grandparents.

St Pauls church was in Central Street, but no longer exists, the parish being combined into St Clements in King Square, Goswell Road.

Other family connections in this area are Newman, and Barratt.

John


9
London & Middlesex Completed Lookup Requests / Re: Pocketbook Makers/Jewelcase makers
« on: Saturday 02 October 04 13:27 BST (UK)  »
Paula

The Cordwainers Company founded in 1270 in London specialised in fine leatherwork luxury goods originally, later concentrating on footwear, but by the time of your subject probably was involved in training. There is still a college in Hackney, Cordwainers, now part of the London Institute, which teaches leatherwork arts and trades and they may have knowledge of the 19th trade in London.

The Cordwainers Company have a site http://www.cordwainers.org/

Other companies involved may have been the Leathersellers and the Curriers, though I believe they were mostly concerned with the buying, selling and preparation of leather.

The Corporation of London has a website which has a list somewhere on it of all the livery companies with links to sites where they exist.

http://www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/Corporation/leisure_heritage/livery/linklist.htm

best wishes

John


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