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Monday 8 June 2009

Website error: Hannah Montefiore

Among the photographs kindly donated by Dr. Helen Fry, was one from the Exeter Jewish Cemetery for Hannah Montefiore, wife of Moses d'Ancona. The inscription on her stone reads

"Hannah relict of Moses Ancona daughter of Moses Montefiore died April 25 5599 ages 71.
From the Hebrew inscription: Hannah bat Moshe ...

In a moment of inattention, we placed her as a child of Sir Moses Montefiore (1784-1886) and his wife, Judith Cohen (1784-1862) respectively, GenPals Person ID I7638 & I7637.
Keen students of this famous family will already have spotted two compelling reasons why this would have been a factual impossibility.
  1. Sir Moses and Lady Judith died without issue
  2. Hannah Montefiore D'Ancona died in 1839 aged 71, which would have made her some16 years older than the man we had designated as her father!
Hannah Montefiore is now with her rightful parents; one of the 17 children of Moses Vita (Chaim) Montefiore and his wife, Esther Hannah Rachah . And she is, of course, an aunt of the Sir Moses we erroneously designated as her father.

Sincere apologies to anyone who copied this data into their own research. Please revisit GenPals Cemetery Project and revise your files accordingly.

We will double our efforts to avoid any future errors but there are no cast-iron guarantees and it is always best to check data for yourselves, even when it appears on well-sourced and carefully researched websites such as www.GenPals.com
ALS

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