Hildesheimer & Co

The German born Hildesheimer brothers along with the Tuck family  [http://www.emotionscards.com/museum/raphaeltuck.html] were at the forefront of the fast expanding trade in Greetings Cards in Victorian England.

Siegmund Hildesheimer was born in 1832 in Hallberstadt Germany and settled in Manchester in the mid 1870’s.  The 1881 census lists his occupation as Picture Importer, although, according to trade directories, he sold gilt mouldings, published oleographs, chromos and Christmas cards. He went on to trade from London, initially producing advertising cards and then postcards on a variety of subjects, but was best known for Christmas cards. Siegmund specialised in silvered, frosted and embossed cards which were printed in France or Germany, as well as more localised printers. http://www.scrapalbum.com/xmasp10.htm

The London Gazette shows the various changes to the company that took place over the years as well as those of Siegmund’s brother Albert’s partnership with William Faulkner http://www.scrapalbum.com/xmasp10a.htm

Much off the subject matter in these cards is, perhaps, rather “sugary” and sentimental for today’s tastes, but the standard of artistry and reproduction is remarkably high and they can be an interesting barometer of  the times: Siegmund Hildesheimer, for example, is said to have been among the first to depict black personages, presumably for the American market.

Great Synagogue Burials added to SynagogueScribes.com !

We have just added over 3,500 Great Synagogue burial records (BSGSBUR)  to our sister site www.SynagogueScribes.com .  These have been compiled from transcripts left by the late Rabbi Dr. Bernard Susser, with additional material by the SynagogueScribes team and cover burials from 1791 to 1823 & 1832

Partial text versions of Dr. Susser’s originals can be seen on Frank Gent's website and we are indebted to Frank for allowing us to use this material and for the many hours of additional work he did in  editing and updating these very incomplete transcripts. [Please support Frank's latest fund raiser for Cavernoma Alliance UK]

As with many of these early registers, a large percentage of the entries contains no English family or first names. Where possible, we have made positive identifications or suggested lines for further research but we appreciate the difficulties some of you may have with these records and, over the coming weeks, we hope to offer you some step-by-step guides to help you use the two “Scribes” databases more effectively.

How  to Search SynagogueScribes - using Basic Search

Searching SynagogueScribes.com - Basic Search

First in the series of our step-by-step guides to searching SynagogueScribes and getting the best results.

Example 1: Finding a Burial Record for Sarah Nathan CemeteryScribes ref I970

In SynagogueScribes, using basic search which is the search present on every page of the site. The results will cover all the sources, births, circumcisions, marriages, burials.


Enter Family Name =  NATHAN           First Name = Sarah

Produces 15 results, of which the last BSGSBUR32 102 is a match.

Note the very slight discrepancy between the dates, probably due to variations on whether these refer to the date of death or the date of burial, and occasional imperfections in the calculations between the Hebrew and the English date.

Example 2.

Looking for a Synagogue marriage for Simon Magnus [1851  6, New Street, Saint  Botolph Without Bishopsgate RG number: HO107 Piece:1524 Folio:  670  Page: 7] with wife Julia and Father Nathan.

In SynagogueScribes Using basic search

Enter Family Name = MAGNUS                 First Name =  Simon

Produces one result GSM 222/15.   But this cannot be the correct marriage.  Why? Because, apart from the fact that this groom’s bride is Sarah, the father in this record is Eliezer.

But don’t give up yet.  Why not try an alternative spelling for either Family or first name.

In SynagogueScribes (www.SynagogueScribes.com) Using basic search:

Enter Family Name = MAGNUS           First Name =  Simeon

Produces one result, GSM 299/60, where the bride’s name is Julia and, most importantly, the groom’s father is Nathan

Over the coming weeks, we will look at more complex searches.   Meanwhile, we hope you enjoy using both our databases and that they help advance your family history.

Willesden Cemetery; Art, Music and Literature

Willesden Cemetery , consecrated in 1873, acts as a bridge between the intimacy of the old, historic London Ashkenazi Burial Grounds – Aldernery Road,  Brady Street and Lauriston Road – enclosed within high brick walls, their modest, fading stones haphazardly set in grassy plots under shady trees, and the vast modern and largely treeless, grounds, such as Bushey, with their handsome marble and granite memorials, stretching in regimented lines as far as the eye can see.  Willesden, with its marked paths and copious vegetation, takes the best of both: a place for solemn, spiritual contemplation , of course, but also as a tangible record of the part played by our forebears in every aspect of English life in the late 19th and early 20th century .

We have only just skimmed the surface of Todd Knowles generous contribution of photographs, but we have already recorded half a dozen founders of major national institutions; banks, commercial enterprises, etc.    Numerous young men, from both old Jewish families and new immigrants, who laid down their lives for their country in two world wars.  And a cross section of those who achieved fame, both at home and abroad, in all fields of literature and the arts.  Notable among these are:

The artist Solomon J SOLOMON R.A. P.R.B.A http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/speel/paint/solomons.htm

The singer Henry Morris IMANO http://math.boisestate.edu/gas/whowaswho/I-J/ImanoHenry.htm

Henry Imano’s mother-in-law, Eliza Davis, who corresponded with Charles Dickens, taking him to task for his characterisation of Jews as represented by villainous Fagin in Oliver Twist

http://www25.uua.org/uuhs/duub/articles/charlesdickens.html

http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/features/dickens-greatest-villain-the-faces-of-fagin-509906.html

Ellen Zangwill, mother of the writer and Israel Zangwill whose book “Children of the Ghetto” remains the outstanding chronicle of the Jewish East End is still in print today. http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/biography/zangwill.html

http://www.movinghere.org.uk/galleries/histories/jewish/settling/zangwill_1.htm

Wolverhampton Old Jewish Burial Ground (Cockshutts Lane)

We were recently contacted by Alan Isaacs who asked whether we would like copies of some photos taken at Wolverhampton Jewish Cemetery. Our readers will know that the answer was a resounding "Yes please!"

Alan, whose interests lie in electronics, has a virtual Radio Museum and also provides genealogy research services to some of his customers, kindly sent us the photos which we have now been able to add to CemeteryScribes.

According to an article originally published in the local Wolverhampton paper and repeated in the Jewish Chronicle, the first Jewish person to settle in Wolverhampton was a Mr Harris, who arrived there in 1833, and the first to die was a Mr Aaron. As a result of Mr Aaron's death the Duke of Cleveland presented the Jewish Community with a piece of ground in Green Lanes in 1851.

So far we have been unable to conclusively establish the identity of Mr Aaron, but it is likely that he was a member of this family 

In 1860 the papers reported on the trial of a couple of grave robbers. Apparently, they had disturbed the grave of Rhoda Wolf, who died on 19 Aug 1858 and was buried 4 days later. There is no record in the death registers of a Rhoda Wolf dying in Wolverhampton but there is, however, a Rose Wolfe who we think was very probably the same individual.

The Wolverhampton entries can be found here.