Jewish Genealogy and the First World War- Some Reflections

My apologies for posting so little in such a long time. I have just completed a blog posting for the Jewish Genealogical Society of Great Britain (forgive the shameless plug!), to which the link is:

http://www.jgsgb.org.uk/blog/?p=560

To spruce this up for my personal blog, I thought I might share the following picture, which emphasizes my own familial connection to the War. These portraits depicts Solomon Sidney (Sid) Rosebery, a major in the Royal Army Medical Corps; Henry Lefridge, my great-grandfather, only just 18, a private in the Army Service Corps; and Samuel (Sam) Altman, in the uniform of the Australian Infantry, brother of my great-grandmother Millie Lefridge - Sid was her sister Dorothy's husband. These men all survived the conflict, and in fact Sid Rosebery stayed in the Army and went on to serve in the Second World War. Millie's youngest brother, Lionel (below) was not so fortunate, he died in northern France in 1917, aged only 18; another brother Louis died in the Spanish flu epidemic immediately after the War. These are my family's own connection to the conflict, whose centenary I discuss in the main post.

Lionel Altman, Bedford Regt. signed 1915

Who Do You Think You Are - Live 2013: Society Saturday

Few events in the genealogical world cause as much excitement, or indeed are as widely noticed by the unitiated, as the annual Who Do You Think You Are?- Live show in National Hall, Olympia, London. Family history societies of varying sorts from all over the UK take part, and use the opportunity to increase membership, as well as field any enquiries in their particular field. As a volunteer on the Jewish Genealogical society of Great Britain stall, this year as in the three before, I've heard all manner of queries, from those who think they might possibly have discovered a Jewish family member, to deeply moving personal stories. I've even discovered a cousin - but that I think is a tale for another time!

There's always a lot going on at WDTYA-L so it's hard to catch it all. I had a fair chance to look around today, and shall be back again tomorrow, and will report back after that too (hopefully). Although the show seemed a little less busy today that Saturdays I've seen in the past - I don't think the freezing cold weather helped! - there was still a great buzz. The large service providers were all very busy, and vendors of everything from genealogy printing materials to silverware seemed to be plying a healthy trade. When you've been to the show, as well as around the genealogy circuit, a few times, February at Olympia is a nice time to catch up with people, some of whom I hadn't seen since the previous year. I always love helping people find out just that little bit more about their family too, so it was great to do a bit of that too.

I hope to give a fuller report of the show- maybe finding some photos and things to go with it- some time after the show tomorrow!

Wordless Wednesday- Three Generations of Jacobs

Tombstone Tuesday- Rachel Levy

This is the tombstone of my great-great-great aunt (my grandmother's father's maternal aunt) Rachel Levy née Jacobs (1859-1918). It is to be found near the front of Plashet Cemetery, in East Ham, London, and is in very good condition for its age. I have much affection for this stone, despite it not belonging to one of my direct ancestors; for it was the first I ever discovered in doing genealogy, almost five years ago now!

I had made an appointment to go and see the cemetery (Plashet it open by appointment only as it is no longer used for burials - this is not however an uncontroversial system!), having first ascertained which of my relatives were likely to be buried there, and where they were. I went to go and look for my great-great-great grandfather Adolphus Jacobs (Rachel's father), and was disappointed not to find a legible marker on his grave. Trudging despondently back to the car, the names on this stone caught my eye- I realised I'd found Rachel without even knowing she was there! I subsequently photographed the stone on a later visit.

Wordless Wednesday - The Egerton Social & Literary Society

Surname Saturday- Lefridge

Henry and Sidney Lefridge as teenagers., c.1917

When my grandmother was born in North London in 1932, she automatically joined an exclusive club: the Lefridge family. Only her parents, grandparents, and her uncle and his family shared her surname, in the entire country. But where did this unusual name come from? Her father, as his before him, had been born Henry Lefcovitch on the 26th May 1900, but his father Nathan may already have started to go by Nathan Lefridge. Henry's younger siblings, Sidney and Gladys, known as Galla, had been registered at birth as Lefridge, despite it not being their father's legal name. This was legal in the United Kingdom, where your name is what people called you, not what was written on a document! However, in First World War, xenophobic, and especially anti-German, feeling led many Jewish families to change their names officially by deed poll: Nathan (and Henry) did this in 1915. 

Nat Lefridge and his wife Elsie, on holiday in 1932.

However, the name of Lefridge was destined not to last. Henry and Sidney both had daughters, all of whom married and changed their names. Consequently, when Henry's wife Millie died in 1987, the family name died out, having officially existed only sixty two years. Though they were a small family, my grandmother still remembers her maiden name fondly: owing to its rarity, it is very useful for making dinner reservations!

Wordless Wednesday- Hannah Rubinstein