Family history

3 Comments Posted on by dapperdaveanddinkydi Family history

The Embarcadero & Wako Restaurant

I think we have the hang of San Francisco after going exploring this morning. We found the Muni kiosk where we bought our ticket for riding any of the public transport for the 7 days of our stay & then caught a bus & a street car to find Pier 41 to collect our tickets for the Alcatraz ferry tomorrow. We then played around Pier 39 which is the famous Fishermen’s Wharf. There were lots of seafood restaurants but we wanted only a light lunch so we shared a crabwich which is, of course, a crab sandwich. It was quite tasty but nowhere near as good as the ones Mum used to make when Dad was a professional fisherman & crabber nor as good as the ones we always had if we were passing through Miriamvale.

T

We saw these beautiful berries & cherries at the wharf. One of the great things about visiting the Northern Hemisphere in our summer is we have all the lovely stone fruits for an extended time.

Tonight we shouted ourselves dinner at Wako Japanese Restaurant which has one Michelin Star. The food was wonderful but otherwise we were very disappointed. It was a cold evening but our jackets were not taken for us. Wait staff bumped into my chair every time they served food to another table. What was worse, they were removing plates from one of us before the other had finished that course & bringing the next course immediately. We were eating as slowly as we could but even so, we were in & out in an hour. They are certainly not part of the slow food movement! When you are paying so much for an experience, you really feel ripped off when you are rushed through. You want to really savour the moment.

We have been fortunate enough to dine in a 3 star restaurant in Reims in the Champagne district of France & a 2 star in Barcelona. L’Assiette in Reims was so much better than the others that you can see why they have 3. Honestly though, I don’t know why Wako has a star at all. Most disappointing!

Overall though, we are enjoying San Fran as the locals call it.

3 Comments Posted on by dapperdaveanddinkydi Family history

Beautiful architecture in San Francisco

Here we are in SF after another long flight from Brisbane through Auckland. We flew business class with Air New Zealand. Not my favourite! The crew were great but the pods seem small. Food choices were restricted, the fruit salad was boring & apples & bananas were the only fresh fruit available.

Our apartment for the week is great. It is on the lower level of a beautiful old home in Golden Gate Avenue. It is old, needs work but is very spacious with a lovely lemon tree loaded with fruit just like the one at home.

We’ve yet to explore as we were very tired when we arrived & just wandered off to find dinner & for breakfasts. We found a little pizza place & the very friendly guy made us great pizzas.

The first thing we noted as we came in the taxi was how different the architecture is from Brisbane & from Europe. The old homes are so distinctive & so beautiful. This is the view out of our lounge room window to the street:

As you can see, it is quite lovely.

Now to go exploring!

Leave a comment Posted on by dapperdaveanddinkydi 50s & 60s, Family history, Food

Baking was my Saturday morning chore

As I’ve said before, Mum hated cooking so never taught me to cook. Fortunately for me though, in grades 7 & 8, we went to Rural School. These grades were still part of our primary education, but we went across to the high school section for Rural School. (I seem to remember, Caboolture State School had a secondary department attached to it in those days. The separate high school was, I think, opened when I was in Grade 8 and I went there at the start of Grade 9.)

At Rural School boys learnt woodwork etc & we learnt cooking & sewing. I still have my recipe books from those years, almost 60 years ago. We had to copy the recipes off the blackboard into our day pads & then write them up for homework in our recipe books in our best handwriting in pen & ink (no biros allowed!) & decorate them with whatever pictures we could find in magazines etc that resembled what we cooked. We had no smart phones then, of course, & although I had a little camera, you had to use up a whole film before you could get it developed & that was an expensive process that took a couple of weeks.

Our first baking effort was ‘Fairy Cakes’ and, of course, we had to cream the butter & sugar by hand – no electric beaters available then. We made sausage rolls, peanut toffee, shepherd’s pie, lemon delicious pudding, Anzac biscuits, apple crumble and more. We’d take the ingredients from home & then take the food home, safely we hoped. This was no mean feat on the old truck which was our school bus & then on the ride from the bus stop on my bike over corrugated dirt roads. Mum loved it when we cooked something that was a main meal as she didn’t need to cook dinner. We still had to light the fire though to heat up the food as we didn’t have an electric stove &, of course, there were no microwaves in those days.

Once I discovered that I enjoyed cooking, doing the family baking became my Saturday morning activity & I had great fun making jam drops, banana cake, cornflake biscuits, date rolls, melting moments (my absolute favourites) & whatever else took my fancy at the time. I still love to bake as do my daughters & grandchildren but I don’t do it very often these days, just for special occasions or when we have visitors. Let’s face it. If we bake it, we eat it & it’s better if we don’t. Sadly!

2 Comments Posted on by dapperdaveanddinkydi 50s & 60s, Family history, Food

What’s for tea Mum?

This is the age-old question asked of mothers by their children as they arrive home from school. Looking back, I’m thinking that I was no different.

My parents sold their business, Twin Towns Radio, at Tweed Heads when I was 5 and went into hotels The first was at Hivesville in the South Burnett Region of Queensland and the second at Jimboomba, south west of Brisbane I don’t remember our meals until after that time; I guess we ate what the cooks were preparing. I do remember that every Sunday night when we lived at Tweed Heads Dad would go and buy fish and chips wrapped in newspaper and we would sit on the lounge room floor and eat it out of the paper. What a treat! I still love to do that!

Mum hated cooking with a passion and especially hated deciding what to have for dinner so the menu was fairly restricted. After we left the hotels, Dad became a professional fisherman and crabber at Donnybrook north of Brisbane, on the mainland sheltered by Bribie Island. We had a boat hire business, a corner store and an unofficial post office as well. Consequently we ate a lot of seafood – the mud crabs were so good, fresh whiting, tailor,….. whatever was in season at the time. We were so spoilt. Dad & I loved it. Mum didn’t like it at all!

Next Dad turned his hand to poultry farming, a poultry abattoir and growing citrus at Chevallum near Nambour on the Sunshine Coast – he was truly a man of many talents. Our diet changed again and we ate a lot of chicken and duck and, of course, oranges in season. I can remember taking five oranges to school for lunch and nothing else!

Our Monday night dinner was usually a roast – chicken maybe – with roast vegetables. (At this time, chicken was still a treat for most families as it was very expensive so again we were spoilt. No-one had freezers so the chichens had to be bought fresh.) Sometimes, we would have corned beef with white sauce and boiled vegetables or maybe even picked pork! Then on Tuesday night it would be cold meat and mashed potato and vegetables. If I was lucky, we’d have been able to get a wheelbarrow of green mangoes from the people up the hill and Dad would have made his wonderful mango chutney to go with the cold meat.

Mum’s speciality was oxtail! It was so good. I use her recipe too and it was a favourite of my kids as well Sometimes we’d have rabbit with white sauce; sometimes lamb chump chops with vegetables.

We would always have dessert too. I did like dessert! Mum would make a lovely rice pudding and serve it with stewed apples and this was one of my favourites – still is, actually. Sometimes, if the oven was going she’d make a baked jam roly poly pudding and serve it with hot runny custard!

Dad liked to cook when he had time and he was pretty handy in the kitchen when he wanted to be. Often on a Sunday night he’d cook us up a Chinese feast. He had books of recipes and he’d buy the special ingredients he needed. These meals were pretty tasty and Mum enjoyed the night off.

To make Mum’s Oxtail Superb you will need:
1 oxtail, fat removed
2 carrots chopped
1large onion finely chopped
4 oz tin mushrooms (I used fresh mushrooms but they weren’t readily available when I was a kid.)
1 teaspoon soy sauce
1/2 cup red wine
1 cup diced celery
1 cup water
1 teaspoon salt
pepper.

Place all the ingredients in a large saucepan, bring to the boil and simmer for at least 3 hours. Mix 1 heaped tablespoon plain flour to make a smooth paste with water. Add 1/2 teaspoon Parisian Essence & stir it in to thicken the stew. Simmer a further 15 minutes before serving.

This is a great dinner for a winter’s night. Enjoy!

3 Comments Posted on by dapperdaveanddinkydi Family history

How breakfasts have changed!

Last weekend I attended a seminar on writing family history and one speaker encouraged us to write blogs often about our lives as well as those of our ancestors. This started me thinking about how things were in my life as I grew up and how different they are now.

So I thought I’d like my kids and grandkids to know more about my life and the result is that I have a long list of topics to blog about. And breakfast is the first.

My parents always ran their own business and our home was onsite from the time I was five. Hence breakfast was a family affair with us all, Mum, Dad & I, sitting at the table eating a cooked breakfast. We didn’t get TV until I was 13 so we would have the radio playing on the ABC. Russ Tyson’s breakfast radio was a favourite. Even when we had TV it was never on at breakfast time.

First course was vita brits with hot water & milk & sugar. We drank cups of tea; never coffee or juice or water.

For seconds we had various things on toast: tinned lamb stew & vegetables, tinned beef stew & vegetables, tinned spaghetti and sometimes the tinned spaghetti contained meatballs – that was exciting but I can’t remember ever having baked beans. Mum hated cooking lamb’s brains & she especially hated preparing them for crumbing but Dad & I loved them so they were an occasional treat. I think we had bacon & eggs on Sundays with fried bread. How good was the fried bread? Yum! Lamb’s fry & bacon was another that Mum hated. Dad also liked to have tinned kippers & herrings.

Of course, all of these were cooked or heated on the stove. We had neither bbq nor microwave & no dishwasher except Mum & I. She’d wash & I’d wipe & we’d have a great chat.

I’m happy that my kids grew up enjoying breakfast as a family sitting around the table & I’m very happy that my grandkids do the same. I firmly believe that sharing food & discussion as a family is a key factor in children’s learning respect for others & for themselves.

Of course, the food eaten & the way it is prepared is often very different today.

2 Comments Posted on by dapperdaveanddinkydi Family history

I’ve found the link!

I’m so excited! I’ve found the link!

You might remember that my previous post detailed my research into the link between the Wachman family and the Edelman family. (David’s great grandmother Tsipe Wachman married his Great Grandfather Louis and migrated to Australia in the late 1880s. Moshe Wachman migrated to Ireland and married his wife Seina Jackson there before moving to South Africa and then Australia.) It was obvious that there were too many coincidences and that the families were linked but how?

Thanks to ancestry DNA, I have found two of David’s 3rd cousins once removed and have even met one of them. Phil lives at Carindale, just a few kilometres from us and Bill lives on the Central Coast of New South Wales.

David & Phil & Bill are all descendants of Samuel & Sarah Wachman, David’s Great Great Grandparents. The connection we have found is not through Moshe Wachman as we thought, but through Moshe’s wife, Rachel Leah, who is the sister of David’s Great Grandmother, Sophia or Tsipe. Rachel & Tsipe are both children of Samuel and Sarah.

Bill & Phil think that Moshe is also connected as family stories suggest that Moshe and Rachel were closely related so I’m surmising that Moshe was a cousin of Rachel & thus Tsipe.

To actually prove the link that I have thought existed for so long now is so very exciting.

Now to find the link with the American Wachmans – perhaps we will get a little closer when we meet Liza in San Francisco next month. Liza & David are also linked through Ancestry DNA.

Leave a comment Posted on by dapperdaveanddinkydi Family history

Edelman and Wachman Family Mystery

Screen Shot 2017-11-04 at 4.48.47 pmThe WACHMAN FAMILIES

Three Lithuanian Jewish families – obviously connected but how?

It’s a mystery I’ve been pondering for a while & I’d just love to find the missing links. Perhaps you can help me?

Let me tell you about them – I know that two of the families are connected to my husband, David EDELMAN. The first is descended from his great grandmother, Tsipe WACHMAN, or as she became known in Australia, Sophia EDELMAN and this is his direct family line.

The second I found through David’s Ancestry DNA test. This revealed a link to Liza Percer showing a moderate link of being a 5th to 8th cousin. Liza lives near San Francisco in the USA and we are really looking forward to meeting her and her family next May when we visit there.

Photos show that there is a definite family resemblance between Sophia and Shmuel WACHMAN, Liza’s grandfather.

We have found mentions in both of their histories to Resenai, Lithuania although finding information is very difficult. A couple of years ago we hired a researcher in Riga to see what he could find of the EDELMAN and WACHMAN families in Latvia/ Lithuania and the only record he could find was an 1879 census record which could be Louis and Tsipe living in Resenai in Krazia.

Shmuel WACHMAN left Lithuania for Jerusalem in the 1920s, when he was a young man (we’re not sure of his exact birth year, but think it was around 1900). He met his future wife, Shayna SAKS there, and they married and had all their children there. In 1939, Shmuel took the oldest, Yehuda, to New York, and Liza’s grandmother followed about eighteen months later with their other three children: Moshe, Amnon and his twin sister, Dahlia.

Liza’s grandfather’s parents were Moshe WACHMAN and Miriam KANTZIPOVITZ. Moshe was a teacher (melamed) and his father was either Zorach Yehiel WACHMAN or BUCHMAN. Liza is not sure about the surname as her grandfather said he could remember going to a house with the name “BUCHMAN’ on it – another mystery.

They had five other children besides Shmuel. Elhanan WACHMAN, who married Hantza GLICK and lived in Israel; Hannah who married Yankel YANKELOV and perished in the Holocaust; Ahuva who married Moshe KURTZWEIL and lived in Israel; Lina who married Shmuel Svirski ZAHL and perished in the Holocaust; and Sarah, who married Michael HIRSHIN and lived in Israel.

Records tell us that Tsipe WACHMAN (David’s great grandmother) was born around 1851 in Memel Germany, the daughter of Sarah and Samuel. She married Louis EDELMAN (Leib) (1845 – 1905) in Viekšniai Lithuania around 1873.

Together they had six children: Eliot Zawell (Edward George) (1875 – 1958), Albert (Aaron) (1878 – 1941), Harry (1879 – 1952), Roy (1883 – 1962), Annie (1887 – 1978) and Woolf (William) (1887 – 1929).

Louis migrated to Australia, arriving, we think, on the CUZCO in 1889 with his two eldest sons, Edward and Albert. Shortly after in 1890 Tsipe came with the rest of the children and they settled firstly in South Australia before moving to Broken Hill in New South Wales. There they became pillars of the Jewish community and Albert was very involved in the establishment of the synagogue in 1910.

Albert and his family moved between Broken Hill and Adelaide but Tsipe’s other children moved to Perth, the capital of Western Australia around 1910 and there they built their lives. Here I can find them interacting with the other Australian WACHMAN family that I am investigating.

The head of this, the third WACHMAN family is Moshe (or Morris or Moses) WACHMAN and his wife is Seina (Seine or Jane) JACKSON. Seina, the daughter of Rachel Leah, was born in Russia around 1871 and Moshe, the child of Avraham, was born in 1865 also in Russia. Somehow they both arrived in Ireland (I’m not sure how) where they were married in Dublin in 1885. I believe there was quite a community of Jews in Dublin at that time. They had three children in Ireland (Abraham, Daniel and Robert) and then migrated to South Africa. Edward Issy, Harry and Saidie Reva were born in Capetown.

I cannot find when Moshe migrated to Australia but come, he did. Seina and the children came on the Afric arriving in South Australia from Capetown in 1905. Also on the ship were her mother, her brother, Harry JACKSON, and other members of the Jackson family. I don’t know where they were between 1905 and 1907 but their son Ernest was born in Broken Hill, New South Wales on 7 May 1907. Betty (Beatrice) was born sometime before 1910 in South Australia.

By 1916, the family are settled in Perth, Western Australia and Moshe lived there until Seina died on 8 March 1927. Sometime later he moved to St Kilda, a suburb of Melbourne Victoria Australia where he died on 23 September 1937 and was buried on 24 September in the Jewish section of Fawkner Cemetery in Melbourne.

The fact that they spent time in Broken Hill where Louis and Tsipe had settled seems to suggest that Mores and Tsipe were closely related. Were they siblings or cousins perhaps? Tsipe had died in 1903 but Louis and the children would still have given them a family connection, very important to the Jewish people looking to find a place to settle.

In Perth, Moshe and his family lived in Mt Lawley, the same suburb where Edward George EDELMAN and his family were living. Digitalised records of Australian newspapers at trove.nla.gov.au provide information showing the WACHMAN and EDELMAN families attending each other weddings, playing cricket together and generally being part of each other’s lives.

I have been unable to find any living Australian descendants of Moshe and Seina even calling the WACHMANS listed in the white pages. So what happened to his children and are there any living descendants?

Abraham married Nellie Elizabeth Eddington LAWSON in 1917 in Sydney, New South Wales. He enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force early in 1918 but by 1923 was living in Bondi, New South Wales and then in 1926 we find them in St Kilda, a suburb of Melbourne. Their son, Ronald John WACHMAN, was born in Bega, New South Wales on 28 November 1917 and their daughter Shirley Joy was born in Mt Lawley Western Australia on 28 January 1928. Abraham died on 20 September 1950 in Bondi and was buried in the Jewish Cemetery, Rookwood, New South Wales. Ronald John WACHMAN married Noleen Dallas PATERSON and lived in various suburbs of Sydney. He died on 23 June 2001.

Robert WACHMAN served in World War I in the 48th Australian Infantry Battalion and was killed in action on 11 April 1917 in France. He is buried at Villers-Bretonneux.

Simon Daniel WACHMAN joined the 44th Battalion Australian Imperial Forces in January 1916 when he was living in Perth Western Australia. Sometime later he moved to St Kilda, Victoria and he died in Caulfield, a neighbouring suburb of Melbourne on 12 November 1955.

Edward WACHMAN married Deborah JONA in the Perth Synagogue on 15 June 1927. He died in Perth and was buried at the Karrakatta Cemetery in Perth on 16 Oct 1959. I can find no record of any children.

Harry WACHMAN married Mina Elezabeth STEVENSON in Waverley New South Wales in 1941. He died on 9 August 1955 in St Kilda Melbourne and was buried on 10 August that year. Again, I can find no record of any children.

Saidie Reva WACHMAN married Leon Arie WHITE in the Synagogue in Perth on 21 October 1926 and they had one daughter, Robin Joy who was born in 1929. Saidie died, aged 28, on 23 August 1932 in Fairfield Victoria and is buried in the Fawkner Cemetery.

About Betty or Beatrice WACHMAN I have very little information except that she went to South Africa as she is mentioned as living there in Simon’s death notice in the paper.

Ernest WACHMAN seems to have lived mainly in Victoria but he did return to Freemantle Western Australia at one stage. He married Nancy Winifred (surname unknown) and they were living together at various Melbourne addresses from 1949 onwards as per the electoral rolls but I cannot find any record of a marriage or children. He served in the military during World War II, signing on in Ripponlea Victoria and he died in 1981 at Sandford Victoria. He was buried at the Springvale Necropolis in Melbourne on 2 November 1981. The inscription on his grave is: “Husband of Win”

So, do any of the descendants of Louis and Tsipe EDELMAN know these WACHMANS? Can I find them and can they give us any leads?

Edward George EDELMAN married Bessie Leah Judolowitch SMITH in Adelaide on 28 April 1903 as George Elliot EDELMAN. On his migration papers he was Eliot Zawell EDELMAN. So many name changes they all had! They moved to Perth around 1910. They had five children: Samuel (1904 – 1969), Louis (1906 – 1965), Harry Jacob (1914 -), Joseph Robert (1920 – 1999) and Elka EDELMAN who married Frederick David BOOK in the Synagogue at Mt Lawley Western Australia on 9 August 1933.

My husband, David, descends from Albert EDELMAN who married Sarah Gordon (daughter of Louis Gordon and Gnesa Krantz) in Broken Hill in 1909. I’m pretty sure that none of Albert’s descendants have any information for me that will help and I’m also sure that the best leads will be from the Perth side of the family.

Roy EDELMAN was never married and had no children as far as I know.

Woolf married Lily Silverman in Perth on 3 May 1923. From other Ancestry trees I can see that they had a daughter, Shirley who married Jack Macklin and together they had two children Janice & William.

Harry EDELMAN married Rachel Gild in Adelaide South Australia on 3 March 1909 and they had two children: Leah who was born in 1910 in New South Wales and Naomi who was born in Broken Hill New South Wales in 1911. I have made contact with Brad EDELMAN who tells me that Harry has a son Peter EDELMAN. I have been unable to make contact with Peter.

Annie EDELMAN married Marcus FELDMAN in Broken Hill in 1910 and they had two children Zipah and Simon Ferdinand. She died on 2 June 1975 in Perth Western Australia. Simon married Ida Gruzinsky in 1941 in Perth Western Australia and they had two sons: Marcus William born 14 November 1942 and David born 18 November 1943.

Brad EDELMAN is the son of Joseph EDELMAN, another of the sons of Edward George EDELMAN, I am in contact with Brad but he knows nothing of the WACHMAN family either.

To add to the mystery, EDELMAN family anecdotes tell us that Louis EDELMAN had a “reisenbillet”, a special ticket that enabled him to travel between Russia and Ireland as a trader, taking horses to Ireland and returning to Russia with crystal. Could this be true? I can find absolutely nothing that substantiates it but it is interesting, to be sure, to be sure! Another story says that an EDELMAN had to flee from Ireland because he murdered his wife or a barmaid? Again, I can find no proof. All these Irish connections are fascinating though. Louis’ father was Jacob and his mother was Clara JOHNSTON. What could be the Jewish name from which JOHNSTON has originated? Was Clara from Ireland?

So these are my WACHMAN families, descending from Tsipe and two Moshe. Are these links just a series of coincidences or is this one family reunited half way around the world from where they started? I really think it is but I am unable to prove it.

Any ideas?

If you do have any information, clues or suggestions for me, please contact me at diedelman@me.com

Di EDELMAN

 

2 Comments Posted on by dapperdaveanddinkydi Family history, Travel

Cat & mouse in Klaipėda, Lithuania 

This morning we docked in Klaipėdia, the third largest city in Lithuania. David’s GG grandmother, Ziporah Wachman came out to Australia in 1890 from here with the rest of their children. Remember, her husband came out with the two eldest boys in 1888. We have no information on where she lived or anything but it is good to be here, at least.

We wandered around the town.  We were given a map of a walking tour which was fun so we went searching for the places on the map. Unfortunately many of the places were closed because it was Sunday.

Yesterday we walked more than 17,000 steps on horrible cobble stones – Aleks really kept us moving. We did another 10,000 here this morning on cobble stones so our legs are feeling it. We have another 6 hours in port but reckon we’ve done enough walking for today.

Again there some beautiful old buildings including this post office. It was built in 1893 & the exterior is a mix of neo gothic, classicism& jugend style – whatever all that means. It has a set of concert bells in the tower & they rang at midday which was lovely.


I took a photo of another old building in the same street, Liepu Street just as a horse & cart was passing:


Why did I mention a cat & mouse in the heading?  Well here they are:



So what are they doing here?

It seems the the granite sculpture of the cat with a man’s face was done many years ago. Rumour is that it has supernatural powers so you pet its tail & make a wish.

The mouse is just 17cm high & made of bronze & stone. It is decorated with a spell band which says “Convert your ideas into words – words will become magic”.  If you whisper into the ear of the mouse, your wish will come true.

I’ve been asked to post a picture of our ship so here is the Oceania Marina, a really lovely ship.



David features in both of those. It’s not a massive ship – it takes 1,200 passengers & has 800 crew. The second picture is during our sailing from Stockholm.  We are finding it really luxurious.

David is napping now so I’m going to head to the library, lie back on a lovely leather couch & read my book. The weather has turned again – it’s cool & windy & threatening rain so I’m not tempted to go out on deck.

Leave a comment Posted on by dapperdaveanddinkydi Family history, Food, Travel

Some beauty but much grief & sadness

Last night we went to the Polo Grill, one of the speciality restaurants on board.  There’s no extra charge – it is all included & as we did when we went to the French one, Jacques, the other night, we had a wonderful dinner. David started with giant shrimps, then we both had a tomato & red onion salad, followed by a freshly grilled whole lobster. It was delicious.  My mouth waters again just thinking about it. For dessert David had crème bruleé which he raved about & I had three beautiful marshmallows – one in caramel sauce, one raspberry & one chocolate. All of the food on board is excellent but I think that was our favourite meal so far.

This morning we docked in Riga the capital of Latvia & we met Aleksandrs Feigmanis, Master of History & Doctor of Theology. He is the Jewish genealogist who researched the Edelman family for us & he was our guide for today. He was very interesting & a very pleasant man & he walked us all over the old town. It is a lovely warm (22°) day here in Riga today.

The old town of Riga is UNESCO world heritage protected & has some beautiful old buildings. The town began in 1201 & is bordered by the River Daugava on the west & encircled by a canal on the east.

We saw some beautiful examples of Art Nouveau architecture:


I had no time to be careful with my shots. Aleks was walking very quickly & I had to take them on the run. He told us some much interesting history about the houses – I should have taped him – no way we can remember it all.

We saw the Three Brothers, 3 houses in a row which illustrate the development of housing over the centuries from Medieval to Baroque. I think the first was built in 1642

The white one on the right is the oldest, then the yellow, then the green all about a century apart.
Of course many Jews here were killed during the Nazi years. I think there were 70,000 here before the war & now fewer than 5,000. Synagogues were burnt down. This is a memorial built on the site where the Nazis burnt down a Synagogue where they had the people trapped inside. There are flowers at the memorial because the anniversary of this was on 4th July & they had services.


We saw the old Jewish ghetto area where people lived crowded together, more than a family to a room. The houses were wooden & some very poor people still live there.


It is always very sad to hear the history. It is impossible to understand how it could happen.

David’s great grandfather was born somewhere near Riga around 1840 & came to Australia in 1888 with his two eldest sons, one of which was David’s grandfather. They lived in a small shetl (village). Aleks says we should return for at least three days & he will show us.

Would be nice but I don’t think we will make it!

2 Comments Posted on by dapperdaveanddinkydi Family history, Travel

Beryl & John – my 5th cousins!

Today we went to Truro, the main town of Cornwall to go to their record office & do some research even though we had hardly any time there.  I found the records of baptisms of 4 of my ancestors between 1780 & 1805.

The we met up with Beryl & John whose GGGG grandparents, Charles Couch & Honour Phillips, are also my GGGG grandparents. Beryl has been researching for years so has found a great deal of information. We found each other online ages ago.

Ray, Beryl’s husband was also there as was their friend Janie. We all hit it off really well & there was much chatter & laughter. We had a wonderful day & will definely keep in touch. We had lunch at a great pub, The Heron, beside the Truro river, a lovely spot.   I couldn’t get over how much John looks like my brother Kent.

When we got back here, we went into Port Isaac for one last visit!  It’s so beautiful but I’d still prefer to live at Lota!  Tomorrow morning we head to Heathrow.

My head is spinning with all the family stories I’ve heard & all the information I’ve gathered, & especially meeting all these lovely cousins. I’ll have so much to collate when I get home.

We’re so glad we came!  It’s been tremendous. This is the three of us: