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Subject: [BRITISH-JEWRY] Litvak relatives/names (reply to Angie)
Date: Fri, 6 Oct 2006 09:52:45 +0100 (BST)
References: <mailman.333.1160118334.2642.british-jewry@rootsweb.com>
In-Reply-To: <mailman.333.1160118334.2642.british-jewry@rootsweb.com>

Hi Angie

All I know is that the parents of my gf came over to UK in abt 1876 from
somewhere near the SE Baltic.

They are on the 1881, 1891 & 1901 census.
If I remember correctly on one they called their home area Germany, on
another Russia.
The man became a naturalised Brit but there do not appear to be any papers
for him & as for her - she is on one of the census listed as of Russian
origin.

My father's sister was always nicknamed the 'little Lit (ie Lithuanian)'
and of this she was quite proud; tho to be honest after her Pa (my gf)
died in the early 1950s she never followed the Jewish faith.

My gf married OUT and was almost cut off from his bros & sisss; tho again
I can remember his wife (my goy gm) saying that she used to trot around
Manchester in the 1900s, 1910s and possibly even afterwards delivering
warm, cooked food to her orthodox relatives who had obviously not cooked
on Shabbas.

Now - all I know abt names is Oknofsky - various spellings.
I believe that the word means 'window' or something similar in Polish &
wonder if an earlier ancestor had made windows or fitted windows.

Anyway
That is the name shown for my gf & even on my own Pa's birth cert, which
is strange because by the time Pa was born in 1904 the whole family of my
gf & his parents & siblings appeared to have changed to Davies/Davis pre
1901 census.!!!

2 of my gf's sisters were married at the Great Synagogue (Cheetham Hill)
in the period 1895-1905 & used the Davis surname on their certificates.

Some years ago I used the services of a Jewish genealogist in M/c to try
tracing anything.
She got the various census records obviously & the marriage certs but
nothing much further.

I would like to get back across the North Sea/Baltic to the 'old lands' &
find where exactly they came from.
I presume that they came from that corner of the SE Baltic which changed
between Russia, Germany & Lithuania over the years (is Danzig the patch ?
not sure).

But by the time I became interested in genealogy all the true sources of
info were long dead; and any contact with gf's sisters & their families
was lost before 1950.

I have not posted the surname in many places because, as they say, I know
'nothing from nothing' so it would all be very vague !!

If you can give me any advice or clues it would be much appreciated,
or even wave a magic wand.

Clinton
still soggy Birmingham, West Midlands, UK

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