Settling a Family Legend

[The Blind Beggar]

Firstly, Hello.

I've often popped into the Forum as I am very interested in the subject and have been for many years. And as a complete novice, I'm hoping to not embarasse myself here

I have now taken the plunge and joined and as my first post, I wonder if someone may be able to help me solve a mystery that has been in my family for as long as I can remember?

My family history is very much tied to the East End and Spitalfields in particular, my grandfather always told me that my ancestors had been in and around the areas of the Jack the Ripper murders in 1888, he even boasted that an ancestor of mine had given a statement or perhaps been a witness to one of the murders. I realise that there have probably been a small army of people trying to connect their family history the the Ripper but I have considered long and hard before posting to this forum and I hope someone can help me in my quest to find out if this family legend is true - if its not, then thats fine, I'll still be interested in the case and still use this forum.

The information I have is that my family name is LEWIS and in 1888 they may have lived at either:15 NEW COURT, FASHION STREET, 12 FRYING PAN ALLEY, as well as FLOWER AND DEAN STREET. The names I have are Phillip Lewis, father, Simon Lewis aged about 8. They were Russian or Polish Jews.

I realise that a SARAH LEWIS gave a statement to the Police but I haven't connected her to my family tree as yet. I wonder if there may be a record of who lived at the addresses, above, during the dates of the murders? or do Police records hold details of the specific addresses of those interviewed? The Census records aren't much help as they are not specific to August/Sept 1888 and I would imagine the tennents of these houses changed frequently.

If anyone can help with any information, I'd be very grateful.

The Blind Beggar

[ChrisGeorge]

Hello Blind Beggar

Good luck to you in your quest. The censuses for this period were taken in the springs of 1881 and 1891. You are correct that they might not show who was living at those addresses in 1888. There are, however, annual street directories from the era, which, much like telephone directories of our day, would show you who lived where.

Chris

[The Blind Beggar]

Chris,

Thank you, I don't know much about the Street Directories but its given me something to look into, is there a website where I can view these directories?.

Picking through my notes I've come up with the Surname BRUCE which is on the maternal side of the family and may give another line of enquiry

[John Bennett]

Hi BB

Whilst researching the background of JTR witness Sarah Lewis from the census returns I found a woman of the same name living at 13 Great Pearl Street, Spitalfields, aged 15 in 1881 (our Sarah claimed to be resident at 34). She was born in Poland and her parents were Isaac and Rachel.

However, as I could find no definitive proof that she was indeed the SL who gave evidence in 1888, I had to let it go.

Could this provide a lead?

JB

[John Bennett]

BB,

Here's a link to the ancestry page of Sarah Lewis's.

http://search.ancestry.co.uk/cgi-bin/sse.dll?rank=1&=&=&=&=&=&=&=&=&=&=&gsfn=sarah&gsln=lewis&=&gsby=1866&gsb2co=5183%2CPoland&gsb2pl=1%2C+&gsdy=&gsd2co=1%2CAll+Countries&gsd2pl=1%2C+&=&=&=&=&=&=&=&=&=&sbo=0&sbor=&ufr=0&wp=4%3B_80000002%3B_80000003&srchb=r&prox=1&db=&ti=5538&ti.si=0&gl=allgs&gss=ansmp&so=3

I don't know if you have access to this website, but you'll see she appears in a few entries - whether it's your Sarah Lewis, I can't say, but you may find something, possibly.

Good luck.

[m_w_r]

...is there a website where I can view these directories?

Hi -

www.historicaldirectories.org might give you a starting point. In the East End, your target would probably have needed a business or unusual wealth and independence in order to make it into the directory. But they're worth a look anyway.

A hint - I only use Safari with www.historicaldirectories.org. I find that browsing in Internet Explorer or Firefox does not work very well. Also, the servers at the University of Leicester seem to crash quite a lot. If they do, there's no point banging your head against a brick wall - log off and try again the next day.

A great resource, for all its problems.

Regards,

Mark

[Chris]

I think the first priority should be to try to find the family in the 1891 census.

Beyond that, if you want to establish addresses for them in the late 1880s, you could try looking at birth/death certificates of siblings, school admissions registers, land tax returns and electoral registers. As has been said, they would appear in directories only if they were self-employed tradesmen (and then not necessarily).

Unfortunately, apart from birth and death certificates (now pretty completely indexed by www.freebmd.org.uk, which also provides scans of the original quarterly indexes), these aren't available on the Internet. School registers and electoral registers are available at the London Metropolitan Archives and Land Tax returns at the Guildhall Library. They are all a bit hit-and-miss - for example immigrants shouldn't strictly appear on the electoral registers unless they had been naturalised, but sometimes do, and the land tax returns survive only for some years, and don't include many properties for which a lump sum had been paid to exempt them.

[Chris]

PS A naturalisation application may also show where a family had lived for the previous few years, though often not for the whole period since its arrival in England. These can be searched for in the online National Archives catalogue:

http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/catalogue/RdLeaflet.asp?sLeafletID=242

http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/catalogue/default.asp

[Mike Covell]

Interesting story and good luck with the research.

As pointed out a good place to start is both the 1881 and 1891 census, these will show the location, trade, family etc and help create a picture.

Next up, Trade Directories, which as Chris mentioned are great as they have alphabetical surname entries and alphabetical street entries. These are useful, especially if you find a trade in the census.

Next I would try the burgess rolls, these are usually available at the local library or archives, and show a year by year, ward by ward, account of who voted, when, and who was up for election. Again, these help in showing the location of the family, but also provide information regarding any properties, commercial or domestic, that might be owned by the family. The Burgess roll contains only those with the cash and/or properties, which enabled them to vote.

Other areas of interest might well be the BMD (Birth, Marriage, Death Indexes) which are available at local libraries, archives, and many parishes have placed them online.

Another idea is to register with the free genealogy websites, where you can leave details about who you are researching, or search for others who are involved in a similar search!

Good look, and keep us posted.

[Chris]

You can also find links to some useful online resources for Jewish genealogy on this page in the wiki section:

http://wiki.casebook.org/index.php/Resources_for_Jewish_genealogy

[DarkPassenger]

One of these days someone will come on here and turn out to be the decendant of JTR.