Kozminski's Brother (recovered thread)

[robhouse]

Hey Robert,

Where is that article from... Dwellings of the Working Classes, 1886?

Rob H

[Chris]

The first photo shows the entrance of Yalford St off Fieldgate St. The north end of Greenfield St is seen to the left. The second photo is looking down Yalford Street. I would guess that Woolf's address (possibly Aaron's) was around where the guy is standing.

And I must say this Google Street View thing is pretty amazing:
http://tinyurl.com/ccycd8

[Robert]

It was an awful place. This is from an article on the Dwellings of the Working Classes, 1886 :

[Chris]

I have never seen a period photo of Yalford St, but here are a couple photos of Yalford St (now basically an alley) in the present day.

Indeed, it seems it could never have been much more than an alley. Here's a part of the first Booth map (1886-7), showing the area of interest (based on the 1873 O.S. map, so that Yalford Street is called New Street). As the colour-coding indicates, Yalford Street was classed lower than Greenfield Street. The comment in the Booth poverty notebooks from 1886 was: "Very poor class Polish Jews - Even the sweaters are in a poor position." [Booth B 8, pp. 91, 93]

[robhouse]

I have never seen a period photo of Yalford St, but here are a couple photos of Yalford St (now basically an alley) in the present day.

The first photo shows the entrance of Yalford St off Fieldgate St. The north end of Greenfield St is seen to the left. The second photo is looking down Yalford Street. I would guess that Woolf's address (possibly Aaron's) was around where the guy is standing.

Rob H

[Robert]

Freshly extracted.

[Sam Flynn]

This 82 directory actually lists Yalford St under Plumbers Row.

... "see also Skin & Bladder Dealers", egad!

[Robert]

This 82 directory actually lists Yalford St under Plumbers Row.

[Robert]

I see our old friend Dr Blackwell was involved.

Mike - Dec 30th 1874.

[Chris]

Good stuff, Chris. I'm a bit surprised that Woolf couldn't sign his name, given that he was in business.

Yes, but it seems likely he never learned to write English, as he also made a mark when registering the birth of his youngest son in 1900.

[Chris]

Wasn't Yalford close to Greenfield? I remember something you may have posted about that with regards to Rob's fine photo collection. If so, the heart of Whitechapel, eh?

Yes, Yalford Street was the next street to the west of Greenfield Street. Rob posted an extract from the 1938 Goad plan which includes part of Yalford Street running north-side on the left, and shows number 34, Woolf's house:

http://forum.casebook.org/showpost.php?p=63867&postcount=1241

Technically speaking, this was in Mile End Old Town, not Whitechapel, though it was very close to Whitechapel church, and neighbouring addresses were described as in Whitechapel in the family's naturalisation applications.

If this is the house Aaron was living in at the time of the murders, I don't think Macnaghten's description of it (in the Aberconway draft) as "in the very heart of the district where the murders were committed" is too wide of the mark, if Nichols to the east and Stride to the south are taken into account.

[Robert]

Good stuff, Chris. I'm a bit surprised that Woolf couldn't sign his name, given that he was in business.

[The Good Michael]

Chris,

Wasn't Yalford close to Greenfield? I remember something you may have posted about that with regards to Rob's fine photo collection. If so, the heart of Whitechapel, eh?

Mike

[The Good Michael]

Chris,

Very nice work!

Mike

[Chris]

The last location for Woolf that we have before 1888 is 62 Greenfield Street, where he was living in July 1887 (according to the 1888 electoral register).

He was previously known to have been at 3 Sion Square by 26 May 1890, when his daughter Matilda was born there.

Now in addition we know that Woolf's daughter Rebecca was admitted to the Infants' section of Settles Street School on 6 May 1889, her address then being 34 Yalford Street (which ran between and parallel to Plummers Row and Greenfield Street) [LMA LCC/EO/DIV05/SET/AD/006, no 11544]. Rebecca transferred to the Girls' section on 25 February 1890, by which time her address was 3 Zion Square [LMA LCC/EO/DIV05/SET/AD/001, no 2017].

I had suspected for some time that Aaron's brother Woolf and his wife Betsy probably had another child between Milly (b. 1886) and Matilda (b. 1890), who did not survive until the time of the 1891 census. The 1911 census confirmed that three of Betsy's children had died by that time. We knew of one child, Rachel (c. 1883-1887), but not the others.

With a bit of persistence, one of the missing children has been tracked down. A son Joseph was born prematurely in March 1889, and lived only 2 days (a transcript of his death certificate is copied below). Woolf's address at that time was 34 Yalford Street. So this information takes us a couple of months closer to the Autumn of 1888.
__________________________________________________ _

March 1889 1c 323

Registration district: Mile End Old Town
1889 Birth in the Sub-district of Mile End Old Town Western in the County of Middlesex
No.: 172
When and where died: Eleventh March 1889 34 Yalford Street
Name and surname: Joseph Abrahams
Sex: Male
Age: 2 days
Occupation: Son of Woolf Abrahams a Journeyman Tailor
Cause of death: Premature Birth (6 Months) Certified by F W Blackwell L R C P
Signature, description and residence of informant: X The mark of Woolf Abrahams Father 34 Yalford Street Mile End
When registered: Eleventh March 1889
Signature of registrar: John B Ratcliff Registrar