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This is G o o g l e's cache of http://forum.casebook.org/archive/index.php/t-3902.html as retrieved on 9 Feb 2008 09:26:22 GMT.
G o o g l e's cache is the snapshot that we took of the page as we crawled the web.
Casebook: Jack the Ripper - Forums > Ripper Discussions > Suspects > Kosminsky, Aaron > Kozminski's Brother
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cgp100
11th March 2007, 09:51 PM
One of the puzzles posed by the Swanson Marginalia concerns the reference to the City CID watching Kozminski by day and night following his return from the Seaside Home to "his brother's house in Whitechapel".
It has usually been assumed that this actually refers to one of Aaron Kozminski's brothers-in-law - either Woolf Abrahams, the husband of his sister Betsy, or Morris Lubnowski Cohen, the husband of his sister Matilda.[1] But this leaves unexplained a puzzling reference that suggests Aaron did have a brother in London at the time of his death in 1919.
As a result of Rob House's discovery of the records of the births of Aaron and his siblings at Klodawa in Poland, it has been possible to clear up the mystery. The records indicate that Aaron Kozminski did indeed have a brother who was living in the East End of London at the time of the Whitechapel Murders.
There are three indications that Aaron Kozminski had a brother:
(1) There is a record of the birth of Iciek, son of Abraham Joseph Kozminski and Golda, in April/May 1851 at Klodawa in the county of Kalisz, Poland.[2]
(2) Aaron's monumental inscription implies that he was survived by a brother and at least two sisters.[3]
(3) A note concerning Aaron's funeral, apparently among the records of Leavesden Asylum, is signed by a member of his family whose address is given as "The Dolphin", Whitechapel E, London. The signature has been read as "H. W. Abrahams" and the relationship to Aaron as "brothers".[4]
There is nothing in the first two of these to suggest that Aaron had a brother in England. The third reference is enigmatic, and it has been suggested that it also may relate to Aaron's brother-in-law, Woolf Abrahams.
"The Dolphin" was a public house at 97-99 Whitechapel Road, a short distance to the north of Greenfield Street and Sion Square where Aaron's brothers-in-law had earlier lived.[5] The electoral register for Autumn 1919 lists three voters: Florence, Isaac and Mark Abrahams.[4] Mark Abrahams was listed as publican in 1918-1922 (together with Edward Cecil Moore from 1919 onwards), and is perhaps the same man who was at the "Princess of Wales", 17 Copley St, Stepney, in 1916-1917.[6]
The electoral register shows that Isaac and Mark were qualified to vote through residence/occupation, Florence was qualified through her husband's occupation.[7] At that time, the franchise extended to married women aged 30 and more.
The FreeBMD index of civil registration records contains only one marriage of a woman named Florence to an Isaac or Mark Abrahams in the South of England. This is the marriage of Mark Abrahams, a journeyman tailor aged 39 of 171 Cable Street, the son of Isaac Abrahams, a tailor, to Florence Levy, a tailoress aged 28 of 127 Whitechapel Road (only a few doors away from the "Dolphin"), the daughter of a deceased boot maker named Mark Levy. The marriage took place on 12 January 1913 at Philpot Street Synagogue.[8]
So it appears that the family living at the "Dolphin" in 1919 were a husband and wife, Mark and Florence Abrahams, together with the husband's father, Isaac.
The family of Isaac Abrahams was easily found in the 1881, 1891 and 1901 censuses, particularly as he was already at 171 Cable Street by 1901.[9] Both Isaac and his wife Betsy (called Bertha in 1891) had been born in Poland - Isaac in 1851-1853 - but had apparently been in London since about 1872-1873 when Mark, the eldest of their four recorded children, was born. In 1891 they had lived at 74 Greenfield Street - the same street in which Aaron's brothers-in-law had lived in the 1880s - and in 1881 at 3A Fieldgate Street (at the north end of Greenfield Street). In 1901, Isaac described himself as a naturalised British subject.
It turns out that Isaac was jumping the gun, as at the date of the census he had applied for naturalisation, but the process was not complete. Despite some minor discrepancies, the details given on his application make it clear that he was Aaron Kozminski's elder brother, born Iciek Kozminski at Klodawa in 1851.[10]
So it seems that Isaac came to England ten years or more before Aaron's sisters (and, presumably, Aaron himself), apparently leaving Poland before their father's death in 1874, and adopting the more English-sounding surname of Abrahams. Of course, this is the same surname that their mother Golda adopted when she later came to England. It also seems that the signature on the document concerning Aaron's funeral, previously read as "H. W. Abrahams", must really be Isaac's, and the relationship given must simply be "brother".
Finally, the admission and discharge registers of the Jews' Free School show that two of Isaac Abrahams's children - Woolf and Esther - were admitted as pupils there in 1886.[11] The address given is 74 Greenfield Street, the same house in which Isaac lived in April 1891. So almost certainly this is where he was living in Autumn 1888, and - if Swanson's annotations are to be taken at face value - the house where Kozminski was watched by the City CID.
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Many thanks to Philip Hutchinson for supplying the text of Aaron's monumental inscription.
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NOTES
[1] There is a reference to a brother "Wolf Kozminski" of 3 Sion Square on the order for Aaron's reception into Colney Hatch Lunatic Asylum, dated February 1891 [LMA StBG/ME/107/8, no 1558]. From this, it was originally assumed that Aaron did have a brother named Woolf, but it seems clear this was a confused reference to Woolf Abrahams, who lived at 3 Sion Square at least between May 1890 and April 1891. Woolf had previously lived at 62 Greenfield Street, at least between December 1886 and July 1887, but it is not known where he lived in the Autumn of 1888. Morris Lubnowski Cohen lived at 16 Greenfield Street from December 1885 until early 1891.
[2] Robert House, "The Kozminski File", Ripperologist no 65 (March 2006).
[3] The reference to a brother and sisters is mentioned by Paul Begg, The Facts, p. 506 (2004).
The inscription is no longer legible, but according to the narration of "Who was Jack the Ripper?", a TV documentary in the London Weekend Television "Crime Monthly series", broadcast 10 August 1990, the inscription read "Aaron Kosminski who died the 24th of March 1919. Deeply missed by his brother, sisters, relatives and friends. May his dear soul rest in peace."
[4] Scott Nelson, "Kosminski's Relatives", Ripperologist no 39 (February 2002)
Paul Begg, The Facts, pp. 376, 509 (2004).
[5] "The Dolphin" was on the north side of Whitechapel Road, and immediately to the east of its junction with Greatorex Street. The building survives - and retains the fitting from which the sign would have hung - but the ground floor is now occupied by the Islamic Bank of Britain.
[6] Post Office Directories of London, 1915-1923. Abrahams succeeded John George Wilcox who was listed at the "Princess of Wales" in 1915, and Louis Brager who was listed at the "Dolphin" in 1917. Moore and Abrahams were succeeded at the "Dolphin" by Hyman Isbitsky in 1923.
[7] LMA LCC/PER/B/1607, district M.
[8] See transcript of marriage entry in following post.
[9] See transcript of census entries in following post.
[10] See transcript of naturalisation papers in following post.
Evidently because he had adopted the surname Abrahams, he called his parents Abrahams, and dropped his father's first name Abraham, calling him only Joseph. There is also a discrepancy of a year and a few days in the stated date of birth.
[11] See transcript of admission entries in following post.------------------------------------------------------------------------
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This is G o o g l e's cache of http://forum.casebook.org/archive/index.php/t-3902.html as retrieved on 9 Feb 2008 09:26:22 GMT.
G o o g l e's cache is the snapshot that we took of the page as we crawled the web.
Casebook: Jack the Ripper - Forums > Ripper Discussions > Suspects > Kosminsky, Aaron > Kozminski's Brother
------------------------------------------------------------------------
.
.
.
.
cgp100
11th March 2007, 09:51 PM
One of the puzzles posed by the Swanson Marginalia concerns the reference to the City CID watching Kozminski by day and night following his return from the Seaside Home to "his brother's house in Whitechapel".
It has usually been assumed that this actually refers to one of Aaron Kozminski's brothers-in-law - either Woolf Abrahams, the husband of his sister Betsy, or Morris Lubnowski Cohen, the husband of his sister Matilda.[1] But this leaves unexplained a puzzling reference that suggests Aaron did have a brother in London at the time of his death in 1919.
As a result of Rob House's discovery of the records of the births of Aaron and his siblings at Klodawa in Poland, it has been possible to clear up the mystery. The records indicate that Aaron Kozminski did indeed have a brother who was living in the East End of London at the time of the Whitechapel Murders.
There are three indications that Aaron Kozminski had a brother:
(1) There is a record of the birth of Iciek, son of Abraham Joseph Kozminski and Golda, in April/May 1851 at Klodawa in the county of Kalisz, Poland.[2]
(2) Aaron's monumental inscription implies that he was survived by a brother and at least two sisters.[3]
(3) A note concerning Aaron's funeral, apparently among the records of Leavesden Asylum, is signed by a member of his family whose address is given as "The Dolphin", Whitechapel E, London. The signature has been read as "H. W. Abrahams" and the relationship to Aaron as "brothers".[4]
There is nothing in the first two of these to suggest that Aaron had a brother in England. The third reference is enigmatic, and it has been suggested that it also may relate to Aaron's brother-in-law, Woolf Abrahams.
"The Dolphin" was a public house at 97-99 Whitechapel Road, a short distance to the north of Greenfield Street and Sion Square where Aaron's brothers-in-law had earlier lived.[5] The electoral register for Autumn 1919 lists three voters: Florence, Isaac and Mark Abrahams.[4] Mark Abrahams was listed as publican in 1918-1922 (together with Edward Cecil Moore from 1919 onwards), and is perhaps the same man who was at the "Princess of Wales", 17 Copley St, Stepney, in 1916-1917.[6]
The electoral register shows that Isaac and Mark were qualified to vote through residence/occupation, Florence was qualified through her husband's occupation.[7] At that time, the franchise extended to married women aged 30 and more.
The FreeBMD index of civil registration records contains only one marriage of a woman named Florence to an Isaac or Mark Abrahams in the South of England. This is the marriage of Mark Abrahams, a journeyman tailor aged 39 of 171 Cable Street, the son of Isaac Abrahams, a tailor, to Florence Levy, a tailoress aged 28 of 127 Whitechapel Road (only a few doors away from the "Dolphin"), the daughter of a deceased boot maker named Mark Levy. The marriage took place on 12 January 1913 at Philpot Street Synagogue.[8]
So it appears that the family living at the "Dolphin" in 1919 were a husband and wife, Mark and Florence Abrahams, together with the husband's father, Isaac.
The family of Isaac Abrahams was easily found in the 1881, 1891 and 1901 censuses, particularly as he was already at 171 Cable Street by 1901.[9] Both Isaac and his wife Betsy (called Bertha in 1891) had been born in Poland - Isaac in 1851-1853 - but had apparently been in London since about 1872-1873 when Mark, the eldest of their four recorded children, was born. In 1891 they had lived at 74 Greenfield Street - the same street in which Aaron's brothers-in-law had lived in the 1880s - and in 1881 at 3A Fieldgate Street (at the north end of Greenfield Street). In 1901, Isaac described himself as a naturalised British subject.
It turns out that Isaac was jumping the gun, as at the date of the census he had applied for naturalisation, but the process was not complete. Despite some minor discrepancies, the details given on his application make it clear that he was Aaron Kozminski's elder brother, born Iciek Kozminski at Klodawa in 1851.[10]
So it seems that Isaac came to England ten years or more before Aaron's sisters (and, presumably, Aaron himself), apparently leaving Poland before their father's death in 1874, and adopting the more English-sounding surname of Abrahams. Of course, this is the same surname that their mother Golda adopted when she later came to England. It also seems that the signature on the document concerning Aaron's funeral, previously read as "H. W. Abrahams", must really be Isaac's, and the relationship given must simply be "brother".
Finally, the admission and discharge registers of the Jews' Free School show that two of Isaac Abrahams's children - Woolf and Esther - were admitted as pupils there in 1886.[11] The address given is 74 Greenfield Street, the same house in which Isaac lived in April 1891. So almost certainly this is where he was living in Autumn 1888, and - if Swanson's annotations are to be taken at face value - the house where Kozminski was watched by the City CID.
__________________________________________________
Many thanks to Philip Hutchinson for supplying the text of Aaron's monumental inscription.
__________________________________________________
NOTES
[1] There is a reference to a brother "Wolf Kozminski" of 3 Sion Square on the order for Aaron's reception into Colney Hatch Lunatic Asylum, dated February 1891 [LMA StBG/ME/107/8, no 1558]. From this, it was originally assumed that Aaron did have a brother named Woolf, but it seems clear this was a confused reference to Woolf Abrahams, who lived at 3 Sion Square at least between May 1890 and April 1891. Woolf had previously lived at 62 Greenfield Street, at least between December 1886 and July 1887, but it is not known where he lived in the Autumn of 1888. Morris Lubnowski Cohen lived at 16 Greenfield Street from December 1885 until early 1891.
[2] Robert House, "The Kozminski File", Ripperologist no 65 (March 2006).
[3] The reference to a brother and sisters is mentioned by Paul Begg, The Facts, p. 506 (2004).
The inscription is no longer legible, but according to the narration of "Who was Jack the Ripper?", a TV documentary in the London Weekend Television "Crime Monthly series", broadcast 10 August 1990, the inscription read "Aaron Kosminski who died the 24th of March 1919. Deeply missed by his brother, sisters, relatives and friends. May his dear soul rest in peace."
[4] Scott Nelson, "Kosminski's Relatives", Ripperologist no 39 (February 2002)
Paul Begg, The Facts, pp. 376, 509 (2004).
[5] "The Dolphin" was on the north side of Whitechapel Road, and immediately to the east of its junction with Greatorex Street. The building survives - and retains the fitting from which the sign would have hung - but the ground floor is now occupied by the Islamic Bank of Britain.
[6] Post Office Directories of London, 1915-1923. Abrahams succeeded John George Wilcox who was listed at the "Princess of Wales" in 1915, and Louis Brager who was listed at the "Dolphin" in 1917. Moore and Abrahams were succeeded at the "Dolphin" by Hyman Isbitsky in 1923.
[7] LMA LCC/PER/B/1607, district M.
[8] See transcript of marriage entry in following post.
[9] See transcript of census entries in following post.
[10] See transcript of naturalisation papers in following post.
Evidently because he had adopted the surname Abrahams, he called his parents Abrahams, and dropped his father's first name Abraham, calling him only Joseph. There is also a discrepancy of a year and a few days in the stated date of birth.
[11] See transcript of admission entries in following post.------------------------------------------------------------------------
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