A trip down memory lane

It was interesting to learn the Jewish Genealogical Society for Great Britain has a well-stocked library on all the old maps of Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Russia too. I found everyone warm and welcoming when I popped in for Open House London, with their offers of milky coffee and overly sugary cookies. What I both admire and love about being part of the Jewish community (how clubbable people can be; everyone ready to talk and share an opinion; a throatiness and an earthiness to their voices), can at times feel a bit claustrophobic too.

But I needed that trip down memory lane. I especially loved the (not particularly useful) aside from one of the steering committee members to a fellow fly-by-night geneaologist; there ~ like me ~ chasing ghosts. In response to the newcomer and his question about how a ‘Simon Joseph’ that he was looking to trace must have reached the sea from his specific Shtetl in the Ukraine; the deadpan answer flew back: “by horse and cart, I suspect”.

I was advised to look at the London Metropolitan archives for more information on my great-great grandfather, Joseph Finn’s likely London locations in the early 1900s’ when he wrote ‘A Voice from the Aliens’. I was also advised that it can be handy speaking to the Seven Dials community, who may have more information on the sponge factory that my great-grandfather, Reuben Crystol (on another side), helped to run with Leslie Marks and Ben Da Costa, on Earlham Street. Have you visited the Society of Genealogists in Clerkenwell – there have some great lectures and workshops too.

If you are interested in reading more of Andrew's blogs and other published work, do take a look here.