JEWISH MYSTERY

[daisynook]

Not sure where to post this one!  My great-grandmother Jemima Phillips married a Catholic man with Irish roots who was a tailor.  I had thought that Phillips was a Jewish name but I wasn't sure if she came from a Jewish family until I found a photograph of her nephew who was employed in my great-grandfather's tailoring businesses and he was wearing a yarmulke. I have the nephew's war record which shows him as a Roman Catholic.  Can anyone answer me if all tailors wore a yarmulke or would he have been of the Jewish persuasion??

[heywood]

Hello,
Have you traced Jemima's family? If she is the daughter of John and Ann, John was a Pork butcher when she was baptised CoE so that Phillips line looks unlikely.

Was the nephew born a Phillips?

Heywood

[jennifer c]

Do you want to give anymore information to make it easier to trace the family?

Jennifer

[3sillydogs]

I would think that only a man of the Jewish faith would wear the yarmulke, so it is likely that the man in the picture was Jewish

[heywood]

Is the man in the photo definitely the nephew?

[daisynook]

Yes, Henry Phillips was Jemima's nephew.  His parents were William James Phillips b.1866 married to Ellen (don't know her surname).  Henry on 1911 Census living with his aunt and uncle Jemima and John Edward McMullen.  Thank you for the information that Jemima was CofE.  It looks like they weren't Jewish then.

[jennifer c]

William born 13/4/1864 bapt Manchester 5/6/1864 parents John & Ann

Jennifer

[jennifer c]

There is a marriage registered 1884 Salford Ellen McHale and William Phillips?

Jennifer

[daisynook]

Thank you Jennifer, yes I'm sure that's the right William, parents John and Ann and a possibility for his wife.  And yes, Heywood, Henry the nephew was born a Phillips with brothers Thomas and William.