Germans in Nottingham lace industry

[greyingrey]

I've just found an essay on the internet by a Professor Panika Pananyi (that will be misspelt somewhere) of the Institute  of Migration Studies about patterns of German migration to Britain. He says that German immigrants were particularly important for the Nottingham lace industry in the nineteeenth century. I'm a native of the city, but I've never heard that before.

Does anyone know where I could find out if there was any local philanthropic activity for these immigrants ? (presumably Nottm Library would be the best place to ask ??)

[Jane Eden]

Hi

I hope you dont mind but I have just recommended someone sends you a PM about George Bradley as I found you had been involved in a similar search.

On the question you ask apart from the archives is there anything in Felkins book: William Felkin (1795-1874) - Author of the 'History of the Machine-Wrought Hosiery and Lace Manufactures'

You probably know I am a native and family were lace both sides, Mansfield and Nottm in 19th century and Long Eaton 19th and 20th century. I have had Felkin out several times, been to Ruddington and done loads of research and also have not noticed a German influence.

Found this about German lace machines but not German people:

http://www.air-receivers.co.uk/shepshedlace/history.htm

I am interested in any results.

By the way I have just found this if you are interested: Go to the bottom of the page. It is in a years time but looks interesting!

http://www.derbyshireas.org.uk/daslect.html

Jane

[Dizzifish]

Hello....

You can access the William Felkin book online.....not as nice as having the actual book in your hand....but good for reference if you can't get hold of a copy...... I think this is the one Jane means?

A history of the machine-wrought hosiery and lace manufactures... by William Felkin
Published 1867 by Longmans in London .

http://openlibrary.org/books/OL7078589M/A_history_of_the_machine-wrought_hosiery_and_lace_manufactures.

[Brie]

Hi,

I have a copy of Felkin and have just checked all the references to Germany in the index. None of them refers to workers from Germany in Nottingham. Mainly about export, business etc.

Also never heard of German immigrants in association with the Notts lace industry and I was brought up in the East Midlands. Am now intrigued.

Brie

[mareanna]

Eerie or coincidence? 

Just a couple of days ago I started tracing back a line of Stanhopes that married into my Westons and came across Franz PICKL born about 1877 Vienna, Austria (married Ethel Maud Stanhope in 1909).  He was a Lace/Textile Draughtsman.  On the 1911 census the couple were in Bulwell.  On the 1901 census Franz is a lodger in West Bridgford, along with Franz GEISENDORF, also a Lace Draughtsman from Vienna, and Theodor FAGER, ditto trade and origin.  Alright, not German, but pretty darn close given that borders have changed during the years

The Westons were in the lace and yarn trades.  James Edward Weston went to USA in the 1890s and was intrumental in setting up the machinery for the Scranton Lace Curtain Company in Pennsylvania.

Hope this adds to your research 

Mareanna

[diplodicus]

The Strella company in Nottingham was founded by a German refugeee; surname Strauss (STRella!!). The family story is that he started off cycling around Nottingham selling his wares. Not bad for a man with only one leg!

BTW Strauss is German for Ostrich not that it's relevant to anything!

[Jane Eden]

Dizzifish

Wow. Thanks for the Felkin online. I am amazed.

Jane

[greyingrey]

Thanks everyone.

Brie....I was brought up in Nottingham & had never heard of it either (despite being interested in history/local history) & I know another keen genealogist from Nottm who had assumed any foreign workers involved would have been Flemish. But it's true.....a lot of them were German/Jewish (ie most from what is now Poland). I've come to this through researching my own gggg grandfather, who was a German/Jewish immigrant. He wasn't a laceworker, but books like the one by Nelson Fisher on the history of the Jews in Nottingham make this clear. They weren't "brought over specially"...they were fleeing conflict & naturally became involved in the lace industry because that was the work that was available. Many lacemakers provided financial support to the Jewish community.....but kept it a secret.

It's all been very well hidden because the Jewish community tried to play down their numbers & so quickly anglicised their names etc. This was because most of the wealthy Jews settled in London but sent financial support to Jews elsewhere. If there was a Jewish family in Nottingham in need of help, they'd get a lot more from London if they said "There are only 100 people here to help us" than if they said "There are 500 people here to help us"....the north/south divide, eh ?

In general, once you get to about 1840, German merchants & businessmen started coming from current German big cities like Frankfurt/Munich/Hamburg & brought their own workers with them. But I don't know in how far this affected Nottingham

[ManyaGK]

This is fascinating, as I've been researching my own family and have traced the Rosenbergs to the Nottingham garment industry. Simon Rosenberg was born in 1849 in Linschitz (Warsaw administrative district, near Lodz), in Poland. He was naturalized in Nottingham in 1894, living in the now demolished Castle Terrace development. He was a tailor in ladies garments and, if the records correspond correctly, both he and his daughter Mabel worked on Wheeler Gate Road. In the 1902 Nottingham census there is a Simon Rosenberg, Tailor, working at 16a Wheeler Gate. Simon and his other children later moved to New York and Massachusetts.

I hope this helps provide some insight on Jewish families working in the industry in Nottingham at that time. Please let me know if anyone has information that would help flesh any of this out!