Thanks for your continued help & interest, youngtug.
I've found a map on JewishGen which, I think has fitted a few pieces together. When the Jews were thrown out of England, it's believed that a group of them, under the protection of an aristocrat, pretended to be a Christian sect with some Jewish type customs (eg Saturday was their Sabbath), so I wouldn't be surprised if some Ashers in the E Mids had their roots there (obviously some would have got fed up & left that community as time went on)
The next wave were My Lot who came over at the end of the eighteenth/mid nineteenth century. Russia attacked Poland & recruited/pressganged Jews as they marched into Poland & used them as their cats' paws in a dreadfully brutal battle near Warsaw. When the Russians withdrew, they refused to take the Jews with them & the Poles took their revenge. At the same time, the lace trade was beginning to build up & the manufacturers needed very cheap labour. Somewhere along the line, someone got the idea to use those Jews, who were only too glad to come, & they were used as hawkers for the lace (the lowest of the low) My gggg grandfather was a hawker.....he may have been a child when he came over....don't know
ANYWAY this map on JewishGen shows that there were very large numbers of Ashers just either side of the current Polish/Ukraine border....& then there's a narrow trail of them leading up to Warsaw where there was a sizeable concentration (but nothing like the numbers at the borders). So obviously, there had been a movement from the border areas where they "originally" were. I guess the best point to start would be Warsaw....I know they have a very big Jewish Memorial Museum there.
Sorry to have bored you & thanks for your help.
Anyone got any tips for looking for a Jewish family in Warsaw in about 1800 ?
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Topic: Jewish question (Read 1640 times)