Hi Emma,
It is true that Ashkenazi Jews would regard it as bad luck to name a child after a living person. However, that custom does not seem to have applied to the use of secular names. That is to say, that Isaac and his son Isaac did not necessarily have the name Hebrew name.
Who did Isaac senior marry and when?
Where did they live?
Do you know when and where the Isaacs died?
Justin
Dear Justin,
Thank you for getting back to me. That is interesting that it is possible that Ashkenazi Jews may have named their children after a living relative in terms of secular names as it means Ashkenazi might be a possibility again. I don't know how I might find their Hebrew name.
Isaac snr married 4 times the second wife Bestsy Martin was the one he had a family with, they married July 1849 in West Bromwich by Banns but I am not sure where. He was a widower and a confectioner, he says his father was Benjamin Myers.
In 1858 he was declared bankrupt but the press article said he had been a journeyman confectioner travelling to places like Coventry and Northampton so maybe he married his first wife there. He had also been a master confectioner later and was and sold beer and wine.
10 Mar 1872 – Marriage to Sarah Ann Theaker (nee Ryley), she was a widow. Marriage at Walsall. This time he gives his father as Isaac Myers but the profession is the same – sealing wax maker.
10 Oct 1878 – Marriage - Isaac a widower, confectioner age 49 remarries on 21 October 1878 to Margaret Clark age 32 a spinster, in Walsall, St John. Both of Long Street. His father is listed as Isaac Myers, diseased, occ. sealing wax maker.
So 2 fathers named, I need to find his first marriage to see what he named his father then.
It seems to be the same Isaac as his profession is not common, his father's name may change but the fact he made sealing wax does not and in 1881 he is with Margaret and daughter Rachel Julia in windle.
Death - 1905 – Death. He died 4 years later in the workhouse. MYERS, Isaac. 76 years, 9 Mar 1905, Abode Union Workhouse Wednesfield, Labourer, Grave 7026, Reg. No. G4/13239
I have not had chance to go to the graveyard yet and although there is a Jewish section at Merridale I don't think it opened until 1965??
I will post further information including why I think he is Jewish a little further in in the thread.
Best wishes
Emma