Oscar Graffunder - Hackney hairdresser b 1879

[jonwarrn]

No worries! I was beginning to think that RC folks don't see my posts.

We do all read your posts, honestly!
I got bogged down looking in the directories.
Peter John Moss was listed at 366 Mare Street, circa 1911
Then from 1912 it's Percy Cordell.
Both hairdressers.
But no Oscar.
Or was Oscar calling himself Percy?

[Hilaryldn]

Thank you both for the information. The article about Alexandra Palace is fascinating.

I will keep investigating, but they certainly seem to disappear from the records after the 1911 census. Mary Ann is the youngest of the eleven Jones siblings, most of whom are in and around the Hackney area, but she and Oscar junior do not turn up in any of their households, as far as I can tell, which makes me think they must have gone to Germany, either voluntarily at the end of the war or by being deported.

I wondered whether the other hairdressers listed in the household in 1911 - Ludvik Besta (born Bohemia, listed as Austrian) and Reinhold Kitzendorf (born Kentish Town, listed as British subject) -might offer any clues?

I also wondered if the Lutheran Church in Hackney held any records. Oscar junior was baptised there in May 1914 and his godparents are the Poehl family, who were also hairdressers who Oscar senior was living with in the 1901 census.

It seems terribly sad that Mary Ann feels 'sneered at' by her family. Although entirely anecdotal, Mary Ann's sister Eliza Thompson names two of her children Cyril and Evaline May, the same names as Mary Ann's triplets who die in 1906, which suggests that the family must have been supportive at that time.

Thanks again for your help.

[Ashtone]

Might be worth contacting this Isle of Man charity, in case Oscar was interned on the IoM.
https://www.knockaloe.im/people_group_340671.html

One descendant of an internee mentioned her relative was (also) a German hairdresser living in Hackney. After the war, he and his family weren't deported and remained in England.

Hamburg Lutheran Church in Dalston: https://search.lma.gov.uk/scripts/mwimain.dll/144/LMA_OPAC/web_detail/REFD+ACC~2F2622?SESSIONSEARCH

[jorose]

There doesn't seem to be any sign of a post-war naturalisation for Oscar or for Mary (she would have lost her citizenship by marriage but post-war there are sometimes "readmission" records).

https://grandeguerre.icrc.org/en/File/Details/4706507/1/1/
Kck = Knockaloe , Ax. P. =  Alexandra Palace
I think this card indicates that he went back to Germany "rapatrié 5/1 19"

[Hilaryldn]

Oh wow - that is amazing! Thank you so much for posting that.

I have emailed the Isle of Man internment camp charity to see if they have any records of Oscar Graffunder, but that looks like he was definitely there.

Also, I think I can see a death certificate for a Mary Anna Graffunder in Berlin in 1924, but it is behind a paywall.

I have requested a book called "German Hairdressers in the UK: Their Effect Upon the British Way of Life" from the Anglo-German Family History Society, so we'll see what information that provides. There appear to be many German hairdressers in Camden / Hackney / Islington, many with British-born wives and children, including the Poehl / Pohl family and Kitzendorfs. I have found a newspaper report of the father of Reinhold Kitzendorf (one of the barbers living with the Graffunder family in 1911) having his barber's shop in Ferdinand Street attacked in 1891, but it seems to be random vandalism (involving pease pudding!) rather than anti-German feeling. All these people drop off the records after the 1911 census, and I presume they are interned and deported or change their names.

I have come across one further conundrum. Oscar and Mary Ann's triplets are baptised on 9 September 1906 at St James the Apostle, Islington, with the address given as Popham Road. Their baptism is marked "private" so presumably they are very poorly at this point and they are buried on 13 September. It is also recorded that they were born on 25 August. However, there are several newspaper articles in early June 1906 about "a woman" (unnamed) giving birth to triplets in Popham Road. Why would the date of birth be misrecorded in the baptism record? The newspaper report must be slightly behind the event, so we can assume they were actually born in late May. It all seems very strange.

Thank you all very much for helping with this. It is all fascinating.

[Ashtone]

However, there are several newspaper articles in early June 1906 about "a woman" (unnamed) giving birth to triplets in Popham Road.

This is the woman in question. Note: Albany Cottages are on Popham Road.

Daily Mirror
05 June 1906
"Mrs. Hodges, of 84, Albany-Cottages, Essex-Road, Islington, has just given birth to triplets, two girls and a boy, and all are doing well".

[Hilaryldn]

Ah - thank you for clarifying this.

How very strange...Two sets of triplets, both two girls and a boy, on the same street within a few months. The Graffunders give their address as 16 Popham Road. Could this be an address where women came to give birth if they had complex pregnancies? Or is it just a co-incidence? From internment to obstetrics - I have a lot more reading to do!

[Ashtone]

Could this be an address where women came to give birth if they had complex pregnancies? Or is it just a co-incidence?

Probably just a coincidence. See below. Might be Oscar, according to the details.

Islington Gazette
13 June 1904
"ESSEX-ROAD -- House and Shop, No. 16, Popham-Road. Let to hair dresser, on three years agreement, at £39. Term 15 years, at £5".

[jonwarrn]

I can see a death certificate for a Mary Anna Graffunder in Berlin in 1924

That's her.
24 November 1924
Maiden name Jones