Help from a Synagogue?

[nanny jan]

Has anyone contacted a synagogue for help and been answered?  I'm researching my late mum's cousin who married his second wife firstly in a London Register Office and then, 21 years later, they married in a Sephardic synagogue in London.  Both had been previously married; his name too common for me to find his first marriage and hers only appears once....when they marry the first time!

I'm assuming the man converted as his unmarried grandparents were Ashkenazi father and Christian mother.   Would a synagogue hold records of his conversion or any other family details about them?

[sandiep]

https://www.jewishgen.org/jcr-uk/Affiliations/Sephardi.htm#congregations

this site may help  Bevis Marks is the largest and they used to have an archivist
if you can give names if they are not still alive I have the record books for there
we are not jewish so as found some ancestors needed some help to see where they fitted
 

[nanny jan]

Thanks sandiep;  it was not at Bevis Marks but one in Kensington. I visited Bevis Marks many years ago; a beautiful building but now threated by a possible development nearby.

I am uncertain if they are still alive;  he born 1936 and she born 1933....if her marriage certificates are correct.  I know his birth year is correct.

Thank you for the link.

[sandiep]

is that not an Ashkenazi synagogue
this link might help gives alternative names for some
https://www.jewishgen.org/jcr-uk/London/London_alternative.htm

but to answer your first question most synagogues will give replies worth a try

[nanny jan]

The synagogue is the Spanish & Portuguese synagogue, St James’ Gardens, Kensington. I think that is Sephardic.

Will work on an email but probably send it after their sabbath; will give me time to draft it with enough detail but not too much to overwhelm them.

[sandiep]

yes I guess that is the Holland Park one  8 St James Gardens and that is Sephardic
looking at their website they look as if they would be helpful if they have information  you need
best of luck

[ThrelfallYorky]

I'm sure that whichever synagogue is closest physically to you will be very willing to try and help. The Manchester area is especially helpful.
TY

[nanny jan]

Let's hope the one in Kensington is willing to help.....and has some useful records.  Always worth asking I guess.

[Viktoria]

I went to the Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue on Cheetham Hill Road,Manchester , to try to get some advice re tracing someone but one of the staff advised me that children are registered under their mother’s maiden surname——-,if that changes as adults I am not sure ,as I did not at that time have the mother’s name I could go,no further .

My name Viktoria, is from another baby girl, I was the only girl born closest to her ,there was a boy a little nearer.
Her father came to visit my mother after searching for other children via a local newspaper .
The family were Jewish and there was to be a sort of endowment .
We heard no more but this was 1937 and possibly assets the family  had in Germany were siezed.
I have found a birth and then the emigration .
I have not gone further as I am not interested in any endowment but feel sure they were the family who emigrated in the 1950’s .
I always wanted to meet her.
The German  spelling of my name has been quite a bother at times!
“ Say “ spelled with a k “ and I get Vicktoria ——-