Unfortunate ancestors, and genealogical musing
Thursday, June 24th, 2010 10:29 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lethargic_manI was doing a little genealogical research beforehand. Googling the name of my great-great-grandfather, I discovered a listing mentioning him in the Edinburgh Gazette, June 18 1909:
For a period, it looked like it just got worse, as I discovered a record at the Old Bailey online reading:
But it did mean I have to be cautious, as there may be more than one Krantz family around. (The one in my previous email is almost certainly ours, given away by the combination of the householder's name (Samuel), his calling his son Bernard, and his profession (hairdresser).
It later occurred to me: Maybe the reason my great-great-great-grandparents from Constantinople had (according to their son's naturalisation papers) the names Bernard and Ethel, the latter being an Anglophone name invented in the nineteenth century* was because they, or their parents, were from England, (rather than Germany as I had assumed based on the name "Krantz").
* Based on Anglo-Saxon names which began Æthel-.
That would also explain why there's this other family in England at the time called Krantz with the name Bernard—it's a name the family kept reusing, with five of them I know about in just four generations.
Difficult to prove, but an interesting hypothesis.
Benjamin Bernard Krantz (trading under the style or firm of B. Krantz & Sons), residing at 59 Great Thornton Street, carrying on business at 64 Queen Street, 11 Midland Street, and 59 Great Union Street, all in the city and county of Kingston-upon-Hull, hairdresser and tobacconist.Hmm, I thought; I wonder what this entry is about. It was part of a list; so I went onto the previous page to find out, to see the section header:
Bankrupts, from the London Gazette. Receiving orders:Oh dear.
For a period, it looked like it just got worse, as I discovered a record at the Old Bailey online reading:
Reference Number: t18941119-39Further investigation, though, suggested it was not my great-great-grandfather, as he's a few years too old (even given the error bars on birth dates between different censuses and other records for many of my ancestors). Plus my great-great-grandfather had references attesting to his character in his naturalisation papers from a decade later, which probably wouldn't have been possible had he been a convicted felon; and I'm not sure he was in the country at all prior to 1896. Phew.
39. BERNARD KRANTZ (53) , Feloniously forging and uttering an endorsement to a cheque for £6 6s. 8d., with intent to defraud.
[...]
GUILTY . He then PLEADED GUILTY to a conviction at this COURT on 18th November, 1889, of obtaining money by false pretences, in the name of Bruno Krantz. Other convictions were proved, and there was another indictment against him. Three Years' Penal Servitude.
But it did mean I have to be cautious, as there may be more than one Krantz family around. (The one in my previous email is almost certainly ours, given away by the combination of the householder's name (Samuel), his calling his son Bernard, and his profession (hairdresser).
It later occurred to me: Maybe the reason my great-great-great-grandparents from Constantinople had (according to their son's naturalisation papers) the names Bernard and Ethel, the latter being an Anglophone name invented in the nineteenth century* was because they, or their parents, were from England, (rather than Germany as I had assumed based on the name "Krantz").
* Based on Anglo-Saxon names which began Æthel-.
That would also explain why there's this other family in England at the time called Krantz with the name Bernard—it's a name the family kept reusing, with five of them I know about in just four generations.
Difficult to prove, but an interesting hypothesis.
