#7 Grandfather Bernard GINSBERG
- derek4440
- Sep 10, 2022
- 8 min read
GINSBERG, BERNARD
I cant think of anyone less like my Grandfather than the King of Salsa
Ricky MARTIN performing Livin La Vida Loca, in my opinion his one & only real hit, makes you want to get up & dance, if only. Very handsome gay Puerto Rican
The Parents of these 11 Children were my Grandparents
Bernard GINSBERG Born Probably 1/MAR/1856 RUSSIA Died 14/DEC/1940 LEEDS, Age 84 years old Bernard Married Sarah Levi ZAGOFSKY 17/DEC/1884 Belgrave Street Synagogue, LEEDS. I only ever went to their house with my Father, & I even remember going to see Bernard when I was a very young child of around 3 years old. I have no memory from then or later when I was taken to see my grandmother, of going anywhere in the house other than the main room; I never went upstairs or even to the lavatory, it wasn’t a pleasant place to visit. I can’t remember my Grandparents ever cuddling or kissing me, or showing me the least affection, & from what I've understood this was how they were with their own children.
Bernard & Sarah GINSBERG
Bernard GINSBERG
Sarah LEVI/ZAGOFSKY
Bernard lived in MANCHESTER when he got Married in LEEDS, & went to live there again after getting Married, & his first child Gertrude was Born & Died there. He & Sarah moved to LEEDS, which is where she lived before her Marriage, & they stayed there for the rest of their lives. Until undertaking the research into my family I had no idea that the GINSBERG side of my family was in MANCHESTER, before they came to LEEDS. The house they lived in & where my Father & a number of his siblings were born, was when I last checked still there, as are most of the surrounding streets. The address at 47 Bexley Grove lies between Harehills Road & Gledhow Road, & very close to the Bexley Wing, of St James Hospital, where our son Sean had treatment which saved his life.
Photo 47 Bexley Grove, LEEDS
Both Bernard & Sarah’s Families came from an area in the north east of what today would be POLAND & the south west of today’s LITHUANIA, but in those days, the middle of the 19th Century, it was all RUSSIA. The Yiddish name for people from this area was LITVAKS, & the majority of LEEDS Jews came from this area. The Gubernia was called LOMZA &/or SUWALKI as shown on this map.
Pale of Settlement
Though Jews have lived in RUSSIA for at least 1,500 years, by the time of CATHERINE the GREAT, there were virtually no Jews in RUSSIA proper. This was due to the fact that they nearly all lived in the area of what was called the PALE of SETTLEMENT.
Tsar Peter III & his Wife the future Catherine the Great
CATHERINE, who was GERMAN or more specifically PRUSSIAN, not RUSSIAN, having been born in STETTIN, part of the HOLY ROMAN EMPIRE, ruled from 5/JAN/1762 with her Husband Peter III, & following his Death 6 Month later from 9/JUL/1762 until her death on.17/NOV/1796. She instituted the Pale of Settlement where virtually all Jews had to live, which became the Western Borders of RUSSIA, in the lands that were previously, UKRAINE, POLAND, BELARUS, LITHUANIA, LATVIA & ESTONIA, most of which Catherine brought into the RUSSIAN EMPIRE, when she extended the borders of the RUSSIAN EMPIRE by 520,000 square kilometres. This meant that the Jews were a buffer zone protecting RUSSIA from invasion by any of her Western Enemies.
Expelled en masse from England, France, Spain and most other Western European countries at various times, and persecuted in Germany in the 14th century, many Western European Jews migrated to Poland upon the invitation of Polish ruler Casimir III the Great to settle in Polish-controlled areas of Eastern Europe as a third estate, although restricted to commercial, middleman services in an agricultural society for the Polish king and nobility between 1330 and 1370, during the reign of Casimir the Great.
The organised destruction of an ethnic group is called a POGROM. The word comes to English via the similar Yiddish and Russian words; pogrom literally means "devastation." POGROMS which took place on a regular basis, eventually led to more than two million Jews fleeing RUSSIA between 1880 & 1920, mostly to AMERICA. The main route was to travel overland, usually a combination of walking & catching a train to HAMBURG in GERMANY, & then catch a ship to NEW YORK CITY, aka "The Golden Medina". This was preferable to catching a ship in say GDANSK & having to sail all the way round DENMARK to arrive off HAMBURG, as this would take much longer & no doubt would cost more.
Map showing Atlantic Crossing
The majority of Jewish migrants spoke only Yiddish which was written in the Hebrew Language so New York to them was ניו יארק, whereas the ticket & the destination would be written in GERMAN in Gothic Script 𝔑𝔢𝔴 𝔜𝔬𝔯𝔨. Often unscrupulous agents would sell the migrant a ticket which only took them as far as the UK , which meant the unsuspecting migrant had to travel from HULL on the east Coast of Yorkshire to LEEDS, then MANCHESTER, & eventually LIVERPOOL to catch another ship to NEW YORK. Very few migrants intended to settle in the UK, the majority arrived here by accident.
Map of "Litvak" Area
Bernard GINSBERG was the oldest of 6 Children that I have found, but it is quite possible there maybe more. The reason I say this is because I haven’t been able to prove where the children were Born in RUSSIA, & even professional genealogists haven’t been able to do better than me, which is very disappointing.
Another reason is the surname GINSBERG, which can be spelt multiple ways. The accepted source for the name is Jews who lived in a BAVARIAN town called GUNZBERG, who either took the name from the town they lived in when they were forced to take surnames, or were allocated the name by the authorities. For whatever reason the surname GINSBERG was very popular & certainly by the 19th & early 20th Centuries there were many, many people who were using that surname in one of the many variations.
As a horrible co-incidence one of the worst NAZI’S, namely Dr Josef MENGELE, aka the “Angel of Death” at AUSCHWITZ, was from a prominent Catholic family in GUNZBERG, who manufactured farm equipment, & continued in business after the war until taken over in 2017. If you want to learn more about this monster read;
Map Area GUNZBERG
On a family level one of our Family was “selected” by MENGELE & lived to tell the tale, more of this much later.
Finally on the GINSBERG Surname, somewhere I have information detailing how the family which originally became GINSBERG in GUNZBERG were originally from PORTUGAL. If true, this would mean the original GINSBERG family were SEPHARDIC & not ASHKENAZI.
Günzburg/GINSBERG (surname) גינצבורג, גינזבורג
One story concerning my Grandfather Bernard GINSBERG, is about Michael Marks who lived in LEEDS, & used to buy his haberdashery from a wholesaler in LEEDS called DEWHIRST. Because he couldn't read ENGLISH & only spoke the odd word, he had a tray made to show off all his pieces of haberdashery with the sign on the tray that read "Don't ask the price, it's a Penny". He would then ride on his bicycle up into the dales & stop off in villages & show off his goods for sale. As business increased & his knowledge of ENGLISH improved he became quite close to a bookkeeper at DEWHIRST'S. Between them they hatched a plan where they would open a stall in LEEDS Market, but felt they needed an additional partner & approached my Grand father Bernard GINSBERG. Obviously the bookkeeper was Tom SPENCER & equally obvious my Grandfather didn't agree to be a partner, otherwise it would be MARKS, SPENCER & GINSBERG. I regret to say according to the story I was told my Grandfather wouldn't go into partnership with a Gentile! Look what we missed out on, because of his bias.
Marks & Spencer "Penny Bazaar" LEEDS Market
Marks & Spencer Marble Arch Store
Many years later when I was working in KEIGHLEY I met the manager of the local M&S store there & because he lived in Moortown close to me, we often travelled together. He suggested I applied for a position of trainee manager with M&S & I had my initial interview in BRADFORD. My final interview was at Baker Street, the Head Office of M&S in LONDON, which I didn't pass, & obviously I was disappointed. I asked Mark the manager if he could find out why I didn't get the position. Some short time later he informed me that M&S didn't consider me dynamic enough to be an M&S manager!
Anyway back now to Bernard who I dont think was an easy person to get on with, & from what I've heard his wife Sarah was even harsher, & often used to beat the children, though I'm pleased to say neither of my parents ever raised a hand to each other that I know of & certainly neither of them ever hit me.
As I've stated earlier in this piece I'm very disappointed that I've not been able to establish where Bernard was Born. I've assumed that he was Born as a GINSBERG, as I've not heard anything that would lead me to believe otherwise. I've employed a number of Professional Genealogists, & none have been able to do better than me. I believe it was Barbara who told me he & his siblings & his Father Mordecai were all born in NOWOGROD, which was a very small SHETL, close to the larger town of LOMZA. NOWOGROD had a total population of less than 2,000, & is 15 kilometres from LOMZA which has a population of around 60,000. As you can see, though these towns are in present day POLAND, they are very close to the border of PRUSSIA, LITHUANIA & BELARUS.
Map showing NOWOGROD/LOMZA in relation to LITHUANIA
Headstones Bernard & Sarah GINSBERG
Bernard's Hebrew name taken from his Headstone was Baruch ben Mordechai Ztvi
Depending on which Census you look at & also which Birth Certificate of the Children you read, depends on what job Bernard says he was doing at that time. They vary from being a Commercial Traveller in 1884 when he got Married; a year later when Gertrude was Born he said he was a Draper, & by the time Morris was Born in 1887 he was a Small Ware Dealer. When Abraham was Born in 1891 he was now a Commercial Traveller, & a year later when Samuel was Born he now called himself a Pedlar. By 1894 when Nathan was Born he was an Auctioneers Assistant, & by the time Maud was Born in 1897 he had moved up to being an Auctioneer. Over the next 25 years he varied between a Draper, a Travelling Draper a Commercial Traveller & Commercial Traveller/Auctioneer. What any of these actually meant I've no idea, but it would appear to me he was always self employed, & because he wasn't a tailor or in the clothing trade, as most of his children were he seemed to live on his wits.
BERNARD & SARAH GINSBERG
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