Finding Ancestors in Jerusalem in the Late 19th Century

Finding Ancestors in Jerusalem in the Late 19th Century

www.tree-sleuths.co.uk

The Jaffa Gate, towards the end of the 19th-century, photo: Bonfils House

How _do_ you perform genealogical research into late 19th century Jerusalem, from a desk in lockdown Britain? This is the story of an unusually productive attempt to do just that.

Why?

The later 19th century was a difficult time for Jews in Eastern European countries like Romania, with the introduction of laws effectively depriving them of their livelihoods and forcing them to move elsewhere. It had long been rumoured that my great grandfather was from Romania so, as a lockdown project, I set out to unearth more about this part of my family.

My own father had believed, until only three years before his death at the age of 89, that his grandfather had been English. Why would he not be? His grandfather’s family spoke English at home. His grandfather ran a pastoral care centre for British soldiers during WW1 (this was before the days of the NAAFI). His grandfather's surname was Alterskye, a seemingly quintessential English name.

Then he sent for a copy of his mother's marriage certificate and that all changed. She was a "Roumanian subject". This was news to my father and he had to find out more. Unfortunately he was not to get very far before his own untimely death stopped the work, which I picked up ten years later.

What he had been able to find out was entirely anecdotal, from letters between his uncles and aunts, claims that his grandfather (named John Theodore Alterskye) was probably a converted Romanian Jew, and had probably been called Alterescu. His wife was called Adelaide, and his six children had been born in Jerusalem between 1891 and 1902 where he had been a missionary for a London missionary society.

How?

My father, a retired academic, approached this research problem by starting at the here and now, and working backwards. This led him to try to identify which London missionary society this may have been, in order to search their (UK) archives. He identified the London Missionary Society and the Church Mission Society as the most likely candidates and focussed his research on them. But this came to nothing.

Instead I turned the problem on its head. I would instead start with the there and then (19th century Romania) and look forward for organisations in Jerusalem in the 1890s which a converted Jew might come into contact with. There was an immediate stand out candidate - Christ Church Jerusalem (CCJ). This is an evangelical church founded in Jerusalem in 1849 with the help of the London Society for Promoting Christianity Amongst the Jews, but which was not a part of that organisation. The church itself stands in the old City of Jerusalem, just near the Jaffa Gate. It aimed to "reflect the Jewish context of the gospel", performing baptisms on adult Jews and non-Jews alike, and providing community support in the form of medical care and training in a trade (those arriving in Jerusalem would probably not have any income, and baptised Jews lost access to “tzedakah”, a traditional community charity.)

I approached CCJ by email in February 2021 to ask if they had any records in their Baptism and Marriage Registers of a John Theodore Alterskye. 

First, a marriage

Within two days their library assistant, Roddey Brown from South Carolina, had emailed back with a photo of a page in their Marriage Register. This was the marriage of Israel Theophilus Altaresky and Adela Datzi in 1890. The year fitted their children’s births, but the names were not quite right.

     Israel and Adela's Marriage Register

Second, seven baptisms

Later the same day he sent a photo from the Baptism Register, of Lucy Altaresky's baptism in 1890. This time the year and given name matched exactly with my father's oldest aunt. By the end of the day Roddey had found baptisms for all six of the children, the given names (Lucy, Bertha, Ernest, Violet, Cyril, and Dorothy) and years all matching what I already knew. I was blown away by this - on this one day I had located the family my father had sought without success. I had also proved the family name, at that time, was neither Alterskye nor Alterescu, and at the same time was similar to both.

Lucy Altaresky's Baptism Register 1891

That was not all, the information kept flowing from CCJ. First Roddey discovered a record of Israel Altaresky’s baptism in 1884, proving that he had been a Jew who also was baptised into Christianity (still a controversial issue today). 

Israel Altaresky's Baptism Register 1884

A job application

Just one day later he found a page in the CCJ Applications and Appointments Book of 1887 recording Israel Theophile Altereski’s application (unsuccessful as it turned out) for missionary training. This gave his trade as carpenter, and his place of birth as “Plassa Tutova, Romania”, which is an area near Barlad in modern Vaslui County. That ruled out another bit of family folklore: he was not a missionary. This and the baptism register confirmed he was a carpenter.

 Israel Altaresky applies for Missionary Training 1887

Altaresky, a new family name

The name Altaresky had been new to me. Once we knew it, we were able to quickly find other sources where his name appeared. Roddey searched at CCJ, helped by David Pileggi the rector. I searched newspapers.

My great grandfather, it turned out, had been an extraordinary man. From arriving in Jerusalem aged just 19, and pulling himself up by his boot laces, he had become established in Jerusalem Christian circles by the late 1890s, had been a founding member of the Jerusalem Hebrew Christian Association in 1898, and had been active speaking out against the "Blood Libel" which still raises its head today. He also built bridges to Christian groups un the USA, sending packages of dried pressed flowers "from the Holy Land" by post.  

Datzi, another new family name

Discovering his wife Adela's name was Datzi opened up another line of research. Until that moment I had not known my great grandmother's maiden name, and once it became known we found it recurring many times:  as Adolph Datzi, a witness to Israel and Adela's marriage; as Sophie Datzi who married Johannes Kroitor at CCJ; as Josef Datzi, a witness at Adolph Datzi's marriage at CCJ; as Rachel Datzi, a witness at Sophie Datzi's marriage; as Elizabeth Datzi, a widow marrying Israel Schor shortly after the death of Leon Datzi. And Lucy Alteresky (remember her?) also signed Adolph Datzi's marriage register in childish handwriting.

Adolph Datzi's Marriage Register 1901 with Lucy Altaresky's signature

Things now started to slot together. 

I was allowed to join a private Facebook Group for the Kroitor family, Sophie’s descendants. This led to an old photograph of Sophie and some of her children, who bore an uncanny resemblance to a photo of Adela and some of her children. They were even shot in the same photographer's studio in Jerusalem with the same backdrop.

Armed with some new names that I hadn't known before, I checked back though my DNA matches and found one who was a member of this FB Group. As far as the DNA was concerned this made me a cousin of descendants of Sophie Datzi.

Not proof

The circumstantial evidence is extensive, gathered over just a few days, but unfortunately it is still not proof that Sophie, Adolph, Josef, Rachel, and Adela were siblings. I will hold onto the hope that one day I will find baptism records for the five Datzi siblings, just as I hope to find birth records in Romania for Israel.

If you think you have ancestors who may have been in Jerusalem in the second half of the nineteenth century then you could do a lot worse than check the CCJ archives. Some of these archives (but not all) are also digitised by the Israel Genealogy Research Association, and can be searched at genealogy.org.il (£). If you do get in touch with CCJ remember to say I sent you!

Julian Luttrell

The Tree Sleuths, 2021. The Tree Sleuths website.

 

Sources:

Christ Church Jerusalem, churchsecretary@cmj-israel.org

Photos courtesy Roddey Brown, of entries in CCJ registers

Israel Genealogy Research Association, genealogy.org.il (£)

Mount Zion Cemetery online database, http://www.khanskinfolk.com/ewExternalFiles/Jerusalem%20cemetery.html (February 2021)

Billion Graves, billiongraves.com (February 2021)

Kroitor Family Facebook Group (private group)

Ancestry DNA, www.ancestry.co.uk

Newspapers.com (£)