BANCROFT ROAD Updated records

What makes The Old Hoxton Cemetery and the Bancroft/Maiden Lane Cemetery different from all the other cemeteries that appear on the CemeteryScribes website?

The answer is simple: If you go to http://www.cemeteryscribes.com/showmap.php?cemeteryID=14&tree=

you will not see a single picture of a tombstone and at Bancoft/Maiden Lane

http://www.cemeteryscribes.com/showmap.php?cemeteryID=9&tree= only a very small percentage of the total number of recorded burials are accompanied by a photograph of a tombstone, and of those, many are mere broken oddments. Instead of being told a story through Hebrew inscriptions, names, dates, flowery phrases and carvings of Cohen Hands or falling trees, all you will see islost stones

The reasons for this depressing state of affairs can be found on the relevant Cemetery Histories pages and on several of our blogs: Hoxton was sold off and no-one thought to record the stones before the bulldozers arrived and Bancorft/Maiden Lane declined through the wanton neglect of those charged with its care. If you can’t find a stone for one of your ancestors buried in, say, Brady Street, you can at least look at the microfilmed burial records.  No such microfilms exist for Hoxton or Bancroft, and it was for this reason alone that we have published as much information as possible from a wide variety of sources such as newspapers, books and private collections, and surveys done by dedicated genealogists such as Cyril Fox.

How complete are our lists?  We cannot say. Have we made errors in identification?  Almost certainly.  Take for example three contemporaneous congregants of the Maiden Lane Synagogue called Joseph Levy.  Arthur Barnett, in his book “The Western Synagogue through Two Centuries” lists the 1846 burial of Joseph Levy “of the Poultry”.  But the Joseph Levy who died in 1846 aged  80. was Joseph Levy of South Street  and his stone was possibly a pillar. Joseph Levy of the Poultry died 15 Aug 1843  age c. 52. see I11805  and the Will of his mother, Elizabeth wife of Jacob Levy NA696. Burial details for Joseph Levy of the Strand have not yet been identified. We’ll be sure to let you know when we do!

Where properly sourced information is so scant and published data  frequently inaccurate, duplications and mistaken identifications are bound to occur. We are glad that we have been able to put the record straight in this instance..

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