Harry, Henry or Hartog Gompel De Groot

We have Harry G De Groot who died in 1872 and was buried at West Ham Jewish cemetery, on CemeteryScribes and until very recently had been unable to find anything more about him. He did not seem to appear in UK census.

His death was registered as Henry De Groot, the tombstone says Harry G De Groot but neither name was successful when searching the census.

However, we did find this beautiful prayer book being advetised on Ebay,  ANTIQUE JUDAICA HEBREW PRAYERS 1743 GOLD TOOLED BINDING DE GROOT DUBLIN INSCRIPT https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/113186555372

The advert says:

“Manuscript signature of Zvi Hirsh son or Mordche De Groot of Rotterdam & later in Dublin.

Noticeably written in a shaky hand in 1871 as Harry De Groot (1791-1872) died a year later in 1872 & was buried in London’s West Ham Jewish Cemetery.

From the inscription it seems he was a Chazan or of some other communal capacity in Dublin so it’s a nice Anglo-Judaica piece too.”

The Hebrew name was the same as that shown on the tombstone inscription, so it would seem that this Prayer book belonged to the same Harry De Groot but of course some further information was required.

‘Our’ Harry De Groot is shown to be ‘formerly of

Rotterdam’ on the tombstone inscription, but there is no mention of Dublin.

With the help of friends on Facebook. Mr B De Jong and ‘Jewish London Genealogy & Family Research’ group, Harry G De Groot was identified as Hartog Gompel De Groot who married Sara Lit.

Next we checked  ‘The Jewish Victorian Genealogical Information from the Jewish Newspapers 1871 – 1880’ by Doreen Berger and there was the announcement of Sarah De Groot, wife of Harry De Groot, death. Sarah died in Dublin in 1871!

Harry De Groot was born in 1790 Alkmaar and married Sara in 1820. His father Gompel Mozes De Groot was born about 1770 and his father Mozes Hartog De Groot was probably born around 1750 which takes us back to around the time of the Prayer book, is dated 1743.

One son, Marinus De Groot, was President of Dublin Hebrew Congregation.

It would be good to think the book finds it way back to the family. While, with the seller’s permission, we are publishing a couple of photos of the Prayer Book so others can see it once the auction has ended.

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