Names: Places of origin or occupations or ?
Among the difficulties we encounter when transcribing old community records written in cursive Hebrew, is the appearance of words that have no apparent English equivalent and which usually, but not exclusively, relate to places of origin or occupations.
The script in this burial record dated 24 Dec 1804 http://www.synagoguescribes.com/persondetails.php?value=17451 for a child of Joseph b. Abraham was relatively ease to decipher as the Secretary of the day wrote in good clear script and the page was not disfigured with blots, smudges and scratchings out. However, we were rather fazed by the letters following the father’s name Ayin-bet-yod-resh-shin-tet-resh-vav-yod-aleph for which we could find no apparent translation.
A SynagogueScribes advanced search based on Hebrew Name = Joseph plus Father’s Hebrew name = Abraham produced some 35 – 40 results, from which it quickly became apparent that the family name was ABRAHAMS and the letters completing the patronymic had previously been transliterated to read Ebarstrow or Ebarstrova.
A further search, entering variations on Family name = Abrahams and Father’s Hebrew name = Joseph, or spouse = Joseph etc. produced four Great Synagogue Burials where Dr. Susser had variously transliterated the Hebrew characters as ABERSTRAU\ABIR STREUE\ EBBIRSTOWE and ABE RESTROY
The online Jewishgen Shtetl-Seeker produced only one result that was remotely possible; the Polish own of Obra Stara, NW of Kalisz
We are not convinced that we have that identified the correct place. Or even that the letters do spell a place name. If any readers of this blog can offer an alternative reading, we should be delighted to hear from you.
[Source: GREAT SYNAGOGUE BURIAL REGISTERS [DPL]
University of Southampton Library Two Registers of Burials at the German Jews Burying Ground Great Synagogue London 1776 – 1810 with interments at the New Cemetery Ducking Pond Lane Bethnal Green (Brady Street) from 1790 Archives & MS: Ref MS 116/107 AJ]
Avram Ebarstrova (now Abrahams) was my G-G-G-G-Grandfather and trying to translate the Hebrew script had stumped many in Sydney. Best wishes, Frank.
Hi Frank
If you look at our sister site http://www.synagoguescribes.com and run a Keyword search for Ebarstro (leaving off the ending of the word as spellings seem to differ slightly) then you get 8 results all with the family name Abrahams.
Hope that helps,
CemeteryScribes & SynagogueScribes