Sometimes I feel I get a bit obsessed with checking the statistics on this site. I like to see what visitors are searching for and what pages they read (or at least visit). This can be useful though – allowing me to respond quickly to my new Cullum cousin recently for instance. The stats can also prompt a tweak in the content, making me realise I haven’t quite got the content up to date or clear enough to answer a search phrase.
Parish records for West Yorkshire were released on Ancestry this week. Not many ancestors or distant relations in this area, and the few who were in Leeds had left Poland, presumably due to the persecution of Jews there. Parish records were of course held (and created) by the Church of England, so are very unlikely to include those of the Jewish faith. I had a look, just in case.
There is no sign of the Brookstone family in these records, but the related Gladstones do appear. Toba Lazarus, who married Isaac Brookston 1865, had previously married Moses Gladstone – originally Gluckstein – in 1860 {1}. Son Moses/Morris/Maurice Gladstone marries Charlotte Annie Jane Waterfield in St Georges Church, Leeds 1889 and the baptism and marriage records of two of their daughters are available. Surely they must have changed religion. The element of doubt is that no death/burial records have been spotted so far – could they have reverted at the last resort?
And do I assume the Brookstones kept the faith from their absence in the parish records? The surname does get misspelt and mis-transcribed a lot but I have checked several variations.
PS Ancestry – why do new records not get properly recognised by your Family Tree Maker software until several weeks after release? It is annoying having to save images in a separate process and then re-transcribe the info.
Note 1. See Finding that elusive Jewish connection
One of the earliest articles on Cutlock and Co was about tracking down the background to the Brookstone family, connected via great great aunt Lily Osborne’s husband Jonny. See Finding that elusive Jewish connection.
Continue reading Brookstone in Leeds, Manchester, New York and Tonypandy
