My great-great-grandfather Isaac DAVIDSON was a widower who came to
the UK (East End of London, England) probably in the 1920s, together
with his daughter Dina, >from Lomza or Lodz or possibly Narewka, (now
Poland previously Russia) where his married and first-born son Alter
lived before immigration. Alter and the other children had immigrated to
the UK a number of years before their father and Dina. Isaac's wife
Sarah nee ALPERT passed away in the old country, probably while giving
birth (as was unfortunately quite common in those days). The original
family name was ISHMA (according to my paternal grandmother - Alter's
daughter) or according to other family members - ISMA or ISMAH.

>from family testimony "Dina pulled her father on a rope >from the port
to where they were going to live". The impression I receive >from this is
either that he was ill, physically immobile, or he was not happy coming
to a strange country where it would be much harder to live as a
religious Jew. He was called by one of his granddaughters as "grandpa
pussy" because of his long white beard which she used to stroke when
sitting on his lap as a child. Alter and his wife Esther (nee FRIEDMAN)
looked after him. He worked as a dairy farmer as well as a children's
teacher (melamed) in the old country, He never remarried.

He made sure that his children had a living by procuring for them bakery
shops - a chain that was known as "Davidson bakeries" in the East End of
London, England.

Isaac's second son Abraham broke away >from the rest of the family,
changed family name to OSMAN and married a fruitier/grocer in Glasgow,
Scotland, losing contact with the others. In the past year I succeeded
in tracing and contacting some of Abraham's few descendants >from each of
his two sons, but because of their lack of contact with the rest of the
family, they knew very little.) Abraham registered his father's name as
"Israel" on the civil records - but still identifying him as a dairy
farmer. Israel was actually an uncle of his wife Fanny nee BARULA, with
whom he had a good relationship. Possibly he became I kind of an
informal adopted "father".

Isaac outlived his son Alter (my great-grandfather) who passed away
December 1938. This presumed because there is mentioned "father" on the
family announcement in Jewish Chronicle (JC) on Alter's death. Alter
died aged 52 years so was born 1886 or very end of 1885.

The family belonged to the Federation of Synagogues in London.

I searched Federation of Synagogues burial lists and although there are
a few Isaac DAVIDSONs, I could not find this great-great-grandfather,
with respect to his profile. Their "records person" tried to help me but
does not know anything except the names on the lists.

One, well known person of this name, was an orthodox Jewish
congregational minister >from Islington, Edmonton involved in
"inter-faith relations" - and although the age fits and he was buried
under the auspices of the Federation - this was not my family because I
would have been told as a child if it was, and simply the other aspects
of the profile do not fit - for example the minister left a widow and my
Isaac did not remarry.

My g-g-grandfather Isaac does not appear on the "1939 register" made
just before the out break of WWII . Therefore he most probably passed
away in 1939 before the register. I doubt very much that he left the UK.

I searched both "1939 register" made just before the out break of WWII
and also Free-BMD for all Isaac DAVIDSONs who died in UK between 1938
and 1960 - when I was born (I would have known if he was alive when I
was born) - of the nine Isaac DAVIDSONs that came up on Free-BMD - three
might fit into a plausible birth year. The Jewish congregational
minister I mentioned above (d 1946), a non-jew buried in a church grave
yard in Wigton, UK (d 1940) and a non-jew buried in a church grave yard
in Northumbland, UK (d 1958).

How else can I find his burial place? There are a few descendants with
whom I am in contact, but don't know and most, whom I tried contacting,
are unresponsive.

David Ziants
Ma'aleh Adumim, Israel

Researching: Paternal: ZIANTS, ZENETSKI (became SCHLOSSBERG in Hamburg,
Germany), FRIEDMAN, ISMA/ISHMA (became DAVIDSON and OSMAN in UK), ALPERT

from Bialystok, Narewka, Lomza, Lodz and Warsaw (Poland and Russia

according to period).
Maternal: GEWELBA (became GABLE, RAVEL, BORDELLE in UK), SINGER (>from
Warsaw, Poland), REINA or RIENA (pronounced RAINER in UK)

MODERATOR NOTE: Searching list truncated to six lines.