me@... wrote:
I am trying to find out if my great-great-grandfather, Max RAPHAEL, had a
brother who also emigrated to England called Abraham David RAPHAEL. Max came

from Kowal, Poland in about 1905 and settled in Darlington. Family legend

says that his brother David preceded him.... there is an Abraham David
Raphael buried in Stockton cemetery ... near Max's grave.... does anyone
have any ideas about finding a more conclusive link between the two men? I
... don't want to make assumptions.

Check if the gravestones show the names of the fathers of the deceased. If
the fathers' names are present and match up, it's almost certain that they
were brothers. Also see if you can write away for death certificates; you
may be able to get their dates of death >from the gravestones.

When we go back four and more generations, "conclusive" becomes a relative
term, and making assumptions may be the only way to go. In my case, the
online records >from Warsaw came up empty on my g-g-g-grandfather Shlomo
Nusen Grynszpan (1830-1891). But his tombstone shows his father's name as
Moshe, and there are marriage records (>from Warsaw, dated 1828 and 1829) in
Jewishgen's JRI-Poland database on two different people named Moshe
Grynszpan, listing bride and groom with names of parents and grandparents.
I don't know how to choose which set of ancestors is mine! (Inherited given
names seem to be, well, inconclusive.)

---

David J Ellis
Natick, MA
djemkitso@...