My wife found a photograph of the British soprano Leonie ZIFF (later
ZIFADO). On the back of the photo her mother had written that Leonie
was a second cousin of her mother (my wife's grandmother) Her
grandmother's married name was Leah LASERSON. She emigrated to England

from Courland. >from Google, I learned something of Leonie's

professional life. I would like to learn something of her family.

Lewis Stein
Boynton Beach, FL

Lewis Stein wrote

My wife found a photograph of the British soprano Leonie ZIFF (later
ZIFADO). On the back of the photo her mother had written that Leonie
was a second cousin of her mother (my wife's grandmother) Her
grandmother's married name was Leah LASERSON. She emigrated to England

from Courland. >from Google, I learned something of Leonie's

professional life. I would like to learn something of her family.

The first thing we genealogists need is dates, "what era?"

Leonie's professional carreer lasted at least >from 1925 to 1951

See: Ibbs and Tillett "The rise and fall of a musical empire" by
Christopher Fifield
<http://books.google.com/books?id=qz-s4zdLCNsC>

So her year of birth would before 1905?

She died in 1988 [England & Wales, Death Index: 1984-2005]
and lived most of her life in London [British Phone Books, 1880-1984]


In <http://www.freebmd.org.uk/>, I find:

ZIFF Jeannette Leonie, born Sep 1898 in Shoreditch

(The district Shoreditch spans the boundaries of the counties of London
and Middlesex)

Did Courland [Latvia] count as Russia in that time? Yes:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Courland>
<http://data.jewishgen.org/wconnect/wc.dll?
jg~jgsys~shtetlmaster~COURLAND_f19~ZZ~MILES~~~~~SE~~>

Now we can start searching for family:

Isador Ziff >from Russsia, residing at 6 Hows Str, Kinglands Rd London,
took the Oath of Allegiance 9 apr 1902.
married in London Mar 1906

<http://www.london-gazette.co.uk/issues/all=ziff/start=1>
<http://www.freebmd.org.uk/>

Isador Ziff is my prime suspect as her father, no proof however!

The tree of Nancy Ohlbaum on Ancestry.com shows an Isador Ziff born in
Russia in 1870, you could contact her?
--
Evertjan Hannivoort.
The Netherlands.
(Please change the x'es to dots in my emailaddress)