| Ottolangui Family Newsletter written by Paul Sulzberger |
| 1. NEW ZEALAND - A NEW OTTOLANGUI LINE FOUND 2. THE MYSTERY OF ALEXANDER & ELIZABETH 3. NEW ZEALAND – MORE OTTOLANGUIS 4. THE AUSTRALIAN TRIP 5. THE MELBOURNE CEMETERY 6. THE ARRIVAL OF JACOB OTTOLANGUI IN AUSTRALIA 7. TRIPS TO LIVORNO 8. AUSTRALIA – THE LIFE OF MOSES AND EMMA OTTOLANGUI 9. THE MELBOURNE GLASS AND CHINA SHOP 10. NEW ZEALAND – A THIRD OTTOLANGUI LINE? 11. NEW ZEALAND/AUSTRALIA –THE SEARCH FOR EMMA RACHEL 12. SEARCH FOR MELBOURNE PHOTOS 13. PORTUGUESE ANCESTRY? |
| Ottolangui Family Newsletter from Down Under
From: Paul Sulzberger [Jacob Joshua, Johannah, David, Moses, Israel, David, Menachem], New Zealand Sue Wesley [Lloyd, Lloyd, Maurice, David, Moses, Israel, David, Menachem], New Zealand To: All Ottolangui family members around the world We recently had the pleasure of meeting many members of our Austalian family, so we thought that it would be a good opportunity to report on the "family research" activities we have been up to in New Zealand recently. Hopefully there will be a paragraph or two in the following report that will interest everyone. We’ve adopted the convention of showing each person’s line of descent so you can see how you are related to other family members you may have never met. |
| 1. NEW ZEALAND - A NEW OTTOLANGUI LINE FOUND
While researching our own line of the family in New Zealand which descended from David [Moses, Israel, David, Menachem], we were very conscious of the fact that David’s cousin Abraham [Aaron, Israel, David, Menachem] also emigrated to New Zealand at some point in the 1860’s, but we had no idea of what had happened to his family. As children, David and Abraham (known in New Zealand as Richard) grew up together in Spitalfields, London. They lived next door to each other on Shepherd St. In 1866, David’s mother and father, Emma and Moses, together with the younger children, emigrated to Australia to join their adult children who had arrived in Australia some years before. Abraham’s parents remained behind in London, but several of their children emigrated, including Abraham himself. According to his family’s tradition, Abraham was an adventurer and tried his luck in the goldfields of the Yukon. Having had no luck there, he tried the goldfields of Ballarat in Australia. Finally he made his way to New Zealand and probably tried again in the new goldfields of Otago. Whether cousin his David followed him in his adventures and how long they may have spent in Australia is the subject of our on-going research. In the 1870’s Abraham and cousin David ended up in virtually the same street in Dunedin, New Zealand. Abraham married a local girl, who converted to the Jewish faith. We have found the correspondence from the Rabbi in Melbourne relating to the conversion. Abraham, together his new wife Katharine, and their first Rayner child travelled to Melbourne for the ceremony. The marriage produced three children – Rayner, Amelia and Aaron. (There was a fourth child, Mary (also known as Sarah), who died from croup at the age of 1 month. This child is buried in her uncle’s plot at the Dunedin’s Southern Cemetery.) We managed to track Aaron from Dunedin to Oamaru and then to Palmerston North in the North Island of New Zealand – but then the trail ran cold. Sue looked up the telephone directory of Palmerston North, and found that there was one listing for a Langley. On a recent trip throught palmerston North to Hawkes Bay, I decided to find the address and knock on the door to find out if they were family. "I’m looking for the son or grandson of Aaron Ottolangui", I said to the young man packing the boot of his car in preparation for a trip somewhere. I have the feeling that it may have been something of a shock hearing the name "Ottolangui" from a stranger at the door, but we quickly established that we were of the same stock. This was Timothy [Anthony, Aaron, Abraham, Aaron, Israel, David, Menachem] and within an hour or two, I had also met his father Anthony [Aaron, Abraham, Aaron, Israel, David, Menachem]. Aaron had had three sons and their descendants are now busy getting all the information we need to add them to our family database (which we will in due course hope to add to the database at JewishGen). We discovered the fate of the two girls, Rayner and Amelia fro the descendants of Aaron. They retained their Jewish faith, but never married. For the course of their lives, they were supported by brother Aaron. Aaron had a very successful and eventful life – so there is an interesting story to be written there! So welcome to Tim, Anthony (aka "Bones") and Dick [Richard, Aaron, Abraham, Aaron, Israel, David, Menachem]. 2. ENGLAND - THE MYSTERY OF ALEXANDER AND ELIZABETH Those of you who have studied the Ottolanguis in the British census returns of 1851 will have come across an "Alexander Otelango" at 20 Shepherd St with his wife Elizabeth and their grandchildren. By 1861, the census returns show that Elizabeth Ottolangue was still resident at 20 Shepherd St., but had been widowed. Alexander was born Elisha Ottolangui and was the son of Israel Ottolenghi and Miriam/Amelia HaLevy. Several of us have long wondered who this Alexander was, and what his relationship to the other known members of the family was. 3. NEW ZEALAND – MORE OTTOLANGUIS Almost a year ago, Sue and I were in Dunedin’s Early Settler’s museum looking through the newspapers of 1907 searching for the death notice of our great grandfather David [Moses, Israel, David, Menachem], when the archivist came running over to us to tell us that he had just received a letter from Australia with an enquiry about the same Ottolangui family we were researching. We immediately got very excited, but because of our privacy laws, he was unable to give us the name and address of the writer, but promised to inform the writer of our interest in the family by return mail. Sure enough, when I arrived back to Wellington, there was a voice mail message from Brisbane waiting for me. For me it was great news – it was from Merle Langley, wife of one of the descendants of my grandmother’s first child Sydney [Johannah, David, Moses, Israel, David, Menahem], whose existence had never been know to our family until recent years. That my father had a brother came as a great (but happy) shock. In any case, another group of Ottolangui families have now been in touch with the wider family. Merle has become an avid family researcher, and has virtually the entire tree back to 1763 committed to memory – dates and all! Sydney Ottolangui had 4 children (Melva, Rayna, Ronald, and Maurice) who all live in the South Island of New Zealand. Merle and husband Tony have re-exported themselves back to Australia. 4. THE AUSTRALIAN TRIP For some time, Sue and I had been planning a trip to meet our Australian cousins and to do some family research in Melbourne – in any case we had a standing invitation from David Sonenberg [Rachel Jacobs, Katherine Solomon, Rachel, Moses, Israel, David, Menachem] to meet some of the Melbourne O’s should we ever decide to come. It was an exciting and rewarding trip. In summary then, this is what we did: Paul travelled to Brisbane and spent the night with Merle and Tony Langley. We sat up to well after 3pm discussing family tree issues and our latest findings. A good part of the following day was also spent comparing notes and updating our family trees (in between watching Merle’s 4 youngest girls frolicking their pool!) The following day Sue and I met up with cousin Rosemary Langley [Marcus, Albert, David, Moses, Israel, David, Menachem] another expatriate Kiwi in Australia! Rosie gave us a guided tour through Sydney’s great Jewish Museum. With five floors of exhibits, it’s well worth the visit when you are next in Sydney. We spent the evening with Bob Langley [David, Gershon, Aaron, Israel, David, Menachem] and his charming wife Clare. Bob has a wonderful set of family photos (and some great stories to go with them) – the envy of both Sue and me! Bob was an engineer with a major Canadian aerospace company and the intrigues and fate of the fighter jet he worked on is a fascinating saga. On to Melbourne… Melbourne plays a pivotal role in the fate of the Ottolanguis downunder. When the first Ottolanguis arrived from England in the 1850’s, Melbourne was barely 20 years old. With the discovery of gold in nearby Ballarat, Melbourne quickly grew – not only in size, but in wealth. It is not difficult to understand why our great, great parents left the East End of London in search of a new life "downunder". One of Moses’ [Israel, David, Menachem] girls, Amelia appears to have been the first to arrive in Melbourne, but was quickly followed by sister Rachel and brother Jacob. A few years later, their parents, Moses and Emma followed. Some of the cousins from next door in Shepherd St also made their way to Melbourne. It was a great pleasure for Sue and me to meet some of the descendants of these early Ottolangui settlers. David Sonenberg, good as his word, organised Melbourne’s second Ottolangui gathering. There was a great turnout, and a very happy evening of meeting up with real living people who, in most cases, had been only dates and entries on our family tree. We were very grateful to Russell Langley [Jacob, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, Israel, Menachem] and his wife Jacqui for making their home available for the "get-together". A special mention was made of Bryan Langley [Solomon, Abraham, Aaron, Israel, David, Menachem], Bobbie Dunn [Esther, David, Aaron, Israel, David, Menachem] and Howard Hoffman [Valda, Albert, David, Moses, Israel, Menachem] for doing much of the original research and for fostering and encouraging contact between the members of this far flung family. (Bryan, born in England now lives in Israel, Bobbie, also born in the UK lives in Utah, USA and Howard in California.) While in Melbourne, Sue and I also spent an enjoyable evening with Robert Collins [Phyllis Rose Allsop, Gladys Rose, Morris Samuel Solomon, Rachel Ottolangui, Moses, Israel, David, Menachem] and wife Joy comparing notes on family tree issues. Robert has a huge family tree database on his laptop. I look forward to getting a copy in due course to learn more and fill in some important gaps. As well as meeting the living O’s, Sue and I spent considerable time with the dead ones as well. We spent much of each of the three days we were in Melbourne in the State Library of Victoria on Swanstson St, researching family history issues (see below), seeking out the houses and business addresses of some of our ancestors and trekking through Melbourne’s enormous cemetery, where we finally came face-to-face (as it were) with our great, great grandparents Moses and Emma. 5. THE MELBOURNE CEMETERY Sue had researched the cemetery archives at the State library and got the plot numbers of a number of the early Melbourne Ottolanguis. Armed with half a dozen maps from the Sexton’s office, off we went in search of our ancestors! Finding our great, great grandfather and grandmother's grave (Moses and Emma) was quite something. Not at all macabre, but standing at their grave, we felt somehow more connected, and it made all the research we had been doing come alive and seem more real. The excitement, however, came when we made our way back to the cemetery gates to find that we had been locked in! Great padlocks on the tall iron gates told us that it was not going to be easy to get out. We followed the fence for 10 minutes or so, hoping to find a branch of an overhanging tree which we could use to swing ourselves over the barbed wire on top of the fence. Finally we found a spot where the barbed wire had rusted away, and we managed to scramble over. Whew! While finding our ancestors was fun, we hadn’t reckoned on spending the night with them! 6. THE ARRIVAL OF JACOB OTTOLANGUI IN AUSTRALIA A number of us had taken for granted that Jacob [Moses, Israel, David, Menachem] - known in Australia as John Morris – arrived in Australia with his wife Fanny and his first three children in 1864 on board the Yorkshire, just two years before the arrival of his parents and younger siblings. I had spent some time in the Victorian State Library tracking the history of John Morris’s glass and china business. I was particularly interested, because it seems that his younger brother David (my great grandfather) tried to emulate his success in Dunedin NZ. We suspect that they would have worked together, and possibly jointly imported consignments of glassware and crockery - some of which would have gone to the Melbourne shop, and some would have gone across the Tasman to Dunedin. In any event, I noted that the first reference to Jacob’s shop in the business directories of the time was in 1859 - five years before the date we had assumed he arrived in Australia! The births of the three first boys were registered in Melbourne prior to this date too. The only possible explanation seems to be that Jacob returned to England with his family, perhaps on a business trip to visit his new business suppliers, and returned to Melbourne in 1864 on the Yorkshire. Given that Melbourne had become exceedingly wealthy by this time, Jacob undoubtedly reported back to his Dad that the streets of Melbourne were paved with gold, and thus Moses and Emma, and their younger kids arrived in Melbourne within a couple of years. So the question of when Jacob first arrived in Australia remains an open question. What ship and when remains to be discovered. 7. TRIPS TO LIVORNO Both Paul and Robert Collins made trips at different times to Livorno, Italy this year. We both visited the Jewish Community Centre and met their public relations man, Gabriel Bedarida. While we did not push back the frontiers of our knowledge of the time our family lived in this part of Italy, I at least had the satisfaction of seeing the original list of Ottolenghi births in Livorno dating from 1698. While Livorno was virtually flattened by the allies during WWII, there are still a number of buildings and monuments which our ancestors would have known in the 17th and 18th centuries. The original synagogue was unfortunately one of the buildings destroyed during the war. 8. AUSTRALIA – THE LIFE OF MOSES AND EMMA OTTOLANGUI Given that Moses and Emma are the great, great grandparents of a lot of people "down under", we tried to find out more about their lives in Australia from the meagre sources of available information. The family arrived on board the Western Ocean in March of 1866. Their oldest daughter, Amelia, had already been in Australia for more than a decade, and had married into the Mendes family. In 1858 Amelia sponsored her younger sister Rachel to Australia – who "was disposed of to work for Mrs Mendes at Emerald Hill". Rachel obviously didn’t work for her sister for very long. By July of the following year she had married Lewis Solomon. The oldest boy, Jacob had arrived in Melbourne with his wife Fanny sometime in the 1850’s, and by the time Moses and Emma arrived, he had a thriving business right in the heart of the city on Bourke St. At the age of 58, it must have been a very big decision for Moses to emigrate. While some of his older brothers had died he’d be leaving behind brother Aaron, who had lived next door in Shepherd St for at least 20 years. However, son Jacob had been back in London just two years before, and no doubt told his mother and father of the exciting opportunities which were awaiting them in Australia. Gold had been discovered in nearby Ballarat in the 1850’s and by the early 1860’s Melbourne became the largest city in Australia and the fastest growing city in the British Empire. With the discovery of gold came great wealth and many fine buildings and houses were built in Melbourne at this time. What a reception there would have been on the docks the day the Western Ocean came into port in March 1866! Amelia and Gershon would have been there with their first five children, Rachel and Lewis would have been waiting with their three little ones, and John and Fanny with the first four of their children. Three grown up children and twelve grandchildren to welcome them to their new homeland. Within 2 years, Moses had established his first business in Barkly St, Carlton, and traded under the name of Moss Langley. By 1870 he had moved to 202 Stephen St (now Exhibition St) and was listed in the local business directory as a "general dealer". After a brief spell at 174 Latrobe St, Moses made his final move to 95 Stephen St, where he established himself as a clothier. The shop was located on what is now Exhibition St, between Bourke St and Little Bourke St. Son Jacob’s glass and crockery shop, was just a few blocks away, around the corner in Bourke St. The clothes shop in Stephen St traded continuously from 1874 until Moses died in February of 1885. Presumably, Moses and Emma lived above the shop in Melbourne’s central area during this period. When Moses died, Emma would have been 74, and there would have been little motivation to keep the shop going. So she moved out of the central city area and took up residence at 3 Hanover St, Prahran (today McKilwrick St, Windsor) and lived there until she died in August of 1898. Moses and Emma were the grandparents of at least 46 children. All their children emigrated to Australia (with the probably exception of Israel whose fate we haven’t yet discovered). Moses’s and Emma’s joint tombstone still stands in plots 216 and 217 in the Jewish section of Melbourne’s cemetery. The Hebrew and English inscriptions are still perfectly legible, and the tombstone is still in reasonable condition - although it could well do with a good clean up. (Anyone volunteering for a weekend working bee to ensure that it stays in good condition for another 100 years?) 9. THE MELBOURNE GLASS AND CHINA SHOP Some readers will have read "The China Shop", the story of the shop in the Royal Arcade in Dunedin New Zealand, established by David [Moses, Israel, David, Menachem] in 1875. David’s older brother, Jacob (known as John Morris) some 16 years earlier, had established a glass and china shop in Melbourne. The relationship between the two businesses is a story yet to be to discovered and told. However, we have tracked the course of Jacob’s Melbourne shop. Melbourne was only 20 years old when Jacob [Moses, Israel, David, Menachem] opened his glass and china shop in the heart of Melbourne in 1859. It was a business which was to last 36 years. When John Morris opened his shop in 1859, it was the heyday of the gold rush, and money was pouring into Melbourne. The glass and china industries had not yet been established in either Australia or New Zealand, and so domestic items such as drinking glasses and plates all had to be imported. It was a golden opportunity – the market was there, and so was the money. Immigrants were pouring into Melbourne, and young couples were setting up new homes on all sides. John Morris’s shop, right at the centre of the town, must have been a success from the first day. By 1861, Melbourne was declared a city, and its growth continued to spiral upwards. It is clear that John took his family back to England sometime in the early 1860’s. Was this to cement his business relationship with the English suppliers of his wares? In any case, by 1875, his younger brother David had set up a similar shop just across the Tasman in Dunedin, another town that was booming at the time as a result of the discovery of gold in Otago in the 1860’s. There is much evidence to suggest that there were many trips between Melbourne and Dunedin, and so some sort of co-operative commercial venture between John and brother David is highly likely. John’s first shop was at 164 Russell St where he remained for 3 years. By 1862, he’d moved his shop around the corner to 206 Bourke (south side) where he was to remain until 1866, the year his parents arrived from England. In 1867, his address changes to 218 where his shop was to remain until 1888. By the 1880’s the gold had run out, and a major economic depression had set in. By 1881 Melbourne’s boom time was over and a devastating depression began. Many businesses closed down, but John Morris shop survived, although it’s not difficult to understand that his business must have been terribly affected by the events of those years. The glass and crockery business was running out of steam. In 1887, just two years after his father Moses had died, the local business directory lists John Morris’s shop as a "portmanteau manufacturer". The sudden switch to suitcases after almost 30 years in the china trade, clearly points to a major crisis in the business. The suitcase business, however, was apparently unable to generate enough cash to sustain the business, and in 1888, his listing in the business directory changes again to "General Importer", possibly relying on the relationships he had established in former days with exporters in England. The following year saw a change of address to 37 Bourke St, now further away from the central downtown area, which we have to interpret as a desperate move to reduce overheads. John managed to stay at 37 Bourke St for another three years and in his final year in business, he tries the "portmanteau" business again and advertises himself as a "trunk importer". Now 58 years of age, John Morris must have decided that the time was right to retire. In 1892, the Melbourne directory lists John living at 195 Victoria Parade, Fitzroy. John and Fanny were to remain here until John died in 1894 at the age of 60. John and Fanny had 9 children (although the last two, a boy and a girl died soon after childbirth). Fanny lived for another 23 years after the death of John. The story of her life remains to be told.. 10. NEW ZEALAND – A THIRD OTTOLANGUI LINE? From the early days of her research, Sue has been aware of two lines of Ottolangui families in New Zealand – from David [Moses, Israel, David, Menachem] and Abraham [Aaron, Israel, David, Menachem]. Only in November this year, did we locate the living descendants of Abraham, cousin to David [Moses, Israel, David, Menachem], from who both Sue and I descend. The activities and whereabouts of our great grandfather David, from the time his mother and father (Moses and Emma) emigrated to Australia (1866), and the time David surfaces in Dunedin (1875) remains a mystery. Anthony "Bones" Langley [Aaron, Abraham, Israel, David, Menachem] suggests that his grandfather Abraham was an adventurer who first tried his luck as a gold miner in the Yukon, then in Ballarat and then tried again to find his fortune in the goldfields of Otago, New Zealand. Given the very close relationship between Abraham and his younger cousin David, (both grew up together in Shepherd St, London), we can speculate that in their late teens and early twenties, they may have set off together for the adventure of a lifetime – the goldfields of the Yukon, Ballarat and Otago. In the search for David and Abraham’s arrival in New Zealand, Merle Langley came across one Alfred Langley who arrived in Port Chambers (Dunedin, New Zealand) from Melbourne in 1866 who subsequently settled in Hokitika in the South Island of New Zealand. There were many Langleys who emigrated here who are undoubtedly not related to us, but Alfred Langley, by 1872, had established a "China Warehouse", in Revell Street, Hokitika. At this time, Jacob’s [Moses, Israel, David, Menachem] shop in Melbourne was in its hey-day, and the establishment of David’s shop in Dunedin was 3 years away. The coincidence of the "Langley" surname and a china shop seems to great to be ignored. Who was this Alfred Langley – was he a cousin? Did he have a business relationship with Jacob in Melbourne? Is this a third line of Ottolanguis in New Zealand. Further research over the coming months will tell… (Alfred Langley has now been identified as Israel Ottolangui, son of Moses & Emma !) 11. NEW ZEALAND/AUSTRALIA –THE SEARCH FOR EMMA RACHEL David [Moses, Israel, David, Menachem] and Agnes Langley had 12 children, all born in Dunedin New Zealand. Over the past 12 months, Sue and I have been able to "gather in" the families who descended from this original Ottolangui family. Sue and I had many surprises and exciting discoveries over this time. However, one child eluded us. The first born – Emma Rachel Ottolangui. We tracked her from birth to attendance at Dunedin’s High St. school. At the age of about 22, she married one James Clark in Invercargill. Obviously the marriage didn’t work out, because by 1902, she turns up again at her parents’ house at 77 Maclaggan St Dunedin. For a couple of years (1905-6), she makes it on her own at 9 Victoria St, but just after her father David dies, again she returns to the house in Maclaggan St. By 1911, Emma Rachel is still with her mother at their new house in Queen’s Drive in St Kilda. At the age of 36, she marries one Percival Ernest Wall. From this point, Emma Rachel and her new husband Percival completely vanish from the New Zealand records. However, I discovered that Percival had originated in Geelong, just south of Melbourne, and Sue had uncovered some correspondence (mainly postcards) David and Agnes’s youngest daughter Rayner Amelia, which had originated in Geelong. This gave us the clues we needed. Sure enough, at some time after her marriage in 1912, Emma Rachel left New Zealand for Geelong with her Aussie husband. It was with great expectation, that I ordered Emma Rachel’s death certificate (she died in 1946), with the hope of tracking down her descendants - living families of Walls - which would have been my cousins. Unfortunately, the death certificate showed that there was no issue from the marriage, and my hopes of a host of new cousins in Geelong were dashed. However, Sue and I haven’t give up hope of perhaps finding living relatives of the Wall family in Geelong who may still have some photos of our great aunt Emma Rachel. We live in hope! (We now have photos of Emma Rachel. They were found in Christchurch, New Zealand!) 12. SEARCH FOR MELBOURNE PHOTOS Sue and I are keen collectors of photos of our ancestors and the places they lived in. While we were in Australia, we looked for the house in Hanover St where Emma Ottolangui lived from 1885 to 1898 after the death of her husband Moses. The street is now called McIlwrick - a change reflecting anti-German sentiments during WWI. While a number of houses dating from those times still exist, we feel that Emma’s house at number 3 may have gone, although Sue is still working on this question and is currently in correspondence with the archivist at the Prahran Library. He writes "The information you have requested s in the local rate books, which are on microfilm at our library. But not the building plans, unfortunately - they have not survived." A couple of hours looking through these records awaits some enthusiastic family researcher. • Hanover and Chapel Sts: Sue has found a web site of the Stonnington Library which holds collections from the Prahran Historical Society, including Windsor, (i.e. Hanover Street whre Emma lived). It holds things such as rate books, house plans, newspaper collections and a wonderful photo collection; some of which is on-line. "There are lots of photos of Chapel Street, Windsor and street corners, any of which could be Hanover Street", reports Sue. • Chapel St: Reyna [Moses, Israel, David, Menachem] and Abraham Joachim were living around the corner from Hanover St at 75 Chapel Street, Windsor in 1884 when their daughter Sarah was born, so maybe we’ll find a photo their house in the Stonnington Library collection. • Little Lonsdale St: Sue has also found a website for Museum Victoria which has a piece on Little Lonsdale Street [www.museum.vic.gov.au - look under heading Project Websites and then Little Lonsdale]. Rachel [Aaron, Israel, David, Menachem] was living at No.98 Little Lonsdale Street in 1861 when she married Henry Simmons. Henry was a grocer and wine and spirits merchant. We may yet find a photo of where they lived. • Bourke St: Jacob’s [Moses, Israel, David, Menachem] shop was on prime real estate in the centre of town in Bourke St. The Victorian State Library holds a huge collection of photographs from the period, many of which are on-line. I have begun as search for photos of Bourke St from the 1860’s to the 1890’s which may show John Morris’ shop. • Stephen St (now Exhibition St): Moses’s shop and residence was here. The Victorian State Library has a few photos take in Stephen St during the time Moses and Emma lived there, but to date I’ve not found any taken of the buildings between Bourke and Little Bourke St. I suspect that some of the small buildings (or parts of them at least) which still stand on this block, could date from the period Moses was there. If any of our Australian cousins know where there are other archives of photos of Melbourne between 1850- and 1900, both Sue and I would be pleased to hear from you. 13. PORTUGUESE ANCESTRY? Some time ago I wrote a rather speculative paper on the theory that our family originated in Portugal (If you haven’t seen this paper and would like a copy please e-mail me at paul.edgar@xtra.co.nz). Both Robert Collins and I tried the theory out on Gabriel Bedarida at the Jewish community in Livorno. His "most likely scenario" was that some Italian Ottolenghis made their way to Livorno, and became integrated into the local Portuguese speaking community to the extent that subsequent generations believed that they were Portuguese. This is of course a believable and possible scenario, but the possibility still remains that the original family were Portuguese "conversos". At about the same time that our family left Italy for England, another line of the family appears to have emigrated to America. The first arrival was one Mordecai Ottolengui born in Italy, and who died in 1794. Given the spelling of the name in the Portuguese fashion with "-gui" rather than the Italian "-ghi", the family can only have come from Livorno, which make it highly likely that this line is related to ours. In 1874 when Aaron [Israel, David, Menachem] died in London, along with the "deeply lamented by his sorrowing wife and family" the newspaper announcement included the request "American papers please copy". Who was it in America who would have had an interest in this family? Were there still connections with the families who had emigrated to America at the time Aaron’s grandfather and father had come to England from Italy? Or perhaps some of the English Ottolanguis had gone to America? If any one has any theories or information on the American connection, I’d be pleased to hear from you. (We now know Aarons son Israel Ottolangui was living in Massachusetts, USA.) Best wishes to everyone Paul and Sue ----------------------------------------------------- |
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