Alter Yossef Davidson (Ishma/Ismach)

Alter DAVIDSON was married to Esther nee FRIEDMAN from Narewka (at time Russia but now Poland) and they came to England at the beginning of the 20th century. In the 2nd April 1911 census he appears (name spelled Ulter) with his wife Esther and two children Charlie and Sami. Sarah (Sadie) was to be born a few months later, and then followed by the other children:-

From 1911 England & Wales Census:-
Name Mr Ulter Davidson {Alter Davidson}
Gender Male
Birth Circa 1884; Russia
Residence Apr 2 1911; 95. Jubilee Street, Mile End Old Town, London, England
Age 27
Marriage Circa 1906
Years of marriage 5
Marital status Married
Occupation Baker
Wife Esther Davidson
Children Charlie Davidson, C Sami Davidson {Sami Davidson}

Census

Parish Mile End Old Town Series RG14
Registration district Mile End Old Town, Mile End Old Town South Western Piece 1587
County London Enum. District 16
Country England Family 72
Date Apr 2 1911 Line 1

Household

RELATION TO HEAD NAME AGE SUGGESTED ALTERNATIVES
Head Ulter Davidson 27
Alter Davidson
Wife Esther Davidson 25
Son Charlie Davidson 4
Son C Sami Davidson 2
Sami Davidson
Lodger Girl Annie Hershentbloom 20

Source:

1911 England & Wales Census
MyHeritage.com [online database], MyHeritage Ltd.
https://www.myheritage.com/research/collection-10446/1911-england-w...

Record:
https://www.myheritage.com/research/record-10446-2396647/mr-ulter-d...
Ulter Davidson {Alter Davidson}
Year: 1911; Country: England; County: London; Parish: Mile End Old Town; Series: RG14; Piece: 1587; Enum. District: 16; Page: 143; Line: 1

Citation:
Mr Ulter Davidson {Alter Davidson}
Birth: Circa 1884 - Russia
Residence: Apr 2 1911 - 95. Jubilee Street, Mile End Old Town, London, England
Wife: Esther Davidson
Children: Charlie Davidson, C Sami Davidson {Sami Davidson}

!921 England and Wales census is available, and an index of this census record is available at:-
https://www.findmypast.com/search/results?datasetname=1921+census+o...

Parish Registration district County
St George in the East St George in the East London, Middlesex

First name(s) Last name Birth year Birth place
Alter Davidson 1882 Russia
.
Have yet to download census image or transcript, but from the hints we have that the names Alter, Esther, Charles and 5 others are on this record. We know that Alter and Esther had 5 children (including Charles) and these appear:-

First name(s) Last name Birth year Birth place
Esther Davidson 1884 Russia
Charles Davidson 1907 London, Middlesex, England
Samuel Davidson 1909 London, Middlesex, England
Sarah Davidson 1911 London, Middlesex, England
Bloomah Davidson 1913 London, Middlesex, England
Israel Davidson 1917 London, Middlesex, England

Most likely, the fifth person was a lodger or living-in worker or apprentice.

They are already living at Cable Street in 1921, search https://www.findmypast.co.uk/search-address/households?_page=13&add... :-
House Street Parish Registration District County Year Schedule
367 Cable Street St George in the East St George in the East London, Middlesex 1921 153

On the ketuba of Sadie and Morry ZIANTS, the name of Sadie's father is Alter Yosseph אלתע יוסף. On Sadie's grave stone, it was ensured that the father's name would be rendered with Yosseph, and this is written אלטר יוסף (tet and resh instead of ayin). On Alter's stone and the stones of some of the other children of Alter, the name is just rendered "Alter" - "אלטער" without "Yosseph" . On some of the civil records of the 1930s, he writes his civil name "Alter J." . We would assume that on the ketuba of Alter and Esther, the name was rendered in full as Alter Yosseph.

On the 1911 census, Alter is written as 27 years old (born 1883 or 1884), but the age on the 1921 census resonates with his year of birth of 1882 that we know. He was a baker by profession, together with his siblings. It was his father Isaac that encouraged them to go into this profession, and it is told that Isaac acquired the bakery shops for each of his children.

Concerning the family name, see what is written on Geni "about" entry of Isaac. It was told to David Ziants (who is writing this) by his paternal grandmother, Sadie that there was a KATZ the hat seller (Marks/Myer) who was close to Alter and his wife Esther and visited the family for the last time when Sadie sat shiva (seven days of mourning) for Esther.

See profile Hyman Goldblatt where Anna ISMACH is the cook in the household and is known from FreeBMD that she married the assistant Ferdinand KATZ) and it is a curiosity whether this is the same KATZ family as Marks/Myer.

At the time they lived at 95 Jubilee Street, Mile End Old Town, London, England . It is this address that appears on Sadie's birth certificate. At some point in the 1980s a visit was made at it was seen this address was, and possibly still is, an Indian bank. It is not sure whether Alter operated his business from this address or one or even two bakeries it seems were already in Cable Street. The Cable Street buildings were bombed out during WW2. One of the items that was referenced was a chanukiya (candle stick used by Jews on the festival of chanuka also known to many as a "menorah" although that Hebrew term is used less these days for various reasons).

According to family announcement in UK Jewish Chronicle of 16th December 1938, Alter passed away at age of 52 on 9th December 1938. This is the age written on his grave stone. This means he was born in 1886 (or last 3 weeks of 1885).

According to his British naturalization certificate, Alter reported that he was born 15th January 1882. If that was the case, he would have been aged 29 during the 1911 census and he would have been 56 when he passed away. He reports that he was born in "Bialistock" (correct spelling - Bialystok) and of Russian nationality. (Bialystok was under Russian jurisdiction during that period.) On the certificate, his address was 367, Cable Street, London, E1 and this is the address of one of the Davidson bakeries in the business directories of that time.

If one's age is something one could make up - then the age on the census is the most comfortable with respect to the age of his wife. who was born end of 1883 (after October) or 1884 (before October).

From the family tree, we see that Alter's next recorded sibling was Abraham who was not born until 1892. So regardless of which is the real year of birth, there seems to be a relatively long gap until Abraham was born. On the naturalization certificate, Alter wrote down the name of his mother as Rivka. This goes against the conventional wisdom that his mother was Sarah nee ALPERT, after whom he named his first daughter. At the time Sadie (Sarah) was born in 1911, Isaac was still in Russia, and it was the natural thing to name her after the "mother" whom he knew. He might not have even been aware of or remembered that the mother whom he knew, came in later in his life. Before Alter applied for naturalization, Isaac, who was now already in England, no doubt told Alter that his biological mother was Rivka but she died when he was very young (maybe when trying to give birth to a subsequent baby). He might have also learned at that time, his true year of birth, which was written on the certificate. Most of the conclusions of this paragraph, is speculation at the time of writing, based on what is written on certificates etc.

It is known in oral family history (see Sutker memorandum (*) with David Ziants annotations), that Isaac (and Alter) were "Rabbis" (melamdim or teachers might be a better term) who wandered from village to village giving lessons. I imagine that this is primarily referring to Isaac who of course always had his son Alter with him, and I cannot imagine him doing this if he had a wife at the time. So this is probably referring to the period up to ~1891 - when he remarried and Abraham was born 1892.

(*) The Sutker Memorandum - this is a document dated September 11, 2002, written by a patent attorney Marshell J. SUTKER, after interviewing many senior members of the DAVIDSON family and other possible relatives/descendents of Sarah nee ALPERT - trying to connect this with his ALPERN family. Using the Internet search engines of today (year 2017), and the online trees of the ALPERN family, we have no evidence that the families are connected in any way, and it seems that the Davidson Bakery in Chicago (this is the city where Leah/Lillian nee DAVIDSON lived) is just a coincidence. In the document, is mentioned Aaron KATZ, a descendant of the Sha"ch - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shabbatai_HaKohen - as Marshell also had contact with Aaron and wanted to examine if he can tie himself and/or Sarah nee ALPERT with Aaron's family.

During the year 2017, the document was scanned and annotated by David ZIANTS (great-grandson of Alter and Esther DAVIDSON), with notes especially drawing attention to known inaccuracies as well as adding information from later research.