Marks (Mordechai) Ziants

Hebrew name on grave stone:-
מרדכי בן ברוך לייב Mordechai son of Baruch Leib
He passed away on 25th of Kislev, 5694 which is Wed, 13 December 1933 which is the first day of chanuka. His daughter-in-law (David Ziants' paternal grandmother) told that his yartzeit (death anniversary on the Hebrew calendar was during chanuka).

Mordechai (Marks) was either born in Narewka or somewhere else in the Bialystok region and if that is the case, then came to live in Narewka when he married Alka (Alice) whose family define themselves as from Bielsk. Narewka is closer to Bielsk than Bialystok is, but there seems to have been a lot of movement between these towns. There is a revision sheet from Bransk (which is very close to Bielsk) that mentions a Baruch son of Moshe, and it is almost certain that this is Mordechai's father and Mordechai had already left home.

Rose, who was Marks and Alice's oldest daughter, always identified herself from Narewka. On the UK naturalization certificate of youngest son Morris (Moshe - grandfather of David Ziants who is writing this), it is written that Morris immigrated from Narefka, When asked by me (grandson David), Morry preferred to identify himself as from Bialystok, but maybe because that was a more well known city.

Moshe (became Morris), through the landsman connection, worked in the bakery of his future father-in-law Alter DAVIDSON in the East End of London (Cable Street). There he met his future wife Sarah (Sadie) who was born in the UK and whose maternal grandmother Esther nee FRYDMAN was also from this village. ,

Concerning the photograph, we have Mordechai (Marks) and Alka (Alice) Ziants who had seven daughters and eventually a son. The two oldest daughters, Rose and Cissie (Sarah) had already left for England in order to work to earn money to bring the rest of the family over. They both worked as dressmakers. They can be seen in the picture that is being held by Martha at the back left. Also at the back behind her mother is Lilly. On the far right, next to her father is Ray. In front , left to right, is Debbie and Essie.

The baby being held by his father is Morry mentioned above.

Morry's son Martin was given Hebrew name Mordechai after his grandfather (Eastern European ashkenazim have the custom not to name after a living ancestor).

Unfortunately Martin died relatively young, and his Israeli grandson who was born a few weeks later was given name Mordechai (affectionately known as Motti).

Daughters Rose and Cissie arrived in England in the first decade of the 1900s so they appear on the 1911 UK census (see Rose's profile). The rest of the family arrived in the 1910s, and they appear on the 1921 census with 4 children still with their parents.

From 1921 England and Wales Censor:-
Parish Registration district County
Whitechapel Whitechapel London, Middlesex

First name(s) Last name Birth year Birth place
Alice Tiants 1866 —
Esther Tiants 1904 —
Lilly Tiants 1901 —
Mark Tiants 1863 —
Morry Tiants 1907 —
Ray Tiants 1899 —

The first letter of the family name, of course, is supposed to be "Z", and this was mistranscribed because the "Z" was not handwritten clearly enough.