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| As family members add information I will be able to
extrapolate that and fill in the details as I proceed with the genealogy.
(my own available notes are in brackets ) Please email me with information
and please try and scan images and send these as well. Failing a scan,
please either send me the image which I will digitise and return to you if
you wish. Email:
craig.coussins@btinternet.com
NEW DNA PROFILES FOR COUSSINS-CLICK THIS LINE If I had taken the time to ask more: My mother lived a rich life of many experiences and she lived the life that she loved. She was fortunate in enjoying the job she made for herself and it enjoyed her. My mother did not have a broad view of the world but she was worldly. Leaving big decisions to her husband she was happy in the knowledge that he always managed to find the wherewithal to do the things that he and sometimes she liked to do. My mother was happy with her old age but sad that she was not able to continue to do all the things that she wanted to do with her career. Although she did have an extremely successful career, like any artist , she always felt that she could do more. Maybe not exactly better but perhaps differently. I asked her one day what she felt about glowing old. (not a typo)
Old Age, she decided, is a gift.
When living here in Spain I learned that speaking a foreign language is all
about shouting louder and adding ‘a’ onto each word - doa youa have a
pounda a beef a senor- whether or not they speak English is not the
point as they always laugh and give me exactly what I want. Age does that
for you. In some cultures we are precious commodities after all.
MARCH 2008 Philip Cussin Morrison sent
me some great new images. I have just finished working these up for the website
and http://www.coussins.org/Family/Morrisons.htm
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15th December 2005 First of all I know that Tommy was a lance corporal in the medical corps. (see naturalisation papers from Abraham on the home page) Tommy was with Allenby in the second world war when he marched into Palestine and Tommy stayed on after the British left. Joining the Israeli Police Force, he eventually became paymaster general of the Israeli police force. His only son was killed on the Lebanese border in the 1948 independence war. (Tommy married Esther who was a Zionist and whose family had settled in Palestine many years before-CC.)
Gerry (Judah ) was the youngest brother (his obit is on the website) and I remember meeting Gerry in the lat 1980s at my Dads place and he was in fine form, charming, very interesting and lucid. Leah of course was Many and David Eppel' s mother. Many is still alive. David too I think though ill. (David worked for the Jerusalem Post and a highly respected journalist) His son is in the Israeli air force as they all live in Israel. I was at his son’s Bar mitzvah at the wall in Jerusalem and have pictures some where. That was 1979. Many’s son Jeremy is a civil servant working in Brussels. There was an Uncle that Daddy used to talk about, went to live in the USA who was a famous pantomime dame in the UK in the 30s, and 40s. Billie – Curtis so that suggests he married one of the sisters. (He used to live in London for a while (have written to many researchers in the British Theatre to try and elicit more information and the results are below-CC) You know about Uncle Leslie being a war hero don’t you? (Uncle Leslie attacked a Japanese Machine gun nest during action in the Burma campaign. He single handed shot two and overpowered the rest. He won the Military Medal. I have written to various authorities to try and get more information. We used to have a newspaper cutting about the medal award-CC) Have more to add later, but that’s it for now. Ricky Coussins Note: Uncle Leslie served
in the Welsh Borderers in the Burma Campaign. We have traced the fact
through the London Gazette of the time that he was awarded the Military
Medal for outstanding bravery under fire. He took a Japanese Submachine Gun
nest single handed and shot two of the enemy and clubbed the others to
death. Apart from that he was really a very quiet man-Craig. I recently found a Internet reference to letters written by Tommy Coussins in and around 1947 Letters from Great Uncle Tommy Coussins as Chief of Police in 1947 to the family of a friend, William Irvine. Mr. Irvine was a missionary in Jaffa http://home.earthlink.net/~truth333/BRG4-4-2WmIDeath.html
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Peel and Curtis: They appeared at the
Birmingham Hippodrome
 on
the week commencing 8th Feb.1932. The manager
of the theatre wrote, "Peel & Curtis proclaim the
fact that
they are the only two Scotch Jews in captivity. They
supply a racy Humorous act in which agreeable
singing
is cleverly intermixed".
This 'snippet' of information was supplied by Max Tyler of the Theatre History Archives. Meredyth Taylor tells us: Billy Curtis married my great Aunt Bessie Cousins. They settled in California. They had a daughter called Esther/Estelle, Esta- His Hebrew was Lazarus and his last name was Julius, which became Curtis when his family came over from the old country (they were probably from the same region that Grand-dad Coussins was from. He was #9 of 10, born in Edinburgh, right below Arthur's Seat, which was the Jewish ghetto at the time. He was born July 21st 1896 or 7, and died in February 1981. He would have been 89 yrs old. He left home at a very early age, probably 13 at most, and began traveling Great Britain and the World---he was in South Africa as a very young man himself. He also came to America as well, but return home at some point, met and married Bessie. Esta and I miss him very much. He babysat me a lot when I was very young. I loved hanging-out with my grand-dad---he was great at telling stories. He would put me on his lap and would always begin by saying "and now voyager..............." He loved to cook. He made the best Latkies and turkey vegetable soup I've ever eaten. To this day I can't eat a Latkie without comparing it to my Grand-dad's. I'm not sure but I think my Grand-father was already in California at the time when television was just getting off the ground (1952/3), and he never mentioned any offers of a T.V. show to my mother---but it would have been wonderful to have had Billy on T.V. ................BTY, Billy was "Leslie William or William Leslie Curtis, depending on the phase of the moon. Lazarus Julius (possibly Barnstein) In the days when people came to the United Kingdom and America , if the immigration officers of that time did not understand the last name they either dropped it or changed it to one that they could understand. (Esta)
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21 st January 2008 Hi Craig, Philip and Meredith One easy one. My mother and father never lived in Leeds . My mother was a Brighton girl (Hove actually!), but did spend some time in Glasgow with Daddy (Harold of course) shortly after they were married. This was in the old days when you couldn’t see the hills behind the city and everything closed on Sunday. My mother counted the months, days and hours she spent there. So you can see she didn’t particularly relish it or the north of England either. She told me that once when in a bar with my father and noticing that the locals were just drinking steadily she asked them why no darts? ‘Och lady’ they said, ‘if we had darts we’d be sticking them in each other!’. Times have changed now, of course, and I am very fond of Glasgow . Spent many happy child hood days there. By the way I have quite a few holiday stories that involve you in Southwick Craig! I also distinctly remember your Dad reading a letter that you sent home from South Africa saying you now knew the difference between a filet mignon and a grilled steak. As you put it, ‘about $30!’. Actually Philip, re the name, it could be that this was the case, but the name Shai is actually a name in its own right. I have friends (Jewish ones of course) whose kids are called Shai. It is Hebrew or Aramaic (an older language than Hebrew which, in biblical terms was comparatively recent) for gift. By the way, the mourners prayer is all in Aramaic though using Hebrew characters. Meredyth my father talked very fondly about his Uncle Billy and how much he liked him. So I knew a bit about him too. There is a famous story about a UK TV exec in the very early days of TV (pre or post war not sure) approaching Uncle Billy to do a TV show of his act (I think it was his Dame act as I recall the story Daddy told me), but he turned him down flat. As he said ‘what and use up all my material in one performance.’ This was a major issue for many of the performers in those days as the act would be used many times in many theatres around the country. With much less mobility and no mass media this was, of course, very possible. Finally on Papa – he claimed to me he was also a an acrobatic comedian (as was Chaplain). This means, I think that he did a lot of acrobatic falling over, a bit like the Chaplain drunk act (see the film Chaplain with Robert Downey Jnr. for an example). Being war blind killed this opportunity for him after returning home. He still said though, that the nigh patrol that blinded him saved his life. As this was the day before the battle of the Somme you can see why he thought this. Will write more later. Need to go now and listen to my little one play the piano (started late and am the baby here! So I have an 11 year old son and 6 – shortly this week to be 7 – year old daughter. Lovely to talk with you all. We should try a skype call Craig! Fondest best wishes Ricky
From:
CRAIG COUSSINS 21st January 2008 Ref: Meredyth asked: I also think that Fay told me Great Uncle Hyman went to Siberia (maybe in the seventies) and found some additional family up there---do you know anything about this????? Philip replied: Hey Craig, Grandpa Hyman did indeed go to Russia in 1960/61 as he found out that he had a niece still living there unfortunately she had passed away but he did see her grave. I met her father in Leeds who I recall grandpa calling him Shai, my mother knew him as Uncle Shai. I expect that "Shai" is the diminutive for "Moshe" or Morris who was the oldest of the brothers and Craig, in Morris's basement he kept all his shoe equipment and I remember the various sizes of "awls" and the very hard thread that he would use for stitching the shoes, I remember that Denise and I were playing somewhere in the garden and I am sure that Harold and Pam lived in Leeds or did they Philip I will ask Ricky if Harold and Pam ever lived in Leeds . I don't think so but then again I do not really know. Ricky will fill that in. Also Philip. Do you remember where in Russia he visited? Siberia seems so unusual for a visit. Moscow, St. Pete etc are normal but elsewhere there were not too many Jews. Apropos the shoe making: I am a shoemaker and indeed , as a family, we have a history of being shoe makers. Maybe coincidence but then again? I would have said that its in the genes but then I don't make jeans, only shoes. My brother Paul makes jeans though-may its in his -sorry about that(:-o)) Craig Maybe I should set up a discussion site that allows us tro answer all these truly interesting and imnportant questions. I will speak to my web designer and see what he will suggest |
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However, it's wonderful to meet all of you. Who would have thought
this could ever have happened. I'm truly grateful for this experience.
Craig, I'm meeting with my Rabbi tomorrow and intend to give him all
of this information. I'm not positive, but as I said before---the
Chabad--Lubavitch are like the Jewish version of the Mormons. Genealogy
is very important to them and they keep adding and growing their
information as time goes on.
Esta has mentioned that great-grand-dad was a produce seller, which
is probably where my grand-mother (Bessie) and my mother got their love
of fruits and veg. Certainly coming to California was the right place
for them!
Since I'm Great Grandma's name sake, I was hoping that somebody had
additional information on her. Esta loved her very much. She told me
that she had the most incredible red hair you've ever seen----she said
it was a deep maroon color; like the color women get out of bottle these
days, and that she was the sweetest, most loving person in the world to
all of her children and husband. As for the shoemaker's in the family,
I wish I could make them, I have
some great ideas---all I do is collect them. I've lost count on how
many pair I have. Esta was a great one for collecting shoes too. I
thought it came from her---now I know where we got the bug.
It's raining in Southern California right now, despite what the song
says........Craig, I need to get into my garage and look for the
information you're asking for. It just might take a few days for me to
get to it (there's a 5 days storm forecast as of today, and we've had
some really hard rains lately. I know what your thinking , don't say
it....but for California, these have been doozies).
Craig, I know that Esta will be contacting you in the next few days.
Hopefully she'll have some additional info. that she can add to the
mix. What about Murtal (sp) or David. They must have some information
too---especially David from what Esta says, he spent a great deal of
time with Great Grand-ma's after he had finally met her.
Ricky, I'm not sure but I think my Grand-father was already in
California at the time when television was just getting off the ground
(1952/3), and he never mentioned any offers of a T.V. show to my
mother---but it would have been wonderful to have had Billy on T.V. ................BTY,
Billy was "Leslie William or William Leslie Curtis, depending on the
phase of the moon.
Here's some Billy Curtis FAC's for all:
His Hebrew was Lazarus and his last name was Julius, which became
Curtis when his family came over from the old country (they were
probably from the same region that Grand-dad Coussins was from. He was
#9 of 10, born in Edinburgh, right below Arthur's Seat, which was the
Jewish ghetto at the time. He was born July 21st 1896 or 7, and died in
February 1981. He would have been 89 yrs old. He left home at a very
early age, probably 13 at most, and began traveling Great Britain and
the World---he was in South Africa as a very young man himself. He also
came to America as well, but return home at some point, met and married
Bessie. Esta and I miss him very much. He babysat me a lot when I was
very young. I loved hanging-out with my grand-dad---he was great at
telling stories. He would put me on his lap and would always begin by
saying "and now voyager..............." He loved to cook. He made the
best Latkies and turkey vegetable soup I've ever eaten. To this day I
can't eat a Latkie without comparing it to my Grand-dad's.
Bye to all for now.............
Meradyth
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Items highlighted are online: Timeline: Living in Lithuania and Russia: Photographs: Family Stories and connections: Family Recipes: Maps: Links: Contact: Databases of connected names: Rakusons Database Riga: Home: Obituaries Zagare Revision List Morrison
if you
have any news, photographs or information please email Craig
