Ber Zavel Ber
(also known at times as Samuel Bear, Solomon Beare and affectionately in the family as Berazava)

Ber Zavel
Ber was married to Ita Ber (nee Aronson) and they had at least 7 children:
Tirza Bassa Ber (later , who settled in Manchester before the rest
of the family and achieved greatly in the textile/lace industry), Feiga Ber
later Lesik/lessik, Sarah Ber later Ginsburg, and unknown daughter Ber who
ran away and died in childbirth in Paris, Harry Beare, Chaim Beare and my
great grandfather Jack Beare (originally Jacob Ber, later John Frank Beare).

From: Dr Chris Milton
To: craig coussins
Sent: Wednesday, 15 July, 2009
Subject: Ber of Zagare

Dear Craig,

I am writing just on an off chance that you know or may come across a branch
of my family in researching yours.

I know that the surname "Ber" is not uncommon but who knows there might be a
link. I see that one of your forebears (no pun intended!) was an Abraham Ber
whom I imagine might have come from Zagare. My great great grandfather was
Ber Zavel Ber and he came from Old Zagare. He was born in about 1830 - 1840,
was a tailor, and left Zagare in the early 1880s settling for some years in
Manchester. Some of the family went on to South Africa and Ber Zavel Ber
(also known at times as Samuel Bear, Solomon Beare and affectionately in the
family as Berazava) went on to Johannesburg where he died sometime between
1916 and 1919 (different family accounts give different dates). Ber Zavel
Ber was married to Ita Ber (nee Aronson) and they had at least 7 children:
Tirza Bassa Ber (later , who settled in Manchester before the rest
of the family and achieved greatly in the textile/lace industry), Feiga Ber
later Lesik/lessik, Sarah Ber later Ginsburg, and unknown daughter Ber who
ran away and died in childbirth in Paris, Harry Beare, Chaim Beare and my
great grandfather Jack Beare (originally Jacob Ber, later John Frank Beare).

If you have or should come across any connections I would really appreciate
if you could let me know.

Just so you know I live in New Zealand but was born in South Africa. I am a
Clinical psychologist & Jungian Psychoanalyst. I am a member of JGSGB and
enjoy your contributions to Shemot.

Note:

My paternal grandfather was a Joseph Kalusky, he and my grandmother Lil Beare divorced acrimoniously in 1934 and my grandmother later remarried and my father took his step-father’s surname, Milton. Whilst we had a story of other descendents of my paternal grandfather Joe there was no contact between the families and we became absolutely lost to each other. During the course of my family researches I found what I thought was my half uncle’s name but years of internet searches turned up nothing. Then almost thoughtlessly one day last year I did a search on a first name and a second name initial and found someone who fitted some of the criteria. There was no email address but I had a snail mail one. Anyway to cut a long story short this indeed turned out to be my long lost half uncle and he put me in touch with my long lost half aunt. The family reconnected after 74 years! The irony was that I lived in a certain part of Cape Town for a period and it turns out my aunt’s daughter/my cousin lived about three blocks away from me – we never knowingly met but it is a village-like part of Cape Town and I imagine our paths must have crossed many times.


Kind regards

Chris Milton

From Craig:

My tree would probably have some connection with your side of the family but I would not know at this stage where that would be. Here is the menu page where you can browse around the information I have on Zagare , photographs of Zagare and some family information. www.coussins.org/Menu.htm <http://www.coussins.org/Menu.htm>
South Africa and New Zealand have a family connection as many of us, including myself, seem to go there at some stage. I emigrated to SA when I was 18 but left to first go to Israel and the back to the UK when I was in my early 20's

However, my great Uncle Hyman did go to New Zealand to meet family members in or around the early 1920's and , as a tailor, found a position there but his wife did not ant to leave her family in Glasgow,

The Manchester RaKussins became well established but I would not at this stage know if the family Ber and Beare would be linked by this stage. Maybe they were., Until we have other family trees to read from that would be hard. We could only link back through the trees if we could find them. I am sure that Abraham Ber is the common link.