Investigating the Isaac Family

By Karen Van Coevorden

Following on from Emma’s blog about Esther Rafer, another
family which we have explored at our recent Curious
Minds workshops is the Isaacs family.

Using a series of photographs and objects from our
collection, we set individuals the challenge of trying to piece together an
understanding of the Isaac family history.

We know that Philip Isaacs was born in Russia and came to
England in about 1875 with his wife, Kate (known as Kitty) and his eldest son,
Israel.

Just by looking at the photographs, one can presume that
Philip and Kitty only had sons as it is only boys who feature in the
photographs. However, on looking closer at the Census, we know that in 1911
they had 9 children still at home – 5 sons and 4 daughters. The Census also
tells us that Kitty gave birth to 13 children – 2 have died and 11 are living.
We know that their eldest son, Israel, is not included in the Census so he must
have already left home by that time but there is still one child that is not
accounted for, who we presume was born after Israel and before Michael (Mike).
Israel was the only child to be born in Russia; the others were born in the
East End, in Stepney.

Philip was a tailor (specifically a waistcoat maker). While
one of his daughters was a machiner in the fur trade and 2 were tailoresses, 4
of the sons followed a completely different trade and became hairdressers. They
were trained by their elder brother, Israel, whose first shop was in Cleveland
Street, Mile End; they also had another shop in Canonbury and one in
Bermondsey. The sons changed their surname to Phillips, after their father’s
first name. With ‘Issacs’ very clearly being a Jewish name, by Anglicising it,
this may have enabled them to have better business opportunities and be
accepted more easily into the community.

In 1911, the Census records that Kitty has been married 32
years, which would mean that as her current age is given as 50 years old, she
was aged 18 when she married Philip in 1879. This information appears to
contradict what we know already and if this is true, Philip and Kitty could not
have arrived in England in 1875 already married and with a child, Israel –
Kitty would have only been 14 years old!

While these inconsistencies may lead us to doubt the
accuracy of the Census, there could be a number of logical explanations. One
may simply be to do with a language barrier and a lack of knowledge about what
was being asked. It was also not uncommon at the time for people not to know
when they were born and as dates were not recorded, people would not
necessarily know how old they were.

The joy of learning about history is that there is always
more to discover! Most of the information I have comes from the 1911 Census of
England and Wales. I am keen to discover what detail is recorded about the
Isaac family in 1901 and 1891. Finding a reference to Israel and also the
‘missing’ child may hopefully shed some light on this situation.