Hannah 'Unknown'

Date of birth: 1847  				Place of birth: Possibly Kalisz, Poland 
Date of death: 15th March 1892 			Place of death: 28 Langdale st 
Father:  Aaron  					Mother: Rosie

Spouse:   Louis Goldberg 
Children:  Michael   Benjamin   Carrie   Rachel   Katy   Israel   
           Ada   Rosie   Nettie   Samuel   Martha 
Biography:
   We don’t yet know Hannahs maiden name, but we do know that her parents were called Aaron & Rosie 
and she had at least two sisters one of whom was called Schpinze or possibly Sopinze. She was born 
in Poland about 1847 possibly in Kalisz and is recorded on the 1891 London census as Annie Goldberg, 
her first language would have been Yiddish. 
   Hannah married Louis in 1862 when she was 15 and had her first child by the age of 16, in 1863 and 
then another in 1865, these two children died, we do not know if they were stillborn or died in 
infancy but we do know thanks to Katie and Rachel that Louis was away from home searching for his 
parents when Hannah lost one of the children. She then went on to have a child around every two years 
for the next 22 years, starting with Michael/Mark in 1867 and ending with Martha born in 1888. 
She conceived in total 16 times and had the misfortune to have three miscarriages. As soon as one child 
was weaned Hannah would be pregnant with the next one. Although todays women would be horrified to have 
so many pregnancies, in Hannahs time, before the pill or any form of birth control Hannah would have been 
just one of the millions of women constantly bowed down with pregnancy.
   Hannah always worked, even though she would have been pregnant or nursing a child, she baked her 
own cakes and challas and dried her own fruit, to sell in the two shops that she ran with Louis. 
Katie & Rachel tell us that Louis spent a lot of time away from home, playing the clarinet in large 
theatres and he used to play at weddings in different parts of the country, so it seems that Hannah had 
to run the businesses with the help of the children, and a woman who came in to light the fire and who 
brought the water, one barrel a week for all the family, for drinking, cooking, and washing their clothes 
as well as themselves.  Despite their duel income, the family were poor and domestic life pretty tough. 
   Son, Michael known as Mark, did not want to suffer the same fate as his father and about 1885 came 
to England to avoid army service; it was about this time we think the family name was changed to Goldberg. 
   We will never know how Hannah felt waving her first born off to live in a strange country, although 
Mark probably spoke Yiddish, Polish and Russian like the rest of the family, just as probably he had not 
learned English. Mark must have felt that England could solve the families’ problems and having seen the 
lie of the land, he sent for the rest of the family and within a couple of years about 1889 all 12 set 
off with Martha just a babe in arms on the difficult and long journey to London via Hamburg. The family 
like many other Ashkenazi Jews fleeing the ill treatment, hardship, poverty and persecution that followed 
the assassination of Tsar Alexander 11 in 1881 would have landed at Tilbury Docks and made their way to 
the East End from there.
   The family settled at 28 Langdale Street, St George in the East, we think 9 of the children plus Louis 
and Hannah lived in no more than two rooms plus kitchen, Langdale St was down by the docks, in a very 
overcrowded sleazy and rough part of the East End.
  Hannah did not have long to settle in her new life in England plagued by ill health and worn out by 
pregnancy she died at 28 Langdale St on 15th March 1892, she was only 45 years old, and had been married 
to Louis for 30 years most of it spent very pregnant. The death certificate says she died of pneumonia 
and chronic bronchitis this was no doubt aggravated by the unhealthy air of East London. Her son Benjamin 
registered Hannah’s death and states he was present when she died. Her death certificate is registered 
with the forename Heya instead of Hannah.