The Shotness Family
(In the 1950s Lou Noble wrote:) My grandparents came from a small town near Odessa. The family name was Gantmacher or Goedmacher. My grandfather, David Eleazar, in order to facilitate his emigration bought a passport in the name of Schachness, anglicised to Shotness. He was a cabinet-maker, and shortly after settling in London, aghast at the working conditions, and poor pay, he helped to found a trade union for cabinet-makers, and was for a time its leader. Eventually he was ousted from leadership by younger members. My mother's Yiddish name was Elcha-Rasa. What a pity it was reduced to Ray. David Taylor's daughter is named after her (Elcha = Alice = Alison). She referred at times to relations (second or third cousins) in Baltimore or Washington. heir name was Nathanson, and one of them was a judge. My mother had a sister who died at a very early age. She is not shown on the family tree.
Editor's Note 2008: The family appears in the 1901 Census from which it can be worked out that since Uncle Levy and Grandma Noble (Buba) were born in Poland, and Auntie Leah was born in England, they must have arrived in Britain between 1883 and 1889. According to JewishGen Burial Registry, David Schotness died on the 4th February 1922 at the age of 68. His wife, Martha, died 11th January 1925. In the family tree he appears as David Lazar Schotness, and she appears as Marta Dvora. They are buried in the Edmonton Federation Cemetery in the outskirts of London. Uncle Levy and his wife Sarah who both died in 1959 are also buried there)
Editor's Note 2022: recent research shows that Ray (Elcha-Rasa) was born a Shachness. Any name-change from Gantmacher came well before the family left for Britain, and if linked to a 'bought' passport could well have been an internal (Russian Empire) passport or travel document if they had recently moved to, Kishinev where apparently Bubba was born on 13th August 1884.
The Noble Family
(In the 1950s Lou Noble wrote:) My grandmother was born in Kalisz*, a town on the borders of Poland and Germany. (I learned recently that Gustave Mahler was born in Kalisz). Her maiden name was Paradise. When she married, she and my grandfather (Yechiel Leib Knobel) went to live in his town. He died at an early age, and as she had few friends and no family in this town, she returned with her two children to Kalisz. This action appears to have cut all contact with the Knobels, so we have no knowledge of the Noble side of the family. The elder son, Martin, emigrated to New York, and as soon as he felt settled my father, Solomon, left Poland to join him, but decided to break his journey in London so that he could see his cousins, Michael Paradise and Abraham Paradise. He liked London and stayed a little longer. When he met my mother (Ray Schotness) he decided to stay in London and he married her. And that is why we are Londoners and not New Yorkers.
After the First World War, my father went to Kalisz to see his mother. He found her in an old age home, old, frail and blind. She traced the contours of his face, and assured him that she recognised him. My father believed that she was about a hundred when she died. My father had a number of contacts in London, and I really did not know if they were cousins or friends (of course with the exception of the Paradises). The most intimate of these contacts were named Kantrowich, Lewis and Lubelski. I assumed that because of the closeness they were relatives.
*Editor (2022): sadly Lou was mistaken. Mahler was born in the Czech (Bohemian) town of Kaliste (German: Kalischt).