He Gets A Look In

Him indoors has sometimes commented that since I began this journal, I have written quite a lot about my family and my ancestors but his family have never got a look in so to speak.  I tell him that he did not have a family - he was hatched!

So today I thought I would redress the balance a little.  To be honest, we do not have a great deal to go on.  Mike never knew his Grandfather (on his Dad's side).  Grandfather passed away when Mike was just a toddler but I will share with you all the facts that we know. 

Christian Friedrich O  arrived in London on the 3rd July 1890.  He was sixteen years old and had sailed entirely alone from Germany where he was born and where his family remained.   He was the son of Wilhelm Gottleib O and Eva Maria Gebert and the second of their nine children. We can never know what prompted him to uproot and settle in England.  In the town where he was born, the family were quite prominent, several of his ancestors being Mayor of the town.  His father was a master baker and that was the trade he was to follow.

Whether he stayed with a cousin or some other relative is not known but he remained close to the London docks in Rotherhithe. I cannot speak for today, but in those days it was one of the worst areas of  East London,   It was poverty stricken and the crime rate very high.  It must have been tough especially for a young lad, newly arrived on these shores and speaking no English.  That is probably why he lived where he did. The German community tended to stick together exactly as the Irish and the Chinese and all other nationalities did.

He worked very hard at his trade learning all there was to know and becoming a master baker and confectioner himself. It is very likely that he had known his future wife from back home.  She would have been fifteen when he left Germany. Whether they had already taken a liking to each other or fallen in love, cannot ever be known.  But at a later date she came to England as well and they were married on the 30th July 1897.  He would have been 23 and his bride 22. There has always been some mystery as to her name because it varies on different documents.  Sometimes it is Christianne Rose, sometimes it is Christine Rosa and others just Rosa and her surname was Weiss.  So they settled into married life and Christian Friedrich opened two shops, one in Harringay and one in Wood Green. They prospered.

They had four children Lena Rose (1899) Christian William (1901) Frederick George (1904) and Harold Albert (1912). Three of them followed their father into the bakery business, Christian and Frederick became bakers both owning shops in their own right.  Lena married Albert K and after the death of her father, Albert who was also a baker, took over the two shops that her father had established and the business continued and was then eventually run by her two sons, Robert and Leslie.  It was the ever increasing growth of the supermarkets that finally put an end to it all. The last child, Harold, had no interest in bakery whatsoever.  He wanted to be a doctor and so it proved.  He became an orthopaedic surgeon at Whipps Cross Hospital in London and later a well-known Consultant. 

Here is a picture of Grandfather and family. I have no idea when it was taken:

Back row, left to right: Harold, Albert K, Christian (Mike's Dad)
Middle row, left to right: Lena, Grandma, Grandpa and Alice (Christian's first wife).
Front row, left to right: Robert K, Eileen O, Leslie K and Phyllis O.  Robert and Leslie being the sons of Lena and Albert and the two girls being the daughters of Christian and Alice. (Mike's half-sisters)

There is not much more I can add about Mike's Grandfather. In 1911 he formerly changed his name and from then on was Christian Frederick and the surname became more English sounding. The papers relating to his change of name and British citizenship were signed by Winston Churchill who was then the Secretary Of State. Grandfather was, from what we have been told, a very kind and gentle man, a hard-worker and a great family man. We do not know if he was a religious man or whether he had any hobbies. Apart from the facts I have stated, we know nothing else. This is the only other photo we possess of him.  Taken later in life.  His eyes look so very sad in this picture. Mike wishes so much he had known him and I feel the same.

He died in 1941 at the age of 67.  We have no idea where he is buried.

Well, I hope you have enjoyed this little insight into the family of him indoors.  I have enjoyed writing it and I know Mike is pleased that his family has had "a look in " at last.