Catalogue description FAMILY PHOTOGRAPHS RELATED TO MRS RACHEL BLACK

Black, Rachel, fl 1981, of Prestwich, Manchester

Mrs Black's grandparents lived in a small town on the border of Russia and Rumania. Mrs Black's paternal grandfather Shmiel (Samuel) Schwartz used to buy the produce of an orchard. Before the crop had grown, he would buy plums and have them dried. His wife was called Gittel. The donor's paternal great grandmother Rachel Schwartz dressed her son (Mrs Black's grandfather) up as a little girl and smuggled him over the border into Rumania to avoid conscription into the Russian army, then she went herself over the border and then settled in the town of Botoshan. Mrs R. Black's mother's family also came from Botoshan, her mother's father Pincus Vital was a dealer. Her mother's mother was called Shaindle. Botoshan had a synagogue, a Jewish old people's home and a Jewish hospital on the outskirts of the town.

Mrs Black's parents, Herman Schwarz (known as Herschel Black) and Sarah Pinkow could not get married in Rumania because Herman's father was very orthodox and it was a custom that the youngest male members of the family had to wait until his sisters and older brothers were married before he got married. They had been friends for ten years and engaged for five years when Herman decided to leave Rumania and come to England to look for work and he hoped Sarah would follow him.

Sarah's parents were reluctant to let her go. She was a quiet, reserved girl and had never been out of her native Botoshan. Finally her parents agreed to let her go and she travelled to England via Hamburg and Holland. She travelled, accompanied by her brothers Michael and Beril. When they arrived at Grimsby the authorities would not allow her to land with her brothers (March 1911). They accused her brothers of being white slave traffickers. Sarah was only allowed into this country on condition that her brothers were to be deported and she was to get married within a month. She was terrified at being left alone, having no friends and being unable to speak the language. Herman came from Manchester with a good friend he had made there who vouched for Herman and was a witness at his wedding to Sarah.

Donor's parents lived in Waterloo Road with a friend (Mrs Ferber) for a few weeks, then they went to live in Kent Street. Mrs Black was born in Howard Street. Her parents took a fruiterers shop at 57 Bury New Road. This shop is still standing. Next door was the old Lapidus's chip shop, a meeting ground for the Jewish Community. Later Mr Black's (Mrs Rachel Black's husband's father), Baruch, took over the shop. He was a baker, nicknamed "The Red Baker" because of his ginger hair. Mr Black (husband of Rachel Black) was born there. Later still Mrs Rachel Black's uncle (S. Adler) bought the shop and it became a cloth shop; his name is inset in the tiles in the porch of this shop.

Mrs Black's family moved from Howard Street. Her father took a shop in Great Ducie Street. At first it was a "cut price" shop. Then they sold cat's whiskers and crystal sets and valve sets. Rachel Black served in this shop from the age of 11 or 12. She would work there when she got back from school, working from around 4.45 to 8p.m. The shop was destroyed in 1942. An Irish-Italian burglar from Greengate Street, Salford set fire to the shop by accident. He had lit a candle in the shop as he was searching for the safe and the candle was the source of the fire. The burglar, who was called Costello, smashed a window to escape but he was found lying on the pavement outside the shop by the police. Much valuable stock was destroyed in the fire.