On Friday I visited Birmingham for a conference at the Hippodrome theatre. Opposite this is a National Trust conservation project of some Victorian shop fronts and back to back houses in courts at the rear. This was in the heart of the old Jewish quarter in the mid 19th century. The back to back houses in Court 15 are arranged by age and the oldest (1840's/1850's) was occupied by Lawrence and Priscilla Levy and their four children Joseph, Adelaide, Morris and Emanuel. It occurred to me that this family could be the ancestors of some of the viewers of this site. Lawrence Levy arrived from London in his fifties (at time of 1851 census) and made hands for clocks. By 1861 he and his family had moved into the Jewellery quarter in Birmingham, where his sons continued the business. The Levy original Birmingham home in the Inge Street Court has a dining room laid out for a Friday Shabbat meal, with various Jewish memorabilia. (They were Polish Jews by the way). If this is your ancestor, I can photocopy the appropriate pages in the guide book for you. To further add to this, I found my own unexpected personal link to this area. During the 1950's one of the shops on the street front now owned by the National Trust was a newsagent run by Manny Gorfunkel. Manny's mother (from Hull/Sheffield) was my maternal grandmother's sister. Manny came from Liverpool where coincidentally he had been in the same class at the Liverpool Institute grammar school as my father. You can find family history in surprising places! Jill Whitehead Surrey

Hi Jill My LEWIS family were much involved as they came from Poland ( we cant find that actual evidence yet apart from Census records). Please email me directly with a copy. Thank you John Meyers