What’s in a name?

One of the aims of my travels in 2010 is to discover the history of HASKI, my family name. Thankfully the name Haski is not like Smith or Jones so through the wonders of modern technology (ie Facebook) I have been able to connect with many Haskis around the world – From Argentina and Israel, France and Turkey.

My curiosity with the Haski name actually began several years ago when, reading the Sydney Morning Herald one day, we noticed the by line of Pierre Haski, a French journalist, on an article about French nuclear testing in the South Pacific. My father promptly sent a fax off to the newspaper he worked for in Paris (this was way before email) and we heard… nothing.

Nothing that is until over 10 years later when, one afternoon, I received a phone call from the aforementioned Pierre on my mobile! He was in Sydney for a few days, remembered the fax he had received over a decade ago and looked us up in the phone book!! I was so excited! We met for a drink that night.

Pierre and I still aren’t sure if we are related but he told me a great story about a group of young wives left in Cairo in the 1940s as their husbands prepared the way for their emigration to America. When he was introduced as a Haski these women, now grandmothers, were very solicitous and explained that in Cairo they were looked after by a Monsieur Haski and they had very fond memories of him… was he related? Pierre didn’t know; his family was from Tunisia. Could this Monsieur Haski, in Cairo, have been my grandfather or great grandfather? It’s a tantalizing thought!

My great grandfather, Aslan Isaac Haski, was born about 1845, possibly in Turkey (I recently received some anecdotal evidence that he may have come from Izmir). In the only photograph I have of him he stands proudly in an elaborate army uniform, complete with Fez, sword and handlebar moustache.

According to the Australian War Memorial…
“The Sword appears to be a British Officers Sword pattern 1827 (circa 1846-1890) and not an Ottoman or German one. This would strongly indicate that the image was not taken in the Ottoman Empire but in British controlled Egypt in the late 19th Century. †The ranks on his epaulettes (shoulders) appear to be British style Officer pips which reinforces the previous entry re. British sword and Egypt. These swords as replaced by later models were often passed onto British allies/auxiliaries in Colonial forces all around the world, Middle East/India in particular.

The uniform worn is very similar to uniforms worn by Egyptian/Arab auxiliaries in the British Army during the late 19th century - this would include local doctors, engineers and other highly trained personnel to support the British Army in garrison and their Egyptian Army allies. We could not read or have a good look at the buttons on his tunic front, which could likely have heraldic emblems to assist us with identifying his uniform. You mention that he was a doctor, from what he is wearing, the Officers sword he is holding and the special status that many highly educated/qualified Jews were held within the Middle East (in particular as you mention, within the Ottoman Empire) it is very likely that he was a doctor assisting the British/Egyptians in Egypt in the late 19th century.” (Many thanks to Garth and his team at AWM)

I’m hoping to find a reference to Aslan in the National Archives in Kew when I travel the London. If there are records pertaining to Auxilliary forces I might get some idea of where he came from.

On another tac I hope to find out if my grandfather, Jacques Haski (B Cairo 1902), had a brother who went to South America. To this end I have made contact with Ariel Haski, who lives in Buenos Aries, Argentina. Ariel bears an uncanny resemblance to my father at the same age (early 20s). Could his grandfather be my great uncle??? Well, we’re still not sure but I’m hoping we will find a connection in time.

Many of the Haskis in Israel trace their ancestry to Aleppo, in modern day Syria, once one of the oldest and largest Jewish communities in the area. Aleppo was home to the Chasky family, a line of pious rabbis, some of who immigrated to Jerusalem in the 19th century. One is reputed to have gone to Cairo.

Or could the name be derived from the name of the Istanbul suburb of Hasköy on the south facing slopes of the Golden Horn? When the Jews were expelled from Spain in 1492 Sultan Mehmet II ("the Conqueror," 1451-1481) encouraged immigration and Jewish communities were invited to take up residence at Hasköy. When surnames started to be used many families took their name from their village.

Following the lead I received recently about Izmir I have added it to my itinerary. Here I hope to meet another Haski – 17 year old Sergen. Sergen has thrown up another interesting mystery relating to the family name.

The vast majority of Haskis I have found to date are Jewish… Sergen is Muslim. He lives a couple of hours out of Izmir (Curiously there are also a couple of Haskis on the terrorist watch list [they’re actually El Haski – Moroccan nationals], which will make traveling potentially interesting! At least one of them is in Jail in Brussels! How would they feel if they discovered their namesakes are Jewish?)

There also appear to be other Haski connections with records in the Ellis Island database showing immigrants with disparate ethnicities entering the US with the surname Haski: women like Jamesina who states her ethnicity as English, Anne who is Finnish and my favourite, Satife, an 18 year old 'actress' from Turkey who was last resident in Alexandria but boarded her ship to America in Genoa!

So… what does all this mean? As someone with an unusual surname I’ve often been asked “where is it from?” or “what does it mean?” I’d like to know the answer to these questions myself. With relatively few Haskis around the world I like the idea that there may be ancestral connections between us somehow… and even if there isn’t we still share a name, which is enough in and of itself!

I look forward to meeting as many Haskis as I can as I travel through Europe and the Middle east next year. Happy New Year everyone… whatever your name is!!

A small story about a big war.

Sometimes a small entry in a record, a few words, can make you stop and pause to reflect. Today I discovered that my first cousin (thrice removed), Private Alexander Davis, was killed in action in France in 1918. He was 28 years old. Private Davis’s army records quickly proved to be a treasure trove of information… but, more importantly, they gave me a small insight into what he was like as an individual.

Alexander Davis was born in Melbourne in 1890 to parents Lewis and Louisa Davis. Loiusa was actually the eldest surviving daughter of her husband’s older sister, Sarah (daughter of Isaac and Minna Davis and sister of John Davis, who discovered the gold (see earlier post)). Yes, Lewis married his niece. Lewis and Louisa had 6 children – three boys, three girls: Alexander was the third born.

Alexander became an apprentice bootmaker and worked for six years in his grandfather’s business, Morris Aarons & Sons. On July 12 1915 he enlisted in the Australian Army. According to his application he was 25 years 4 months old, 5 foot 3 inches tall and weighed 9st 10lbs. He had a “fresh” complexion, grayish brown eyes and dark brown hair. Alexander also notes that he was fined 5/- (is that 5 shillings?) for “loitering”! (I will endeavor to find the police records of this incident… one can only guess where or why he was doing such a thing.)

He was pronounced medically fit for service and on December 17 1915 Private Alexander Davis (#3823) was assigned to the 9th Rein, 22nd Battalion. A note on his file indicates he was congratulated for “gallant conduct” during his training. Private Davis departed Melbourne aboard the H.M.A.S. Warlida on February 8 1916. He disembarked in Marseilles March 27 and was sent to the front.

Alexander was undoubtedly a brave and gallant soldier. Over the course of his army career he served in Belgium and France – including at the Somme. The most poignant item in his file is a copy of a letter written by Alexander to his parents in January 1917. His father, Lewis, sent a copy of this letter to the army after his death. In it Alexander candidly describes to his parents his experience, after he had been “mentioned in dispatches”: “Now then I will tell you how it was that I had been mentioned in despatches (sic). It is true that I was, but you must not think me such a hero, for it was earned thousands of times in the big battle of the Somme. Well it is like this our Battn. was in one of the hottest parts of the line, it was when a big shell lobbed and wounded and killed all in the part of the trench where we were bar one. I was stunned a bit, but I helped to bind the poor devils up and helped to carry them out, then when we were returning to the Battn we picked up more wounded and put them into safety. We kept going for 3 solid days like that, and I can tell you the shells burst all around us. Once three of us were taking a stretcher into the line when a sniper got the man in front of us and missed me by a foot. Well we had to lay down on our stomachs and bind the lad up the sniper pinging at us all the time. I saw the dirty dog dodging in and out of the bushes. We never had rifles or he would have kiss the ground. Well we got this chap out after running with him on the stretcher for half a mile. He got a rough ride. We made our way back to the Battn. after three days and I can tell you we were done when we got back… Well I’m back again with the Battn. and the Lieut. asked me to get out and lead a relieving Battn. into the front line. So another chap and I went out. We got a very rough time coming back. It was hell. When I led our Battn. out after being relieved next morning I seen the result of the night before. I don’t want to see the same again. Well that which I did I done every day.” Private Alexander Davis 26/01/1917.

Alexander was wounded in action several times, sustaining shrapnel wounds, shell shock and exhaustion. Each injury and trip to hospital are recorded on his Service and Casualty form Part II… As is his offence of overstaying his leave in England on September 2nd 1918 by one day. His punishment for this infringement was a deduction of 4 days pay. One hopes he had a good time on that extra day’s leave in England as on October 12 1918 Private Alexander Davis was killed in action. He was shot in the head by a German sniper, his “death being instantaneous”.

In a letter to the family Lieutenant K.S. Anderson of the 22nd Battalion describes the circumstances: “On the morning of the 4th of October 1918 the Battalion attacked and advanced to Ponchaux – about 3 miles in front of Estrees. Private Davis and another were sent out as runners to the firing line with messages to company commanders. Private Davis was killed by a sniper and the other runner was badly wounded… Owing to the sniping Pte. Davis knew that it was practically impossible to get through to the firing line but volunteered to make the attempt. He was considered by all to be one of the best runners in the battalion and feared nothing.”

It was a week before his fellow soldiers were able to send a burial party to erect markers over their comrades’ graves. Alexander was initially interred near “Bridge over Canal between Geneve and Beaurevoir”. Some time around 1920 his remains were exhumed and he was transferred to the Prospect Hill British Cemetery (Plot 4 Row D Grave 12), East of Gouy and north of St Quentin in France.

All this information was gleaned from Private Davis’s army records, held by the National Archives of Australia and accessed online at naa.gov.au.

Alexander is just one of the hundreds of thousands of young men who died on the battlefields of the “Great War”… the “war to end all wars”. Of course WWI was just another stop on the train line of destruction wending it’s way through European history.

Alexander’s great grandparents, Isaac and Amelia Davis had brought the family out of Prussia to England to escape poverty and persecution. His grandparent’s, Morris and Sarah had brought their family to Australia from Leeds to start a new life in the colonies. What would Alexander’s life have been like if had not returned to the home of his forebears? We will never know.

Sadly, Alexander’s story is not unique or special… and that, ultimately, is its tragedy.
Vale Private Alexander Davis - Eli ben Leib MGRHS.

With a little help from my friends.

Genealogists are an extremely generous lot. They love helping newbies like me find their families, and for that I am extremely grateful and extend a very public "thanks".

I joined the Australia Jewish Genealogy Society and, last week, went along to one of their monthly workshops. Now it may have been an advantage that I happen to be related to one of the movers and shakers at AJGS – Reike Nash – a profligate genealogist who has chronicled one branch of my family tree in some depth. She and her husband, Peter, have welcomed me into the AJGS fold and shown me round the reference library.

Reike’s maiden name is Isenberg. My mother’s maiden name is Eizenberg. By a not so strange coincidence they are both descended from the same ancestors - Avraham and Yetta Devora Isenberg (or Ajzenberg as it may have been spelt in the old country, Poland!)

Avraham and Yetta had five children. I am descended from their oldest child, a son, Harris Zvi Yssac Eisenberg, born on April 8, 1853 in Wyszkow, Poland. Reike and her family are descended from their youngest, Morris (Mosche) Isenberg, born 1871. As well as these two sons Avraham and Yetta Devorah had another, Israel (born abt 1864) and two daughters - Feyge (born abt 1858) and Shyfra (born abt 1860). Reike has traced the family back even further and I hope to continue this search when I travel overseas next year.

So what happened to Harris? Harris traveled from Poland to London around 1876 where he met and married Esther Greenbaum, a native of Plotzk (now Plock) Poland, on Valentines Day, 1877.


Harris had already been married once before, prior to coming to London, however the identity and fate of his first wife are unknown.

Not very long after his wedding Harris boarded the Rydelmere in Plymouth and set sail for Australia. Although his name does not appear on the manifest he claims this is the ship he traveled on in his application for a copy of his naturalization papers. He arrived, according to his testimony, on the 18th of August 1877.

Esther stayed in the UK where she gave birth to a son, David on Boxing Day 1877, in Mile End Town, Middlesex. Esther and David followed Harris to Australia in 1979 aboard the Peterborough. David was barely a year old.

In 1880 they had a second child, Hannah (Annie) in Sydney. These are the only two living children noted for Harris and Esther but there are two deceased children listed on Esther’s death certificate. I have found no records so far to indicate where these children may have been born.

Harris was employed as a Hebrew teacher and a “collector for the Hebrew Benevolent Society”. This occupation is also listed in his request to obtain a copy of his naturalization certificate. In his letter to the Secretary of the Home and Territories Department Harris claims that “the only reason I can account for losing my paper is that my wife can neither read nor write and must have destroyed it in the washing of my coat”. He goes on to add, “I have lost many important papers the same way”… We can only imagine the conversations that went with those incidents!!

Annie married Barnett Lampert in 1900 and David married Ettie Diamond in 1902. That same year Annie’s husband died before the birth of her second child whom she named Barnett Jr. David and Ettie had three children; the youngest of which was my grandfather Leo.


Esther died January 1920 in Sydney. Harris followed her a year later, in March 1921.


Harris and Esther are two ancestors I have to thank for being an Australian. They took the risk to come here and start a new life. What they left back on Poland are some of the stories I hope to discover as I follow their faded footprints back to Plock and Wyszkow.

Eureka!! A Mystery Solved!

Genealogy is a bit like hunting for treasure with a map full of holes. You have a little bit of information, and you know there are some more gems out there somewhere, but finding them requires determination, lateral thinking and a little luck. On the other hand, sometimes all it takes is a trip to the cemetery.

This week I went on a field trip to Rookwood to visit the rellies. While there I solved a mystery that had been bugging me since I first joined my family’s collaborative genealogy project… what on earth happened to my great grandmother’s father, Myer Rothbaum?

Myer Rothbaum and his brother, Gershon (AKA George), were born in Cracow, Galicia, Austria (modern day Poland) around 1856 & 1863 respectively. Myer traveled to London where he married Leah Cypres in 1880. They are listed in the 1881 UK census as living at 43 Bedford Street, Mile End Old Town. George also traveled to London and married Leah’s sister, Theresa, in 1885.

Myer and Leah had three children in London – Minnie, Gerald (also known as George) and Henry. They migrated to Australia some time between 1886 and 1888 and Jane Sarah (my Nan - AKA Sadie) was born in Sydney in 1890. George and Theresa also came to Australia about this time so we can only assume the two families traveled together – although I am yet to find documentation to confirm this.

I still have a huge amount of work to piece together the family’s movements however I have some wonderful letters written by Nan’s suitor – Mr Arthur Davis (grandson of Solomon Schlossman, the subject of my last post) – during their courtship, which I hope will give me some clues. These letters will be the subject of another post when I finally decipher Arthur’s handwriting.

Myer’s entry in our family tree program did not have any details of his death and I was unable to find any record in the NSW BDM register, but it suddenly dawned on me one day that although I knew my Nan’s name had been Jane Sarah Rothbaum, I also knew that she was known as Sadie Myers. In looking closer at the family tree I realized that several of Myer’s children had the surname Myers as well. I came to the screamingly obvious conclusion that the family had changed their name… the question still stood though: what had Myer Rothbaum changed his name to?

And so we come to the cemetery. As I was planning my field trip I looked up the plot details for each person on the Jewish Cemetery Trust website. The good people at the JCT have documented each and every gravesite and so when you click the link to view the precise location of your ancestors’ grave, the surrounding graves have the surnames of their occupants on the map too.

In the case of Myer Rothbaum it was in finding his wife, Leah, that I found him! Leah, it seems, did not change her name and so was buried a Rothbaum. On the map, in the plot next to her, was a Myers. Was this a coincidence?

I rang the JCT and they told me that the person buried next to Leah was Lewis Myers. I looked him up on their system. I check the NSW BDM and there was a death certificate in his name. So now all I needed to do was go and check it out with my own eyes.

Sunday was fine and mild: a typical Sydney winter’s day. I wandered through the old Jewish sections of Rookwood finding each person, photographing their final resting places and pausing for a few moments to pay my respects. I got to section five and found Leah’s grave. It was a double plot with a single headstone. Underneath the inscription marking her passing were the words: Also Lewis Myers who passed away 23rd April 1937 Aged 81 years G.R.H.S.


So there it was; the undeniable evidence. Myer Rothbaum had become Lewis Myers. But that wasn’t the end of the story. I wondered if he had made the change official so the following day I went to the Department of Lands – housed in that wonderful old building next to Hyde Park Barracks. Up to 1992 it was this department that was responsible for the administration of name changes by deed poll.


According to the clerk only about 20% of people who changed their names actually registered the change so I had a pretty slim chance of finding anything. He seemed excited nonetheless that I was trying and led me to a large room packed with tall metal shelving full of big blue ledgers. We went to the back of the room. He pulled out a single volume and handed it to me. I opened it and turned to the R’s. I scanned the list of names, written in a nice neat cursive, and there it was. About halfway down the page, a single line: Rothbaum, Lewis Myer to Lewis Myer - 1033. He had made it official! We noted the reference number, went back upstairs and I paid the money to get an official copy.

So, there you have it. Myer Rothbaum’s full name was actually Lewis Myer Rothbaum, and he simply dropped his surname to create his, and his family’s new name. Exactly WHY he did it is a matter of some conjecture. If you have any notions please post a comment.

Cheers!

Solomon Schlossman - Hawker, miner, publican, butcher, restauranteur.

OK… I’m now going to break my own rule… well, more a guideline really. I was going to work back more or less chronologically but this week I found loads of information relating to my third great grandfather, Solomon Schlossman, so I’d like to tell you what I can of his story.

Solomon’s main claim to fame is the fact that he and his son-in-law, John David Davis (my maternal grandmother’s grandfather) discovered a very sizable gold nugget on the German Fields in Rheola, near Bendigo, in Victoria. This hand coloured photograph records that discovery (pictured – Solomon is seated)… but more about that later.

Solomon Schlossman was was born in Yaraslov around 1822 to Aaron and Pearl Schlossman. Yaraslov was established in the 11th Century by the Ukrainian prince Yaroslav the Wise. It was under Austrian rule, in the province of Galicia, from the First Partition of Poland in 1772 until Poland regained independence in 1918. Today the town is called Jaroslaw and is located in modern day Poland.

In 1880 Yaraslov had a Jewish population of around 4500 and was one of the principle seats of the Council of the Four Lands, a major Jewish communal organization. I need to do further research into what life was like in 19th century Jaraslaw (and it will definitely be on my itinerary) but what prompted Solomon to leave is a mystery, as is how he made his way to the United Kingdom.

Around 1843 he married Esther Harriette Gerson in London (or possibly in Hull... I have yet to verify this with documentation). Hull was a major point of entry for Europeans during the 19th century. Over 2 million people passed through the Emigration Platform at Paragon Station, Kingston Upon Hull.

Solomon and his family first turn up in official British records in 1861, in the Census of that year. They are listed under the surname SLOSHMAN and recorded as living on Totty Street Bethnal Green… (Does this street still exist? I can’t find it in Google maps.)

In the census Solomon and Esther are 39 years old. They have two children – Caroline, 15, and Polly (whose name is actually Pauline) who is 7. Also listed as being in the house that evening is Rachel Moses (Solomon’s sister), 33, and Frederick Moses (related to Rachel?) and Philip Faulkenstine, both 28, listed as Visitors.

Some time between 1861 and 1867 the family migrate to Australia. Many of the ship manifests for this time do not list specific passenger names in steerage, just how there are, so it's difficult to find out exactly when they may have arrived and on which ship… I will, however, keep looking.

In 1867 Solomon’s daughter, Caroline, marries John David Davis in Melbourne. Curiously their marriage certificate gives her maiden name as APSTEIN. This is also the maiden name used on the birth certificate of their first child, Catherine. I’ve come to the conclusion this is their certificate by cross referencing all the birth certificates of John and Caroline’s subsequent children (they had nine altogether; my great grandfather, Isaac Arthur Davis, was their eight child, and youngest son. Caroline lists her maiden name as SOLOMON on the BC of her second child – Israel (AKA Isadore) but on all the other children’s BCs it’s listed as Schlossman. Why this is so is just one more mystery to be solved.

So, back to Solomon… He and Caroline’s family found their way from Melbourne into country Victoria. In 1870 John and Solomon were hawking wares through the Victorian goldfields. Presumably Harriette, Caroline and the two children accompanied them. The men decided to try their hand at mining.

“On 31st May 1870 on the Berlin-Rheola diggings, S. Schlossmann, J. Davis and another miner named Rendisch dug up the eighth-largest gold nugget ever found in Victoria; it was named the Viscount Canterbury and weighed 1114 troy ounces (34.6 kg).”
(www.teachers.ash.org.au/dnutting/germanaustralia/e/diggers.htm)

According to www.geocities.com/mrgoldnugget/ the Viscount Canterbury was, in fact, the 10th largest Gold nugget found in the world. It is listed in a 1913 geological survey as the 9th largest found on the Victorian fields. The gold was assayed as being worth 4482 pounds!! Big money in 1870!!

So what happened next? My grandmother used to take me into the Australian Museum in College Street and show me a replica of the nugget in their rock room. She used to tell me that the family bought a slice of Collins Street in Melbourne… then sold it, went back to the fields and found nothing. Somehow I don’t think the Collin’s street part of the story is true, however from what I’ve found the family didn’t exactly live in the lap of luxury after their big windfall.

By 1877 John and Caroline moved to Echuca in Northern Victoria. I’ll expand on their story in a later post. For now, let’s follow Solomon.

He may have gone to Echuca with Caroline’s family but there is no record of him having been there. The next time he pops up officially is in 1879; listed as the publican of the Royal Hotel in Balranald, Western NSW. This is the first record of his career as a publican.

He’s listed in the Sands Directory of 1884 as residing at The Harp of Erin in Bellevue Street (not sure which suburb though). Then in 1886 he’s the registered publican of the Union Inn in Newtown. It’s at this time that John and Caroline join him in NSW.

In 1889 Solomon changes career again and becomes a Hebrew (ie kosher) butcher - in partnership once again with his son-in-law John - working and residing at 69 Liverpool Street in Sydney.

Solomon’s wife, Harriette Esther, dies in 1892, and the following year he marries 53-year-old Rachael Schaya in Melbourne. John dies suddenly in 1893 (although i am yet to find the documentary evidence of this event) and Solomon closes the business. In 1894 he and rachael travel to WA aboard the Bullara, and settle in the mining town of Coolgardie, near Kalgoorlie. Solomon’s younger daughter, Pauline, is there with her second husband, Edwin Sharpe, and Solomon and Edwin run the Vienna Café on Bayley Street (the Great Eastern Highway) until Solomon’s death on April 3rd 1894. Rachael passes away September 1896. Both Solomon and Rachael are buried in Coolgardie.



I still have so many questions about Solomon... Why did he move around so much? What prompted him to leave Yaraslov in the first place? What was life like for him there? Which boat did he come to Australia on, and when? This story is certainly not complete. Guess I just have to keep following each clue to find out what happened and why! I'll keep you posted!!
Cheers!

Who am I?

Every genealogy site I've read says to start in the present and work your way back one generation at a time, so that's what I'm going to do with this blog... start with my family and wander back through time.

Every now and then I might post a short "Eureka" post if I find something particularly interesting.

As I said in my previous post my father passed away on Boxing Day last year. His story is like that of countless other immigrants to this country. He came, he worked hard, he provided a good life for his family.

My father, Andre, arrived in Australia in 1949 after the creation of Israel triggered an exodus of Jews from Arab lands. He came to Australia with no English and very nearly embarked on a life of crime as the leader of a gang in Marrickville, where they settled when they first arrived. His mother chose to put him in a local Christian Brother's school and he soon shaped up.

The family moved to Bondi and dad went to Waverly college. He became a doctor - a GP and had a private practice in Bondi Junction for nearly 30 years. He also consulted at St Vincents Hospital and, during his residency at South Sydney Hospital, was team doctor for South Sydney Football Club in their premiership winning seasons in the mid 1960s.

Dad was always tinkering, he was a fixer - both people and things - and in the 1980s he invented a grip strength monitor called the Dextrometer; sadly this never got beyond prototype stage. although he did gain his Master of Science in Biomedical Engineering with his thesis on grip strength and grip rate.

He passed away after many years of illness, having suffered diabetes, heart disease, DISH and dementia. He will be missed.

My mother came from what would be considered today a "battler" household. The family of five - mum has two brothers - moved to a two bedroom flat in Maroubra after my grandfather went bankrupt and lost their lovely little house in Melody Street, Coogee. Mum did well at Sydney Girls High and became a radiographer. She met my father over a dying patient at Prince Henry Hospital in 1962. They married in 1963.

I came along in 1967. After completing Sydney Girls High (like my mother and grandmother) I went to art school to study fashion design. I took a bit of a left turn and ended up working in theater, film and TV wardrobe for about 10 years, before moving into art department, production management and finally producing. In 1996 I did a Grad Cert in TV production and multi-media, going on to produce video for online delivery before broadband had taken hold in Australia.

In the early naughties the stress finally got to me and I fell down for a year or two with severe depression. Today I work as a professional autocue operator (a highly underrated skill I might add) and am working on the family history that is the subject of this blog. I am also developing some children's stories and whatever else catches my fancy.

OK, enough about me... on to my siblings.
Two years after I was born my brother, Benjamin, came into the world. Sadly, he was taken from it in 1979, dying in a car accident outside Bourke in Northern NSW. He was a fun loveing, happy-go-lucky child... wise beyond his years.

My brother's death triggered a change of direction for my mother. She began studying again and, after gaining her Bachelor of Arts in Psychology (with Honors) she has become a sought after psychotherapist.

In 1973 my brother Joel was born. Joel wanted to be a pilot when he grew up and by george he did it. Today Joel is, quite literally, the Red Baron, taking happy customers on scenic and aerobatic joy flights over Sydney in the open cockpit, Pitts Special bi-planes and the Red Bull Stunt Plane, and Extra 200 high performance aircraft and training new pilots to fly safely (www.redbaron.com.au).

In 1975, Eliane (known to everyone as Eli) arrived. Being the youngest she had to make herself heard and so she's developed a strong and unique voice. Eli gained a degree in fine arts with a focus on jewelery design and went on to gain her gemology and valuers qualifications. She went traveling in the late 90s and came back with George Njoroge, a nice young man from Kenya. They married in 2001. So far Eli is the only one of us to procreate, with Isaac Wilson born in 2006 and a new addition due in October.

So that's us, your typical Australian, Jewish, middle class menagerie.
In my next post I'm going to talk about my grandparents

See you then!

Where, Why & What For...

"Where are you from?" Most Australian's get asked this question; particularly if, like me, you have dark hair, dark eyes and an olive complexion. Most people just assume you must be from somewhere else especially since, according to the 2006 census, over 20% of the Australian population were born overseas. If, like me, you were born here there's still a pretty high likelihood your parents or their parents or grandparents were not.

Growing up I was never particularly interested in my family history. My grandparents used to tell me some great stories but I never really paid attention to the details. So that's what this project is all about... the details. I've started following those faded footprints and have rediscovered those stories, and found some remarkable new ones.

Let's start with my immediate family. My father - Dr Andre Haski - died on Boxing Day 2008. He was born in Cairo, Egypt in 1937. His family were affluent, with servants and a comfortable life, but then, with the creation of the State of Israel, life for Egypt's Jewish minority became untenable. He migrated to Australia in 1949 with his parents and his older sister. His mother was of Polish stock. His father's family had been in Egypt for a generation - his grandfather possibly coming from Ottoman Turkey. Check out the photo of my father's grandfather standing to attention in his full Ottoman Army uniform complete with Fez, sword and mustache. Who was he? What was his life like? Is it true he had to leave Turkey because he was found in bed with his commanding officer's wife (that's the story anyway!!)?



My mother's family (Eizenberg/ Davis) have been in Australia since the 19th Century. They were shop keepers and publicans, lawyers and fishmongers, some even discovered gold! What was it like for a Jewish family on the goldfields? What inspired them to leave their homes and come to Australia?

This blog is about answering these questions, sharing my serendipitous discoveries and tapping into the collective wisdom of the Internet to help fill in the gaps. If you read this, find it interesting and think you can help me out please post a comment.

My intention is to follow each family line as far back as I can and see where the trail leads. In 2010 I will travel to the towns, cities and shtetls my forebears traveled from to try and gain some insight into their lives to figure out just exactly "where I come from"