Cape Town, South Africa

From Roy Star, Herts, UK

LOUIS GRADNER  (1882-1955) was Mayor of Cape Town 1933-1935.

 

His parents were  MORRIS EMMANUEL GRADNER (1858-1907) and REBECCA (ADA) CHITEY (1858-1936).

 

The whole family originated in BIALYSTOK, Poland and emigrated to Cape Town via London around 1891.

 

I cannot find precise details of :

1/ Exact details of their first arrival in Cape Town.

2/ Who MORRIS' and REBECCA's parents were

3/ LOUIS had a daughter MALLE born 1907. She was taken to London in 1908.

     No further information can be found on her after this date.

     Possibly an infant death, in London or on their return to Cape Town?

4/ LOUIS was supposidly a Cousin of my grandmother FANNY WAINSTAIN (nee GERSHCOWITZ) born 

    in London (1890-1975)  but I cannot determine the 'link'.

    I have a photo of LOUIS in his Mayoral regalia, with his family (minus Malle), and it is signed  'to  my Cousin'. 

    LOUIS' wife was RAE REYNOLDS. Born in London (1885-1972).

    Her family started-up the OK BAZAARS in SA.

    Was the 'link' through RAE possibly?

 

I would be most grateful for any help you can give me - See below

Louis Gradner

The photo Lou gave Roy’s Grandmother.

L-R = Walter, Lou, Vera, Rae and Barnet.

23 Nov 2014

Hello Eli

I see that you re-printed my enquiry for details on The Gradner's.

I received responses that cleared-up most loose ends,

and following are the results.

Please up-date this info in your blog. : 

It now transpires that LOU's mother ADA (REBECCA) CHITEY was the SISTER of my grandmother's mother SOPHIE GEDALIAH!

Their father had the middle name CHITEY - and for whatever reason, ADA used CHITEY as her surname, and SOPHIE kept the father's surname GEDALIAH!

ALSO :

I had Lou as having a daughter MALLE who was taken to London at age -1 in 1907 and returned to Cape Town in 1908.No further records were found after this date, and I assumed correctly it was an infant death! However, records for a grave in Maitland,

Cape Town shows the following:

MALLE was actually MAURICE (they used their nickname in the shipping manifest).

The grave never had a tombstone - same as Lou's parents!

Paperwork must have been completed at a later date, because they juxtaposed MAURICE with MORRIS (Lou's father). Also interchanged were the dates, and the grave numbers!!

Postscript : In 2011, just before he died, one of Ada's sons-in-law KENNETH BLUMBERG erected a tombstone for ADA (but not for Morris)!

A gentleman by the name of PAUL CHEIFITZ who is related to the Blumberg's helped solve all these mysteries!

The full tree with individual biogs can be seen on my site on Ancestry.co.uk

Best regards

Roy Star