Early Morning, May 18, 2009 - The Season Begins and The Princess Gown

Morning,

And is our summer here? It appears so, and the sure-fire way I can tell, the tile floor is sticky all day, and the papers on my desk and tables begin to look like they been soaked and dried. You know that dry-but-wet look, sort of a damp buckling. Yup, that's it, for the next five to six months.

A little while ago I was surfing the Internet for the name of my three-times great-grandfather Victor ABRAHAM. He and his wife, ggg-grandmother Rebecca (nee LEVY) were the parents of my gg-grandfather Benjamin Victor ABRAHAM. GGG-grandfather Victor is of my father's mother's line. Thanks to cousin Bernard and others a classic compendium of relevant data and information has been and is still being collected. The portrait, to the left, is of ggg-grandfather Victor and can be found in Arthur Barnett's 1961 book The Western Synagogue Through Two Centuries (1761-1961).

Found at the Jewish Museum Collection, in London is one of two of ggg-grandfather Victor's Trading Cards. In today's vernacular that would be a business card. And I was particularly interested in the phrase on the Trading Card "Embroiderer To The Queen". The key words I used in my Internet search were "Victor ABRAHAM and Embroiderer".

The search did not take too long and I chanced upon a link from Kentucky that caught me eye. The link was to a publication from the 27th Annual Kentucky Book Fair held on the 15th of November, 2008 at the Frankfort Convention Center. On page 25 of the publication I was introduced to an author, Linda Leopold Strauss and of her new book, The Princess Gown.


To my amazement the children's book is "based loosely on the family of the author's husband. His great-great-grandfather, Victor Abraham, was Embroiderer to Queen Victoria..."

It was a Eureka moment! Here it is:

1. I, Jim, living in Tampa, Florida in the United States, am looking for information,
2. Of the father Victor, my ggg-grandfather, who lived in London, England,
3. Of my gg-grandfather Benjamin, who lived in Georgetown, British Guiana, (now Guyana),
4. From information received from a cousin, Bernard, living in Stockholm, Sweden,
5. And found an author, Linda Leopold Strauss, listed at a Book Fair, in Kentucky in the United States, who has penned a book, who lives in Ohio,
6. Of her husband's, my cousin's family, and
7. Whose gg-grandfather Victor and family lived in London, England.

And this just continues to amaze me... how global-encompassing this search has been, and it doesn't end here. Four-times great-grandparents Victor and Rebecca (nee Levy) ABRAHAM had, based on various recordings somewhere between 16 and 22 children. That's quite a bit of researching, but I found it written that gggg-grandmother may have been one of 26 sisters!

So I continue, and hope you enjoy,

Jim