Family Ashmele

Family Notes...Yetta Freizeit, her brothers and sisters.

Yetta Freizeit (grandmother)...

Yetta, daughter of Avraham Nissan Freizeit and Chaya Einachovski, was born about 1888 in Augustow, Poland. She had the Hebrew name Yetta Raisel, and was sent to her grandparents in Manchester, England to avoid the attentions of the Cossacks. She adopted the family name Freizeit, although her marriage certificate also bears the name Frazer.

Yetta married Morris Freedman, a tailor also from Augustow, in August 1909 at the  Bethnal Green Great Synagogue in London. They had four children - Louis (b.1910), Anne (b.1912), Ray (b.1914) and Sadie (b.1916) whilst living at Pedley Street in Shoreditch.

During 1917,Yetta and Morris lived briefly at Wellclose Square, Cobb Street before moving to Commercial Road. From 1923 to 1932, they lived above the tailoring and boot shop at Lower Marsh in Lambeth. As well as being the brains behind the family business, Yetta was an accomplished dressmaker and ensured that her family were well-dressed. She was also known to attend shidachs to ensure that the prospective bride or groom was also well-dressed. Her grandson John well remembers his grandmother, hearing-aid attached to the microphone clipped to the front of her dress, with her dress-making paraphernalia and tailors dummy. In fact, the smell of moth-balls always triggers this memory!

In 1943 Morris and Yetta were living at Clifton Court in Maida Vale, London. In 1949 they were living at Filey Avenue in Stoke Newington, London. At the time of Morris' death in 1956, Morris and Yetta were living on the Barnsbury Estate, Caledonian Road in Islington.

Yetta visited her daughter Ray in California and was shocked to discover that Ray had separated from her husband several years before and had kept up the pretence that they were together. Apparently she never got over the shock, and suffered from dementia in her final years.

Yetta died in February 1960 at the Homoeopathic Hospital, Great Ormond Street in London from coronary thrombosis. She is buried at the Jewish Federation Cemetery at Rainham, Essex, alongside her husband. 

This branch of the family tree includes the following family names - Freeman, Shear, Spound, Kahan, Baker, Ashmele, Rovnick.

Max Freizeit (great-uncle)...

Maksas, son of Avraham Nissan Freizeit and Chaya Einachovski, was born January 1893 and lived with his parents and siblings in Augustow, Poland. After WW1 he left Poland to avoid conscription into the Russian Army and, accompanied by his younger brother Shmuel, traveled to England. During the two year journey via Germany and Belgium he acquired a Lithuanian passport changing his name to Max Freizeit.

Max arrived in England September 1920 and took up residence with his sister at Stocks Street in Cheetham, Manchester and for two months was engaged as a Hebrew teacher at the Talmudical College in Cheetham Hill Road. Later that same year he moved to London where he taught Hebrew for a further five years. In August 1925 he took up residence at Bury New Road and entered the business of Harry Ziment, a woollen merchant. In 1928 Max started his own woollen business purchased for £1,000 from his dowry following his marriage to Harry's daughter Minnie in August 1925 at the Roumanian Synagogue in Salford. They had one son - Neville (b.1927). 

In November 1933, he was granted UK citizenship.

Max died in May 1980 in Manchester.  

This branch of the family tree includes the following family names - Waxman.

Rosie Freizeit (great-aunt)...

This branch of the family tree includes the following family names - Goldstein, Ziff, Salem, Peppi, Lazarus, Cohen, Refson, Druce, Zucker.

Sophie Freizeit (great-aunt)...

Sophie Freizeit, daughter of Avraham Nissan Freizeit and Chaya Einachovski, was born April 1892 and lived with her parents and siblings in Augustow, Poland where she worked with her father as a seamstress.  In 1910 she left Augustow and travelled to England, joining her sister Rosie in Manchester.

Sophie married Barnett Silvert in July 1913 at the United Synagoge in Cheetham.  They had seven children - Jean (b.1914), Hymie (b.1915), Philip (b.1916), Sadie (b.1918), Lily (b&d.1921), Jack (b.1923) and Sidney (b.1927).  Sophie and Barnett ran a parlour grocer from their home in Stock Street before managing a green-grocer shop in Leicester Road, Salford.

Sophie continued to live at Hereford Drive, Prestwich after Barnett's death in 1944.  She died in November 1981 at the Manchester Home for the Aged, Prestwich and was buried at Rainsough Cemetery, Manchester.

This branch of the family tree includes the following family names - Carlick, Weingard, Shragge, Glaz and Caplan..

Sam Fraser (great-uncle)...

Shmuel Henik Freizeit, son of Avraham Nissan Freizeit and Chaya Einachovski, was born May 1903 and lived with his parents and siblings in Augustow, Poland. He left school at the age of 13 and worked with his father as a tailor.  In 1919 he left Poland to avoid conscription into the Russian Army and, accompanied by his older brother Maksas, travelled to England. During the two year journey via Germany and Belgium he acquired a Lithuanian passport changing his name to Samuel Henry Freizeit.

Sam lived with his grandparents in Manchester before moving to London to work as a butcher for his brother-in-law Harry Goldman. 

Sam married Sarah Herman in November 1925 at the Grove Street Synagogue in the East End of London. Sam and Sarah had two children - David (b.1926) and Ruth (b. 1941) - and Sarah also ran a sweet shop in Euston.

1n 1925 Sam started a small butcher's business in Cable Street, but it closed within a couple of years.  In 1933 Sam re-established himself at Brick Lane, selling up in 1946 and moving to larger premises at Upper Clapton Road.  Sam enjoyed "a flutter on the horses".

After WW2 Sam applied for UK naturalisation in the name Samuel Freizeit although at the time he was still registered as Samuel Freiceitas.  Soon after being granted a certificate of naturalisation in 1949 he changed his name to Sam Fraser by deed-poll.

In July 1976 Sam was taken ill and died at home; he is buried at Silver Street Cemetery in Cheshunt, Hertfordshire.  

This branch of the family tree includes the following family names - Aitman, Lester and Almond.

Leah Freizeit (great-aunt)...

This branch of the family tree includes the following family names - Goldman, Tropp, Moss, Korn, Winkler, Meltzer, Wernicke, Koopman, Foux, Lazarus.

Aydel Freizeit (great-aunt)...

Aydel Freizeit, daughter of Avraham Freizeit and Chaya Einachovski, was born about 1888 in Augustow, Poland. 
Aydel was shot in 1941; her name is inscribed in the Augustow Yizchor Book.

Fradel Freizeit (great-aunt)...

Fradel Freizeit, daughter of Avraham Freizeit and Chaya Einachovski, was born about 1888 in Augustow, Poland. 
Rumour has it that Fradel and her family were evacuated to Siberia at the beginning of WW2; her name is not inscribed in the Augustow Yizchor Book.

Zundel Freizeit (great-uncle)...

Zundel Freizeit, son of Avraham Freizeit and Chaya Einachovski, was born after 1903 in Augustow, Poland.
Zundel, a barber, and his family were shot in 1941; his name is inscribed in the Augustow Yizchor Book.

 Page last updated  ..  14 September, 2004