Finding Ancestors in Late 19th Century Jerusalem

Jul 30

7 min read

Can you undertake genealogical research in late 19th century Jerusalem, from a desk at home in Britain? This is the story of an unusually productive attempt to do just that.

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Why?

The later 19th century was a difficult time for Jews in Eastern European countries like Romania and Russia, with widespread pogroms and the introduction of increasingly hostile laws effectively depriving them of their livelihoods and forcing them to move elsewhere. It had long been rumoured within my family that my great grandfather was from Romania but no proof seemed to survive, so I set myself the challenge of unearthing more about this part of my family.

My own father had believed, until only three years before his own death at the age of 89, that his grandfather had been British. Why would he not be? His grandfather’s family spoke English at home. His grandfather ran a pastoral care centre for British soldiers during WW1 (this was before the days of the NAAFI). His grandfather's surname was Alterskye, a seemingly quintessential English name.

But little details did not quite add up. Like the fact his mother was recorded as a 'Roumanian Subject' on her marriage certificate in Alexandria, Egypt, in 1917. My father, who had become estranged from his mother in 1936, had eventually tried to find out more, but unfortunately he was not to get very far before his own untimely death stopped the work. This is where my investigation was to begin ten years later.

What he had been able to find out was unfortunately mostly anecdotal. Contacts by letter with some widely scattered remaining living relatives unearthed verbal memories that his grandfather (remembered as John Theodore Alterskye) was probably a converted Romanian Jew, and had probably been called Alterescu. His grandmother was called Adelaide, and their six children had been born in Jerusalem between 1891 and 1902 where he had been a missionary for a London missionary society.

How?

My father's approach to find evidence in support of this was to start from these family stories and to try to work backwards. This led him to try to identify which London missionary society his grandfather may have worked for, in order to search their (UK) archives. He identified the London Missionary Society and the Church Mission Society as the most likely candidates and focussed his research on them. But this came to nothing.

Instead I turned the problem on its head. Instead I started from the arrival of a Romanian Jew in Jerusalem and thought about where that person would have gone in Jerusalem in the 1890s. One candidate organisation stood out - Christ Church Jerusalem (CCJ). This is an evangelical church founded in Jerusalem in 1849 with the help of the London Society for Promoting Christianity amongst the Jews (LCSPJ). The church itself still stands in the old City of Jerusalem, just near the Jaffa Gate. It aimed to 'reflect the Jewish context of the gospel'. It stood out to me particularly because it specialised in performing baptisms on adult Jews and non-Jews alike, and providing community support in the form of medical care and training in a trade (those arriving in Jerusalem would probably not have any income, and baptised Jews lost access to “tzedakah”, a traditional form of Jewish community charity.)

I approached Christ Church by email in February 2021 to ask if they had any records in their Baptism and Marriage Registers of a John Theodore Alterskye.

First, a marriage

Within two days their library assistant, Roddey Brown from South Carolina, had emailed back with a photo of a page in the Christ Church Marriage Register. This showed the marriage of Israel Theophilus Altaresky and Adela Datzi in 1890. The year fitted the remembered years of their children’s births. But their names were not quite right - nobody had recalled him being called Israel. However the names were close - Adela/Adelaide, Theophilus/Theodore, Alteresky/Alterskye - close enough to ask Roddey to keep looking for baptism records with these names as the parents.

Israel and Adela's Marriage Register Entry, Christ Church Jerusalem

Second, six baptisms

Later the same day Roddey sent a photo from the Christ Church Baptism Register, of Lucy Altareski's baptism in 1890. This time the year and the given name matched exactly with my father's oldest aunt. By the end of the same day Roddey had found baptisms for all six of the children, the given names (Lucy, Bertha, Ernest, Violet, Cyril, and Dorothea) and years all matching what we already knew of my great aunts and great uncles. I was blown away by this - on this one day we had found the family my father had sought without success. We had also proved the family name, at that time, was neither Alterskye nor Alterescu, but at the same time was similar to both.

Lucy Altaresky's Baptism Register Entry 1891, Christ Church Jerusalem

That was not all, the information kept flowing from the Christ Church archives. First Roddey discovered a record of Israel Altareski’s baptism in 1884, proving that he had been a Jew who also was baptised into Christianity (still a controversial issue today).

Israel Altaresky's Baptism Register Entry 1884, Christ Church Jerusalem

A job application

Just one day later Roddey found a page in the Christ Church Applications and Appointments Book of 1887 recording Israel Theophile Alteresky’s application (unsuccessful as it turned out) for missionary training. This gave his trade as carpenter, and his place of birth as “Plassa Tutova, Romania”, which is an area near Barlad in modern Vaslui County. This seemed to rule out another bit of family folklore - that he had been a missionary - but see later.

Israel Altaresky applies for Missionary Training in 1887, Christ Church Jerusalem

Altaresky, a new family name

The name Altaresky was new to me and also to those Alterskye relatives whom I had been able to contact. But once known, it was a simple matter to quickly find other sources where his name appeared. Roddey searched at Christ Church, helped by David Pileggi the Rector of Christ Church. I searched newspapers.

My great grandfather, it turned out, had been an extraordinary man. From arriving in Jerusalem aged just 19, and pulling himself up by his boot laces, he had become established in Jerusalem Christian circles by the late 1890s, had been a founding member of the Jerusalem Hebrew Christian Association in 1898, and had been active speaking out against the "Blood Libel" which still raises its head today. He also built bridges to Christian groups un the USA, sending packages of dried pressed flowers 'from the Holy Land' by post.

Datzi, another new family name

Discovering his wife Adela's family name was Datzi opened up another line of research. Until that moment I had not known my great grandmother's maiden name, and once known it appeared many times in the Christ Church Archives: as Adolph Datzi, one of the witnesses to Israel and Adela's marriage; as Sophie Datzi who married Johannes Kroitor at Christ Church; as Josef Datzi, a witness at Adolph Datzi's marriage at Christ Church; as Rachel Datzi, a witness at Sophie Datzi's marriage; as Elizabeth Datzi, a widow marrying Israel Schor shortly after the death of Leon Datzi. And Lucy Alteresky (remember her?) also signed Adolph Datzi's marriage register in childish handwriting. No other people named Datzi appeared in these records.

Adolph Datzi's Marriage Register 1901 with Lucy Altaresky's signature, Christ Church Jerusalem

Things now start to slot together.

I was permitted to join a private Facebook Group for the Kroitor family, Sophie Datzi’s descendants. This led to an old photograph of Sophie and some of her children, who bore an uncanny resemblance to a family photo I had of Adela and her children. They were even shot in the same photographer's studio in Jerusalem with the same backdrop.

Armed with these new names that I hadn't known before, I checked back though my DNA matches and found one who was a member of this Facebook Group. As far as the DNA was concerned this made me a cousin of descendants of Sophie Datzi.

Not proof

The circumstantial evidence is extensive (appearing at each other's marriages, facial resemblance, DNA evidence) that Sophie, Adolph, Josef, Rachel, and Adela were siblings, but unfortunately it is still not proof that they were siblings. I will hold onto the hope that one day I will find baptism records for the five Datzi siblings, just as I hope to find birth records in Romania for Israel.

Conclusion

If you think you may have ancestors in Jerusalem in the second half of the nineteenth century then you could do a lot worse than check the Christ Church archives. Some of the register entries from these archives (but not all) are also digitised by the Israel Genealogy Research Association, and can be searched at genealogy.org.il (£). If you do get in touch with Christ Church remember to say I sent you!

Epilog

The London Society for Promoting Christianity amongst the Jews published an annual report, and Israel Theophilus Alteresky was mentioned many times in the entries about Jerusalem. In particular he was reported to have become a full time missionary in 1909, remaining in that role until he no longer appeared after 1912. This is consistent with the family move to Alexandria in Egypt (where my father was born) in 1911 and his joining The Church of Scotland Mission there. He was mentioned annually in the Church of Scotland's own publication 'Life and Work', which recorded his name changing gradually from Alteresky to Alterskye over the period 1912-1914: final proof that the two names were used by the same person. Searching modern genealogical records and the web shows that he invented the name Alterskye, it had not existed before. This means that every person who has ever had the name Alterskye was/is directly descended from him or married to somebody so descended. This makes probably the simplest One Name Study possible!

Julian Luttrell

The Tree Sleuths, 2021, 2025. The Tree Sleuths website.