The Foinquinos from England, #1

In January I was very busy with my work but I kept receiving emails from Carole Bendrihem and Simone FM from Haifa. Both had found documents on the english branch of our family. As with the other Foinquinos of Brazil and Peru, this line is not the simplest to follow as they also travelled and lived in different cities among them Tangiers, Gibraltar, Liverpool, New York and Brazil.


In England as opposed to Morrocco, the birth, marriage, death and census certificates are well kept and they are easily available to the public, or by internet. Carole B became an expert at finding information and Simone FM who had tons of documents, kept for years in boxes, started taking them out, putting them in order, scanning them and sending them by email. An avalanche of documents for me to look at and put on the blog later on.

All the discussion on the Foinquinos from England started a few months ago when I had found an article on Elizabeth Mary Simpson on the internet. This article mentioned that this lady, a famous english genealogist, had gone to Gibraltar to register under the surname Foinquinos. I asked Simone FM if she knew her. She told me that in fact she used to visit her at her cottage in Nottingham, a small city 3 hours from London.


A happy coincidence, as it seems to happen often in genealogy preceeded this meeting. When Simone FM lived in England in the 70's, she travelled to Tangier and paid a visit to the jewish community center to ask if they had any information on the F and the staff told her that in fact two ladies from England had also inquired about the family. Intrigued, Simone FM as soon as she was back in London, looked thru the phone books and found a few Foinquinos that she called.


A few weeks later, Elizabeth Simpson called her and they met and became friends. They exchanged their information, Simone FM learned about the english line and Elizabeth about all the other ones. Julie, Elizabeth's sister, showed her the places where the family lived in Liverpool, Messod's house, the patriarch, Chas' imposing mansion in Southport, and also the first jewish temple founded in part by the Foinquinos that was transformed as a theatre later on.

The english branch starts with Messod Foinquinos. He was born in 1798 in Tangiers, he was the son of Yehuda and Luna Foinquinos. In light of his date of birth, we suppose that he might be of the generation of the parents of our great grand parents (my father was born around 1925, the grand parents would have been born around 1880-1890, the great grand parents around 1840-1850, so between 1800-1820 for the parents of our great grand parents). On the Ketouba of my grand father, Moses Foinquinos, it is mentioned that his grand father was Messod.


Our genealogy can be very confusing at times with the same first names repeating over several generations. We find many Messod (or Fortunato in Brazil,Peru) or Leon/Yehuda or Albert/Abraham. Also in Morocco, the lack of official documents is frustrating.


Simone FM also found the mention of a Yehuda and Messod, signers of the Haskama, a document separating the jewish community of Tangiers from the one in Tetuan-Gibraltar in 1798. We think that Yehuda and Messod would have been born between 1750-1770 and maybe that Yehuda is the father of Messod from Gibraltar. This Messod will follow the tradition of naming his first son after his father, Leon/Yehuda and his first daughter after his mom Luna.


Messod is listed as a Merchant in Gibraltar, where he marries Hana Benabou, born in Gibraltar, in 1828. They have 10 children. The first one is Leon/Yehuda born in 1830. He is followed by Luna in 1831, Batseba Betsy in 1833, Abraham in 1835, Sarah Reyna in 1836, Isaac James in 1838, Rachel in 1840, David in 1842, Esther in 1848 and Moses in 1854.


Leon is listed in Liverpool as a Wine merchant, Glass and ceramics merchant, freight forwarder with Brazil and own a lithography shop. He is the inventor of the envelopes for which he request a patent in 1867. He founds a jewish temple with other jews of Liverpool, and owns a mansion that still exists today. He married Sophia Watts and had many children, one of them is Emily, who is the grand mother of Elizabeth Simpson, the genealogist from Nottingham, Simone FM's friend.





(continued on The Foinquinos from England #2)