Jessie

Sometime after her marriage to James Evans, this relationship must have broken down and on commencing work with the British Red Cross, along with her sister Betty Barnett, Jessie is on record as being typist with them/

Staff record card for Jessie Barnett, showing home address of 212 Euston Road, NW London

Jessie Barnett circa 1917-1919?

The loss of baby Eugene

Jessie Sheba Evans, nee Barnett has a child in September, Eugene, but he fails to thrive and is dead within 6 weeks.

Eugene John Leonard Frances Evans Birth certificate

Eugene John Leonard Frances Evans death certificate

Jessie Sheba Barnett marries Mr Evans

Jessie Sheba Barnett of 212 Euston Road marries James Bentley Wellington Evans of 46 Fulham Road on 22nd April 1912. She says her father is Percy Barnett , deceased gentleman !

James was in the Royal Naval Fleet Air Arm and gave Jessie as his next of kin c/o 46 Fulham Road.

A new century, a new marriage..

1901 Census of 6 Old Compton Street showing Solomons household pg1

1901 Census of 6 Old Compton Street showing Solomons household pg2

Currently its my understanding that Rachel Solomons,born Poland was Jessies mother (and father unknown as of today)


1901 -- 6 Old Compton , St. Anne, Soho, London
Rachel Solomons, head, widow, 35, hawker (clothes), born Poland
Martha Solomons, [mother -in law?], widow, 65, born Poland
Jessie Solomons, daughter, 12, born London, Soho
Isaac Solomons, son, 11, born London, Soho
Rebecca Solomons, daughter, 9, born London, Soho
Fanny Solomons, daughter, 7, born London, Soho


Rachel remarried in 1908 this time to Simon Koshobrodski, whose first wife Esther died the year before in 1907
He had the following issue recorded in 1901

Koshobrodski household 11 Settles Street, Mile End Old Town 1901

Marks Koshobrodsky18
Leak Koshobrodsey15
Benjamin Fosobrodsky11

Esther Koshobrodski died in 1907.
Simon remarried early the next year in 1908  to Rachel Solomons.

Marriage certificate of Simon Koshobrodski and Rachel Solomons.

1911 -- 212 Euston Rd., London Census

1911 Census  212 Euston road

Simon Koshobrodski, head, 60, married, presser tailors, born Russian Poland, resident Jewish
Rachel Koshobrodski, wife, 43, married, married 3 years, 0 children born to this marriage, born Russian Poland
Isaac Solomons, son (step children), 20, commercial clerk, catering, born Russian Poland
Rebecca Solomons, daughter (step children), 18, shorthand typist, medical, born London, Soho
Fanny Solomons, daughter (step children), 17, assistant to dressmaker, born London, Soho.
Note that Jessie is not mentioned on the census that night of April 2nd 1911
There are some school admissions that seem to fit:
Jews' Free School, Westminster

Jessie Solomons born 14 April 1889. Admitted to class 5 in February 1895 - abode 11 Little Compton St. 
No previous school. Left 27 July 1903 for work.

Rebecca Solomons born 14 March 1891.  Admitted to class 6 in August 1895 - abode 11 Little Compton St.
No previous school. Left 4 March 1904 "over age".

Someone on Roostchat has said however:
"This registration isn't consistent with "your" Rebecca's reported birthplace of Soho, per the censuses, or with her March birthday per the school record. If Rachel's children's Soho births were duly registered they should be in Westminster registration district. Unfortunately I can't easily see suitable birth registrations. It may be that they were not registered at all."


Could Rebecca Solomons be the same person as Betty Barnett?


Betty Barnett was 39 on her death registration in Dec 1933 which is near enough consistent with age 18 in 1911.

Rachel Koshobrodski married a Mr Simmons? after the death of Simon Koshobrodski in 1926. Simons last address according to burial information from The United Synagogues Burials office is that his last known address was 212 Euston Road. He is buried at East Ham Cemetery.

I chased an image of his grave but had no luck as there is no headstone.

Rachel Koshobrodski died in 1928. Home address on burial given as 212 Euston Road. Have image of her headstone

"Betty" Barnett died in 1933 Is she is Rebecca Elizabeth nee Solomons? Have image of her headstone

Jessie Barnett died in 1936. Her address when she joined the British Red Cross was given as 212 Euston Road. No headstone on gravesite

Funeral records at Edmonton Jewish Cemetery gave us the information about mother and sister. Its the only thing we have linking Jessie to a quite different family 

Phyllis Barnett, sister to Jessie died in 1951. Laurence Michael Barnett gave his home address in 1944 as 6 Grayling Road (Aunts) on Merchant Navy record card

Phyllis lived it seems at 212 Euston Road at least until 1935
From 1936 it was at 6 Grayling Road according to voting rolls
6 Grayling Road was where Jessie says she was heading when heading to London
Its the address given to Hackney Infirmary 
Its the address on her death record and mysterious brother P Barnett who was informant said it was he lived on GRO certificate
On burial authorisation at Edmonton Cemetery he however said he was at 32 George Street, Hampstead Road.

Who is this masked man P Barnett????????????

Helpful researchers have given this additional Information:

Looking at the electoral register for 212 Euston Road (But who is Joseph and where does Phyllis pick up Solomons surname as she was meant to be spinster?)

1921 - Joseph Solomon
1923, 1927 & 1928 - Joseph and Rachael Solomon
1929 - Joseph, Rachael, Betty and Phyllis Solomons (This and the next were poorly transcribed)
1930 - Betty and Fanny Solomons
1931 - Fanny and Phyllis Solomons 
1932, 1933  -  Betty and Phyllis Solomons (This and the next were poorly transcribed)
1934, 1935 -  Phyllis Solomons

Jessie's burial a key discovery

In January of 2016 I subscribed for the first time to Ancestry and then decided to use the services of a London based genealogist, Erica Jolly, for a couple of hours.

Not a cheap exercise but it was very helpful as Erica within day located Jessie Barnett's grave at the Edmonton Cemetery in North London. 

This was important as I was able to discover the burial records indicated that Jessie's mother and her sister were also buried in the same cemetery. The biggest surprise was the fact that the names I thought I had for Jessie's parents were quite wrong.

Jessie's mother predeceased her in 1928 , being buried as Rachel Simmons, although this is spelt incorrectly on the tombstone as Simons.

Rachel Simmons headstone

Rachels Simmons headstone

Betty Barnett's headstone

Jessie Barnett's gravesite no headstone.

 Rachel is noted as having attended the  Beth Hasher Synagogue in London and her daughter Betty Barnett also known as Solomons  died in 1933. This name is carved on the headstone in brackets.

The son of Rachel, and brother to Jessie, Betty and another sister Phyllis Barnett, Percy Barnett provided the details  of the family and their synagogue  connections.

Percy was said to attend the West End Talmud Torah Manette Street.

Jessie and Laurence sailed to England in May of 1936

Jessie was diagnosed with pulmonary tuberculosis sometime before early 1936 and she returned to England along with my father Laurence Barnett in May of 1936 on the "Esperance Bay". She gave their proposed address as 6 Grayling Road, Stoke Newington which was the address of her sister, Phyllis Frances Barnett. Soon after,  she was admitted to the Hackney Infirmary and she died there on the 20th October, 1936. No hospital records are available but I have located details held by the hospital re funeral arrangements which once gain confirmed her previous address and her brother as contact. along with a correspondence address for her sister Phyllis  Her brother Percy Barnett was the informant on her death certificate and also provided details on the Jewish  burial authorisation at the Edmonton  Jewish Cemetery.
She could not be buried in the Edmonton cemetery without proof of her Jewish affiliation. Her mother and one of her sisters had been buried in the same cemetery. In the case of her mother, that was in 1928 and her sister Betty had predeceased in 1933.

These details were to provide me with clues to her family and I will cover this in another blog article.

Dad returned to South Australia on the ship "Largs Bay". leaving Southhampton on the 18th March 1937, just 4 days before he was to turn 15

"Largs Bay" passenger list 1937

Oral family history says he had possibly been placed in an orphanage after the death of his mother Jessie, but I now believe he may well have stayed with his mothers spinster sister, Phyllis Frances Barnett at 6 Grayling Road, Stoke Newington. He was to later in about 1943 give this same address as a home address on his merchant navy record card.

Merchant Navy record card for Laurence Barnett. Note the Stoke Newington address .

Jessie and Mervyn at Moorook

This article which appeared in the local Riverland paper, is quite a colourful story and is perhaps written by Mervyn  Herbert himself  as he is recorded as putting a newspaper together on HMAT Ballarat hospital ship back to Australia in 1915 after being wounded at Gallipoli and later wrote articles for the same  newspaper. It perhaps "over gilds the lily" in the description of Jessie's role with the British Red Cross, but she did indeed work for the British Red Cross along with her sister Betty. However it does give the reader an idea or two of the location and ambience of the property where my father grew up from 1922 until the early 1940's.

Article about Illangi 

Murray Pioneer and Australian River Record (Renmark, SA : 1913 - 1942), Thursday 29 June 1933, page 7 

All about Jessie Sheba Barnett

This blog was created to explore my genealogical research for my grandmother, Jessie Sheba Barnett.

My father Laurence Michael Barnett was born the Queens Home (later known at the Queen Victoria Hospital), Rose Park in Adelaide, South Australia on March 22nd, 1922. His mother gave her name as Jessica Sheba Barnett, said she was 24 and had been born in London, England. Laurence Barnett's fathers name was shown as not stated on the birth certificate, but he was Major Mervyn James Herbert, a retired Australian Army soldier, veteran of the Gallipoli campaign wounded in action and later served on the Western Front in a France with the 50th Battalion in the battles for Pozieres and Mouquet Farm. At the time of my fathers birth Mervyn was by then an orchardist and vigneron at Moorook on the River Murray.

This blog will have posts about Jessie and her family in London, as well as my families story.

Laurence Michael Barnett birth certificate