The story of the ABENDANA line

New page 5 October 2014

This line comes from the Sephardic Jewish community of east London. Sephardic Jews came to England from Spain and Portugal (perhaps via or with connections in the Netherlands or Germany) from the 17th century onwards, with many having roots in north Africa before that. Our branch of the line used the anglicised version of the surname BENDON much of the time, especially in the 19th century. Other variants include ABBENDANA, ABANDANA, ABENDAHANA, BENDAHANA, BENDAHAN, etc. The name originates with the western (North African/Iberian) form Aben of the Arabic patronymic Ibn (equivalent to Hebrew Ben), and the personal name Dana or Danan.

The generations of our Abendana line:

9. Moses ABENDANA (living mid 18th century) of east London
Brief story below - to be honest there isn't yet any more on his own page

8. Joseph and Esther ABENDANA (both living 1770s-90s, perhaps born 1750ish) of east London
Brief story below - a few more details on their own page

7. Isaac and Rachel ABENDANA (both living 1802) of east London
Brief story below - to be honest there isn't yet any more on their own page

6. Isaac Elias (1802-80) and Ann ABENDANA (born abut 1804) of east London
Brief story below - more details on their own page

5. Miriam (AKA Mary or Mary Ann) BENDON (AKA ABENDANA, later ANTHONY, TIZLEY) (1839-1925) of east London
Brief story below - more details on her own page.

ABENDANA research notes
index of surnames

The story of my ABENDANA line:

9. Moses

Moses BENDAHANA or ABENDANA lived aorund the mid 18th century. He was the father of Joseph.

8. Joseph and Esther

Joseph BENDAHANA or ABENDANA was probably born about the middle of the 18th century. He married Esther RODRIGUES-RIBEIRO in 1772 in the Bevis Marks synagogue in east London. They had nine known children:
Judith
Moses 1775
Isaac 1777
Rebecca 1779
Sarah 1780
Hanah 1783
Agar 1785
Raphael Haim 1789
Solomon 1792

7. Isaac and Rachel

Isaac (with, according to some accounts, his wife Rachel, formerly ISAACS) registered a son Elias (Isaac or Isaac Elias in some of his later records) at Bevis Marks in 1802.

6. Isaac Elias and Ann

Isaac Elias married Ann HARRIS (aka Nancy, Hannah, Yantla, even Betsy, and DE JACOB) in 1823 in the Bevis Marks synagogue.

The sources for their children have some inconsistencies, but my current best guess is that they had ten:
Isaac 1824
Rachel 1825
Joseph 1828
Jacob aka John 1829
Sarah 1830
Moses aka Michael? 1833
Hannah aka Ann, about 1834?
Solomon, 1835
Amelia (aka?) Margaret, 1836-7
Miriam aka Mary Ann, 1839

Isaac Elias's occupation was confectioner or general dealer, or in other records singer, concert singer or vocalist. He must have had a bit of money and at least at one stage have employed someone, because there's a court case from 1826 where a necklace was stolen from the infant Rachel while she was in the care of a 'servant' of his - not, as far as I can judge from later censuses, likely to have been a live-in domestic servant.

They lived at Union Terrace, Mile End Old Town in 1841, and Hutchison Street, St Botolph Aldgate in 1851; both are in the east end of London.

Isaac Elias was on New Goulston Street, Whitechapel (the same street as his son Jacob) when he died in 1880. He was buried at the Nuevo Betahayim cemetery in Mile End - the cemetery then serving the Sephardic Jewish community of the area, who worshipped at Bevis Marks synagogue.

5. Miriam alias Mary Ann

Isaac Elias and Ann's youngest, Miriam, went by Mary or Mary Ann BENDON most of the time. She has quite a rich biography, by the standards of my genealogical work so far.

In the 1860s, she appears to have had three children, purportedly by Henry alias Israel BENDON, a general dealer, though I haven't traced him with any confidence:
Anne 1864
Moses 1866
Israel 1868
Birth certificates indicate that she was living in Mile End Old Town when they were born (though two different addresses). I have not found a marriage or census record tying Mary to Henry (or Israel) so, although there are a couple of men of that name who might have known Mary, he may equally be fictional in some or all details.

She then established herself with one Edwin ANTHONY (who wasn't Jewish). They had further children:
Charlotte 1870
Elizabeth in 1872
Hannah in 1874
Edwin Herbert in 1876 (died aged about 2)
Mary Ann in 1878

I have found no record of Mary and Edwin marrying, though they clearly lived as husband and wife, and Mary and her children took his surname and at least one (Moses) gave Edwin as his father in later documentation.

The family lived at a number of addresses in the parish of St George in the East and Edwin worked at at least two or three fairly menial (as far as I can tell) jobs in manufacturing firms; at one point Mary also worked as a furrier. They sent at least one of the children (Charlotte) as a little girl to a local board school with a majority of Jewish students.

By the 1881 census, the two older boys appear under less Jewish names - Henry instead of Moses and Isedore instead of Israel (Isedore was later to be baptised into the Church of England as John BENDON, and at least three of the other children also married in church, and therefore should have been baptised).

In 1882, Edwin died of tuberculosis. The children were aged from 18 (Anne, who seems to have already left home) down to 4 (Mary Ann).

Mary Ann (re-)married, Frederick TIZLEY in 1886 in Mile End. Although they tried to hide it by giving false ages, he was about 16 years younger than Mary. He was a carman or cart man (and Mary also worked again, I think in furs). They lived on Sidney Street, Mile End Old Town. In 1891 they had with them Frederick's sister, Mary's three teenage daughters, and Mary's grandson, William CRUISE. William's mother, Mary's daughter Anne, lived next door and was a widow. In 1901 William is still with them, but there are no unmarried children of Mary. There is her daughter Elizabeth, her husband Charles DOVE and their two young children.

Miriam was at the same address when she died in 1925, aged 86 (but still admitting only to 79). Fred died in 1933.

Contact me

If you are interested in this line I'll be very pleased indeed to hear from you. Email me at deletethis.ianwilliamson161@gmail.com but delete everything up to and including the first dot, leaving just my name and number @ service provider. Please do not delete the automatically-generated subject line, so that I know your email is not spam. You can add more to the subject if you like but if you delete what appears I may not read your mail.

ABENDANA research notes
index of surnames