My Paternal Grandparents

This is a photo of my father's parents taken at the time of thier engagement in 1899, they were married in 1901. Leah Ehrenberg the daughter of Woolf Ehrenberg & Sarah Hannah Zwick. Alexander Levene (Alec) the son of Nathan Levene & Rivkah Mignon.

Alexander came to England at the age of about 15, he first appears in the 1901 census living across the street from grandma Leah at Booth Street Buildings in London.

Leah came to England as an infant with her parents and Siblings.

Brian is named after Alexander (middle name) and I think there is a resembalance. Our daughter Leah is named after Grandma Leah, but I think her and Sarah have a lot in common, I have a later photo of Leah taken when she was expecting my Dad and her and Sarah look alot alike. I have lost count of how many of our extended family members are named after them but we have quite a few Alexanders and Alexandras. We have two Leah's in the family.

My Maternal Grandparents

My maternal grandparents, Charles Edward Rampling & Florence Gertrude Ashbee, were married 25 Dec 1906 at St. Barnabas Church, Homerton, London, England. This photo was taken in a pub at Robertsbridge in Sussex England, the name of the Pub is the Ostrich it was taken around 1952. I remember the Ostrich really well, we would ride the train down from London to Robertsbridge and Grandad would meet us at the train station, or outside the Ostrich, he would always say, "Fancy a drink" and invariable we would go in the Pub for a drink, they always had to hide me because I was too young to be in the Pub. The Pub is still there to this day.
Charles and Florence raised their children in London until the Blitz on London during WW2, Charles had been a fish monger and owned a fish shop, during the Blitz they lost everything and were evacuated to Robertsbridge, I cannot begin to imagine how difficult that must have been, to lose everything. They lived in a very small house, now known as the "Dolls House" thats how small it was. In that house were my grandparents, my mother and my sister Valerie, and on and off various siblings of my mother and their children, all were made homeless by the war. There was a small living area, a kitchen an outside Loo, no regular bathroom no shower or tub. I think upstairs there were two maybe three tiny bedrooms. My grandmother was wonderful at "making do" she could whip up the most fantastic meals on a wood stove. I loved visiting them, granddad was rather quite but very strict with us kids. I can remmeber my grandmother washing my neck and face at the kitchen sink she really scrubbed hard, and she always used the strong Lifebuoy soap, (I can still smell it to this day) but I didnt mind, it was done with love. I loved to go blackberry picking when I was down there, and no matter how few I came home with she always made a big deal over them and would make jam or pie for me. One of my most favourite things to do at Robertsbridge was to pick flowers, especially the wild bluebells and primroses, we would go for long walks down the railroad tracks to Bodium Castle. Which now when I think of it was probably really quite dangerous but there were always adults along I loved it the best when all my Aunts and Uncles were there. Us couisins would all sleep together in one bed.

Charles Edward was born 6 Dec 1885 in Hackney, London and died 28 June 1957 in Hastings, Sussex
Florence was born 23 Aug 1885 in Hackney and died 20 Feb 1966 in London

Larkswood Cafe

Larkswood Cafe

For a while my parents owned and ran a restaurant in Chingford, Essex, England here's a picture of my Mum taking in the money, it was quite a good restaurant we catered mostly to the working class, truck drivers and the like, I enjoyed living there we had a small place over the restaurant, two bedrooms a nice big living room with a dinning area and we shared the kitchen with the restaurant. On the weekends Dad would let me wash dishes and he paid me a penny a dish! We had a cook named Tilly she was wonderful and could whip up a miracle when it came to food, there was also a couple of waitresses the only one I really remember was named Margaret probably because she spoiled me rotten!
I cant remember exactly how long we lived there for, I think from 1957-1959, although looking back on it, it seemed like forever!
I know I took my 11 plus exam while we lived there.

And Valerie came to visit with Mark who was around 11 mths old at the time.
Across the street from us was a Pub named the Royston Arms and Mum and Dad became very friendly with the man that owned it, Cyril but I cant recall his last name. He had a big American car and we used to drive down to the coast on a Sunday for the day. I always got carsick and still have the aversion to riding in the back seat of a Cadillac. We also had a cat named Micky who was a wonderful mouser. He was very smart the only cat I could ever teach to do tricks! He would climb a ladder and sit and wait for his treat.

3 Brothers

This photo shows my Dad's 3 older brother's, from left to right, Philip, Woolfie and Nathan. For a long time I thought the one in the center was my Dad, but not so, at least thats what I have been told by other family members including my Dad. I think the photo was taken around 1917. Nathan was born 1903, Philip 1905 and Woolfie 1907, so if it was taken in 1917 and the clothing is right, Nathan would have been 14, Phil age 12 and Woolfie age 10, which looks about right.
All were born in London, England you'll notice that all the boys are wearing high top boots, their father, my grandfather, Alexander Levene made all his children's shoes, boots in this case!

The Levene Family

I promised at my last post to follow up with the rest of my Dad's famiy so here they are! The first photo is of Sheila my Dad's youngest sister she was born in 1926 and I think this was probably taken at the age of 12 or 13. This photo was discovered in an old wallet of Dad's after he died, it was a wallet he carried with him during the 2nd World War.

This is Dad's brother Philip and was taken when he married Ada Sugarman in London in 1931, they had one child named David, unfortuantly Phil died during the war.

This photo is Dad's oldest brother's, (Nathan) wedding to Rebecca Brooks they were also married in 1931. Next to Nathan are my grandparents, Nathans parents, Alexander (Standing) and Leah, next to Leah is Sheila, dads youngest sister and behind her is a cousin of my Dad's Faye. Next to the bride are her parents, Morris and Leah and the other bridesmaid I am guessing is perhaps a sister to Rebecca.

This is Sheila on her wedding day in 1951 to Eric Van Emden. All thats missing as far as Dads siblings go is his brother Woolfie and I will try to post one of him next time around.

Joseph Levene and some of his siblings

This first picture is of my dad, Joseph (left) and his youngest brother Ralph, Joseph was born in 1912 and Ralph was born in 1915, so I'll let you guess how old he was and when the photo was taken. This photo is of my dad, left and his oldest sister Gertie with younger brother Ralph, Gertie was born in 1909, how old do you think they were? Any comment is welcome and would be very helpful in helping me sort and date the photos. The first photo I have the original of the 2nd I only have a bad photocopy of. Joseph had three other brothers, Nathan, Woolfie and Philip and one younger sister, Sheila, I'll post their photos at a later date.