One 5x great-grandfather of Ari’s was Solomon Gross. All I know about him for certain is that his daughter Milly’s marriage certificate from 13 August 1889 describes him as:
So we know he had died by that date. The synagogue marriage authorisation gives his Hebrew name as Shlomo Zalman Halevy.
(Levy is a male Hebrew biblical personal name, as well as a title, indicating priestly lineage. The Hebrew prefix “Ha-” means “the”. The Levites are descendants of Levi, the third son of Jacob and Leah (Genesis 29.34) – see https://dbs.bh.org.il/familyname/halevy.)
Milly’s grave also tells us in Hebrew that she is Mindel, daughter of Shlomo:
We can assume that he lived in Kalisz, Poland, where Milly was born, but I have been told that she was orphaned at the age of four, which would be 1872.
Searching the JewishGen database for records from Kalisz does not offer any matches for him or Milly.
It’s possible that Milly’s son Solomon (born in 1897) was named after him. (He later changed his name to Sidney.)
The address where Milly was living before her marriage gives us the best clue to follow:
This led me to an incredible newspaper article in the London Daily News of 22 March 1897 (Findmypast.co.uk), which is worth reading in full (it reads across and then down).
It is also very probable that Milly was there when this terrible fire occurred almost next door in January 1888, reported in the London Evening Standard of 21 Jan (also from Findmypast.co.uk):
But none of this gets us any closer to finding him!
Ari, this is how you are related to Solomon:
