mainly charles and blanche…

This post is dedicated to Jan M with thanks for all her ongoing genealogical expertise.

Reviewing Aunt Hettie’s Tapes, I looked for references to Great-uncle Charles Kahn and his inscrutable wife, Blanche, but little was said beyond what we know already. We’re told that Charles was more than just an optician; he also dealt in hearing instruments. “He had his coat of arms over his shop and all the royalty in those days were nearly all deaf.” Thus we can assume reasonable accuracy for earlier hints that Charles counted royalty among his clientele. Charles set-up on his own as an optician. Though Arthur and Gaston were also opticians we’ve found no record of any ophthalmic joint ventures, and certainly no trace of a family business.

According to the tapes, Charles started his working life in the employ of Aaron Woolf, a Liverpool jeweller. In the 1881 census Charles is recorded as being a jeweller, age 25. Aunt Hettie records:

“He (Charles) started there at 8 shillings a week as a little office boy – well’ he got so tired of it that he thought he’d go to London and try his luck. Well, he struck with a man named Philips, who was a relation of the Philips in Lime Street, as a jeweller… and he started at 338 The Strand in a shop, and was so poor he slept under the counter and the rats he used to say were running over him where he slept, and he started with theatrical jewellery – what the wax works figures wear – and then when Uncle Arthur took up this optician’s they all went into it.” Not together, we assume from what she said earlier.

From there Charles went to Charing Cross Road (London) where he had an optician’s shop which also sold instruments for the deaf such as chairs and horns. Aunt Hettie confirms Charles bought the business of F. C. Rein & Sons, keeping that name over the shop until he died “a very rich man.”

Unfortunately for us, Aunt Hettie couldn’t recall Blanche’s maiden name, but she does tells us that “she turned a Jewess,” hence confirming that Charles married outside his religion. Charles and Blanche attended Aunt Hettie’s first wedding (1909 in Liverpool) where Charles broke his ankle during a trip to a skating rink, resulting in a 3 days’ stay in Liscard Hospital. He was so appreciative of his care there he sent to London for a dozen gold brooches with sprays of lilies on them, one for each nurse: “he was such a kind generous man.”

One aside: Hettie mentions in passing that all three boys (Arthur, Charles and Gaston Victor) lost touch with their religion, though she references the rest of the family as being “orthodox” in their practices. Certainly fin de siècle arranged marriages feature prominently, though Gaston Victor seems to have avoided the legalities of marriage altogether and Charles & Blanche went undercover.

As ever, Blanche remains a mystery. More from Aunt Hettie later.