Naturalisation records?

[ozgirl]

Regarding the Russian link - during the 18th and 19th centuries there was a Swedish enclave who lived in St Petersburg, which is mentioned in the article Jacky found. They kept their Swedish nationality and had their own churches in the city. OH's Great Grandfather was born in St Petersburg, but was a Swedish subject. He came to UK sometime before 1891, but we can find no record of his arrival. Coincidentally, although he was known as Charles on some official records, his real name was Carl, which I think is quite likely to be your fellow's original name too. (could also be Karl), possibly Carl Stephan. I had a look on the St Petersburg church record, but there are no Friedmans, but this was the Lutherans, I don't know of any Jewish records for St Petersburg.

This page gives more info: http://www.swedenabroad.com/en-GB/Em...nt-Petersburg/

There does seem to have been a strong Jewish presence in St Petersburg though

[Tilly Mint]

I have sent more info on the posters, Heather...sorry, I cant put it up on the thread....

[Olde Crone Holden]

Oh, haha, how great is that! Well found, Tilly!

OC

[Tom Tom]

What a fantastic find!
Did you manage to get in touch with the original poster, Heather?

[Heather Positive Thinker]

Yes Tom, its amazing isnt it. Im so grateful for this find. I have been emailing him. He has quite a comprehensive family history blog/little site actually. Having given friends basic family tree he can see that his gran was the sister of my friends grandfather - both of them "Freeman"'s - as the name had become from Friedman/Freedman. In fact he said he had actually spoken to my friends mum back in the early 1980s about this very story.

Meanwhile, another morph of a name has come up when I was doing friends stuff - she said her great gran was a Jarvis - after a bit of faffing I found her baptised in name Gervis, morphing into Jervis and then finally becoming Jarvis. No wonder we suffer with these ancestors.

Have to say it has been quite exciting as Id forgotten how fruitful some research can be - its 11 years or more since I started out and got exciting results every day, staying up to 2 and 3 in the morning cos I couldnt stop searching - those were wonderful days - mind you still cant find the Horsteads marriage or baptisms back in early 18th century. One day I expect.

Thanks so much everyone for your kind and very professional help xxx