My mum always told me about public baths, these explanations make it much clearer.
She grew up in the Brick Lane area of a Jewish father (her mother was the servant so a bit of a scandal in those days), we weren't told she was our gran until we were about 10 in late 70s and even then we weren't to tell people. we had to be told as we couldn't work out how Aunty fitted into the family when mum always told us in detail about everyone else.
I know, or rather knew, Brick Lane very well, and my Mum was Jewish. Goodness, I can imagine the scandal!
When my Mum met my Dad, in 1939, her parents were very unusual, in that they accepted my Dad immediately, even though he wasn't Jewish. He did try to change his faith but it wasn't possible, once he'd been called up for WW2.
In the Brick Lane area, you would find special public baths, for Jewish brides. The religion deemed that on the night before her wedding, the chaste girl had to go down steps that led into the water, so that she was completely immersed, and would be as pure as possible for her bridegroom.
The custom wasn't adhered to so strictly by the time of WW2, and my Mum said there was no way she was messing her hair up anyway, which was considered very risqué by her aunts! My Grandparents married on Christmas Day, 1907, and as my Grandpa was the eldest of 17 (no tv in those days
), they always had a party with their numerous relatives, with a Christmas tree etc, even though they were Jewish.
One of Mum's older favourite cousins, who married out of the faith, was considered dead by her parents, and her name was never ever mentioned again. So sad. Going back to my Grandpa, who told me numerous stories of the old days, his mother came from The Netherlands, on the onion boat, as part of a pogrom, along with all her family, including 3 sisters of similar age.
And the 4 sisters, between them, had
64 live births!!!! Grandpa said his Mum always had 3 babies at a time - one in her arms, one holding her skirt, and one in her belly! The entire family lived in 2 rooms, above a synagogue in Petticoat Lane, having moved from a "court" in Whitechapel.
The court consisted of 4 tenement buildings, in a square, housing goodness knows how many dozens of people, and the water stand pipe was turned on for just an hour a day. Grandma Elizabeth taught all her daughters and grand-daughters how to make a divine dish called Dutch Apple Cake, and Mum made this regularly, and even typing about it, I can smell the cinnamon!
The East End has always been a melting pot of nationalities and immigrants, and when I researched John's family tree, we found that one of his mother's grandmothers, came over to Spitalfields with the Hugenouts, and was a lace maker. I love family history, and have 2 albums, called "Roots One and Two", with photos and birth, marriage and death certificates, some original, some copies, for mine and John's ancestors.
I even have a (think this is the right spelling) Dagguerotype photo of my Grandpa's Grandpa, born nearly 200 years ago. Fortunately, my Mum wrote the 3 "musts" on the back of all her photos - who, when and where. I can remember "sitting on my Grandpa's knee", he died the year I met John, and he can remember "sitting on his Grandpa's knee", so this was as far back as I wanted to go, cos I considered that tangible knowledge.
Further back just seemed like names and dates, though I do have some evidence of ancestors born in the late 1700s, so I've encompassed 5 different centuries.
Sorry, I do ramble on, don't I!