Michael Grant's Family Tree: The Levey Family

The Levey family are Levites—but that's not where their name comes from. The patriarch of the family was called Moshe Leib Freitag, and hailed from Schkee, in Kovno Gubernia in the alter heim. (Kovno's Lithuanian name—the one on modern maps—is Kaunas.) When he came to this country, the immigration clerk asked his name; he replied "Moshe Leib", and the clerk wrote down "Moses Levey".

Or so I was told. John Mickler recently told me it was his grandfather, Jacob Levy, who was originally called Freitag. Possibly I'm conflated two stories here, one of how Moses Levey got his surname, and one of how Jacob Levy got his. I think I got this material from Ella Da Costa.

Note: Place names are birth places if no other places are given; all dates are in British format (DD/MM/YYYY). Names in square brackets are Hebrew names known only from a child's gravestone. All living people have been removed from this tree before placing online; if you recognise anyone here as being related to you, please don't hesitate to , especially if you have material to contribute, in return for which I will happily share the full version, with photographs, PDF trees, and other materials!

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