Chapman's Background

[Howard Brown]

The People
January 11, 1903
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[Anna Morris]

Has anyone done a genealogy on Chapman? Various authors have written that Chapman's barber training in Poland was with a "feldshur" or that Chapman became one through his study. To me that is a Jewish or Yiddish term for barber/surgeon.

If all that was true, it would not mean that Chapman/Klosowski could not have been Roman Catholic but it does bring a question to mind. Did he and or his family convert to Catholicism for some expedient or political reason?

Apparently the church substantiated he was RC so a deeper discussion is probably unnecessary except that Abberline thought Chapman might be JtR and we have the other information about JtR being a "low class Polish Jew." I suppose if Chapman was a "feldshur" or referred to himself with that term, others could have assumed he was Jewish.

[Cogidubnus]

Hi Anna

Can I suggest Helena Wojtczak's excellent book "Jack the Ripper at last?", which is actually an amazingly thorough investigation into George Chapman's life and murders...According to her Appendix l, Roman Catholic was on his birth certificate...

There is also, within the first chapter of the book, a very precise description of the origins of the term feldsher...

I once described this book as among the best I'd ever read, and it still is...

Dave

[Anna Morris]

Hi Anna

Can I suggest Helena Wojtczak's excellent book "Jack the Ripper at last?", which is actually an amazingly thorough investigation into George Chapman's life and murders...According to her Appendix l, Roman Catholic was on his birth certificate...

There is also, within the first chapter of the book, a very precise description of the origins of the term feldsher...

I once described this book as among the best I'd ever read, and it still is...

Dave

Thanks for reminding me of that. Hopefully I am in a better position to order books at this time. That is a very fine endorsement for the book.

[Cogidubnus]

Hi Anna

Despite having read one of the author's previous books ("Railwaywomen") which was actually a literary prizewinner, and a very good book in it's own right, the Chapman book caught me rather by surprise...shouldn't have, but it did...

I thought I'd read up a fair bit on the poisonings, and yet it seems some of the fundamentals were just not right...this book left me feeling better educated, and yet was still incredibly readable...I find myself going back to it too...it's almost always got one of my bookmarks in it tagging something or other, which has to be a good sign...

If that's a fine endorsement, then so be it...to the best of my knowledge it's a fair one anyway!

Cheers

Dave