Expert: Mark Smith - 8/18/2008

Question
QUESTION: I am trying to find out about Mark  Goldstein who owned a public house near the London docks. An immigrant from Danzig,a mason in a lodge that the Prince of Wales was a member!. I was also told he introduced music into public houses and entertainment.The time period was late 1800 early 1900's .

ANSWER: Hello Frank.
There is a Mark Goldstein, landlord of the Three Crowns in Dunk St. Whitechapel (since demolished) in an 1895 directory. The street was right in the middle of "Jack the Ripper" territory. He ought to appear on the 1891 and/or the 1901 censuses, but you have to pay to view them online.
Mark

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QUESTION: Thank you!. The other point though is his association with the Masons and his belonging to the same Lodge as the Prince of Wales!. I cant understand how an immigrant could be in such High Society. Also did he bring in music to the public houses?Please tell me how to view census.

ANSWER: Hello Frank.
If you type into the web "1901 census" you'll be directed to dozens of sites that will enable you to search for any given name, but as far as I can see they're all pay sites, so the best you can hope for is the bare details before you have to pay to see more. Alternatively any large County Library should have microfiche copies of all the censuses or free access to at least one of the sites I referred to above.
As regards Freemasons it's quite possible that he joined as he was a well-to-do local businessman or even that he was a member in his home country before he emigrated. Edward, Prince of Wales was known for mixing with "lower types".
Mark

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QUESTION: MARK.my thank you must be brief because of the 100 word limitation. It occurred to me if I could find his obituary I could know much more about  Mark Goldstein. Also never saw his picture. best frank

Answer
Hello Frank.
Very difficult to do without an approximate date of death. The little I was able to gather from the 1901 census site was that he was born in about 1843 (he was 58 in 1901). You'd have to go through the indexes of deaths quarter by quarter from 1901 until you found him, a laborious task as we don't know if he died aged 58 or lived to be 90. Again these indexes are available online, but on pay sites. They're free however in most large libraries. You'll need a whole day to go through them unless you can narrow it down considerably.
Mark