Isaac Rosenberg was born in 1890 into a working class Jewish family in Bristol. His parents Barnett and Annie had immigrated to England from Kovno in Lithuania in 1887. At that time Lithuania was a part of Imperial Russia, and Barnett fled to England to avoid conscription into the Czar's army.

To find out about the mass immigration of Jews from Eastern Europe to Great Britain that occured between the late 19th and early 20th centuries see The National Archives Pathways to the Past '1901: Living at the time of the Census' exhibition. Or from the same exhibition see a case study telling the story of another Russian Jewish man who moved his family to England. There is also information on tracing immigrant ancestors in the Immigration topic on this site.

Isaac's birth certificate (detail of below) records his birth at 5 Adelaide Place in Bristol, on 25 November 1890. His father Barnett's profession is entered as 'Licensed Hawker' - this means a pedlar, which was a common occupation of Jewish immigrants in the nineteenth century. For information on how to obtain a birth certificate see the Births, Marriages and Deaths topic.

The National census first began in 1801 and was repeated once a decade thereafter. From 1841 personal information on individuals was recorded. In the 1891 census below we can see the Rosenberg family are still at 5 Adelaide place in Bristol. It lists all the family members, including his parents Barnett and Annie, Isaac's older sister Minnie, and the four month old Isaac.

If you look closely you can see that Barnett Rosenberg’s place of Birth is Russia. You might also notice that his name is written as "Barned", whereas on the birth certificate it was written as "Barnard". It is likely that Barnett spoke his name, and the spelling was left up to the registrar or enumerator. You should remember when you carry out your own family history research, that spellings were far more flexible in times gone by.