Grave 68
     

Leah Brooks

1851  – 1883

She died young, taken from her husband and children
A precious woman, Leah daughter of (title?) 
Mordecai zl died Thurs 27 Menachem Av
....
She returned to her father's house in her youth
she ascended to heaven at the cost of her days
Praised (loved/respected) by all her acquaintances
 May her soul be bound up in the bond of life eternal

[notes: the first (rightmost) letters of the 2nd, 3rd and 4th lines are emphasised and say:

לאה

which is LEAH.
The name of the fifth month on the Jewish calendar, Av, literally means 'father'. It is customary to add the name 'Menachem', which means comforter or consoler—so , as here, Menachem Av.

מתה בעול ימיה מבעלה ומעולליה

אשה יקרה מ לאה בת כהרר

מרדכי זל מתה בי הכז מנחם אב

תרמנ

לבית אביה שבה בנעוריה

אל שמים עלתה בדמי ימיה

הלילו עליה כל מכיריה

ת   נ  צ  ב  ה


IN AFFECTIONATE REMEMBRANCE OF
LEAH
THE BELOVED WIFE OF
ALFRED BROOKS
WHO DEPARTED THIS LIFE AUGUST THE 30TH 5643 – 1883
AGED 31 YEARS.
--
DEEPLY LAMENTED BY HER SORROWING HUSBAND BY HER BELOVED CHILDREN AND RELATIVES
--
MAY HER SOUL REST IN PEACE


Leah Marks was born in 1851 in Birmingham to James and Sarah Marks. Her father James was born in Poland in 1811 and was a cap maker. They had seven sons and seven daughters.

In 1872 Leah married Alfred Brooks a cabinet maker, who was born in Warsaw in 1851. There first child Gertrude was born in Stourbridge in 1872. They then went to South Africa where their daughter Florence was born in Paarl Western Cape in 1878, Amelia in 1880 and son Louis in 1881 in Kimberley.   Kimberly was the centre of the diamond mines and Alfred could have worked as a labourer in the mines. It was a harsh life and Leah and the children returned to England in in March 1882.

It is not known why Leah was visiting Bath in August 1883 where she tragically died aged just 32 of smallpox in the statutory hospital Claverton.  There was a smallpox epidemic in Birmingham at the time so perhaps she travelled with the disease.  The children remained in Birmingham and lived with Leah's mother and sisters. 

Alfred returned to Cape Town where he  died aged 68 in hospital in 1919. Gertrude, Florence and Amelia remained in England. Louis went to New York in 1923 where he died in 1940. 
In  1891 census living with two of Leah's sisters, Gertrude and Amelia and her mother Sarah, are three nieces, Gertrude L Brooks aged 15 born Birmingham, Amelia G Brooks aged 11 born Cape Town South Africa, Florence L Brooks aged 11 born Capetown South Africa, and a nephew  Louis M Brooks aged 10 born South Africa. 


Census records
  1851   13  Moat Lanes   Birmingham
Name | Age
Birth
Relationship
Occupation
  1861   27   Edgebaston St   Birmingham
Name | Age
Birth
Relationship
Occupation
  1871   5  Wellington Terrace   Balsall Heath
Name | Age
Birth
Relationship
Occupation
Associated addresses
       Statutory Hospital    Claveton
  Statutory Hospital at the bottom of Brassknocker Hill