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In the process of investigating the movements of the Rantzens in the UK, we had discovered from the census records that Abraham Rantzen's parents (Esther's great-great-grandparents), Manass and Tamar, had brought their family to the East End from Warsaw. Each member of the family had been born there.

Esther was very keen to find out what had made the Rantzens leave Poland, decades before most other Jews in eastern Europe had started to consider emigrating. The only option was for us to head for Poland.

Great-great-grandfather – Manass Rantzen

Step 1 - Foreign vital records

Going to the foreign place of birth or residence of ancestors can shed more light on the movements of family members and the conditions in which they might have lived.

Civil birth, death and marriage records for Warsaw are held at the Warsaw State Archives, and Jewish entries in these registers are transcribed in the online database Jewish Records Indexing – Poland (see Related Links). These records document births, marriages and deaths in the community, and include information such as names, addresses and occupations of parents, as well as dates and places of births, death and marriages of individuals.

We visited the Warsaw State Archives. Having such an unusual surname (even in Poland) Esther was able to find records of deaths and marriages for her ancestors relatively easily. We successfully traced Manass Rantzen's father, David, and his father, Moszek, who was born in 1769.

It was clear that the Rantzens had become well established within Warsaw over several generations. So what had prompted Manass and Tamar to leave their homeland and come to Britain? We started to find death certificates that seemed to give us several potential answers.

Esther discovered moving death certificates for two of Manass and Tamar's children. One child, Bayla, had died of a cough aged 8. Another, Chaim, died as an 8-month-old baby in 1841. We also found death certificates for Manass's father, David, who died in 1854, and that of Manass's brother, Reuben, also a cap maker, who died in 1855.

It was clear that Manass and Tamar had suffered a series of deaths within their immediate family. Some of these occurred within a few years of each other in the 1850s, shortly before the family's first appearance in the UK census in 1861.

Esther felt sure that the deaths of so many loved ones within a short space of time might have caused Manass, Tamar and the rest of their surviving family to leave Poland in the 1850s. Perhaps personal tragedy, the subsequent lessening of family ties within Poland, and potential economic opportunities abroad made migration a more palatable option than staying put.

But we also wondered whether these possible reasons for leaving had been heightened by the growing anti-Semitism in Poland. We found out that at the time the Rantzens left, Warsaw was occupied by Russia, and life for local Jews was becoming increasingly tough. Tsar Nicolas I had introduced a string of oppressive laws, including 25 years' military conscription for Jewish men.

Step 2 - Revisiting family homes

As Esther attempted to trace the area of Warsaw where her ancestors had lived and worked, it became starkly apparent that had Manass and Tamar decided to stay in Warsaw, the Rantzen story would have been horrifically different.

In Warsaw Esther met up with historian Jolanta Zyndul. Where possible it is invaluable to gain the assistance of a local historian or guide when tracing your family’s roots abroad. They may be able to take you to the sites of the homes and workplaces of your ancestors, and to describe the contexts in which they lived. Often local archives, museums or libraries will have suggestions about who might be able to help.

Jolanta explained that the place where their house would have stood was the site of the Jewish Warsaw Uprising of January 1943. This was the occasion when Warsaw Jews, having already lost 1 million people under Nazi oppression, decided to fight back. The Nazis crushed the rebellion by burning the entire Warsaw ghetto to the ground, wiping out the neighbourhood where Esther's family had lived for generations.