Later
history
By 1871 the family had moved from Whitechapel to Limehouse, and
Jacob was working as a seal-skin dyer and dresser, with his wife supplementing their
income as a dressmaker. The tanning and dyeing of seal-skins was a complicated and messy business, involving large tanks of toxic chemicals. This article was written in 1910, when presumably the process had advanced a little, but it still mentions the dye being 'trodden in' to the skins, presumably by the workers. I wouldn't imagine that it was a very healthy occupation. In 1877 Jacob, who was 44, became ill and was
admitted to the German Hospital, Dalston, where he died of heart disease. Elizabeth was
five months pregnant with their daughter Mary at the time, and must
have wondered how she would cope. The answer came in the shape of Jacob
Knauf, another German from Darmstadt who was also a skin dyer and a friend of the
family. He helped to take care of Elizabeth and her children, and in
1879 he and Elizabeth married and had a daughter, Sophia.
The family spent the rest of their lives in Limehouse on South St, which became Trinidad St - still there, although the houses have been replaced by a council estate:
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The children all married
in the East End. Jacob Knauf died in 1902. Elizabeth lived to be 80, and died in 1922.
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