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| Zimber Bros shop on the Quay in New Ross, about 1890s: Aaron Zimber (probably left) and Richard Zimber (probably right). |
Salome's younger brother, also named Josef Hummel, became an important figure in the small Protestant community around Neukirch. He was a tax collector and sometime mayor of Neukirch and held Bible meetings at his house, the Zinkhäusle in Brennersloch. During the political upheavals of 1848–49 he came into conflict with the authorities and was removed as mayor in 1849. Earlier versions of this family history attributed this religious and political role to Salome's father, but the surviving evidence indicates that it was her brother Josef.
The first children of Vitus and Salome, Albertina (1845) and Lambert (1848), were born in Neukirch. Their parents married in Neukirch Catholic Church on 31 July 1848, after the birth of both children. This was not particularly unusual in the region, where economic restrictions could delay marriage. Their lives at this time also coincided with the revolutionary upheavals of 1848–49 in Baden. There is, in addition, the story of the Königenhof accident and an apparent part played by Vitus in the events of the period (see elsewhere).
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| Zimberhausle in Hexenloch |
The other children included Adolph (1849), Aaron (1851), Richard (1852), Rufina (1853), Karl Friedrich (1857), German (1860), Roman (1861) and Rebekka (1863). They were baptised as Catholics. The church register subsequently contains a distinctly disapproving note by the parish priest recording that the family had "apostatised", or converted to Protestantism, apparently sometime after 1863.
There was a family tradition that the Protestant faith had been "brought back from England by someone in the clock trade". Whatever the origin of that story, the involvement of Salome's brother Josef in the Protestant movement around Neukirch shows that Protestant influences were already present within the Hummel family.
The move west
From the late 1860s we begin to find records of Zimbers leaving the Black Forest for Britain and Ireland. I have included departures recorded from both Neukirch/Furtwangen and Siegelau because Vitus himself came from Siegelau and the same family names occur there. Some of the Siegelau emigrants may therefore have been relatives rather than Vitus and Salome's children. Some of the German emigration records refer simply to "England". Since Ireland was then part of the United Kingdom, these entries cannot necessarily be taken as proof that England itself was their destination.
In 1868, Adolf left Siegelau for England.
In 1871, Aaron and Richard also left Siegelau for England.
In 1874, Richard married Jane Binnions in Waterford.
In 1875, Adolf and Karl Friedrich left Furtwangen for England. Adolf may therefore have returned to Baden after his earlier journey.
Also in 1875, their eldest brother Lambert took over ownership of the Zimberhäusle clock workshop.
In 1876, Aaron is again recorded leaving Neukirch for England.
In 1877, their mother, Salome Zimber, died.
New Ross and Cornwall
By 1880 Aaron Zimber was established in New Ross. In that year he married Elizabeth Ashmore in Waterford, giving the Quay, New Ross, as his address. Zimber Bros of New Ross also subscribed 2s 6d to the Parnell Defence Fund.
A trade directory of 1881 appears to record the business as "Timber Bros", almost certainly a misreading or printing of Zimber Bros. By 1894 the name appears clearly as Zimber Bros.
Karl Friedrich — later Charles Frederick Zimber — was in Liskeard, Cornwall, in 1881, living and working with the clockmakers Francis Joseph and Bridget Kaupp. By 1886 he had established his own business in Bodmin.
An early photograph preserved by the Bodmin branch of the family has traditionally been identified as showing three of the Zimber brothers.
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| Zimber Bros, Quay, New Ross c.1880: Charles Frederick Zimber (probably left), Aaron Zimber (probably centre) and Richard Zimber |
The identification handed down in the Bodmin family was Richard, Aaron and Karl Friedrich Zimber. Comparison with later photographs and the known movements of the brothers gives some support to identifying the three men as Charles Frederick, Aaron and Richard, although the identification remains provisional.
Lambert was also involved in New Ross. Richard's evidence in a later robbery case places Lambert there with his brothers, and both Lambert and Richard joined the Freemasons in Ireland in 1898. The evidence therefore establishes Lambert's connection with New Ross, although the records so far found place him there later than the probable date of the photograph.
In 1881 Aaron and Elizabeth's daughter Albertina — my great-grandmother — was born in New Ross. Their son Joseph followed in 1883 and Fred in 1887.
The later years of the first generation
By 1891 Adolf Zimber was working as a lumberman at Coal Mine, Alberta, Canada.
Vitus Zimber died in Gütenbach in 1893. The following year Aaron's wife Elizabeth died in New Ross after what a contemporary obituary described as a long illness. Her memorial inscription reads:
“Zimber - Erected by Aron Zimber in memory of his beloved wife Elisabeth, who fell asleep in Jesus, Jan 8th 1894. Also, above Aron died Jan 17th 1901. for if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him.”
In 1895 Aaron married Isabella Crowley.
Lambert sold the Zimberhäusle to the state in 1900, ending the family's ownership of the old Black Forest workshop.
Aaron Zimber died in New Ross on 17 January 1901. His brother Richard, then living in Wexford Street, was present at his death.
The 1901 census provides an interesting snapshot of the family shortly afterwards. Lambert and his sister Rufina were at the Zimber premises on the Quay. The census alone cannot tell us how long either of them was living or staying in New Ross. Richard and Jane Zimber were living in Wexford Street, while Aaron's widow Isabella and his sons Joseph and Fred were living in Cross Lane.
Meanwhile, Charles Frederick and his family were living in Fore Street, Bodmin, where his brother Roman was also staying. Charles Frederick's business was by then firmly established in Cornwall.
Isabella Zimber died in Co. Waterford on 28 November 1904. Her executors were Mary Anne Lord and James Lord.
A new generation disperses
In 1904 both of Aaron's surviving sons left Ireland for Canada. Fred sailed on the Ionian, giving Montreal as his ultimate destination. Joseph travelled to Montreal later that year.
On 10 August 1904 Joseph married Bridget Coady in Montreal. Bridget was also from New Ross and had recently arrived in Canada. Joseph was a compositor when he married and shortly afterwards began work in the drying department of a Montreal tannery.
His new life was tragically short. Joseph was killed in Montreal in February 1905 following an accident. His widow Bridget subsequently brought a legal action against his heirs. Her later story is discussed elsewhere.
In October 1905 Joseph's sister Albertina married John Holmes at Kingstown Methodist Church. She had been working as a shop assistant at Merrick & Ruddell in Dungarvan in 1901 and shortly before her marriage was living at 9 Charlemont Avenue, Kingstown.
Charles Vitus Zimber in Ireland
Charles Frederick's son Charles Vitus Zimber provides another link between the Cornwall and Irish branches of the family.
Charles Vitus married Margaret Molony in Bandon, Co. Cork, in 1908. Their son Adolph was born there in 1911 and Frederick Walter in 1914. The family were still in Bandon at the time of the 1911 census, when Charles was working as a jeweller.
By the mid-1920s they had moved to Killarney. The 1926 census records Charles as a Jeweller's Manager, employed by James Mangan Ltd., Cork. The same census gives Bandon as the birthplace of the older children and Killarney as the birthplace of their daughter Gwendoline, helping to narrow the period during which the family moved from Bandon to Killarney. Their younger son Douglas Thomas was born in Killarney in 1927.
The reference to James Mangan Ltd. is interesting because the firm was a long-established Cork clockmaking and jewellery business. Whether Charles worked directly in Killarney or travelled to Cork is not yet established.
The family's stay in Ireland was not permanent. By 1933 they were back in Cornwall, and in 1939 Charles and Margaret were living in Essex. Charles Vitus died in 1942.
The later New Ross business
The 1911 census shows Albertina Holmes and her family living at the New Ross shop, by then at 2 Charles Street. Richard Zimber, whose wife Jane had died, was lodging nearby at Cross Lane.
Lambert died in hospital at Emmendingen on 25 January 1913. Richard also died at Emmendingen, on 9 September 1915, rather than in 1911 as stated in an earlier version of this article. Rufina died at Emmendingen on 9 April 1922.
The First World War brought another family tragedy. Aaron's younger son Fred, who had emigrated to Canada in 1904 and subsequently travelled to Fiji and Australia, enlisted for military service under the surname Cairns. He was killed in 1915.
Adolf Zimber died in Montana in the United States in 1917.
By 1926 the New Ross watchmaking and jewellery business was being operated by Albertina's husband, John T. Holmes. Their eldest son George was also a jeweller and shop assistant and is recorded in the census as being employed by his father. George was then boarding in Main Street, Wexford. The census records his birthplace as Waterford city.
Albertina Holmes died in 1928.
The Zimber Bros business continued into the 1930s, when the Charles Street premises and business were sold to Brooks Jewellers. The business continues to operate there under that name today.
The Bodmin business remained in Zimber family hands for considerably longer.
A family of clockmakers and jewellers
The surviving records show members of the Zimber family moving repeatedly between the Black Forest, Ireland and Cornwall during the later nineteenth century.
Aaron and Richard established themselves in New Ross; Charles Frederick established his business in Bodmin; Lambert retained the family's Black Forest workshop while also appearing in the records in New Ross. Their descendants continued in the same trades: John Holmes carried on the New Ross business, his son George worked as a jeweller, and Charles Frederick's son Charles Vitus worked as a jeweller in Bandon and later Killarney.
There are still gaps in the story, particularly concerning the exact roles of the individual brothers in the early years of Zimber Bros and the eventual sale of the New Ross business. But the surviving records show a family whose clockmaking, watchmaking and jewellery connections stretched from the Black Forest to Ireland and Cornwall and continued into the next generation.
