How we got our name
The Rakusins/Cussins came to the UK and practiced their art of Slipper making. They were Zapushniks.
They also continued their trade of trading in fruit. In Zagare they were busy fruit farmers as well as cobblers. In those days jews worked at whatever trade they could (and were allowed to work in) in order to earn a living. The Coussins (though not at this point known by that name) thus kept fruit trees and traded in fruit and also worked as cobblers to the community.
Interestingly, one of the reasons that jews ended up in both banking and working in the clothing industry was because the jobs they were allowed by the state to work in were very limited. In the pale of settlement work that was not simply about subsisting (farming a family or community plot for example) was strictly limited. They could lend money at interest (the Catholics saw this as not allowed by Chrsitian tradition) and they could work in trading rags. Litterally.
It was because of Feival Morrison remembering his visit to Morris Cussin’s workshop in the basement of his home in Leeds that brought us together with his family.
Shoemakers working in Leeds back at the beginning of the last century.