Some years ago when Craig was building our previous family web site he wrote the following:

“I would like to thank Philip Morrison (Cussins) for his considerable input. Philip (also know to us as Fieval – the original version of his name) is the grandson of Hyman Cussins, who was the brother to my Great Grandfather, Abraham Cussins.

We have now determined that another Feivel was the father of Abraham by locating the gravestone of Abraham in Glasgow and seeing who his fathers name was.

I took a DNA test through the Judikin tree to see if we are connected further back in that line and we are not.

However, the line has now been determined that we are as far back as 1690. I did not feel that it was worth going back further as there seemed no point in that. I wanted to further determine where we were from and I have done that.

The Coussins name originates from the Russian town of Rakuskis in what is now northern Lithuania. We settled in Zagare which is now located in Lithuania on the borders of Lativia. We were fruit farmers and and we also were trained as slipper makers, shoe makers, shoe repairers and tailors. Although our family are Cohenim, there is no references anywhere that anyone became a Rabbi.

When coming to this country we were mainly fruit merchants. The reason for that was because we knew about fruit. Zagare was a the main centre for the fruit trade in the area we lived. Our family had orchards and we traded in Fruit. We also exported fruit to Scotland from what was the Russian pale of settlement at that time and we had fruit and Vegetable shops throughout Glasgow.

In creating a Family Tree we have to have the reasons for that. In my opinion it is because we would like to see where we came from, add some flesh onto the bones of memory and try to give some definition to the family as a whole.

In modern genealogy we have the added benefit of photographs and I urge everyone to immediately add the names and the family names to the reverse of your family photographs as your great great grandchildren may wish to do what I have done and add to the family tree. How frustrating to find old photographs and not know who these people were. It is also a slight to their memories as these family members lived and breathed and had lives that were as full as our own. Keep their names alive and keep the images relevant.

If you have anything to add to our family tree, especially photographs, please scan these or send them to Ricky (who is now looking after the site – you can write to him directly at ricky@coussins.co.uk) for scanning and try and remember who these folk were. If you do not know, perhaps I can try and work out from the photograph paper, clothing style and facial similarity, who they were.