Tangea Tansley is a descendant of the Kozminsky family that started the famous Kozminsky jewellery shop in Melbourne's CBD. Tangea has guest blogged the story behind her first novel A Break In The Chain: The Early Kozminskys, which imagines three generations of real-life Kozminskys including Simon Kozminsky, who originally founded the jewellery shop back in 1851.

My father was half-Irish and a great storyteller. His stories were disparate threads with no manes or dates, nothing to link them together or even suggest truth. Often, Dad told of a mystery woman, ‘rather grand and haughty who arrived at the docks in Melbourne many years ago with a pile of expensive luggage and a maid’. Then there was the man who picked up a gold sovereign from the wharf in Melbourne and went on to make his fortune. There was the silent old lady, sitting tightlipped in her ‘special armchair’, and finally the man and woman who fell in love but couldn’t see each other for a year.

Had I been more curious at a younger age, the cream-and-maroon-covered The Jewish Cookery Book that accompanied our family travels (though remained unopened) might have provided a clue. Or there was another book, well-thumbed – The Magic and Science of Jewels and Stones written by an Isidore Kozminsky – that contained photographs of rare jewels and Egyptian icons. From time to time, alongside Dad’s stories of old Melbourne, its tramways and arcades and of the giants Gog and Magog, was a mention of Kozminsky Jewellers.

I was brought up as Tangea Coton, the daughter of Kenneth Coton who was the son of Francis Coton. It was my sister Toni who first made the connection between Isidore and Francis.

‘Tange, I think we’re Jewish,’ she said.
‘Jewish?’ I was astonished.
‘Yes. You see this book?’ She took the stones and jewels book from my bookshelf. ‘Isidore was our grandfather.’
‘But our grandfather was Francis Coton.’
‘Yes, but he was Isidore Kozminsky first.’

I soon discovered that Francis Coton and Isidore Kozminsky was the same man, and that Isidore had been born Israel. Gradually, the stories began to form their own connections. Dad’s remote old lady in her ‘special chair’ was the ‘grand and haughty’ woman who arrived at the Melbourne docks in the late 1860s. She then emerged further as Emma Solomon, who married Simon Kozminsky – she was my great grandmother. Simon went to found Kozminsky Jewellers. The man and woman forced to wait for their wedding were my grandparents: Isidore and Eileen.

I don’t believe the facts were deliberately concealed in this real-life saga, but the name change certainly made it difficult to join the dots. The family rift, which began with the broken promise of family approval after the young lovers waited a year to marry – led, some thirty years later, to Isidore’s change of name to Coton (a variation of Coaten). The rift would have been complete except for Isidore’s published works. Even my mother, if indeed she knew, didn’t let on about our family history in all our many discussions.

When my sister and I confronted him, my dad was clearly relieved to speak of it. At first, it was Emma (Simon Kozminsky’s wife) who intrigued me most, and it was her story I wanted to write. Even though Dad warned me that his father had tried everything in his power to find her family of origin (and her reason for leaving England), I was convinced that modern technology would open new avenues to information and understanding. But he was right: the trail that led back into the past had been well-concealed. Beyond ascertaining that Emma’s mother was Frances Coaten, and that Emma was brought up or fostered by Michael Solomon, there is much speculation but little verifiable information.

So rather than make up a tale around these very fragile facts, I decided to focus on the relationship between Isidore and his father Simon, and the rift that occurred when he married out of the Jewish faith – the subsequent break in the family chain. The subject of this rift is Eileen Watkins, and her portrait – painted by the esteemed impressionist artist of the day, Frederick McCubbin – adorns the cover of my novel.

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