Edward Marshall, son of William Marshall and Mary Ann Webber, was born in 1867 in London. According to the English censuses, throughout the years he had a variety of jobs. From a foundry striker, to journeyman, to a bolt and rivet maker.
Margaret Fisher, daughter of Mary Ann - surname unknown – and Robert Fisher was born in Liverpool in 1869.
On the 1st March 1887, Edward married Margaret at St. Polycarp’s Church in Liverpool.
A year later, on the 22nd March 1888, their first child, Emily was born. The family can be seen together on the 1891 England census living at no. 41 Conway Street, Liverpool.
Edward and the girls are then shown on the 1901 census, living with Edward’s parents and his sister and her family.
However, according to the Barnardo’s admission report, this was a temporary measure; as Edward was described as “a man of bad character” and disappeared leaving his children with his sister, Emma Rowe. It was at this time that Emily, as being of age by then, found a job as a domestic servant.
Emma, already with her own children to care for, then sent the two younger girls to live with their maternal grandmother, Mary Ann Fisher and her daughter, the girls Aunt, Eliza Fisher. According to the report, Mary Ann is described as a “drunken, disreputable woman”, who, Louisa states pawned their clothes, leaving the girls in a “terrible state of neglect and semi-nakedness…with a rag wound her body…no shoes or stockings”. The girls stayed with their aunt and grandmother for three years.
An argument between the sisters’ aunt and uncle, John Fisher, took place around Christmastime 1904 and John Fisher was arrested for assault. Returning home from school, the girls had discovered that their family had moved out, leaving them homeless. They then spent that night with another aunt, who then took them to the ‘Ever Open Door’ branch of Liverpool Barnardo’s in Liverpool on the 15th January 1905.
The girls were not at Barnardo’s for long, before, being described as “well-behaved”, they were chosen to be amongst the earliest of groups of children to be sent to Canada. Unfortunately, according to verbal, extended family accounts, their sister, Emily did not know about this arrangement until she went to visit them one day only to discover they were no longer there.
To qualify to be sent to Canada, the girls would have been tested, lectured and outfitted for the “Canadian Adventure”.
The girls left Liverpool for Quebec on the 28th September 1905, sailing on the SS Canada, arriving there on the 7th October 1905. They were amongst over 150 children from various Barnardo’s homes across England, on board the ship. Each child was equipped with their Canadian outfits, packed in Barnardo trunks. The trunks consisted of a Bible, a hymn book, Pilgrim’s Progress and the Traveller’s Guide; “Barnardo children were the best dressed emigrants to enter Canada”.
Once in Canada the girls and boys were spilt up; the boys were sent to the Boys Distribution Centre in Toronto, and the girls to their distribution centre, Hazelbrae Home for Girls, in Peterborough. In 1889 it became the sole headquarters for the distribution of girls. The children remained under guardianship of the homes until the boys were eighteen and girls twenty-one. However, the homes were a temporary stop while the agencies sorted out permanent arrangements for the children; be it, adoption, or being “placed out”, where food and lodgings were given in exchange for labour – mainly farming for boys and domestic service for girls.
Unfortunately, researching for this story failed to result in any records to prove where Louisa and Maggie were actually placed. The 1911 Canadian census shows Hazelbrae Children’s home, and there are no Marshall’s listed. Therefore, we can assume that at this point, the girls had left. However, delving into the census further did not produce any results to show where the girls had been placed. It could have been possible that they may have taken on the surname of the people who were now responsible for them. However, later records dismiss this as a possibility. Verbal extended family accounts suggested that Louisa was sent to work as an ‘all round’ domestic helper on a farm, which included some farming work suitable for girls, such as milking. Maggie was placed as a domestic servant for a family in Toronto. However, after a long search, there were no reports found which could either confirm or deny this.
On the 23rd August 1911, Louisa married Percy Ranger (born 1886 in Brighton, England) in York, Ontario. The couple then went on to have four children; one daughter and three sons.
Maggie married Martin Patton (born 1888, Galway, Ireland) on the 15th March 1916 in Welland, Ontario.
They too, went on to have children; four daughters and three sons.
Unfortunately, we do not have access to Canadian birth records after 1910, as only those dating between 1869 and 1910 are held in the Ontario Archives. To obtain a certificate after 1910, you have to prove to be next-of-kin and not just a distant ancestor of the person whose record you wish to obtain.
Sadly, Louisa developed heart disease and died on the 11th November 1925 at just 34 years of age.
Louisa died before she ever had chance to come back to Liverpool and see her sister. In 1956, Maggie got the chance to travel back to see Emily for the first time in fifty-one years. She sailed over on her own to meet her family, setting sail on the 10th of September 1956 on the Empress of Britain, and she stayed with her sister for two months.
It was the one and only time the sisters ever saw each other again.
The actual date of Maggie’s death is not certain. As mentioned earlier, the Archives of Ontario only hold a limited collection. For deaths, this is from 1869 to 1935 and as we know, Maggie sailed to Liverpool in 1956, so we know that her death was after this.
No comments:
Post a Comment