Ships' Lists and More Mysteries

Passenger ship docked  in Liverpool 1884

Here's an update on what I've been doing whenever I've had a few spare minutes during the past couple of days: searching ships' passenger lists for any sign of one of Bartholomew Pearce's sisters or mother travelling to Canada or the United States on her way to look after him when he was very ill.  A.R. emailed me this past weekend and recalled a memory she had of something Gangan (who was my great-grandmother, if you are reading this and do not know the family name for her),  had talked about years ago, and to the best of A.R.'s recollection it was this: one of Bartholomew Pearce's sisters (she thought it might be Isabella), or perhaps his mother, had gone over to America to look after him when he was very sick with some unknown affliction.  This is pretty interesting if you think about it: it wasn't like jumping on a plane these days to be with someone if they need you.  And it must have been something chronic, because by the time letters went back and forth across the Atlantic and arrangements could be made for a ship's passage for someone, Bartholomew would have been fully recovered from a passing illness.  Perhaps whoever it was that went over had intended to emigrate and then changed her mind.  Cousin J. said that he died of "malnutrition and stomach cancer" in 1909, so it wasn't a terminal illness that we are talking about beforehand.

So far, I have only been able to find one possibility, and that is a record of a Mary Pearce, aged 50 (which would be consistent with the age of B's sister Mary, born 1844), on a passenger list on the SS Parisian which arrived in Quebec May 12, 1895.  Again, this would be strange, because by then B's wife and children had long since arrived and joined him and they were all living in Cleveland - so he would have had his family to look after him.  I think that if someone had dashed off across the Atlantic to nurse him, it would be in that period before his wife and children had gone over.  But, he and his wife, Jane, did have 8 children, so any help would have been mercifully received I expect.   It's early days yet... more will be revealed.

Cousin J. has generously mailed me a copy of all the research she has collected on the Pearce side of the family, so there will soon be more to add and/or correct about what we know so far when that arrives in the post.



photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/10741688@N06/3454422046/in/photostream