Oh Brilliant. Scandal hats to the fore: - and Merry you'll be glad to see that it isn't a pesky Pigott!
These are the facts that I have been given and I will also supply some family history as well which the lady who imparted the 'scandal' was not aware of!
The person who I'm trying to track down/trace is called:
Dora Margaret Berdette MOXON. She was born in February 1866 in Great Yarmouth to Thomas Henry Moxon and his wife Margaret Humphrey Moxon. Thomas was a Dr and Margaret was a Surgeon's daughter. They had 18 children (he should've known better!) and poor Margaret died of TB in 1884. The family story is that her 3 eldest daughters who nursed her in a warm fuggy room also all died of TB at a young age. Given that the children were named alphabetically (yes really - even if was only a second name) it follows that Dora, Ethel and Emily (Frances) should all have died youngish. That was fine for poor Ethel and Emily but of Dora no trace......until another lady contacted our family. Sadly for her she had to get to Olive before she found a sister with a descendant! Anyway I digress....
Dora had a relationship with a vicar who was married. He was called Charles Wellesley FOWELL and they went to Australia together (but I don't have dates or ship name). 40wks after landing in Albany WA Dora had a child - I don't have details but I believe it was a son.
At some point Charles returned to England with said child and possibly with Dora but I have no details. I also don't know what the child was called but alledgedly Charles and his wife brought up the child.
Dora at some point must have returned to the UK because she went to USA as a settler in Dec 1893 on the Berlin from Southampton showing RI (Rhodes Island) as her destination. In the 1900 USA census she is in Providence Rhodes Island living in a rented house as a nurse.
After that nothing.....
Yes I'd like to fill in the gaps with her travels to and from Oz and her son's name but what I'd really like help with is what happened to her after 1900. She does not appeared to have died using the name Dora Moxon in the UK but I could be blind.....
Given that she was only 34 in 1900 it is possible she could've married and had another family in the USA or perhaps she went back to Australia.
Any help received with open arms! (if this is too tough I have an allegedly Irish Gt Grandmother who is the great wall of china of all brickwalls!)
Bo
At present: Marshall, Smith, Harding, Whitford, Lane (in and around Winchcomb).
There is a Dora Moxon or Moxan in Providence, Rhode Island on the 1920 census. Her age is way out on the index but it seems too much of a coincidence. Just waiting for it to load to see if it could be her...
KiteRunner
Every five years or so I look back on my life and I have a good... laugh" (Indigo Girls, "Watershed")
Well, she says she's a 48 year old widow (should be 54, shouldn't she? So it's not as far out as I thought). Entered the US in 1899, alien (i.e. not naturalised), born England, working as a domestic (cook in a cafeteria). Could be her, couldn't it?
KiteRunner
Every five years or so I look back on my life and I have a good... laugh" (Indigo Girls, "Watershed")
Ellis Island website shows a Miss Das. M.B. Moxon arriving in USA 28 Dec 1893, age on arrival 27, ship of travel Berlin, port of departure Southampton.
Unfortunately when you click on Ship's Manifest it doesn't seem to bring up the right page! :(
Forgot to say that in 1920 she was in Burrillville (if it is her). I was wondering why she would say she entered the country in 1899 instead of 1893, but I have a theory - if she had knocked six years off her age, and when she came to fill in the form, she was asked when she arrived in the USA and she said, "When I was 27, so that would be.... er, um... 1899!"
Head of household is a George B Prentice (I think) age 46 born Massachussets.
KiteRunner
Every five years or so I look back on my life and I have a good... laugh" (Indigo Girls, "Watershed")
Charles Wellesley Fowell b.1853c seems to have married a Frances Elizabeth Pemberton.
In 1881 Frances is living in Barnstaple, Devon with a son Newton Digby Fowell 2. No sign of Charles and Frances is down as Independant.
RG11; Piece: 2243; Folio: 147; Page: 18
In 1891 Frances and son are visiting a Fulcher family, still no Charles.
RG12; Piece: 1502; Folio 115; Page 8
In 1901 Charles is living on own means with wife Frances and a son Joseph C. Fowell 9, can see no birth for son. Could this be Dora's son??
RG13; Piece: 2048; Folio: 92; Page: 30
From the biography that Elaine found: FOWELL, JOSEPH CHARLES (1891-1970), architect, is said to have been born on 2 August 1891 at Albany, Western Australia, son of Charles Wellesley Fowell, sometime clergyman of the Church of England, and his wife Frances Elizabeth, née Pemberton.
Methinks that perhaps Dora was his mother not Frances.
Are there Australia Birth records on line for Albany WA which would show his birth?
Bo
At present: Marshall, Smith, Harding, Whitford, Lane (in and around Winchcomb).
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