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I've been wanting to ask this question for a while now. You are all so helpful to each other. I've had no success in finding anything. We've found in my grandmother's photo album (she's long gone) a scrap of a newspaper article about an American Forbes girl winning a silver cup in an elocution competion I think sponsered by the King. Unfortunately dates are not there. Nor full names.
There were four Forbes girls in our family. Rose, Sarah, Catherine and Margerat Jane (Jennie). My first guess is that it was Jennie. The mother and father of these girls were married in Wigan in 1879 and had other relatives there. Jennie traveled several times to England from Cleveland, Ohio although I have found only one passenger list she was on. That was in October 1907 from Liverpool with her mother Bridget. I haven't found the others traveling back from England. If not in Lancashire, where would such competitions have been held? Is it possible to find a list of winners?
In addition to this, a family legend is that Jennie received a medal for her service as a nurse in WWI. I can't find her on commercial ships to or from anywhere around 1917. Nor have I found her on military rosters. I don't know under what service she volunteered. Maybe Red Cross. Even if she served in France would it have been possible she got a medal from a British source? I'm thinking that because she had relatives in Blackburn maybe she privately volunteered in that area. She was pretty spunky. I can't rule out anything with Aunt Jennie. Or maybe the legend has morphed from the silver cup to a medal for nursing service. The elocution contest was in a piece of a newspaper article, just not the names. And why would it be in my grandmother's photo album if it wasn't she or one of her sisters. There were no other Forbes relatives in Cleveland. I just had a thought. Maybe it was their cousin Nellie from Ft. Scott, Kansas. I know nothing of her travels.
Any ideas on where to look would be much appreciated.
Thanks,
Jude
Families: Forbes, Duffy, Cusick, Gavin
There were four Forbes girls in our family. Rose, Sarah, Catherine and Margerat Jane (Jennie). My first guess is that it was Jennie. The mother and father of these girls were married in Wigan in 1879 and had other relatives there. Jennie traveled several times to England from Cleveland, Ohio although I have found only one passenger list she was on. That was in October 1907 from Liverpool with her mother Bridget. I haven't found the others traveling back from England. If not in Lancashire, where would such competitions have been held? Is it possible to find a list of winners?
In addition to this, a family legend is that Jennie received a medal for her service as a nurse in WWI. I can't find her on commercial ships to or from anywhere around 1917. Nor have I found her on military rosters. I don't know under what service she volunteered. Maybe Red Cross. Even if she served in France would it have been possible she got a medal from a British source? I'm thinking that because she had relatives in Blackburn maybe she privately volunteered in that area. She was pretty spunky. I can't rule out anything with Aunt Jennie. Or maybe the legend has morphed from the silver cup to a medal for nursing service. The elocution contest was in a piece of a newspaper article, just not the names. And why would it be in my grandmother's photo album if it wasn't she or one of her sisters. There were no other Forbes relatives in Cleveland. I just had a thought. Maybe it was their cousin Nellie from Ft. Scott, Kansas. I know nothing of her travels.
Any ideas on where to look would be much appreciated.
Thanks,
Jude
Families: Forbes, Duffy, Cusick, Gavin
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