[Part 1 of this story can be found here.]
I spent some time trying to trace Albina the elder, and eventually located her and her youngest daughter Eliza on the passenger list of a ship that had arrived in Philadelphia from Liverpool in January 1892.
This motivated me to trace Albina’s other children. By 1901, 4 of her remaining 8 children (daughters Mary Ann, Emma and Elizabeth and son Francis/Frank), were married and living in Nottingham, 3 (daughter Louisa and sons Herbert Charles and Thomas/Tom Burton) appeared to have died, and one son, Arthur was nowhere to be found. He was also not listed as living with her or elsewhere in 1891. At the time his elder brother Tom was still living at home, so it was a little odd that Arthur had disappeared. I wondered whether he may have emigrated, as this was a common reason for people to disappear from English records. Eventually, I did manage to find him on a ship that arrived in New York in March 1885.
Interestingly, a fellow passenger was his father and Albina’s husband, James Welbourn(e), who disappears from UK census records after 1881. The passenger manifest is the last concrete record of James that I could find for several years. I initially thought that he had died soon after arriving to the US as Albina is listed as a widow in the 1891 census.
However, at that time I had been unable to find any record of his death and the postcard was addressed from “your Father and Mother”, suggesting that either Albina was reunited with her husband in the United States, or that he had come back from the dead for the occasion of writing a postcard to his daughter! Also, Albina seems to have had a habit of altering her marital status, appearing as “unmarried” in the 1881 UK Census while working outside the family home, and then becoming un-widowed in 1892 for her passage to America.
After searching American records I discovered that Arthur had settled in Chicago and married Elizabeth (who was also from England) after fighting in the Spanish-American war.
He was eventually naturalized in September 1912.
I couldn’t find any records of Arthur having had children, so that made his sister Eliza the most likely parent of the children depicted on the postcard. However, I still didn’t know what happened to Eliza and her mother Albina after they arrived in Philadelphia in 1892.
from England to Philadelphia in 1892. This motivated me to trace where her many children had settled. I was able to place most of Albina's sons and daughters in Nottingham, but one son, Arthur, was not listed as living with her or elsewhere in 1891. At the time his older brother Tom was still living at home, so it was a little odd that he had disappeared. I wondered whether Arthur may perhaps have emigrated, as this was a common reason for people to disappear from English records at the time. Eventually, I did manage to find him on a ship heading to New York in 1885(?). Interestingly, a fellow passenger was his father and Albina's husband, James Welbourn(e), who disappears from the English census records after 1881. The passenger manifest is the last concrete record of James that we know of. There is evidence that he died while in the United States because Albina is listed as a widow in the 1891 census. However, we have been unable to find any record of his death and The Postcard is addressed from "loving father and mother", suggesting that either Albina was reunited with her husband in the United States, or that he had come back from the dead for the occasion of writing a postcard to his daughter! From looking at American records, I discovered that Arthur had settled in Chicago and married after fighting in the Spanish-American war. He and his wife (who was also English) were eventually naturalized in about 1912.