Family History Fun: New Arrivals in America: Sepia Saturday

For this week's Sepia Saturday, I focussed on the November theme of New Arrivals and relate the story of my emigrant ancestors who arrived in the USA in 1886-7 to make a new life for themselves.

How I Discovered them

I was browsing online for the names of my great grandmother's sisters - she had four. Up popped Alice Rawcliffe who died in Jamesburg, County Middlesex, New Jersey in 1930.

The Rawclliffe family who married into my mother's Danson family, had always seemed very firmly based in and around, Blackpool, Fleetwood and Poulton le Fylde, in Lancashire. How had Alice come to travel from the coastal small fishing town of Fleetwood, Lancashire via Liverpool to the teeming hub of Brooklyn, New York City and onto Jamesburg, New Jersey.

Who was Alice?

Alice (1853-1930) was the older sister of my great grandmother Maria Rawcliffe in a family of eight daughters - five surviving infancy, In 1873 she married John Mason and over the next twelve years had six children, their names reflecting those of close family members - Robert William, Jane Elizabeth, John Thomas, James Richard, Margaret Alice and George Rawcliffe.

But I failed to find the family in census returns from 1891

The American Discovery

It came as a complete surprise when a casual browsing of Rawcliffe names on Family Sea rch resulted in an entry for Alice Mason née Rawcliffe (1853-1930) with the statement that she had died in Jamesburg, Middlesex County, New Jersey - the first time I was aware of any potential American connection. All the information fitted with "my Alice" - dates, names, places etc.

American Research

I boosted my Ancestry UK subscription for a short term, so I could access American records. The results:

The New York Passenger Lists on Ancestry and Family Search revealed that John Mason, aged 32 had emigrated from Liverpool in 1886 on the ship Aurania, to be joined a year later on the same vessel by Alice, aged 34 and now with six children aged from 11 to 10 months (plus two pieces of baggage). How on earth did she cope on the seven-day voyage? This was my first revelation too of son George Rawcliffe Mason, born in 1885 in Fleetwood.

Google gave me information on the ship Aurania which was built in the Glasgow shipyard of J & G &Thomson and launched in 1882. In 1899 it was used as a troop ship, taking soldiers to South Africa to fight in the Boer War.

The ships arrived at Castle Gardens, New York - the more famous docking point of Ellis Island did not open until 1892.

As with much of family history, we can find out the who, where when but the "why”is more of a challenge. The prospect of economic success was a key motivator in making people uproot their lives for a new one, There was a family story that John's brother , Richard was already in the USA, but I have yet to validate this.

Life in America

The Mason family settled in Brooklyn, New York. Between 1888 and 1898, Alice had a further five children, - Arthur Valentine (born appropriately on 14th February 1888 - a reunion baby?) Harold Arthur Victor, Lillian Eveline, Bessie Irene and the youngest Florence Adelaide - their names in sharp contrast to the family names of their siblings, born in England. Arthur, Bessie and Lillian sadly all died in infancy. Were the crowded living conditions a factor here?

The family took out US citizenship in 1895.

The 1900 census for the City of New York, Brooklyn showed a large Mason household of ten living at 72 Hall Street in what was probably an apartment building with four other families at the same address. John was described as an insurance agent

The 1910 census for New York still found the family on Hall Street, Brooklyn, with John working as a labourer at the Customs House.

At some point the family moved across the river to Jamesburg, New Jersey. The 1920 census saw a depleted household with John and Alice, now both 66, with their eldest and youngest daughters (Jane and Florence), and widowed son Robert with his baby son, also Robert.

For over 10 years I puzzled over "Who is this striking family group?" The photograph mounted on heavy dark card, came to me from my great aunt Jennie Danson, of Poulton-le-Fylde, Lancashire. Unlike many of Jennie's photographs, she had not written anything on the back - perhaps because of the dark mount, and there was no photographer's name and address to indicate where it had been taken. But it must surely be of one of of my great grandmother's sisters - Anne, Jane, Alice, or Jennet? The composition of the family and ages of the children ruled out all but Alice.

I put enquiries on various message boards but with no response.

Then I set up my blog in 2010 and posted about my mystery photograph. A year later came SUCCESS!! The granddaughter of Florence Mason (the young girl in the above photograph) was pointed to my blog by another relative.

She got in touch and she had the very same photograph as mine, but mounted with the name of a photographer in Brooklyn, New York.

We exchanged e-mails, photographs and information of our ancestors down the generations and remained in touch until her death. Other descendants and I are Facebook friends.

Some photographs from the Mason collection.

John Mason (Alice's husband)

with his youngest daughter, Florence

Florence and her husband Charfes Urstadt. They had six children including Curtis Rawcliffe Urstadt - his middle name a reminder of his English ancestors.

It was special to receive a photograph of the Mason family with all eight surviving children.

Top - Robert, Jenny (Jane Elizabeth), Mother Alice, Father John, and Harold.

Bottom - Thomas (John Thomas), Alice (Margaret Alice), Florence, George and James .

Alice died in Jamesburg in 1930; her husband John in 1937.

So it is all thanks to the power of the Internet and of blogging, that my mystery photograph was eventually identified and I discovered the story of my first emigrant ancestors. It pays to be patient in family history research.

The challenge remains as I aim to trace further my American cousins down the generations.

Adapted from posts first published in 2011-2013.

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Sepia Saturday gives bloggers an opportunity to share
their family history and memories through photographs.