What were Frederick & Florence Matthews doing in the USA between 1913 and 1920?

[Sirenoftitan]

Hi, I hope someone will be able to help me fill me in on Frederick and Florence Matthews in the USA between 1913 and 1915.  This is the information I have.

Frederick (b 1888 in the Varteg, Monmouthshire) and Florence Matthews (nee Evans b 1890, Trealaw, Rhondda, Glamorgan) departed from Bristol on 17 June 1913 for Quebec on board the Royal George.

In October 1913, they are recorded in the US Border Crossings from Canada to United States 1895-1956, as having crossed the border at Lewiston New York.

The next positive sighting is Frederick and his daughter, Margaret (b 1915 Pennsylvania), returning to Britain from New York on the Olympic arriving in Southampton in August 1920.

I think I've found Frederick's US WW1 draft card which places him in Luzerne County no. 6, PA and which gives his address as 255 Nottingham Plymouth and states that he has a wife and child.

Other information comes from a 1992 letter from the daughter of Margaret Matthews to my mother (Frederick's niece) in which she asked if anyone had any information about where her grandmother had died and where she might be buried.  They had always though it was Pennsylvania but other family members had mentioned that they had been staying with relatives in "Scanectty" (sic) near Albany (I think they might have meant Schenectady).  Margaret's daughter also mentioned that there was a baby girl who had been born and died in the US.

I've searched on Family Search but, apart from the draft card, I haven't managed to uncover anything about Florence's death nor that of her unnamed infant daughter.

Thanks for any help you can provide.

[avm228]

Welcome

I see the passenger list showing Margaret as aged 5 in August 1920.  What is the source for her birthplace being Pennsylvania?  It would be good to find the family in the 1 Jan 1920 US census.

[Sirenoftitan]

It was Margaret's daughter who said in her 1992 letter that her mother had been born in Pennsylvania . 

I've tried looking for them in the 1920 US census on Family Search when I found out it was conducted in the January of that year but have yet to track them down.

[shellyesq]

There is a death certificate for Grace Mathews, daughter of Fred Mathews and Florence Evans, both born Wales.  She was born 18 Jan. 1918 in Plymouth and died 3 Nov. 1918 in Wilkes-Barre, Luzerne Co. of chronic bronchitis and broncho-pneumonia.  She was buried in Shawnee Cemetery in Plymouth.

[avm228]

Mrs Florence Mathews died at 196 Reynold St, Plymouth on 28 Jan 1918 of peritonitis due to retained placenta after childbirth.

Born in Wales on 6 Mar 1887 to Dd Evans and Margaret Ann Davis.

Informant of the death was Fred Mathews of Plymouth.

She was buried 3 Feb 1918 at Shawnee.

[Sirenoftitan]

Wow!  You guys are good

Thank you so much for tracking this down.  My mother will be interested to hear about this -- I hope she has a recent phone number for Margaret's daughter.

Have they shown up on the 1920 census?

Thank you very much.  Diolch yn fawr.

[shellyesq]

You're welcome.  I don't see them in 1920 yet.

It's a subscription site, so I can't see the full results, but if you search for Matthews as the last name and put in 1918 for the date range, there appear to be snippets of a death notice and a funeral notice for Florence here - http://www.genealogybank.com/gbnk/newspapers/explore/USA/Pennsylvania/Wilkesbarre/

[Sirenoftitan]

Thank you again shellyesq