Philomena Carter - Ottawa

[Alexander.]

Philomena Carter was born in 1897 in Wolverhampton, Staffordshire, England. In 1911, she appears on a passenger list travelling to Quebec with the Catholic Emigration Society; the intended destination was Ottawa.

Nobody in her two sisters' family knows what happened to her, except that she stayed in Canada. She was sometimes known as "Phyllis" though I have yet to see this in any records.

If anyone can find any trace a marriage or death or anything about Philomena after 1911, that would be fantastic.

Alexander

[*Sandra*]

Do you have parents names for Philomena ?
Can see this marriage entry - 1926  - Quebec, Vital and Church Records (Drouin Collection),
Philomena Carter  - Spouse: Ernest Theodore Sterchi - (Ernest Theodor Sterchi) 
Baptist Saint Paul - Montreal. Quebec.

Ernest Theodore majorson of Theodore Sterchi of Switzerland  and Rosina Kaufman his wife was married to Philomena Carter major daughter of Jacques Carter of England and Alice Sackette his wife in Dominion Immigration Office November 11 th 1926.

Clergyman Arthur St James

The passenger list had a date by the name of Philomena which was 5 - 11 - 1926  (236963)

Sandra

[valeriec]

Philomena Carter with the Catholic Emigration Society was a British Home child, age 14 on arrival in 1911. She could have ended up anywhere after her arrival. You may need to pursue the British Home children sites to find out anything about her.

[lilybell]

If you send me a PM I will send you some census information  for 1901 and 1911 british census.

The marriage information sent by Sandra could be the right person as there is a Alice Carter on the 1891 census that I will forward on to you.

Do you know the names of Filamena/Philomena's sister.

 Lilybell

[Alexander.]

Wow, thanks. I have all the census information, and information about Philomena's mother.

To cut a long story short, Philomena and her two sisters were illegitimate. Their mother was Alice Carter, but their birth certificates do not state any father. On the 1901 census, Alice and her three daughters were boarding with a big Italian family, with many Italian boarders. One of them was probably the father of the girls. It so happens that one of the boarders was Gioconda Saccheto.

Alice took up with another Italian (Alphonso Tamburri) around 1904, whom she married some years later.

Though the parents' names do not match perfectly, it seems too much of a coincidence for the 1926 marriage to not be the right Philomena.

Thanks!

Alexander

[*Sandra*]

The privacy laws in Canada are very strict - as a guide BMD Records are only available for births more than a 100 years ago, marriages 80 years ago and deaths 70 years ago. Trying to trace modern day families in Canada you depend on newspaper announcements, cemetery records, obituaries, telephone directories.
Hopefully someone will turn up something else for you.

Sandra

[JaneyCanuck]

That's such a nice matching set of clues you now have there!

When I read this yesterday I was going to mention that http://www.canada411.ca shows only 5 Sterchi listings, 4 out west and one in the Maritimes.

However there is at least one other possible source: in 1925, John Theodore STERCHI from Switzerland, son of John Peter STERCHI, married in Wentworth County, Ontario.
http://homepages.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~maryc/went1925.htm

A Margaret Sterchi crossed to the US at Buffalo in 1931
https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/XPTW-GTG
Her birthplace is given as Maniwaki, Quebec, which is about 50 miles north of Ottawa, 21 Sept 1904. She would be the same generation as Ernest and perhaps likely related. Various indications are that it is a Swiss name, and Theodore seems to be a popular given name. (Danged if I can find anyone resembling a Sterchi in the 1911 Cdn census, though.)

An Ernest T Sterchi aged 34 (c1892) travelled from Montreal to Liverpool 23 Nov 1926, and that certainly resembles your man, travelling later the same month as the marriage. However, he was travelling with a Jeanette Sterchi aged 24. Could it have been a very short-lived marriage??
- edit - I looked at the image and there is also a Bernadette Sterchi, infant, who is either 6 mo or 6 wks; Ernest is a merchant and they are in transit to Switzerland.

He also resembles the Ernest Sterchi aged 32 who arrived in NYC, his last place of residence, from Brazil, in Jan 1923:
https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/JNJ6-KY9

(There is an E Sterchi (1889) departing Liverpool for Australia in 1927 with a G Sterchi (1895) and an E Sterchi (1918) -- but they are Edouard and Gladys, from the marriage in the GRO index.)

[Alexander.]

Thank you Janey for that Sterchi information. I had also found the record of an Ernest T. Sterchi with wife Jeanette going from Montreal to Liverpool in 1926, but I just don't see how that can be the same guy who married Philomena.

Sandra - when I was researching another Canadian family I also found that the privacy laws (and general lack of records in Canada before recent times) tended to make it quite difficult. Though I've still got my hopes up we can find where Philomena (and her husband Ernest?) ended up.

Thanks
Alexander

[Alexander.]

Janey - the passenger list you found of Ernest, Jeanette and daughter going to Liverpool (in transit to Switzerland) is definately the right one. I found the baptism of their daughter (on the same day they married), which correctly notes her mother as Philomena. I don't know why Philomena is down as "Jeanette".

I'm not sure now if they stayed in England, carried on to Switzerland, or returned to Canada.

Alexander