8
« on: Monday 11 April 22 01:21 BST (UK) »
Between 1874 and 1884 I can find three women with this name or variations of on passenger lists arriving Port Chalmers or Lyttleton. There is Alice Howarth 15 years old travelling with two other women with the same surname however, I don't believe they are related, aboard the Dunfillan. Her destination is Invercargill. There is Margaret Alice HOWARTH aged 26, married to John Howarth 24, destination Wellington and Margaret (spelled Margarit on passenger list) Haworth destination Invercargill aboard the Florida.
I know the Margaret Alice I'm searching for wasn't married and the destination of Wellington doesn't fit. I think 15 year old Alice might have gone to work for Hector & Margaret McNeil, perhaps to help Margaret with their young family? The older Margaret Howarth (Haworth) was also destined for for Invercargill but in 1884.
From information I've been given from family, we know Margaret Alice had two children, Annie b. 1885 and Albert Hector b. 1887. Annie was born in Lumsden but died aged only 49 days and I have ordered a copy of her birth and death certificates. Albert Hector was born Gordon Street, Christchurch in what I think was the Canterbury Women's Refuge - but I could be mistaken. No father's name was recorded for either child. I have also ordered Albert Hector's birth certificate.
Margaret Alice died in 1891, found on a bench in Hagley Park, Christchurch and the coronial inquest found she had probably died from exposure due to influenza although conversely, her employer, Mrs Harriet Williams claimed her employee was "hail and hearty" when she last saw her. Interestingly, on the death certificate it states Albert was living with his mother, aged 4 years but without any relatives whatsoever, he was placed in the Canterbury Orphanage. On her death certificate she is Alice Margaret Howarth, aged 24 years.
I'm wondering how Margt. Alice would have travelled to Lumsden if she was in the Lochiel area of Otago? Would this have been by train? Until I see Annie's birth certificate I won't know whether she was in fact born outside of Lumsden or in Lumsden itself. Where would a young unmarried woman give birth to a baby? Moreover, how would she have travelled from Lumsden to Christchurch? I doubt she had much in the way of money, unless her employers were generous people.
Many thanks in advance and apologies for the longwinded summary.
Glenda