I am very intrigued by the story of my great-great grandmother, a widowed Irish immigrant, who on the eve of the American Civil War, was raising a 4 year old daughter alone and supporting herself as a milliner. Here are such facts as I have:
Mary Belshaw Wentz was born circa 1835, in Belfast, accoring to family lore. I can find nothing about her prior to the U.S. Federal 1860 Census which has this: Mary Belshaw Kelly, milliner, widowed, living in Wilmington, Delaware with her 4-year old daughter, Jane Robinson Kelly.
Jane Robinson Kelly's 1949 death certificate lists her parents as Mary Belshaw and William J Kelly. Jane was born in Philadelphia in 1856. I can find no marriage records for them or death records for him.
Mary continued to work as a milliner until her death in 1885. In the 1880 Census, she indicates that her mother was from Ireland and her father was from England. The marriage of Charles F Wentz to Mrs. Mary M. Kelly at 2nd Baptist Church, Wilmington, DE is recorded in 1866. Charles was a well-known railroad conductor who died in 1896. Together, Charles and Mary had 3 children: Ida, Charles, and Mary. Perhaps Jane Robinson Kelly, her first child, was named after Mary's mother.
I don't know if Mary married William in Ireland, or Philadelphia (birthplace of Jane.) I have seen ship lists with Mary Belshaws, but have no real proof of her immigration year. If someone has some Belfast Belshaw connections, I would love to hear from you.
