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Wednesday, December 14, 2011

THE FAMILY OF JOHN WESLEY ELLINGWOOD PT5

Enoch Merril Ellingwood's second wife, Margaret Kermeen had been a widow
when they'd married. She'd immigrated to Canada from England with her
first husband  and their son, John Evans.  When they were living in Attleboro,
Ma. in 1900, John was listed as being 15 years old and as being Enoch's
stepson.

I said earlier that when Enoch and the rest of the family returned to Canada
in 1901 I wasn't sure if Margaret and their daughter Bessie returned with him.
This is because at sometime between 1900 and 1905 the marriage came to an
end. This is based on three pieces of evidence, one found on Ancestry.com
and two on FamilySearch.

The first is the passenger list of the S.S. Ivernia from Liverpool, England that
arrived at Boston on 29Sep 1904 that includes Margaret Ellingwood and her 10
year old daughter Bessie.( Perhaps she took Bessie to England to meet her
grandparents?). What's interesting about this  is that it says they were returning
to Enoch who was residing in Harrisonville, Rhiode Island. But while they might
have legally still be married they may have already been separated.





The second document is one from FamilySearch: the Rhode Island State
Census of 1905. On the form for Bessie, she's listed as having been a resident
of  Rhode Island for 4 years and as being a stepdaughter.










When I saw that I checked for and found a record of  Margaret's third marriage on
FamilySearch.in the Rhode Island Marriages 1724-1916  collection. According to
that, Margaret Ellingwood married John Lacourse on 29Apr 1905. That's not a lot
of time after Margaret and Bessie had returned from England in the previous
September so the divorce may already have been in the works.

Bessie kept her father's name and is listed as Bessie Ellingwood on the 1910
Federal Census. The Lacourse family was living on Mineral Springs ave in
Providence, RI. Bessie married Thomas P.Wall on 18Nov 1914 and their son
Thomas Jr. was born on  9May 1915. By 1930, Margaret was once more a widow
and living with the Wall Family.

I don't know much else about this branch of the family except that Bessie's
son Thomas P Wall Jr ran for governor of Tennessee as the Republican candidate
and lost the election. Whether Bessie kept in touch with her father Enoch or
visited him in Canada I cannot say at present.

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