‘Take a seat,’ Morton instructed. ‘Let’s see if this Martha Stone appears on passenger lists.’
Jenny pulled up a swivel chair and tuckedherself up close to Morton’s chair. ‘It’s getting very exciting!’
Morton smiled and opened up a search foroutward passenger lists 1890-1960. He typed in Martha Stone, date oftravel 1911. One result. Morton clicked to see a scan of theoriginal page.
Returns of passengers leaving the United Kingdom in shipsbound for places out of Europe, and not within the Mediterranean Sea.
Port of Departure: Bristol. Date of departure: December 12th1911
Ship’s name:Royal Edward
Steamship line: Royal Line, Canadian Northern Steamships Limited
Where bound:Halifax, Canada
Mortonscrolled down the list of passengers until he found her.
MarthaStone, 3rd class, housemaid, single, English, aged 21.
BothMorton and Jenny stared at the screen for some time before either of themspoke.
‘What date was George Mansfield baptised?’Morton finally asked.
Jenny switched her camera back on andscrolled through the images that she had taken. ‘Twenty-first ofNovember.’
‘And you thought that was about threeweeks after his birth?’ Morton quizzed.
‘About that. I remember that he wasdefinitely born in November 1911.’
Morton nodded. ‘Okay. Ninemonths prior to that takes us to…’ he stopped and thought for a moment. ‘February 1911—when Mary and Edward were working and living under the sameroof. Two months later, Edward tries to get a marriage licence but Marydisappears. One month after that, he turns up dead in the Blackfriarslake. Then nothing happens.’
‘Until we reach November,’ Jennycontinued, ‘when George Mansfield is born. Soon after, a female, who knewMartha Stone very well, travels to Canada, where she remains until at least1925 when Edith Leyden travels out to see her.’ Jenny paused. ‘Andthen Martha Stone’s trail goes cold.’
‘Let’s try and find her,’ Morton said,returning his focus to his laptop. He opened up the Canadian Ancestrywebsite to search the millions of records available pertaining to Canada. First, he tried Nova Scotia death records 1890-1960, but his search returnedzero hits. ‘So she didn’t die in Nova Scotia before 1960,’ Mortonmumbled, before widening his search to the rest of the country. Of thefew possibilities that appeared on screen, it took just a few minutes of cross-referencingin other records to eliminate them.
Jenny sighed. ‘Doesn’t look likeMartha remained in Canada, does it?’
‘Well, not necessarily,’ Mortonsaid. ‘We don’t have any more censuses available to us and, if she diedin Nova Scotia after 1960, then she wouldn’t show up. She could veryeasily have lived in the next house and we’d not know about it. I couldpay the Nova Scotia Archives to search for her, but judging by their email, itwould be quite a lengthy process.’ He was already processing his nextstep and began quickly tapping at the keyboard. ‘Here we are. Canada Voter’s Lists 1935 to 1980.’
Jenny watched with nervous anticipation asMorton typed Martha’s name into the search box. Several results infive-yearly blocks appeared onscreen. ‘Looks like she’s in Ontario in1935,’ Jenny said excitedly. ‘Click it!’
Morton smiled and did as he wastold. ‘Stone, Miss Martha, teacher.’
‘Living at...’ Jenny pushed her glassesback onto the bridge of her nose. ‘102 Wellington Street.’
Morton returned to the previous screen,scrolled down to the next block of entries and selected 1940. ‘Still atthe same address,’ Morton confirmed. He then repeated the process,checking and finding her living at the same address every five years.
‘She’s gone,’ Jenny said, when the 1965Voter List failed to show Martha. He continued his search until 1980 butthere was no sign of her.
Morton frowned and double-checked theresults list but to no avail. ‘So… Martha lived in Ontario from 1935until sometime between 1960 and 1965. Death records online only run to1938, so there’s every possibility that she died there. When I get hometonight, I’ll run some searches and contact cemeteries in the area.’
‘What about passenger lists?’ Jennyasked. ‘She could have come back to England.’
‘Yeah, that thought had crossed my mind,’Morton said. ‘The problem is most available passenger lists end in 1960,when we know she was still alive and well in Ontario. I’ll look into itmore later. The fact that she was a teacher up until 1960 in one city isinteresting. There might be records for her. There’s also a goodpossibility that children she once taught might still remember her.’
‘And how do you plan on finding them?’Jenny laughed.
‘I’m not—I’m going to get them to come tome. That’s what forums and message boards are for, Mrs Greenwood!’ Mortonteased.
Jenny smiled and watched as he returned tothe Canadian Ancestry main page, then navigated through to the Message Boardswhose tag line read The world's largest online genealogy community with over25 Million posts on more than 198,000 boards. Faster than she couldeven read the words, Morton tapped out a quick request for anyone who knew of,or was taught by Martha Stone to get in touch.
‘There—done!’ Morton said as he hit theenter button.
Jenny and Morton smiled conspiratoriallyat one another.
‘Ladies and gentlemen,’ Max Fairbrothershouted from behind the help desk, ‘the archive will be closing in fiveminutes. That’s five minutes.’
‘Guess that’s us done, then,’ Jennyremarked, the disappointment evident in her voice.
Morton could see how saddened she was bythe day’s being over. ‘You’ve got your nice meal with Deidre to lookforward to.’
Jenny visibly cheered. ‘Oh,yes. Are you sure we can’t tempt you? She might even be able tosuggest something on the case that we hadn’t thought of.’
‘Quite sure,’ Morton insisted. ‘I’mplanning on calling in on my dad anyway. You two go ahead and have a goodcatch up. I’ll keep you up to date—don’t worry.’
Jenny smiled. ‘Come on then, let’sgo. We’re almost the last left!’
‘I’m always the last left,’ Mortongroaned, as he shut down his laptop and scooped up all his belongings.
‘Bye, Max,’ Morton called as they left theReference Room.
‘Cheerio, buddy,’ Max replied.
Miss Latimer was still on duty, guardingthe Reading Room like a vicious Rottweiler, snapping at people to hurry up andleave. She smiled when she spotted Jenny. ‘Be with you in amoment.’
‘Lovely,’ Jenny answered, before followingMorton into the busy cloakroom. ‘Well, it’s been a lovely day,Morton. I’ll get George’s certificates over to you tonight and then we’lltake it from there.’
‘Great,’ Morton answered. ‘I’ve hada good day, too. It’s been nice having someone to work with. Have alovely evening.’
‘Thanks.
