GEORGE-L Archives

From: <>
Subject: [GEORGE-L] Young Immigrants to Canada
Date: Sun, 28 Feb 1999 19:24:35 EST

It sounds like my grandmother may have been among this group. Her name was
GEORGE, Helen Florence (b.March 24, 1892). Her parents: William George and
Alice (WINTERMEYER) George, both died of Tuberculosis in 1896. She and her
siblings were placed in various "homes" in London. She was sent as a young
girl to work in Toronto, Canada.

We think Helen would likely have made the trip to Toronto about 1906-1907. She
was to have been a domestic. She had some experience in London. She ran away &
found her brother, Alfred GEORGE (b. abt. 1895) who had been sent earlier; he
was working in a logging camp. When she found that she couldn't stay with her
brother (a logging camp was no place for a young girl!), she left to New York
City. Eventually, by working hard she went to nursing school, married into an
Irish immigrant family of LARKIN and moved to Rhode Island. These LARKINs
included US Civil War veterans, and politicians of some influence in local
Pawtucket, Rhode Island history.

In June 1950, tragedy struck the GEORGE family again. After she and her
siblings had located each other, they held a family reunion. Flying home from
that happy event, her brother Alfred William GEORGE was killed when his plane
crashed in a lake outside Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA. That was the first and
last of their reunions.
Found among her belongings after her death were personal invitations from US
Presidents Roosevelt & Kennedy to attend social functions in Washington, DC.
We have no idea what reason existed to warrant such invitations.
Her ancestry includes the SOUTHEY surname. She always said she was related in
some way to Poet Laureate Robert Southey of Camden (1774-1843). Helen's
grandmother, Jane (SOUTHEY) Wintermeyer, is buried in St. Pancras Cemetery.
Helen's story is one of hardship overcome by faith and persistence. We loved
her dearly. She is buried in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, USA.

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