Ethel Crossing the border from Canada to USA

In a previous post I included a link which could be a match for Ethel migrating from Canada to the USA at Niagara Falls in 1910. This came from the Family Search website and was a transcription only, without copies of original documents. Find My Past has now added records of US/Canadian Border Crossings and these do give links to originals.

 

This is the passenger list. It shows Ethel's occupation as actress, which seems to confirm that this is the right person. Her nationality is given as "England" - she was born in Plumstead, SE London - and her race as Irish. This must have been the logic of the time; her mother was from Belfast and her paternal grandfather from Seago. It also indicates she was being creative not just about her age (21 when really 17) but also her family! As nearest relative, she gives a sister Alice DuBois living in Antwerp. This does not equate even loosely to any of her known family. So far, I have not found anything about Isabell Routhwell. Her address looks like 14-E, 16 Street, Buffalo.

This is a somewhat curious document. It shows the date of her arrival as 5/28/10 i.e. 28 May 1910. There is a box on the form "Section and Subdivision - Act of 1924". This placed restrictions on immigration according to country of origin and numbers already in the US in 1890. Presumably when the Act was implemented, it was necessary to compile retrospective records of who had already entered the US and from where.
These documents also point to another detail that has so far eluded me - her departure from the UK. This tells us that she arrived in Quebec in July 1909 on the Empress of Britain. It is therefore quite likely that Ethel sailed from Liverpool.
This is looking likely. Departed Liverpool 2 July 1909, arrived Quebec 9 July. Just 55 pages to trawl through. http://www.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/discover/immigration/immigration-records/passenger-lists/passenger-lists-1865-1922/Pages/item.aspx?IdNumber=5143&
And here it is on page 18. Not the clearest image, I'm afraid. As far as I can make out, she is listed as Caroline McCann, aged 21 (would actually only have been 16), with an intended occupation in Canada of "Domestic". Possibly this was to meet a criterion of assisted passage, which might not have applied had she described herself as an actress. Religion given as Roman Catholic, which suggests that this is our girl.

 

I had been curious how Ethel could have travelled from England to Canada and the USA quoting an age that was at variance with the facts. Wouldn't her passport have given the game away? I am indebted to Tom at http://www.passport-collector.com/ for this information:

Until the Great War no travel documents were required to enter USA. Later on passports were issued based on birth certificates and citizenship/naturalization documents.



Young Peter and a double drag act

I have posted the first picture previously as an "unknown" photo, but after further sorting I have come up with a couple more that were taken in the same place and very likely at the same time. It could be the garden at Bushey Avenue but I am not certain. The second photo is of "Peter with Jayne from next door, the day of the party". The people in the last photo look like a woman dressed as a man and vice versa. I had wondered if they were Celia and Jack, but wouldn't put money on it. In other photos of the two of them standing side by side, Jack is noticeably taller than Celia. But for the couple here, the difference in height is less pronounced.

Celai and Jack in the grounds of Goverment House

 

 

From Independence in 1947, Government House became Raj Bhavan, the official residence of the Governor of West Bengal.

Uncle Jack, Aunt Celia and Cousin Peter - miscellaneous photos

Whisky and Toughy

I think these can largely speak for themselves, but I am somewhat intrigued by the 'silly little ditty Fred used to sing when he was a kid':

Look at the foughts we've fighted
Look at the deeds we've done
Bravely fought by me you ask?
Yes bravely died without any fuss
Look at the foughts we've fighted
I'll quickly let them see
I'm one of he boys of the Bulldog Breed
For a Bulldog once bit me

Since Fred (presumably her brother James Frederick) was born in 1888 and Ethel in 1892 and she would not have seen him since she moved to the USA in 1910, it is certainly pre WWI and could even be pre 1900. I have tried a Google search for these lyrics without success.

Ethel as Blanche White in Film Fun - October 1919

I am indebted to Alan Miles for tracking down this photo of Blanche/Ethel in Film Fun and making an enhanced copy of the photo. The caption in the original reads Not all nymphs of the California studios are as sparsely garbed as the Sennett bathing girls. Here are two - Evelyn Nelson and Blanche White of the Bull's Eye Follies - who prove that femininity loses none of its charm by being modestly clad. From his researches into the Film Follies archives, Alan has discovered that by 1919 when she was 27, Blanche/Ethel was appearing more in shows rather than films.
This looks like all the 1919 issues of Film Fun. If you click on "see other formats" you should be able to view online and/or download.
https://archive.org/stream/filmfun357368lesl/filmfun357368lesl_djvu.txt

More about Ethel 4

Please excuse any repetition here. I am to some degree consolidating information for previous posts.

I had not been able to trace Ethel's marriage to Leo White. I tried various combinations of White/Weiss with no luck. But http://www.lordheath.com/index.php?p=1_965_Blanche-White tells us this took place on 11 May 1911 (should be 3 May) in New York City, citing https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:2438-47S. I'm not surprised I couldn't find it, as there are some mistranscriptions and perhaps intentional bending of the truth. Their names are given as Reo H. Weiss and Ethel E. Mc Cann. Her parents' names match - give or take the 'e' on the end of Dunn(e). But Ethel gives her age as 23 when in fact she would have been only 18 at the time. This is not the first time Ethel appears to have modified her age to suit circumstances. The most likely fit in immigration records gives her age as 21 when she was actually just 17: http://mackiegenealogy.blogspot.co.uk/2016/07/more-about-ethel.html. There may have been further embellishments when she left England, as I have not so far been able to trace her in emigration records. I am curious about how she became involved in the theatrical world and what took her to the USA. But all witnesses are now dead and surviving documents give no cue.

Ethel and Leo had two sons. Leo Herbert James was born c. 1912 in New York and married May Emanuella Oddo on 23 November 1947. So far, I have not found likely matches for Leo (as White or Weiss) or May in births or deaths registers, or births of children to parents named White/Oddo.
Leo junior is always referred to as Peter or suchlike in correspondence from Ethel. He may have been exempt from military service during WWII. In a note on the back of a photo, Ethel refers to a letter from Jack (her other son John) addressing Peter as "My Dear Exemptee". But he attended military school in Santa Monica - possibly Ramsey - and was a lieutenant in line for captaincy around 1938.
The marriage record of 1947 gives his occupation as "singer". Ethel tells of him singing songs such as "Loch Lomond", "Jeannie with the Light Brown Hair" and "A Garden in the Rain" on radio.

John (aka Jack) was born John Fredrick in Cook, Illinois on 24 September 1914. So far, I have not found any likely matches for marriages or death. He served in the army in WWII - photos here, here and here. Can anybody identify the uniform? That might assist in tracking down any enlistment record. In the 1940 census he is listed as an actor in motion pictures. On the back of a photo sent by Ethel to her brother Fred, she says that Jack is known as Fred in the studio.

Ethel's second husband was George Lewis Cooke White, born 28 February 1899 in New York, died 17 April 1962 in Los Angeles. I guess this must be the chap identified as Bob or Bobo in Ethel's photos. Here we have some photos of Ethel, Bob and Peter (Leo Jr) on Easter Sunday, year unknown but very likely during WWII. Ethel says he is letting his hair grow for a picture he was working on and compares him to a hopper in Kent. She says that "Old Captain Cooke must have been like his grandson". George White's mother was Marietta Cooke. Is Ethel implying that "Bob" is descended from Captain James Cook? It is stretching the facts a bit - the captain died in 1779 - but associating Bob with the Cooke name appears to confirm that Bob/Bobo and George Lewis Cooke White are indeed the same person. Here we have Ethel and Bob walking the dog in Clark Drive. On the back of a photo of Bob, Ethel writes "Bob is Welsh and English descent but I tell him he looks just good old New England Yankee". George was born in New York but his father was from Massachusetts and his mother from Rhode Island, which further strengthens the likelihood that Bob and George are the same. Here we have a few postcards from Ethel; in one of them she mentions Bobo comparing the picture to New England.

Here we have a couple more of Bobo. He is playing "Sad Sack", based on the comic character introduced in 1942 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sad_Sack. "Ted" is playing the sergeant. So who is Ted? This is a long shot, but a slight possibility.  Here and here are photos of a little girl called Sally Louise Jarvis. Her parents were Arthur Tedcastle Jarvis Jr. (1914-2004) Shirley Elizabeth Hamilon (1914- ). Ethel mentions her resemblance to "Grandpa Jarvis". Could Ted have been Arthur Tedcastle Jarvis Sr. born c. 1883?