I'm really grateful to you, MWS and Janice, for picking up the baton and providing all that information about my great-aunt, Mary Bannister/Wilson/Semon. Up to now she had just been a name on a family tree and a few family notes and now I know far more. I wonder if my father remembered her from early childhood - he was just four when she disappeared from his family home in Summer Lane at the age of 21. But he took the trouble to seek her out when he was in the USA in 1935. I have been trying to recall family Christmas cards my parents used to receive, during the war and a bit later. There were one or two from the USA - definitely including people who shared his table on the Queen Mary in 1938 (a Mrs. Schwarz I remember especially) - but "from Mary" unfortunately draws a blank.
You are right - this needs a separate thread, for various reasons. I'll create one shortly and provide the link here.
Chris
PS Just unearthed another family photograph - a studio image of Mary during her time in the USA. 1920s perhaps.
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