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Kemp Helen Allison

  • Thread starter Thread starter Helen Ible
  • Start date Start date
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Helen Ible

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Hi folks,
I arrived at your site last night, once again searching for my grandmother, Helen Kemp, who, family legend says, came to Canada from West Bromwich. In Ontario, Canada, she married Jeremiah Burtch, and had three children, beginning in 1912. In short order, she had Neil, Elsie and Jean. She was back in England, in London, from about 1915 to 1918, and thence to Ontario again. There were family visits with relatives from Birmingham at that time. She vanished from her home in Calgary in 1919 and was declared legally dead in about 1926. Her disappearance brought great sadness to my family. All her children are now gone, and they were very little when she disappeared from their lives, but there are many descendants. I hope some one there can help me find out about her, especially what happened to her.
I'm Neil's daughter and only child. I live on the west coast of Canada. I am somewhat in touch with some of my cousins. We are all over 60.
It came to me that our grandmother must have had a family. Perhaps they too came to Canada when she did? Let me hear from you. Thanks,
Helen
 
Birth date

JKC said:
Helen....have you any idea of your grandmothers birth date...?,
Click to expand...
I don't know, but I have always thought she must have been in her early 20's when my father was born in 1912, so I have surmised that she may have been born around 1890 or a little earlier or a little later. She gave birth to three healthy children in a little less than 4 years, poor soul, and crossed the Atlantic twice in 6 years.
I may have set myself an impossible task, but to me there is something heroic about all the moving around she did with her little children in such a short time. And then to have just disappeared. Her children had memories of fighting between their parents and always felt abandoned by her. But I keep looking at the dates that I do know, 1912 to 1919, the three births and the Atlantic crossings, one in war time , and my heart aches for her.
Helen
 
Helen, what (if) other detail do you have of your grandmother....have you her marriage certificate,..if so what detail does it show...if not I would recommand that you try to obtain a copy...British marriage certificate, show the ages of the bride and groom. plus the name and occupations of their fathers...,

I did a check of all the Helens born between 1888 and 1898 in the staffordshire area, sorry to say I could not match her with any....I will check some more of the local area's plus London....the approx 10,000 Helen's born between those years....lets keep our fingers crossed :)
 
Helen, I have come across this entry in the Canadian Library and Archives.
I do not know if you have already seen this or know of it....but I do believe this is your grandmother...

[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][SIZE=+1]ALLISON , Helen [/SIZE][/FONT]

[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Age:[/FONT][FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]19 [/FONT][FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Sex:[/FONT][FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]F[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif] [/FONT][FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Year of arrival:[/FONT][FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]1913[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif] [/FONT][FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Microfilm reel:[/FONT][FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]T-4806 [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Ship:[/FONT][FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Scandinavian [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Port of departure:[/FONT][FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Glasgow [/FONT][FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Departure [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Date:[/FONT][FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]18 Oct 1913 [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Port of arrival:[/FONT][FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Quebec [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Arrival Date:[/FONT][FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]26 Oct 1913 [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Comments:[/FONT][FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Individuals [/FONT][FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Reference:[/FONT][FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]RG76 C 1 a [/FONT]
​
 
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Helen do you have access to Canada passenger ships manifests. I have looked at Ellis Island arrivals, as I know some Canadian imigrants arrived via there, she was not among those records.

Sorry I must have posted at the same time as JK.
 
Di.....I cannot find a Helen Allison Kemp in any form or shape, either on the census's or the births index.....but while checking out the transportion of our children to Canada.....www.collectionscanada.ca , I check for a Helen Kemp...found one....but she was too young....I then did a search just for Helen....and came across Helen Allison....aged 19...sent to Canada in 1913.....to me every thing fits with Helens grandmother...apart from Kemp..?,

Now....I can place one Helen Allison....in London were she was born, the same Helen living in Scotland in 1901 with her parents Thomas and Sarah Ann Allison....., I cannot make a Birmingham connection unless she was in a childrens home in Birmingham, and if she was why?...I think I need another members opinion on this one...ta
 
A difficult one JK. The info you have found on Helen Allison does seem to fit, apart from any connection at all with Birmingham. She arrived in Canada in 1913 from Scotland, where her parents were both born. I think a search for the deaths of Thomas and Sarah is perhaps the next step, to see when they died. Helen was 19 when she went to Canada, would she be in the care of a children's home at that age? Why is she know in Canada as Kemp. I wondered was she married twice, I have looked in England Scotland and Canada and can't find anything, but it doesn't mean it's impossible.:)
 
Thanks and more info

Wow! I thank you so much for getting on this case right away, with such good ideas. I am very much new at trying to find genealogical information. However, I don't think that this Helen Allison can be my grandmother. My father was born in Winnipeg in April 1912. So Helen Allison Kemp came to Canada before 1912. I don't know when or where she married my grandfather Jeremiah Burtch--maybe in Port Dover, Ontario, where he had family or maybe in Winnipeg, Manitoba, where my father was born. She was the second wife of Jeremiah Burtch. He was widowed and had 2 boys by his first wife, Charles and Ernest, in Port Dover, Ontario. But they did not travel with Helen and Jeremiah to Winnipeg or back to England during the war. I'm pretty sure she really did marry Jeremiah, because he had to wait 7 years to marry again after she disappeared. My father always told me that his mother came from West Bromwich.
Thanks again for all your interesting and helpful ideas.
Helen
 
Found a Maud Helen Kemp on the 1891 census Darlaston ,Staffordshire
the Parliamentary borough on the entry is Wednesbury.
Darlaston approx 7km and Wednesbury 4 km from West Bromwich.
John Henry Kemp age 32 ,b. Tettenhall a Stamper
wife Jane 31
children Mary 11,Zenas?10,Margaret 8,Priscilla 7,John Thomas 4,
Maud Helen 2,Frederick 11 months,
Thomas smith wifes father age 73
all b. Darlaston

On the 1901 there are discrepances (as usual)
John becomes James age 42 still a Stamper
and the entry says Maud M but looking at original it could be anything.

Perhaps worth a follow up in shipping records for a Maud Kemp.
 
We could do with the help of Isobel-Burlton-Wells, she a bit of an expert on Canadian matters....

Helen, Di, and Alberta....What I was thinking was:that the mother of Helen Allison remarried some one named Kemp..Helen then might have used the surname of Kemp but still kept her real surname....?, but has the dates did not match up....that's one theory we can cross out, or put on the back cooker?....

Helen....the truth of the matter is you really need to obtain her marriage certificate....before we can go forward...if not its all guess work, which might turn out to be correct or completely wrong which is the last thing we want to happen....I don't know how the system works over there concerning viewing and obtaining certificates for births, marriages and deaths, so my advice is to go to your local public records office and ask...they might hold some index there which you can search through...you have the surnames of both bride and groom, you have an idea of what year(s) they may have married in, all you have to do are to match up their details....also you could join or pay per view using Ancestry web site....you could I think find the marriage through their web site..but you would still need to send for the marriage certifcate to obtain the fathers name of Helen.....
 
I agree with JK, Helen. You do need the marriage certificate.

I had wondered if Helen had married twice, which is possible. We also need to know her age, which we should get from the marriage to Jeremiah Burtch. You should also be flexible with the spelling of his name, Helen. It could be Spelt Burch or Birch:)
 
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Thanks for your help

Di, Alberta and JKC, you have been most helpful. Many thanks. Maud Helen Kemp certainly sounds like a possibility although my Dad was pretty certain about the Allison. My theory is that he was named for her. I think they called her Nell or Nellie. My dad, her boy, was Neil Allison Burtch. Maybe she wasn't Helen at all, maybe she was a Nellie. I realize this possibility, which just came to me, throws a wrench in the works. I have joined Ancestry.com, but I haven't made much use of it, as I have only really just begun. When I have a few idle minutes, I play around with my mild obsession with my grandmother. That is how I wandered into your charming company the other evening.
I have looked a little bit for how to get marriage certificates. In Canada, each province keeps its own vital statistics and registries. Until well into the 20th century, some of these records were just kept in parish churches. Also I'm not certain where or when they married. My grandfather had a family in Port Dover, Ontario. But my father was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba in 1912. The two little girls were born in 1913 and 1914 in Calgary, Alberta. Then suddenly they were in London, England. My grandfather was in the Canadian army, and had also fought in the Boer War. In any case, that's three different provinces. Helen (Nellie?) disappeared after they came back from England. At the time of her disappearance, 1919 or 1920, the family were in Calgary, Alberta. I will post new information as I come on it. I'm afraid I'm about to get some house guests for a few days, which means I won't be spending too much time at the computer.
Thanks again for your help and the kindness that I sense in your replies.
Helen
 
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