Saturday 16 March 2013

Sandwith Fisher or Saneth Fisher - a dilemma

William Fisher and Jane Helen Fisher nee Brown's children are proving problematical.  Daughter Hannah Mina's grand daughter Dorothy in Stawell has been more than helpful but they are proving a tricky bunch to trace.

First child Sandwith, a bricklayer, went to South Africa around 1903, possibly aboard the "Goorka" and a photo from Dorothy taken by Gock Studio, Pritchard Street Johannesburg seems to confirm that he was there for a time.



He is not in South Africa for long as in 1906 he is in USA arriving in New York on the "St Paul" from Southhampton, marrying an New Jersey lass Clara Amelia Hodge in Duval Florida USA in 1907. They have two daughters, Mina Dorothy and Thelma Thora, both born in Lancashire in 1908 and about 1911 respectively, where they appear in Dalton-in-Furness in Lancashire in the 1911 UK census - Sandwith appearing as Saneth. I haven't found out how Sandwith travelled from South Africa, or returned to England for that matter in this time frame.

In 1912, Clara returns to USA with baby Thelma Thora on the "Celtic" to join her husband accompanied by her younger brother Edwin Pearce Hodge.  Daughter Mina Dorothy doesn't appear to be on that voyage. Not sure how Sandwith has arrived back in the USA?  The family reside in Toledo, Ohio where in 1918 Sandwith, a bricklayer, is recorded in the US World War 1 Draft Registrations Cards.

Clara Fisher sadly died in 1921 when the girls were only in their early teens and she is buried in Collingwood Cemetery in Toledo.  Saneth Fisher, a widower,  died in 1955 and is also buried in Collingwood Cemetery.