Whilst recently searching our smaller collections, we found this archive of six postcards showing different location in Dorset. Though catalogued for the images on the front, it was the messages on the back that piqued our interest.
“Dear Racheal. I expect you will be surprised to hear that I am married” starts the 1912 postcard from Edith Wetton in Poole to Racheal Samuel in Liverpool. “Joe came over from America and we came away together for our holidays, and while we were here the deed was done.” The research bug has already bitten – who were Joe and Edith? Let’s find out!
A seaside wedding
Diving into the Poole registers, we can find Joe and Edith’s marriage: Joseph Edward Wetton & Edith McCarthy married on the first of August 1912 at St James Church, Poole. Joe is recorded as a house steward, and the couple were living at 10a Market Street – mere metres from the church.
We can also get some idea of the couple’s families. Both their fathers are shown as deceased, but in life Joe’s father, William Wetton, was a horse keeper, whilst John McCarthy, Edith’s father, was part of the Metropolitan Police.
Using this information, we can search the national records available on Ancestry to discover more about Joe’s family. He was born in Kensington in 1877 to William and Elizabeth Wetton and was baptised at St Peter’s in Notting Hill. At the time, we can see that William was working as a coachman, and the family lived at 14 Portobello Road. We next catch up with four-year-old Joe in the 1881 census, when he is living in Sturminster Newton with his mother and step-father – hairdresser Frederick George Baker Holmes.
Travelling to America
From the postcard, we know that Joe must travel to the US at some point before 1912, so we can use the passenger lists to see when he arrived. A quick search and we find Joe landing in New York in December 1910, just two weeks after leaving the Royal Navy vessel the Bulwark.
The passenger list shows that Joe was on his way to visit a friend, M.J. Bayliss at Hempstead, Long Island. We can’t be sure who M. Bayliss is, but looking at the US Federal Census for 1910, it could be May Baylis – a maid from England working in Hempstead with her husband John.
What about Edith?
Using the censuses, we can see that Edith A McCarthy was born in 1889 in St Andrews, Holborn, to John and Agnes McCarthy. In the 1911 census, 20-year-old Edith was living with her family in Streatham Hill, working as a shorthand typist. Her father is listed as the Chief Inspector of the Crime Investigation Department of the Metropolitan police.
What next?
After the wedding, Joe returned to America with Edith – again we can find Edith on the passenger list for 1913. The couple settled in Washington, and had a son, William. Looking at the US censuses, we can see that Joseph worked as a waiter, a butler and a gardener for private families.
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Wow, one small postcard of Poole sent us on a research journey across the Atlantic! Who said archives are dusty and boring?!
Do you have any stories like this in your family’s history? Let us know in the comments below!