Born at Sea

 

Cedric at Liverpool - Annette Fulford collection

In 2017, I wrote about the birth of  Franklin Cedric Orchard, who was born at sea while on the journey to Canada in 1919 with his mother Winifred, a war bride.

I was able to find his birth entry in the passenger list records but often wondered if any additional records were created at the same time for his birth. There was even a note to the left of his entry on the passenger list indicating whom his mother was and what page she could be found on in the manifests (page12, entry 12).

Cedric - Library and Archives Canada, T-14797

I found an answer to this question a new database for Births, Marriages and Deaths at Sea from Ancestry. I was able to learn exactly what day he was born and also the coordinates of his birth location. 

UK, Registers and Indexes of Births.., Cedric. The National Archives.

It was exciting to learn these new details about his birth, which I was able to pass on to his family.

Sources:

Orchard, Frankin Cedric; Passenger Manifest: Cedric, 12 September 1919, Halifax, at Library and Archives Canada. Microfilm: T-14797 (accessed 3 February 2010).

 Ancestry.com. UK, Registers and Indexes of Births, Marriages and Deaths of Passengers and Seamen at Sea, 1891-1922, The National Archives, Kew, Surrey, England. (accessed 17 December 2023).

(c) Annette Fulford, January 2024

Death of War Bride Rosa Bertha Lambert

Calgary Herald

  “Perhaps the saddest task the Fund officials at St. John had to perform was to arrange the burial of those who reached Canada only to die… Mrs. Gordon Holder fell the responsibility of breaking the news to relatives in England or consoling the husband who had arrived with his wife. Saddest of all was the task of comforting little children that were sometimes left motherless and whose fathers were still in Europe.”

While researching the war brides for the past 14 years, some of the most difficult cases to come across are the ones who died while on their journey to Canada. One such war bride was Rosa Bertha Lambert. She died shortly after arriving at Quebec in August 1919

Rosa Bertha Jadwega Falecka married Calgary soldier Arthur Robert Lambert (Regimental # 447116) of the 31^st Battalion in the Parish church of Clapham in London on 22^nd January 1919. During the war, Rosa had reportedly been traumatized by a bombing near her home in London. She likely suffered from a stress disorder after the incident.

She came to Canada on the ship Corsican in August 1919 but her health suffered further and she was admitted to the Jeffrey Hale Hospital in Quebec after the ship arrived at the port and suffered a fatal relapse. She was 35 years old. Her husband had her body shipped to Calgary for a funeral and she was buried in the Union Cemetery. Sadly, she never had the chance to make a new life for herself in Canada.

Corsican. Annette Fulford collection

I haven't located a death record to learn her cause of death. I would like to confirm what she died of. If anyone has any further info on her, I'd love to hear from you.

Note: The newspaper report above lists her name as Cissy Bishop. Her name was indeed Rosa Bertha Falecka, wife of Arthur Lambert of Calgary.


(c) Annette Fulford, September 2018



Sources:
Canada Passenger Lists, 1881-1922. Database with images. FamilySearch.org http://FamilySearch.org: 27 August 2018. Library and Archives Canada, Ottawa, Ontario.
Morris, Philip H. The Canadian Patriot Fund, a report of its activities from 1914-1919, 48.
Bombing Raid Shock Fatal to Mrs. Lambert. Calgary Daily Herald, August 26, 1919, 19.