Following on from a previous post about the flip sides of images, old postcards are also great sources of information.  But some, like this one, just generate more questions.

My paternal grandmother died before I was born and finding information about her and her family has eluded me.  I know where and when she was born and the names of her parents thanks to certificates handed on to me but did she have siblings?  A postcard that was also among documents passed on, now scanned and safely stored, just might hold a clue.

S.S. Manitoba

The front is an image of the S. S. Lake Manitoba, the card is postmarked Winnipeg Manitoba, franked on June 1914 and the stamp is Canadian.  Well that sorts out where it came from.  But who sent it, and how did she come to have this particular card?

The card is addressed to my grandmother, those ‘dear little ones’ would be my Dad and his sister. She says ‘my love’ so I’m guessing the sender is on her own. Zooming in on the scanned image and I can see that tantalisingly it appears to be signed ‘your loving sister May’.  Or is that Mary?  And was May/Mary a nickname anyway – Lily is my grandmother’s nickname, she was baptised Elizabeth.  Maybe she is a Marj? My Dad’s sister’s name is Marjorie, although she was known as Judy, goodness only knows why.  They don’t make it easy do they.

Reverse of S.S. Manitoba postcode

A bit of online sleuthing in Ancestry and I find that the S. S. Lake Manitoba took groups of young women to Canada as domestics under a group called ‘Mrs Joyce’s Party’ on shipping passenger lists.  Although this card is postmarked 1914 I suspect she came over earlier.  Maybe 1912 based on the Ancestry shipping records I can see without opening my wallet any further.  That she might have gone over as a single domestic makes me think she could be a younger sister.

More sleuthing led me to a Canadian website and scanned passenger lists.  Turns out that the S. S. Lake Manitoba made regular trips to Canada from the UK, very regular, and each with a large complement of passengers.  The lists are scanned but the names are not digitised and they go on and on, page after page.  Grandmother had a common family name which adds to the difficulty of making a definitive identification.

And all this assumes the sender was on this particular ship to begin with.  Maybe a friend gave her the postcard to use. So much supposition based on such slim facts. But it is a start and more information than I had before

Ahh the thrill of the chase!