MAIDEN VOYAGES by SIAN EVANS : ANCESTRY WORSHIP - GENEALOGY BLOGSPOT BOOK REVIEW

 Excellent!

This book by Sian Evans is a must read if you're interested in what it was for women to work or travel on steamships. Following the careers of a few of the women who worked on these ships as well as celebrities who were passengers on them, we almost wish we could travel back in time and experience a historical voyage. There is much to learn here for anyone interested in writing a family history book that you can spice up with some research about the conditions of travel in the great steamship era, the 1890s through the World War II era.

When it came to accommodations, women and men employees were to lodge apart on board, when it came to women and children passengers traveling alone, male crew might keep an eye out for their safety, but it was female crew, stewardesses, who there for them, staving off sea sickness, even helping deliver babies.

In this book, you learn about the Unsinkable Violet Jessop who, in a career on ships of over four decades, survived three maritime disasters! One of them being the Lusitania. Another heroine of the seas was Edith Sowerbutt who among many other tasks, interviewed women who were traveling alone with the help of a translator.

You'll read about the people in steerage as well as the buyers traveling back and forth to Europe and the rich who were on board for adventures. Tallulah Bankhead, Thelma Furness and her twin Gloria Vanderbilt, and Spanish war journalist, Martha Gellhorn, and many more are mentioned. Ships like the Queen Mary, the Zeeland, the Aquitania, and the Lusitania... The health inspections and the card sharks and con artists.... Since shipboard romances took place, the blackmailers...

Although an easy and delightful read, I think some the information presented in Maiden Voyages is important and I've decided to do some excerpting over the next few weeks to give you a feel for the book and entice you to buy a copy since this is definitely a book for my own collection.

Quite an accomplishment for author Sina Evans, I've never come across anything like it.

C 2022  Ancestry Worship - Genealogy.

QUEEN MARY AS A TRANSPORT SHIP FOR WAR BRIDES

WASHINGTON POST THE BRIDES OF WAR  This article written by Pat Broeske from the 1985 was easy to link to without having to have a subscription and was creatively written. It was focused on a recent reunion of War Brides (women who married American soldiers during World War II - often English women) at the time.

EXCERPT: In addition to its 72 wartime voyages, the Queen Mary made 13 war bride trips -- during which time its decks were covered from bow to stern with diapers hung out to dry.  As more than one war bride was to remind, "They didn't have the disposable diapers then."

EXCERPT: "And a lot of amazing memories," said Bill Meade.  There were tears in his eyes as he added, "It was such a different world then, it's almost impossible to describe it to someone who wasn't there, but when they finally turned the lights on in the cities again it was like being reborn.  So much had happened.  A lot of us thought we were never going to make it home again.  Out buddies had died.  But war or no war, you can't stop people from falling in love."

QUEEN MARY STEAMSHIP : TOURIST ATTRACTION IN LONG BEACH CALIFORNIA

I toured the Queen Mary years ago one time when I was in Long Beach. 

LONG BEACH PRESS TELEGRAM - QUEEN MARY BACK TO LONG BEACH OWNERSHIP

On this link there are a number of articles about the Queen Mary Controversy. Others I've read have suggested that it would cost about 23 million to do things like repair a rusty hull. I know some people are outraged because they think money like that should go to those people who are suffering. But I hear the money will be in place and I suppose one of the things that conservation and repair do is provide jobs.

II recently asked a woman who tells me she used to have a concession on the Queen Mary if there were ghosts. She said she had never seen one but there were reports where people felt as if someone was pulling the sheets off them as they slept and "a lot of people checked out." Yee! Perhaps a repair will have to include some mediumship?

HOW CAN I FIND OUT WHAT TOWN IN ENGLAND MY MOTHER LEFT AS A CHILD? : QUESTIONS FOR ANCESTRY WORSHIP GENEALOGY

Question for ANCESTRY WORSHIP GENEALOGY:

All I know about my mother's past is that she came over from England on a steamship with her mother when she was a child right after World War II.  I don't know where in England they were from.  I think they left Liverpool.  How can I find out more about my mother and grandmother, both who are now deceased?

Answer:

You probably want to start with SHIP MANIFESTS since your grandmother and mother will first show up on the United States Census in the 1950 census which won't be out for another decade.  A ship manifest may tell you where they left and where they are going to.

AND

An alternative would be to send away to the SOCIAL SECURITY ADMINISTRATION for the ORIGINAL APPLICATIONS FOR SOCIAL SECURITY FOR YOUR MOTHER AND YOUR GRANDMOTHER.

A person may have APPLIED for Social Security without ever collecting it.  You can check the SOCIAL SECURITY DEATH INDEX to see if either ever collected.  They may have collected nothing but the death benefit but, if so, they should be on the Index.  Even if they are not on the index it's worth the time and money to send away for the original application.

The original application should give you their mother's maiden name as well as where she was going to work, if, like many people in the past, she only applied because she had to for employment.  Be aware that a person may not have applied if they were self employed, if they or their spouse was a doctor or if they or their spouse worked for the rail road.

As for ship manifests there are a number of independent sites such as THE SHIPS TRANSCRIBERS GUILD that have looked at original handwritten manuscripts and turned them into text on the Internet.  You can check ANCESTRY, FOLD3, or another SUBSCRIPTION genealogy research database for NEW YORK SHIP RECORDS.   My guess is that they will be listed as having left SOUTH HAMPTON, England to NEW YORK, but there were a lot of other ports open and operating in that era.  Ships from German ports and from Liverpool stopped in South Hampton.  Some people got off one ship for a few days and continued their voyage across the Atlantic on another.


PS: I did a search for British War Brides and found that the Queen Mary was used as a ship to bring brides to the United States.  

taken down January 2026 as it appears there is an issue with site but repost. WORLD WAR II SHIPS : SHAYNE WALLESCH and WENDY HOCHNADEL : RECREATING MISSING INFORMATION ON TROOPS

LINK TO WORLD WAR II SHIPS inc QUEEN MARY used as troop carrier  Site by WW2troopships.com & WWIItroopships.com
Web Site Copyright © 2007 Shayne E. Wallesc & Wendy J. Hochnadel

Example:

1946

February 3 - May 19, 1946 Six war bride voyages, transporting 12,886 European brides and children to the United States and Canada.

May 23 - September 18, 1946 Seven war bride voyages transporting European brides and children to Canada. Ten stowaways were discovered on the first crossing.

September 1946 Carried a total of 765,429 military personnel. Sailed a total of 569,429 miles (916,407 km). Carried up to 15,000 troops at one time. Carried wounded returning to the United States. Transported Winston Churchill three times to conferences. Carried 12,886 G.I. brides and children.

THIS SITE IS ATTEMPTING TO RECREATE USEFUL INFORMATION.  If you go to the site you'll link to a form to fill out for reportage of specific crossings called CROSSING SUBMISSION FORM. That includes those of you who were in the war and the brides!

QUEEN MARY WHITE STAR LINER

QUEEN MARY CUNARD LINE

The Queen Mary is in Long Beach California and it is said that it is haunted. I recall the scene in the 1956 book Marjorie Morningstar that took place in the swimming pool... You would have thought it was a mile long beach but the pool is so very basic there is hardly any room to really recline in one's bathing attire! The pride of the Cunard Line, which also brought thousands of immigrants to the United States of America!