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THE AMERICAN COUSINS

Contents;

1. Introduction.
2. The  Beginning of the Story.
3. The Third generation.
4. Our Visits to New England

1. Introduction
The American branch of our family tree sprouted from Alice Maud Mary's marriage to William (Will) Lane in 1896.
She was my Grandfather Barcock's sister. Her Granddaughter Fredda Lee and Grandson Ritchey  are my 2nd. cousins.
We have been fortunate to have been able to visit our cousins, Fredda and Peter Haskell over the years from 1996 to 2002.
Sadly, Fredda died this year 2005 from cancer after a long struggle against it. We miss her dearly.
Pete is a great chap and we keep in touch by email. The children, Brittany and Dane are grown up and at University. They are fine, talented  young people.
More about them all late, first there are the family members to record. and how the American branch developed.
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2. The Beginning of the Story.
Alice Maud Mary Barcock married William Lane at the Parish Church of St. Paul in Northampton England on September 6th. 1896. He was 22 years old, she was 24. I believe he had already emigrated to America with his parents and came back to England and married Alice. He either met Alice on his return, or had previously known her and came back to marry her. The marriage Certificate gives them both the same address at the time of marriage, 30, Baker Street, Northampton, so he must have been staying with her there.
Will was a blacksmith by profession. There was much of his decorative work at the house at Cape Cod, Massachusetts, where their daughter Bea lived with her husband and family and where we visited to see Ritchey who still lives there.
Will had the credit for the invention of a rather gruesome device, a body drag, used by the coastguard to recover bodies lost overboard or in disasters at sea.
This probably made him a good amount of money with his other work and they were clearly well-off . Will worked at the lifesaving station at Manomet, near Plymouth Mass. where they had their first house.
Alice took a lot of family memorabilia with her, old family photos that showed my father when he was young and the rest of the family which I had never seen. She sailed to Boston on the SS Canada. I have been able to determine from the manifest, or list of passengers, of the SS Canada that she sailed on that ship to Boston, arriving on the 12/13th. May 1897, eight months after their marriage.
I have not been able to find out exactly when Will returned after their marriage but he must have gone back soon after to prepare their home in Manomet, Mass. which is named as her destination on the manifest. I have added a copy this manifest to the Family Documents Page.
They lived in more than one house in Manomet, the first one I guess he may have rented while their later large house was being built. He was a very resourceful man having built the house himself, with help no doubt, and it must have been an exciting time for them setting up their new home in New England and very courageous of her to sail out alone to be with him. Here are pictures of the two houses;
First Manomet House    Second Manomet House
They eventually were able to make a trip back to England to stay with my grandparents in 1921.
This time they made the crossing on the Aquitania, sailing from New York to Southampton.
The Aquitania was the pride of the Cunard fleet and was one of the first luxury liners crossing the Atlantic. It must have been quite an experience for them.
I have copies of photos that were taken of their visit at that time including this one taken in the garden at my grandparent's house, 46 Clarence Avenue, Northampton.

Back row L to R, Uncle Joe Lane, ?, Grandpa William, ?, Will Lane
In front of Grandpa William is Grandma Fanny, and in front of Will Lane is Alice Maud Mary.
I'm not sure of the others except Kate on Fanny's right and Florence and husband George Burgess sitting in front of Fanny.
Grandpa William wrote a letter to Will and Alice's daughters, who stayed in America and it is included in the Family Documents page.
The American branch of the  Family Tree looks like this (in part);

                                        WILLIAM LANE = ALICE MAUD MARY BARCOCK
                             v ---- -----------v----------------------------------v--------------------------------------------v
                   BERNARD            BEATRICE LEE (BEA)=GEORGE GUILD         MURIEL =LOUIS OLIVER  FULLER-CONNER           LOUISE
                                                       v-------------v
                                                   RITCHEY             FREDDA LEE = PETER HASKELL
                                                                             v-----------------v
                                                                     BRITTANY LEE              DANE

Alice's daughter, Bea, wrote to my parents frequently sending photos of their house at 25 Hastings St., Framingham, near Boston.

Here is one I found, taken in the winter;

After my parent's died Bea continued to write at Christmas to my sister Muriel and me.
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3. The Third generation.
Her daughter. Fredda Lee married Peter Haskell who she met before he joined the Navy Coastguard, and married when he returned.

Here she is outside their second house at Cape Cod, Boston in her bride's dress.
Bea's daughter, Fredda Lee, married Peter Haskell.
Below, on the left is their Wedding photo with Fredda's parents, George and Bea, on the left, and Pete's parents, Milldred and Donald on the right.
On the right is a photo at the wedding of Ritchey, Fredda's brother with Muriel, Bea's sister.
     
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4. Our Visits to New England
Fredda and Pete set up their home at Spar Cove, Freeport, Maine.
When Bea became too old to write, we started to write to Fredda and when we planned a trip to New England she invited us to visit and stay at Spa Cove.
We jumped at the chance and Fredda and Pete made us very welcome at their house and we made many happy visits in the years from 1996 to 2001.
Here are Brittany & Dane at Spar Cove, making a video for a school project.

We had health problems and could not manage the flight to the USA after 2001 but keep in touch by email.
Fredda sadly died in 2001 from her cancer condition.
Brittany and Dane are doing very well now at University. Brittany is about to graduate with a double degree majoring in music and plays the organ superbly.
Dane is studying meteorology at Lyndon, Vermont, and also doing very well.
Pete looks after them very well and is always doing something with either one of them, or both, and often with Ritchey.
He is busy assembling a pipe organ in the Spar Cove house. Brittany will no doubt be the organist at the inaugural concert.
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