Worsley

Margaret's date of birth is not known exactly, but deduced from the various censuses.

Margaret and William emigrated to America, where they were married. She made several trips to England, and her children were baptised in Liverpool although they were born in Minnisota.

Margaret was pregnant and returning from the USA when she became ill. According to stories repeated by her youngest daughter, she landed in Liverpool on December 23rd 1889, and died the following day - Christmas Eve. She was buried in Liverpool in the cemetary of a church later removed to make way for the Mersey Tunnel. The child was still born. Lizzy, her first born, relates a visit to the ship and cabin of her mother's, which smelt of antiseptic. The death certificate gives blood poisoning in childbirth as the cause of death.

The photograph of her was taken only a matter of weeks before her fatal trip home. That the children were leaving a country where they had enjoyed considerable freedom probably accounts for their sad countenance. From the back ground, it may have been taken in a New York park while they waited for passage.

There are two interpretations of the life and major events of this woman, that which comes down from her eldest child Elizabeth who remained in England, and another from her youngest child Annie who emigrated to Canada. The facts verified by the marriage records to William Lucas, and the birth records of their children are all beyond doubt. But we don't know the reasons for her trip to America, how she met her husband etc.

In a note prepared by Annie's descendents, there is doubt about how and why she went to America. It is partly suggested that she may have gone on a visit (to the Frank Hall homestead, where she was later recorded in the American census of 1885) or to work. But why would a woman aged 23 travel to such a backwater as Green Prairie - which became a township only a decade earlier, and why would the smartly dressed woman in our photograph look for employment in such a small town? Further, there is no mention of her possible unhappiness and desire to return to England.

Perhaps the difference in interpretation arises from their relative ages: Lizzy was 7 when her mother died; while Annie was only two and a half. Lizzy may have been aware of her mother's unhappiness, and there was certainly reason for it if the differences between her new life and her old one in Liverpool are examined.

The place that they went to could not have been more different from Liverpool - a bustling metropolis where Margaret may have enjoyed a life of privelage. Green Prairie was a tiny place. In the American census of 1910, the population was 176. Of these, only 25% were Americans, the rest were immigrants. Of these, 57% (76) were from Sweden, 25% (27) from Germany, and 7% (9) from Finland. Only 8% were from England (7), Scotland (5) or Ireland (2). The landscape was forest - similar to the Swedish and Finnish countryside, and this is what attracted such large numbers from there. Logging was the main industry.

We know that Margaret had met William Lucas at least at the beginning of 1882 (their first child was born late December), but this is believed to have been in England by Connie - the daughter of this first born child, Elizabeth(lizzy). Connie tells that Lizzy was conceived in the Blue Bell woods at Eastham, Cheshire. Perhaps she was swept off her feet by her man, and blindly followed him to his new life in the New World.

We must search the census returns for Liverpool (1881), and those of Green Prairie and/or Little Falls. These may place her at certain times and places, but we may never know the whole truth.

This certificate includes on the inside, a list of children and their baptisms