Notes Margaret Aliza DUDDY, my paternal grandmother, was born in Manchester, England, on 23 January, 1881. The only child of Irishman John DUDDY and English woman Elizabeth Paine to come to this country. Margaret, at age 24, was older than the other children accompanying her. She was trained as a ?milliner?, a term we usually associate with women?s hats, however, it had a broader connotation in those times. *
Customers visiting a millinery shop could buy clothes such as undergarments, shirts, children's clothing, caps, aprons, hats, gloves, and stockings. Milliners also sold sewing items such as fabric, buttons, and lace trim. Gifts and items for babies were also available. Silk, wood, linen, and cotton were for sale. Milliners' tools included needles, thimbles, scissors, and irons. Most milliners were women. Girls 11-18 years of age learned cutting, fitting, sewing, ironing, mending, and how to do laundry as apprentices. The milliners taught these young girls how to read, write and do math as well. Margaret?s official destination was Toronto, via Montreal. She arrived 24 August 1905 aboard the SS CANADA, a small ship of the Dominion Lines. She was listed as a member of one of Mrs. Ellen Joyce?s ?parties?. These ?parties?, often as large as 50-60 persons, were held monthly during summer for the purpose of exporting children to Canada and Australia under the auspices of the British Women?s Emigration Association. The BWEA, as it came to be known, did this for a number of years. There were as many as eight of ?Mrs. Joyce?s Parties? in 1905 alone. Each group was accompanied by a matron or chaperone. If there were costs for participants involved I have yet to discern them.
Grandma LAMPHIER, as I knew her, was always sweet and cheerful, yet one could feel her staunch British resoluteness just below the surface. When times worsened, this determination held her family together.
Upon Margaret?s arrival in the New World, she spent little time above the north shore of Lake Ontario, and by 1906 she sought summer employment at one of the many hotels that dotted the shores of Keuka Lake, a popular and charming resort area in New York State?s Finger Lakes region. Margaret was later quoted as saying she enjoyed her service of housekeeping because she liked meeting the various hotel guests. As fate would have it, this is where she met the man she would marry in June, Bert Lamphier. During the years their children Albert, Gertrude, and Mildred were growing up, Margaret provided stability to her family as they traveled all over central, New York State, following Bert as he sought employment in the itinerant, unskilled labor market. He would eventually leave his family and vanish in 1923.
Family lore states that Margaret eventually found employment with a wealthy FINUCANE family. It is unknown whether they were from Canada or the United States, but possibly they were the reason Margaret came to live in Yates County, New York, as it was well known that wealthy families summered in the Finger Lakes area.
Margaret died in 1963, and while it was common knowledge she had British roots, all she ever said was that she arrived as a teenager around the turn of the century accompanied by a female friend who later returned to England. Margaret never disclosed any details of her voyage to North America.
There are presently two grandchildren, six great grandchildren, and eight great, great, grandchildren of Margaret living in the United States; they range from 79 years to five years of age. A number of whom are college graduates and several hold advanced degrees.