Josephine Elizabeth (Orr) Saltsman (1853 - 1931)

Born 17 Jan 1853 in Boston, Suffolk, Massachusetts, USA

Descendants

Died 29 Nov 1931 at age 78 in Providence, Providence, Rhode Island, USA

Problems/Questions Profile manager: Chip Saltsman [send private message]

Biography

Josephine was the daughter of Irish immigrants. Her father was a "ship joiner" (specialized carpenter) on the 1870 Census, part of the Searsport maritime trade (a leading seaport during the 18th and 19th Centuries). On the 1880 Census he is a "house joiner." The family lived a few doors away from the Webber family (a few listings separate on the same sheet in the 1870 Census), where her future husband grew up. Unusually, she was a few years older than Charles. Family lore is that Charles was introduced into seafaring by Josephine's father (his own father was a farmer). They were married in Boston 7 Apr 1882. They lost one baby at three months, but three other children grew to adulthood. Josephine's husband died at sea a few days before her last child was born, and she did not remarry.

I have not yet found where the family lived during the 1900 Census, but by the 1910 Census, Josephine and two of the children, Antoinette and Hollis are living with Josephine’s sister Frances (now Frances A. and Reginald D. Fitzmorris (“Fitzmaurice”), having married @1894, of 119 Brownell St., Providence, RI, which site is now a parking lot). Hollis had a job as a railroad train dispatcher, and I note that Reginald is a Railroad Trainmaster, so I presume his uncle helped Hollis secure a job.

Sources

• "United States Census, 1870," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:M669-DKG : 17 October 2014), Charles A Webber in household of David Webber, Maine, United States; citing p. 10, family 66, NARA microfilm publication M593 (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.); FHL microfilm 552,060.

"United States Census, 1910," database with images, FamilySearch(https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MPXQ-7K3 : accessed 26 August 2017), Hollis E Webber in household of Reginald D Fitzmaurice, Providence Ward 4, Providence, Rhode Island, United States; citing enumeration district (ED) ED 192, sheet 4B, family 71, NARA microfilm publication T624 (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1982), roll 1443; FHL microfilm 1,375,456