My Family Tree

After she left the Island, sometime between the 1901 and the 1911 census, Florence, or Minnie, has been difficult to track. I haven't been able to find her for certain in census records under any of these names. The Wright family history says she was a graduate nurse from the Massachusetts General Hospital.

In 1934, she was Florence Marshall, living in San Francisco, California, according to the information on a passenger list. She said on this form that she had married on June 3 1908. However, it was Florence R. Bradshaw, a divorced woman, who married Perry Marshall in 1920 - so the marriage that gave her American citizenship had to have been to a Mr Bradshaw, not Mr. Marshall.

The likely Florence in the 1940 US census was Florence R. (for Ramsay) Marshall, a divorced woman, born in Canada in 1888, and living in California. Her occupation was broker. However, she was living in an apartment building and the census taker did not make the mark next to her name, which might indicate that she did not provide the information about herself.

When her mother died, she was Minnie, Mrs. J. F. Westfall, Richmond, Calif., so sometime after the 1940 census she married again.

She visited the Island in 1947. The Guardian noted that "Her friends are sorry to learn that Mrs. Florence R. Westfall has been advised by her medical doctor to return to a warmer climate for the winter months..." Her brother Fred Ramsay, MLA accompanied her to the boat, on her return to Oakland, California.

Minerva Florence Westfall was a widow living in California when she married Joseph Bradshaw, whose address was Virginia. This makes me wonder if her first husband was related to Joseph. Did she marry the same Mr Bradshaw in 1948, or a different one?

It doesn't look like she had surviving children.