When the 1911 census was released and I was checking on the whereabouts of family that I had already found in 1901, I was somewhat taken aback by the place of birth given for a son of my Great Aunt Emily Byrne (née Park). At the time Emily, although married, was living with her parents, Edward Park and Sarah Eleanor (née Cole), at Bouth, Haverthwaite, Lancashire (now in Cumbria). Emily’s husband, James, a miner, was not with the family and was lodging in Egremont, Cumberland, where he had presumably found work. Emily’s two sons were living with her and their grandparents and the elder, Edward James Byrene, aged three, was described as having been born in: ‘US America, Globe Arizona’. His nationality was given as ‘Resident. British Subject by parentage’.

This seemed very unlikely for a family that had been firmly rooted in the south Cumberland/Furness area for centuries and clearly needed further investigation!

The only thing that our mother had told us about her Aunt Emily was that she had been ‘killed on the railway’ – a fate which appeared to have befallen several of my mother’s relations and which we took with a large pinch of salt. Emily’s life, however, shows that unexpected things such as emigrating to the USA and then returning to England, or being run over by a train, could, and did, happen to ordinary people.

Emily was born on 27 November 1876 at Force Forge and baptised on 17 December at Satterthwaite. She started at Bouth British School in Colton on 3 March 1883 when she was aged five years and four months (School Admission Register, Bouth British School, Colton, accessed on FmP) but by 1887 she was at Colton School and features in several entries in the School’s Log Book (Cumbria Archive Barrow-in-Furness: BPS 68/1/1). School log-books usually only mention children by name when they misbehave, miss school for any reason, or leave. Emily would seem not to have been a very robust child and it was her ill-health which caused her name to appear several times in the log-book.

4 March 1887:  ‘I gave all the children in Standard iii an examination yesterday when all did their work very creditably, with the exception of Emily Park [aged 11], who is partly to be excused as she is delicate, being subject to violent Headaches and earaches.’

19 April 1887: ‘Emily Park is away from school almost half her time with sickness and consequently cannot keep pace with the others, in fact her parents have forbidden her being pressed forward.’

16 May 1887: ‘Emily Park returned to school this afternoon, but I have been compelled to ask her parents to get medical advice as to her fitness to attend as she has not yet recovered from a very infectious disease viz. the ‘Itch’.’

13 June 1887: Three children had been absent for a long time, the doctor ‘has given orders that they will not be able to attend for some time to come and will certify to that effect if requested. The three are [names given] and Emily Park, St. iii – The feet of Emily Park has [sic] now broken out with the same disease as her hands’.

Emily’s school days did not last much longer as on the 1891 census, when she was 14 years old, she is living with her family and described as a ‘General Servant. Domestic’. By 1901 (aged 24) she had joined her father at the Blackbeck Gunpowder Works where she was employed as a ‘Cartridge Wrapper’.

On 4 February 1905 she married James Byrne at Our Lady’s Catholic Church in Dalton-in-Furness. James, whose birthplace is given variously as ‘Ireland’ and ‘Dalton in Furness’ on census records, was the son of Daniel Byrne and Ellen Ryan who were married in Rathdrum, Co. Wicklow on 2 November 1877. However, by 1881, the family had moved to England and were living at Cleator Moor in Cumberland, where Daniel worked as a miner.

Only seven months after Emily and James were married, on 9 September 1905, he sailed from Liverpool aboard the SS Campania. He is described in the ship’s manifest as being 25, married and a miner. He paid his own passage and had $50 with him. His nationality is given as English with his last place of residence ‘Dalton in Furness’ and he was going to join his (younger) brother Patrick Byrne in Bisbee, Arizona. The Campania arrived in New York on 15 September.

Emily followed her husband nine months later on the same ship, sailing from Liverpool on 9 June 1906 and arriving in New York on 17 June. On the ship’s manifest, she is described as being 29 and going out to join her husband, who had paid for her passage, in Bisbee, Arizona, She had $20 in cash.

Bisbee, Arizona (situated just eight miles north of the border with Mexico), was, in the early decades of the twentieth century, a boom-town with rich mineral mines, and a large immigrant labour-force, which Patrick Byrne and James had, presumably, joined.

It is hard to imagine Emily’s thoughts as she set off from the Furness area to make such a long journey. Did any of her family – her father, Edward, perhaps, or her brother (our Grandfather) Walter travel with her, probably by train, as far as Liverpool? The SS Campania on which both she and James traveled separately, belonged to the Cunard Steamship Line and, when she entered service in 1892 became the largest and fastest passenger ship, capable of crossing the Atlantic in less than six days. Her first-class accommodation was luxurious, but the passenger manifest shows that Emily was travelling ‘2nd Cabin’ which would have been much more basic. Once she had arrived in New York and had been processed through Ellis Island, she would have then had to make the 2,367 mile long train journey to Bisbee. I would like to think that James went to New York to meet her, as the journey would have taken several days and involved changing trains from one railway company to another – a daunting experience for a young woman travelling alone and so far from home.

Emily gave birth to their first child, Edward James, in Globe, Arizona some time in 1907, so James and Emily must have travelled, probably in search of work, the 216 miles from Bisbee to Globe, which had been founded in 1875 when silver was discovered in the area. By the early twentieth century some of the world’s richest copper deposits were being mined there and Globe was becoming a large and prosperous town.

Despite what must have been potentially bright prospects in Globe, Emily returned to England in 1909, arriving back at Liverpool on 30 January with her infant son, but without her husband, who presumably stayed on, for at least a while, in Arizona. Emily gave birth to their second son, William Daniel on 4 October 1909, so perhaps, having given birth once abroad, she decided to return home before she had another child. Emily went back to live with her parents in Haverthwaite and it was there that I found her with her two sons on the 1911 census. Sadly, Arizona-born Edward James died only a few months later, aged four, and was buried on 13 September 1911 at St Anne’s Church, Thwaites.

The couple’s third child, Ellen Sarah, was born on 26 July 1912, followed by Catherine Elizabeth, born on 30 September 1916. When the 1939 Register was compiled, James, Emily and Catherine were living at 4 Holmes Green, Dalton-in-Furness. James, by then 61 years old, was still working as an ‘Iron Rock Miner’, Emily was 62 and was ascribed the usual ‘Unpaid Domestic Duties’ of a housewife, while Catherine was 23, single, and employed as a Domestic Servant. By that time, despite the outbreak of the Second World War, Emily and James could probably reasonably have expected to live in relative peace into old age, but Emily was to die tragically only a year later.

On Saturday 7 September 1940 Emily and her daughter, Catherine, were returning home to Dalton from Carlisle, and they arrived at 10.15pm at Carnforth, where they needed to change trains. What happened next was described in the Lancashire Daily Post on 9 September 1940:

UNCONSCIOUS WOMAN RUN OVER AT CARNFORTH

A black-out tragedy has taken place at Carnforth railway station, the victim being Mrs. Emily Byrns (63) of 4 Holmes Green, Dalton-in-Furness. Mrs Byrns was removed to the Royal Lancaster Infirmary on Saturday night, and died early yesterday morning. She and her daughter Katherine arrived at Carnforth station from Carlisle at 10.15pm. They made their way to the Dalton departure platform. Then the daughter missed her mother in the darkness. Unable to discover her whereabouts the daughter sought the assistance of the station staff and about 11 o’clock Mrs. Byrns was found lying on the permanent way between the platform and the main line. Her right leg had been severed below the knee, her left foot badly crushed, and there were other injuries.

SLIPPED OFF THE PLATFORM. Between the time when Miss Byrns missed her mother and the discovery of her on the line a light engine and good train passed over that section. It is presumed that Mrs. Byrns slipped off the edge of the platform and was rendered unconscious by the fall. Miss Byrns was also removed to the Infirmary for treatment for severe shock.

On 11 September, the same newspaper carried a report on the inquest, :

Daughter’s Ordeal at Carnforth

A DALTON-IN-FURNESS young woman’s ordeal on Carnforth station on Saturday night, when she found her mother injured on the line, was described, at the inquest at Lancaster, to-day, on Emily Byrne (63) of Holmes Green, Dalton-in-Furness, who died in the Royal Lancaster Infirmary on Sunday. Catherine Elisabeth Byrne said she and her mother arrived at Carnforth station on their way from Carlisle about 10 o’clock on Saturday night. Their connection was not due for about an hour, and they went into the waiting-room. After a while her mother got up, saying she was going to see about the time of the train, and as she was away a long time witness went to look for her. Along with a porter she looked into the carriages of the Barrow train which had come in, but failed to find her, and they ultimately discovered her lying injured on the railway line.

PORTER FOUND BODY. James Parker Smith, of Rose Cottage, Priest Hutton, a porter, said he had found Mrs. Byrne on the main down line, and Sidney Powell Booth, of New-street, Carnforth, a foreman, said medical attention was given by a doctor on the permanent way and in the waiting room before she was taken to the infirmary. Witness said a goods train and a light engine had passed over the line, but he could not say which had run over the woman. A doctor’s certificate described Mrs. Byrne’s injuries, including the amputation of the right foot. The Deputy Coroner (Mr. J. H. Jellyman) returned a verdict of “Accidental death” and on behalf of the railway company Mr. O. T. Tewson expressed sympathy with the relatives.

Emily’s husband, James, survived her by 15 years, dying in 1955. Their daughter Catherine, who had been with her mother on Carnforth station, married Charles Hay in 1941 but was widowed only three years later, as reported in the Lancashire Evening Post on 4 August 1944:

Mrs. Hay, of 4 Holmes Green, Dalton-in-Furness, has been notified that her husband, Lance-Cpl. Charles Robert Hay, has died of wounds in Normandy. He was 31 years of age, and a painter and decorator by trade.

Charles’ service record shows that he had died on 7 July 1944. The widowed Catherine married Roy Whitter in 1954, and died in 1988.

After all Emily’s travels – by train from a small Furness village to Liverpool, crossing the Atlantic alone, making the long train journey to Arizona and then retracing the same route, with her infant son, just a few years later – it seems sadly ironic that she should have died in an avoidable railway accident so close to her family home.