Question for Devon....

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-25-2003
Question for Devon....
2
Fri, 04-29-2005 - 5:26pm

Devon,

I love your posts, I just learn so much from them. Maybe you could help DH and me with an off-the-wall question. Researching his family we came across a letter written in 1893 to a Flossie. We have no CLUE where Flossie comes from. Our best guess was Florence and we can't find a Florence. We know she's related in there somehow, as she has the family last name and the letter was found with a bunch of family papers in the basement of the family home. The family name was Martin, in Baltimore, Md. Unfortunately we don't know the nationality of the Martins cause we've hit a dead end there. We just want to figure out Flossie! The letter is a real teaser....

TIA!







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Avatar for devonelisa
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-26-2003
Sat, 04-30-2005 - 9:42am

You're right, in general Flossie is a nn for Florence but you might look for something like Flora, Fiorenza, Fleur, Fleurette

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iVillage Member
Registered: 03-25-2003
Sat, 04-30-2005 - 10:52am

Devon,

The letter itself is the most beautiful love letter I have ever read. The guy had great handwriting and you never see that anymore! His name was Carl (unfortunately the envelope doesn't have his name or address on it, it was a Theatre envelope from DC). We have her address, and the address is consistant with being near or at where some of the family lived, but with the 1890 census having burned, we can't use it as a clue. And I goofed, it was written in Sept 1889. He does call her Floss for short.

Anyway, so we have this gorgeous letter and then, in pencil in another handwriting we have two notations. "I have broken my heart and done the worse. God help me to forget him and be true to the other. Flossie" and on the 2nd page is "Dear Carl- Forgive me- I was false-but not my fault-" Like I said, the letter is a teaser. There is one other spot where she wrote something, scribbled it out, and then erased it. *Sigh*

As far as more info, since the letter is written in 1889 we know which generation she'd be in. We are guessing her uncle was a Henry Martin (who did have a boatload of girls). His mother's name we know, because she came to live with him when she was older. We have no clue of other sibs names or his dad's name. They were from St. Mary's county which was plantation country and very rural and there aren't a lot of records that were kept down there. We never got there to try and go through churches.... Someday maybe.

Anyway, that's about what we know. We can find all of Henry's girls so we figure Flossie is a cousin. One day we'll find out though...







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