I'm on a quest to find out more about my mystery grandmother,
Catherine Purcell, who died in 1946, 2 years before I was born. I have
some of my family lines solidly back to the 1500's, but about
Catherine, almost nothing. She was born in New York City in 1890, and
after the death of her father, William Edward Purcell, the family
moved back to her mother's original home in Lancashire England. Their
mother, Elizabeth Nichols, had some kind of breakdown, and Catherine,
plus a sister, were raised by nuns at an orphanage at Bury,
Lancashire. Other than that, my only record of Catherine in her early
years was her arrival back in NYC in 1909, after sailing from
Liverpool. We know she spent time with cousins in NYC, and then was
hired as a companion for the wife of a wealthy couple, and the wife
was probably disabled. Before 1912, the couple, with Catherine,
traveled on Holiday to Nelson BC, where Catherine met a young mining
camp cook, Leonard Bundy, who had immigrated to Canada in 1906 from St
Neots, Huntingdonshire. I hope to catch one or both of them in these
border crossing records, and if I help others on the way, so much the
better. I've already transcribed many census records for parishes in
Scotland and England, and other types of documents also, which I share
freely.
                                               James Leonard Bundy
(Jim)