Friday, August 8, 2008

Florence Hart

My grandfather's father Samuel George Archbold remarried after his first wife died
around 1910 - can't find the date yet or the record of the new marriage. His second
wife was Florence Hart, who lived to an old age and of whom I now have a colour photo among others. She seems to have been a really lovely person, something glows out of her photos, and it is said that my grandmother liked her better as a mother-in-law, although my grandparents emigrated in 1921, a year or two after the marriage.

This is what I know, off the back of a photo: Florence, known as Floss, had been the second wife of a man she met in London while in service with/to his sister. They had a daughter, Sissie Hart, who I think may have been named Frances. This husband died after only four years of marriage, some time
after which Floss married Samuel. Floss was not Chichester-born. I can't work out what her maiden name was from the BDM as marriages including a "Hart" and a "Florence" are too numerous.
I can't find a lead by looking up Frances Hart either. Floss must have been
born between about 1862 and about 1890 which is a pretty wide range. I'd like to know more about her, just because of her photos :)