Through Ancestry.com I came across two family trees that give us information to track down Samuel Collier-2's first wife Lilian Winifred Marsden-2, after they separated.
In this post I give the information from the first tree "Marsden Family Tree". This post has a lot of information. It definitively links the Lilian Winifred Marsden-2 of this family tree with Georgina May Burbidge née Johnson as well as with Lilian Winifred Marsden-2's brother George Marsden-2 and cousin Bert Marsden-2.
**********************
The daughter of Jonathan Marsden-2 (a younger brother of Lilian Winifred Marsden-2) who emigrated to Australia wrote me the following emails:
[from 4 Jan 2011]
"Hi
Bud, yes both Lilian (known to me as Auntie Winnie) [Lilian Winifred Marsden-2] and George [George Marsden-2] were
known to me - Winnie by phone only but I met George several times when I
was young. Winnie's daughter Georgina [Georgina May Johnson-1] was a regular correspondent until a few years ago. My dad Jonathan-2 was
born just before George-2, then Winnie-2, set out for Canada to make their
fortunes. There was another sister Una Christiana-2 who was born in 1905 but died at 14 months from scarlet fever. George
Marsden-3 Senior died in 1924 from pneumonia and Jessy [Jessie Emmer Nodder-3]died in 1911 from
ovarian cancer."
[from 15 Jan 2011]
"I am still in shock at discovering all these developments [i.e., that her Auntie Winnie-2 had been married to Samuel Collier-2 and had three daughters with him], none of
which were EVER spoken of in my family, even though George Marsden-2 typed
out what he knew of our family history in about 1980, before he died in
California (where he lived after his emigration from Canada after WW1).
I'm sure (though it is probably my childhood perception) that Winnie
was Lilian Winifred, his elder sister,to whom he was very close, and
whom Georgina (always known as Cousin Georgina) was named for. ...When we had to admit [my mother] to a nursing home two years ago I
went through her papers (though they were in a dreadful mess) and found a
Xmas card from Georgina in 2001. She was Georgina May Burbidge (her
married name) and lived in Orangeville, Ontario. I have subsequently
found her obituary in the Toronto Star for 23/10/2006, giving her
previous name as "Johnston"[sic, "Johnson" is correct]. She had a memorial tree planted by her
family at the Dods and McNair Funeral Home in Orangeville. I have not
been able to find anything of her birth (as she was 92 when she died,
that would make her born around 1914) as Ontario records stop at 1912 -
so who is she?! ... I simply don't know, and as everyone
is deceased I can't ask them. By the way, George Marsden-3 Snr remarried
after Jessie Emma's death and there were two further children, Stanley
and Doreen, who emigrated to Australia around the same time as my father
Jonathan, in the early 1930's, and were well-known to me."
[24 May 2011]
"...the relevant bit of Uncle George's [George Marsden-2] memoirs, though it is very brief; I've added clarifying detail in brackets.
'Now, about our father's side of the family, I know surprisingly little about this. I went to Canada in 1908 and had my 15th birthday on the ship. When I was a little boy, living in Wandsworth (London), our grandfather, Jonathan [Jonathan Marsden-4], lived with us. He was alone, and I never knew his wife or wives. (Both had predeceased him). I know that our father was born on the edge of Marston Moor, in Yorkshire. (this is incorrect, as all Jonathan's children were born in London). There were four brothers in all, and one sister, Frances [Frances Marsden-3]. (Frances never married). The brothers were Jack (Jonathan James Marsden-3), Fred [Fred Marsden-3], Frank [Frank Marsden-3] and George Marsden-3.There was another sister, Sissy (Gertrude Marsden-3) who must have been of a second marriage (Daughter of Jonathan's second Marriage to Hannah [Hannah Newbold-3]) because she was the same age as my sister Winnie, who was christened Lillian Winifred. Jack had a couple of daughters (migrated to Canada with his second wife and two little girls when he was 65) Fred had seven children, 3 boys and 4 girls (Migrated to Canada with his wife Nellie and nephew Bert [Bert Marsden-2], who was Frank's eldest son). Frank had 3 boys, and George [George Marsden-3] (George's father, my grandfather) had 6 children. One died, Una Christiana-2, at age 1.I might mention that all Fred's children are in Canada, all Jack's are also in Canada (Jack died in Canada about 7 years after he migrated). Frank's are all dead but their offspring are all in and around Bognor Regis, England. As you know George's children are spread all over the place, Canada, USA and Australia.'Labels: BertMarsden-2, GeorgeMarsden-2, GeorgeMarsden-3, GeorginaJohnson-1, JonathanMarsden-2, LilianMarsden-2, SamuelCollier-2