The website www.ellisisland.org holds file data and scans of original ship manifests for immigrants arriving in the USA. My thanks goes to Liam Diamond of N. Ireland for posting in the Guestbook area of this website and alerting me to the information it holds on Charles Franklin. You will need to register, but it is instant and free. Open the "Passenger Search" screen, enter Charles and Franklin with Exact Year birthdate of 1880, then click "Search". A "Matching Passenger Record" screen will come up. Click on "Original Ship Manifest" and a scan of the original handwritten immigration data will come up. This is presented across two pages, of which the second page is given first, however clicking on "Previous" will then bring up the first page. Return to Passenger Search, and enter Nancye Franklin, birthdate 1884. "Manifest" will show data on Franklin's wife and an 11-year-old daughter who both joined him in the US in 1920.
Biographical facts I found especially interesting, or which cleared up doubts I'd had about chronology in Franklin's life story, include:
(1) Franklin arrived in the US for the first time in November 1916 (not 1914, as stated in Sucher's The Iron Redskin)
(2) His passage was paid for by Hendee Mfg Co.
(3) He gave his profession as "Manager"
(4) His middle name is "Bayly", not "Bayley"
(5) He was born in 1880, not 1886 as is sometimes stated
(6) His wife's name "N W Franklin" and the street address of his house in Dublin, "8 Vernon Terrace, Rathgar", is provided under "address of nearest relative or friend"
(7) His wife Nancye did not join him in the US until four years later, in 1920
(8) He had a daughter, Phyllis Enid, who was aged 11 when she and her mother arrived in the US
(9) His residential address in Springfield in 1920 was "53 Thomson Street"
(10) He was 52 when he died, not 46
On-line maps such as google maps or yahoo maps show there is a Vernon Grove in Rathgar, but no Vernon Terrace. Similarly there is no Thomson Street nearby the Indian factory at the junction of State Street and Wilbraham Road, but four blocks west along State Street there is a Thompson Street. Harry Sucher's The Iron Redskin mentions that Franklin lived in an apartment within easy walking distance of the Indian factory. Especially good is MSN Virtual Earth, because your map location can be linked via the "birds eye view" function to oblique aerial photos taken from only a few hundred feet up. You can use this to see the remaining 50% of the Indian factory still standing at the apex of the State Street - Wilbraham Road junction, and appreciate the huge size of this factory during its heyday.
Typing Franklin's address into the MSN "enter city, address, or landmark" search field and clicking the "search" button results in a red flag appearing in the street right outside one of these houses. It appears that Franklin's first Springfield address still exists!
US Federal Census data (obtainable by subscribing to ancestry.com) shows that in 1920 Franklin (occupation "mechanical engineer") was listed as a "boarder" with one of the two households located at this address, that of Eugene and Candace Fark (the other household being the Lyman family, also with a boarder Plinney April, or Aksell, with the word "motorcycle" appearing in his profession).
The 1930 census reveals that Franklin's address was by now 71 School Street, another side-street off State Street but much closer to the Connecticut River. The aerial photo (switch to "bird's eye view") does not show many original houses left in this area, however No. 71 appears to be still standing. Franklin's daughter Phyllis (by now aged 19) was listed in 1930 as still living there at the time. Curiously, this Census shows his year of arrival in the US as 1914. Was he just being forgetful? US Immigration passenger lists on ancestry.com also show that Franklin made two sea voyages back to the UK, one in 1923 (at this time he gave his address as 86 School Street) and another in 1927 (by now his address is 71 School Street). These lists show that he became a naturalised US citizen at Hambden Co. Court in September 1922.
Does anybody know what became of his daughter Phyllis? Is it possible that Charles Franklin may have living descendants?
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