Mary Ella NORTON, US Army nurse

[Jim Strawbridge]

Here is another that has me stumped as to family background. She was an US Army Nurse (Red Cross) who died at Camp Jackson, South Carolina on the 28th September 1918. Buried in St. John the Baptist Cemetery, Schenectady, New York. The Trained Nurse and Hospital Review for 1918 reported :- "Recently at Camp Jackson, S.C., of pneumonia, Mary Ella Norton, a Red Cross nurse of Schenectady, N.Y. Miss Norton was buried with military honours. The funeral services were held at St. John's Church, Schenectady, and the body was accompanied from the house to the church by a soldier escort and nine Red Cross nurses. At the grave in St. John's Cemetery the soldiers fired a volley and a bugler sounded taps".

 

What I am having difficulty with is finding her family background  ie parents and siblings.

[DavidOwen]

There is a Mary Norton aged 1 in the 1870 IS census for the Schenectady ward 3.

 

Parents are Truman and Sarah, siblings Robert, Grace, Isabella and Anna (all older) might this be your Mary?

https://www.findmypast.co.uk/transcript?id=USC%2F1870%2F004277083%2F00397%2F008

 

There is an older Mary E Norton born 1854 also on the 1860 census for that area but perhaps she may be too old? https://www.findmypast.co.uk/transcript?id=USC%2F1860%2F0000671728550

 

 

[Jim Strawbridge]

Thank you, David. I don't think that this is the one. I have just researched her and she was born in 1868 and she was Mary F. Norton. The non-conformity of the second initial and her age at 50 on her death makes her rather old for an army nurse. A more likely candidate is the Mary Norton who, in the 1915 New York State census, is shown as being born in 1880, a married woman and who had been in the U.S.A. for 15 years. May be a recent marriage and an immigrant may explain why we are having difficulty in researching her.