----- Original Message ----- From: janet garland To: boston Sent: Tuesday, January 01, 2002 10:37 AM Subject: O'Shea/Emblen/Virginia Plains G'day from sunny Perth, Western Australia. I am fairly new to genealogy and am researching my mothers visit to Boston and first marriage to an O'Shea. What information I have is limited but mother was born 25th April 1897 (she told us kids 1896!) and went to Boston before WW1 as a young Beatrice Victoria Emblen. She may have gone to an uncle (maybe an Emblen too) who had a medical practice in a place called Virginia Plains. Apparently she wanted to marry an O'Shea who was suffering from terminal TB. Because of her age she had to move to a different county? (I suspect that this is where the discrepancy in birthdates come in and maybe she made herself a year older?) anyway she became pregnant, her husband died and I think my half brother John O'Shea was born in Boston. Mother was due to come back on the Lusitania but because the Germans had threatened to torpedo her, uncle, who was paying her fare, refused to let her on that ship and she sailed back across the Atlantic on the Mauritania. If there is anyone out there that can help me unravel some of these mysteries I would be very grateful. Thanks. Pat Garland