Emmeline (Goldsworthy) Merritt  and her daughters; Alma Henrietta and Everine~1919

Surnames also on this page: 
JENKIN, MERRITT, PEARCE, RETALLICK, WATERS, WATSABAUGH, and WILLIAMS.

Our Family Descends from Emmeline Goldsworthy...

She married Henry MERRITT 1881 in Redruth, Cornwall England.  Their daughter Alma was born in Redruth 1882.  Henry left Cornwall about 1885 to pursue successful mining in America.  Family history says Emmeline and Alma reunited with him at the mining community of Marysville, Montana USA in 1886.  Marysville, now a 'ghost town',  is situated in the Rocky Mountains; Lewis and Clark County, near present day Helena.  Henry worked in the gold mines of that area, but Emmeline had left back to Redruth in 1892 for the birth of their daughter Everine.  Family record indicates she did not return to the United States until 1893-94 when Everine was 18 months old.  Their third daughter, Henrietta, was born 1901 at Bald Butte, Montana,  very near Marysville.  

After the birth of Henrietta, Emmeline and Henry took up land in the lower Yellowstone River Valley; an Indian allotment, under homestead law.   Emmeline and younger daughters remained at their new home 290 miles east of Marysville while Henry spent much of his time in the mines back at Bald Butte until  his health began to fail steadily in 1908 to which he died at their homestead in 1910.  Family record places Emmeline and Henrietta on a visit back to Redruth in 1913.

Emmeline remarried in 1919 to Daniel Watsabaugh, a newspaper publisher, and was a key figure in the beginnings of the Methodist Church in Laurel.  Emmeline died in 1938; Daniel preceded her in death.  Both are buried aside Henry Merritt at the Laurel Cemetery.                                                                      

-Liz Sommer 1999

Information for this Goldsworthy page began mostly from memories and possessions of close family members.  Several years since 1999 have passed and more information has been found to substantiate and expand on family memories that were originally told by Emmeline and her daughters.  Details of our Goldsworthy family history have  been found in Redruth census', marriage and birth record.  Much of the census record easily identifies family, but the Goldsworthy name is truly a Cornish original and has very common occurrence in Redruth; especially its past.  This unfortunately adds doubt when discerning absolute fact in some instances...

Emmeline's daughters and granddaughters were known to have kept overseas contact with their Goldsworthy relatives in Redruth.   Elizabeth Louise died in 1977 and in her possessions was found a 1956 address book with two Goldsworthy family entries: ' Willie and Hilda - Wheal Harmony' and 'Nicky and Nita -Bellevue'.   

Emmeline's 1938 obituary states that she had a brother, William residing at Trefula Farm-Redruth Highway.  Family has found many letters of correspondence which reveals William's wife was Beatrice, who wrote frequently to family friends in Laurel in the mid 1940's. Her letters give a return address of North Trefula Farm St. Day- Redruth Cornwall.  She told of life on the farm and WWII.  Also she expressed gratitude for gifts of tea, magazines and sugar from America.

Of note, I have made an inquiry into Doidge's 1866 Directory of Redruth...there is a John Goldsworthy, miner, at North Trefula. Emmeline would have been four years in age at that time. I am curious as to whether this John is her grandfather.

                                                                                                           -Liz Sommer 1999

In 2000, I made an inquiry online to a business owner I ran across when doing an online search under "Trefula".  While we corresponded, he said he had bought his house and property from the son of coal merchant Nicky Goldsworthy.  This kind soul made a trip up the road to tell my story to his neighbors; who then put me in touch with a man in Bristol who was raised on the Nicky Goldsworthy farm down the road.

As if the divine had laid hand,  I was able to contact him in Bristol.  He was as generous as astounded at such a turn of events.  That previous summer, he had returned to his home, the Goldsworthy farm after 50 years.  He visited the farm up the road to find his childhood friend still living there.  There he had left his contact information; if not for this, I would have never found this Goldsworthy connection.  Indeed, his uncle was Nicky, his grandfather William and grandmother Beatrice; the woman from our family letters.  He told of vague remembrances of the packages from America when he was a child.  William had acquired the farm in the 1890's, possibly when his father had died.   This kind soul helped fill in generations from Emmeline's brother, William, to present.  
Thank you.  

Emmeline Goldsworthy's birth record has revealed that her mother Elizabeth's maiden name was JENKIN.   (Not too surprising as brother Nicholas' middle name has by this time been revealed as Jenkin.)  Emmeline's parents'  1855 marriage record indicates the fathers of the groom and bride are:  John GOLDSWORTHY and Nicholas JENKIN.