Tuesday 6 May 2014

Roma White - the search continues...

My grateful thanks to Michael "Bully" who is extremely vigilant and very supportive of my project.

Michael forwarded me a reply he received from the Local History Librarian at Poole History Centre in Dorset:


" A brief Internet search shows that Roma White is the pen name of an author called Blanche Oram, later Mrs Winder. Ancestry shows she was born about 1866, she was from London, and the 1911 census shows her living in Gastang (Lancashire). This link should give you an idea of what she has written:http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/1171191.Blanche_Winder

The fisherman named in the poem you mentioned, Jacob Matthews, was a real person. Ancestry database gives us a lot of personal information about him, born about 1882-4, married in 1905 or 1906, by 1911 he had 2 children, lived in Taylors Buildings near the Quay in Poole, his occupation being a fisherman. We have ‘family file’ of information for the Matthews as they are an old Poole family." 

Thank you Michael and thank you to the Poole History Centre.  My paternal Grandparents lived in a house in Broadstone overlooking Poole Harbour.

I have spent some considerable time today trying to find out more but I have again drawn a blank.   I will let you know as soon as I find anything more.