Cassie was raised to believe that Catherine Sammon was her aunt and that Annie James was her cousin. But she immigrated here in 1925 by way of Canada and the ships manifest for this voyage provided a wealth of information to substantiate what I already believed--that Catherine Sammon was really her mother and Annie her sister.
From the manifest I learned that Cassie was born in Seacombe, Cheshire a town literally right next to the town that Annie had been born in (Birkenhead, Cheshire.) This means that they were both born in the same vicinity as you can see on the 1880 Cheshire map here (click to enlarge it--Birkenhead is the pink shaded area on the left side and Seacombe is right above it.)
Secondly, Cassie's closest relative was her father Richard James. This is the same name I show as the father of Annie back in Birkenhead and he is still living in Birkenhead in 1925 when Cassie was immigrating to North America as a 16 year old.
Additionally, the manifest listed Richard's address and when I researched it on google maps I found it was extremely close to a friend I found listed as the witness to Catherine and Edward Sammon's marriage and the friend on the ships manifest for when Annie immigrated to the US in 1918. So Richard lives in the vicinity of a common friend of Catherine and Annie seeming to tie the relationships closer together in my mind.
Additionally, the manifest listed Richard's address and when I researched it on google maps I found it was extremely close to a friend I found listed as the witness to Catherine and Edward Sammon's marriage and the friend on the ships manifest for when Annie immigrated to the US in 1918. So Richard lives in the vicinity of a common friend of Catherine and Annie seeming to tie the relationships closer together in my mind.
The final piece of evidence for the relationship was that Catherine paid for Cassie's passage on the Athenia to come to Canada and met her in Montreal.
