Emma Cox’s story today explored her 2nd great-grandaunt, Florence Gertrude Sparagnapane (1864–1949), and her place in the social history of the UK in the early 20th century.

Florence was an actress who went by the name of Florence Kingsley. She married fellow actor Robert de Fonblanque. In the fall of 1912, at age 43, she leveraged her reputation and standing to organize and lead the March, Edinburgh to London for Women’s Suffrage.

You can explore the slides and links referenced in Emma’s presentation below:

The party of as many as 300 women (local groups joined and left the group along the way) made the nearly 400-mile trek in just over a month, traveling an average of 15 to 30 miles per day. For those outside Britain, here’s a modern Google Maps preview of the trail as it followed along today’s A1 highway.

Resources

For further context and details, you can explore some of these links:

* Wikipedia en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Florence_Gertrude_de_Fonblanque

* Women’s Library Collections, LSE Library (London School of Economics) lse.ac.uk/library/collection-highlights/the-womens-library

* Book: “The Women's Suffrage Movement: A Reference Guide 1866-1928” by Elizabeth Crawford

* Mapping Women’s Suffrage map.mappingwomenssuffrage.org.uk/neatline/fullscreen/all map.mappingwomenssuffrage.org.uk/items/show/312

* Google Arts & Culture artsandculture.google.com/story/women-s-suffrage-pilgrimage-lse-library/8wWBZ7Ey--82Jw?hl=en

* Suffrage Resources suffrageresources.org.uk (site for school kids)

* Oxford Dictionary of National Biography oxforddnb.com (access via a library)

* British Newspaper Archive britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk

* Patent Office: gov.uk/search-for-patent

Note: Though this is generally a monthly series, we will NOT have a program at the regular time next month in celebration of Easter Week. Good Friday, 18 April is a Bank Holiday in the UK.

If you enjoyed this program, please take a moment to thank Emma with a ❤️ below and subscribe to her podcast, Journeys into Genealogy or My Family History, which features more stories about Emma’s family. 

Do you have Suffragettes in your family tree? Tell their stories. As always, you’re welcome to share today’s program with your friends and family.

If you’ve just discovered the Projectkin Community Forum and this wonderful Genealogy community on Substack, welcome! It’s a delight to have you.

You’ll find many more programs like these in our events calendar:

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