Florence Maria Mansur aka Nellie F. Whittemore
It appears a struggling family gave away their daughter somewhere between 1865 and 1870.
Florence Maria Mansur was born in August 1863 in Groton, Massachusetts, to George Mansur, a tinman, and his wife, Mary Hamlin of Magnolia, Florida. Mary had probably had a scare when George was ordered to report to the draft board in June of that year. He had already served 3 months in the Navy and was released because of defective eyesight, which may have affected his occupation as it changed from jeweler (which included watchmaking) to tinman. Or in this time of war, there may have been a need for more tinmen than jewelers.1
In 1865, Mary and her four children – Charles, age 9, George, age 7, Mary, age 3, and Florence, age 1 – were living with her in-laws in Groton, while it looks like George was living and working as a teamster in Lowell. In 1870, Mary was still living in Groton, working as a dressmaker to support her three children – Charles, age 14, George, age 12, and Mary, age 8. But Florence, age 6, was missing.2
Florence appears as Nellie F Whittemore in the 1870 census. She was obviously not the biological child of George Whittemore, who would have been 52, and Martha Whittemore, who would have been 51 at the time of her birth. The Whittemores had two children, a boy and a girl, but both died young. They were probably eager to welcome a child into their home.3
The identity of Florence and Nellie appears in the details of her life. When she married Flint H Boutwell in 1883 in Lunenburg, Massachusetts, she listed her birthplace as Groton and her parents as George and Martha Whittemore. George and Martha were living in Groton in 1865, but they were listed in the Massachusetts census with no children, three houses away from the Mansur family and one-year-old Florence.4
Nellie Boutwell’s 1949 death certificate states she was born in August 1863 in Groton, Massachusetts, the daughter of Abner Mansur and his wife, Hamlin, according to her niece, and namesake, Florence Maud Mansur, who had lived with the Boutwells in Worcester in 1900. Florence Maud’s father was deceased, so she couldn’t check with him, and she was inaccurate on some details. Abner was Nellie Boutwell’s grandfather; her father was George. But Florence was correct that Nellie’s mother’s surname was Hamlin.5
Florence Maud never knew her grandparents. George Mansur had spent ten months in the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary in 1859, and by 1880, he was blind from the cataracts in his eyes. He was no longer living with his wife but was cared for by his parents until he died in 1886 from asthma. His wife, Mary Elizabeth Hamlin, predeceased him by three years, dying in 1883 from heart disease.6
Nellie and Flint had one stillborn child. At the time of her death, she was living at 85 Kinsley Street with her niece, Florence Maud, who was married to Edward Pombrio. Even though she had no children, Nellie lived the traditional role of women of the time - a wife and homemaker, and probably serving in her community and church.7
Nellie is buried in the Woodlawn Cemetery in Section 18, Lot 77. She is buried without a marker in the same plot as her brother George Hyrum Mansur and his wife, Elizabeth.
Hampshire to Plymouth County, Massachusetts, Births, vol. 160, 1863, folio 89, Births Registered in the town of Groton for the Year 1863, Florence Maria Mansur, 22 August 1863; FamilySearch. Also, Massachusetts, Seventh Congressional District, Consolidated Enrollment Lists, vol. 4, 1863–1865, Class 3 [I is crossed out], Class J, Parts of Middlesex and Norfolk Counties, 10, Geo. V. Mansur; Ancestry. And 1860 U.S. census, Middlesex County, Massachusetts, population schedule, Groton, 108, dwelling 875, family 854, George V. Mansur household; FamilySearch.
1865 Massachusetts State Census, Middlesex County, Massachusetts, Groton, unpaginated, dwelling 146, family 150, Abner Mansur household; FamilySearch. Also, 1865 Massachusetts State Census, Middlesex County, Massachusetts, Lowell, Ward 01, unpaginated, dwellings 603 and 604, family 718, Ada M. Leavitt household (boardinghouse); FamilySearch. And, 1870 U.S. census, Middlesex County, Massachusetts, population schedule, Groton, 38, dwelling 331, family 325, Mary Mansur household; FamilySearch.
1870 U.S. census, Worcester County, Massachusetts, population schedule, Leominster, 72, dwelling 505, family 603, George Whitimore [transcribed as Whitemore] household; FamilySearch. Also, Middlesex to Worcester County, Massachusetts, Births, vol. 11, 1845, 191, Birth in the Town of Leominster during the year next preceding May 1, 1845, George Almon Whittemore, 20 May 1844; FamilySearch. And, Middlesex to Worcester County, Massachusetts, Deaths, vol. 21, 1846, 145, Deaths in the Town of Leominster during the Year next preceding May 1, 1846, George A. Whittemore, 25 August 1845; FamilySearch. And, Suffolk to Worcester County, Massachusetts, Births, vol. 83, 1854, 182, Births registered in the Town of Leominster for the year 1854, Lizzie M. Whittemore, 28 October 1854; FamilySearch. And, Leominster, Worcester, Massachusetts, Deaths, vol. 14, 1853–1894, folio 42, Lizzie M. Whittemore, 30 July 1862; FamilySearch.
Lunenburg, Worcester, Massachusetts, Marriages, vol. 3, 1854–1891, 32–33, Flint H. Boutwell and Nelli F. Whitman, 15 April 1883; FamilySearch. Also, 1865 Massachusetts State Census, Middlesex County, Massachusetts, Groton, unpaginated, dwelling 149, family 183, George A. Whittemore household; FamilySearch.
New Hampshire Deaths, 1949, 4001–4500, no. 49-004188, Nellie F. Boutwell, 6 September 1949; FamilySearch. Also, 1900 U.S. census, Worcester County, Massachusetts, population schedule, Lunenburg Town, ED 1648, sheet 3A, dwelling 42, family 42, Flint H Boutwell household; FamilySearch. And, New Hampshire Death Index Cards, arranged by surname, Macmaster, S.–Menard, alphabetically by the 1st and 3rd letters, George H. Mansur, 17 November 1921; FamilySearch.
1880 U.S. census, Middlesex County, Massachusetts, schedule of defective, dependent, and delinquent classes, ED 365, sheet B, Blind, George V. Mansar, from population schedule p. 8, line 50; Ancestry. Also, 1880 U.S. census, Middlesex County, Massachusetts, population schedule, Groton, ED 365, 8, dwelling 110, family 120, Abner Mansur household; FamilySearch. And, Hampshire to Plymouth County, Massachusetts, Deaths, vol. 374, 1886, 98, George V. Mansur, 3 March 1886; FamilySearch. And Suffolk to Worcester County, Massachusetts, Deaths, vol. 348, 1883, 94, Mary E. (Hamlin) Mansur, 7 July 1883; FamilySearch.
Suffolk to Worcester County, Massachusetts, Deaths, vol. 375, 1886, 418, stillborn (Boutwell), 23 February 1886; FamilySearch. And, Nashua, Hillsborough, New Hampshire, Marriages, Jan.–Dec., 1913, chronological order, Edward Pombrio and Florence M. Damon, 4 January 1913; FamilySearch.
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