Florence Ethel HEDGES was likely born Oct 1876 in Birmingham. Oct 1877 was given in the 1911 census and Q4 1876 in the UK Births Register.

In 1881 she was living in Chesterfield, Derbyshire with sister Ada, born in Leicester. Florences's parents were Albert HEDGES, a commercial traveller from Sedgeley, Staffordshire, and Sarah from Droitwich.

In 1891, her father having died, the family were in Lady Wood, Birmingham, and she was a scholar aged 14 with three sisters Ada C S, Marian G (born Chesterfield) and Sydney P (born Warwick).

She married Enoch EDWARDS in Erdington on 12 Dec 1897. She was 21 and he was 57. On the marriage certificate she stated that her father was a retired surgeon.

A year later they christened a daughter Muriel Constance Freda.

Florence and Enoch appeared to have travelled about the country, but not without incident. On 14 Dec 1904, in Linton, Cambridgeshire, "Florence Edwards, wife of Enoch Edwards, Walsham, a publican, charged with a like offence, [and] was ordered to pay costs of 9s 6d"¹. The offence was to purchase a hare from an unlicensed vendor and was reported in the Saffron Walden Weekly: 'Mrs Florence Ethel Edwards, wife of Mr Enoch Edwards, licensee of the Five Bells, Balsham, said that on November 15th she bought a hare for 2s 6d from George Knightss, who said he had found it hidden in a ditch. She subsequently handed the hare over to PC Connell." Balsham is to the east of Bury St Edmunds, in Suffolk.

Enoch and Florence emigrated to Canada in 1906, with Enoch arriving first then Ethel and Freda joining him in Quebec on 25 June 1906 on board the 'Canada' from Liverpool. Their immigration record suggests that they were planning to travel to Winnipeg, but five years later Enoch, Florence Ethel and Frida are still living in Quebec.

After this point it get confusing.

The other Florence E EDWARDS

By 1916 a Florence FOX is living in Langford, Neepawa, Manitoba with Peter FOX (FUCHS), a 56 year old Ontarian farmer of German descent who Florence E EDWARDS had married on 24 Jul 1913.

If this was Enoch's wife then it suggests that Enoch had died in 1911/12 (or she had left and was a bigamist). But in that 1916 census Peter's step-daughter Mary E EDWARDS is listed aged 14, whereas Florence's daughter Muriel would have been 18. This suggests that the Florence E EDWARDS who had married Peter FUCHS on 24 July 1913 was either not Enoch's wife/widow or there was another unknown daughter, Mary.

This Florence's daughter Mary also after childbirth, of pleauresy, around the time Peter FUCHS did, and Florence moved to Brookdale, Neepawa, to assist her son-on-law, Herbert Bayfield DENNIS, with care of her two granddaughters, Mildred and Florence. She remained even after her son in law remarried and cared for their child, Kathleen. She died in Brookdale in 1958 and was buried in Wellwood Cemetery next to daughter Muriel EDWARDS DENNIS and husband Peter FUCHS.

Possible obituary for Enoch

There is an obituary for a Enoch EDWARDS of the right age who died on 27 Feb 1924 and who is buried in the Cimetiere Mont-Royal, Outremont, Montreal, which states: "EDWARDS - In this city, on Feb. 27. 1924, Enoch Edwards, in his 84th year. Funeral (provate) from William Wraqy's Chapel, 617 University street."

Her daughter Muriel Constance Freda Valerie EDWARDS married Arthur Frederick MORRIS on 24 Oct 1925 in Neepawa.