The youngest chil of Edward Ford, a farm worker from Fletching, Sussex, and Maragret Ann Watson, of the Isle of Skye. Her older siblings Dollina Margaret, Frances Mary, Edward Watson and William Neal Thomas were all working and living away from home by 1911. Her father then abandoned her mother and the stories of her sister, Frances, and her new life in America convinced the family to travel together to join her.

They travelled with the family of her aunt, Eliza Johnston and a family friend Alice Harknett. The entire party was lost and none of their bodies were recovered.