Emilie Hall Sargent was born to Emilie Hall (b. April 27, 1866) and Arthur Hewes Sargent on November 29, 1896, in Boston, Massachusetts. Emilie was the third of the four surviving Sargent children, who include Edith Adelaide Sargent (b. May 15, 1889), Arthur Hewes Sargent, Jr. (b. August 1890), and Margaret Sargent (b. December 21, 1899). An additional daughter, Joanna Sargent, was born on September 26, 1892, and died at the age of four on January 18, 1896.
Emilie Sargent's father, Arthur Hewes, worked as a real estate trustee. Beginning in 1886, Arthur Sargent resided nearly full-time in France, with several short residences in the United States. Arthur's wife and children appear to have lived with him at least part of the time he resided in France. Additionally, passport records indicate that the three Sargent daughters traveled with their mother throughout Switzerland, Germany, France, and Italy, for reasons of "health and education" between the years 1912 and 1916.
Between 1911 and 1919 Emilie Hall Sargent resided full-time in Europe, partly due to the outbreak of the First World War, which kept the Sargent family from making any visits to the United States until after the conclusion of hostilities. In addition to her travels in Europe with her family in her teens and early twenties, New York passenger records indicate that Emilie Sargent continued to travel back and forth to Europe throughout her adulthood. Between 1921 and 1934, Miss Sargent made at least four Atlantic crossings to New York City from Naples, Italy; Cherbourg, France (twice); and Liverpool, England. Miss Sargent's travels were not solely limited to Europe, however, as records indicate that she traveled to the Carribean on at least two occasions in the 1930s. On October 31, 1932, she arrived in New York from Hamilton, Bermuda, and then again in September of 1933, she traveled on board the R.M.S. Mauretania on a West Indies and South/Central America cruise to the ports of Trinidad, La Guaira, Curacao, Colon, and Havana.
As of 1932 and at least until 1935, Emilie Hall Sargent resided at 109 Lee Street, Brookline, Massachusetts. On both her 1932 and 1933 Carribean excursions, Miss Sargent traveled with her neighbor, Miss Dorothy Harris of 161 Lee Street.
Ancestry.com Library Edition. New York Passenger Lists, 1820-1957 . Provo, Utah: The Generations Network, Inc., 2006. http://search.ancestrylibrary.com/iexec/?htx=List&dbid=7488&offerid=0%3a7858%3a0 (accessed July 21, 2009). Ancestry.com Library Edition. U.S. Passport Applications, 1795-1925 . Provo, Utah: The Generations Network, Inc., 2007. http://search.ancestrylibrary.com/iexec/?htx=List&dbid=1174&offerid=0%3a7858%3a0 (accessed July 21, 2009). Cutter, William Richard, and William Frederick Adams. Genealogical and Personal Memoirs Relating to the Families of the State of Massachusetts. New York: Lewis Historical Publishing Company, 1910. Additional information derived from the collection.
From the guide to the Emilie Sargent scrapbook of West Indies and South American cruise aboard R.M.S. Mauretania, 1933-1935, (University of Delaware Library - Special Collections)
