nellie+nieces&nephews

jill
oldernewer
nellie+nieces&nephews

This is the second of copies of three family photos that I was sent by the Olsons who did not know the identities of all the children pictured. The three photos were all taken on the same day at 98A Wanchai Road. Old John Olson does not appear in any of them. The youngest child, Sonny Boy, whose name we now know to be David Ritchie, son of David and Nellie Ritchie is here wearing the normal clothes of a little boy, whereas the photo published in The Hong Kong Legacy by Sean Olson showing the same group of children with their grandfather, John Olson, shows him in baby clothes and clearly younger. I don't want to hazard a guess about the occasion that brought the family together. It had to be before August 1917 when the Warren boys left for Canada. 24th February 1917 was John Olson's 79th birthday. Elizabeth Warnes died on 8th April 1917, but Nellie is not wearing black. Left to right are: Reggie Warren, Hugh Olson, Marjorie Warnes, Ernest Olson, Iris Warnes, Arthur Warren, Ossie Olson and Cyril Warnes. Nellie Ritchie is gazing at her son, David; Tubby Olson is on her other side.

I am grateful to Robbot27 and aagg for their work in discovering and following up on Nellie Olson's correct married name of Ritchie.

Date picture taken
1910s
Shows person / people
Ellen Kirston/Kirsten 1) RITCHIE 2)HILKERS (née OLSON, aka Nellie) [1886-1973]

Comments

For comparison, this photo was taken on the same day as the above, but without the three smallest grandchildren of John Olson and with a different background.  As stated above, I have not worked out the reason for the photos other than Nellie Ritchie's visit with her son, David. The date must have been late 1916 or early 1917.

olson grandchildren, by jill

 

 

For starters, as I am not a fan of the new website on HK newspapers - takes ages to load and I don't think the text recognition software had meaningfully improved.

“The P.M.S.S. Co.’s.s. Manchuria will sail from Manila on the 31st August, making her due to arrive at Hongkong on Thursday, the 2nd September, at noon.” 

Source: The China Mail, page 8, 31st August 1915

 

“Latest Advices.

“The P.M.S.S. Co.’s.s. Manchuria will sail from Manila on the 31st August, making her due to arrive at Hongkong on Friday, the 3rd September, at daylight.” 

Source: The China Mail, page 8, 2nd September 1915

 

“PASSENGERS

ARRIVED

Per Manchuria, from San Francisco, &c.,…

…Mr and Mrs D.H. Ritchie and child…”

Source: The China Mail, page 8, 3rd September 1915

 

Thank you so much for wrestling with the Hong Kong newspapers site on my behalf. I have only ever tried mmis and despite special coaching from David I have never had anything but zero results from a name search. David Ritchie (aka Sonny Boy) was born in April 1915, so he would  have been hardly five months old for the September visit to his Hong Kong relatives. I think that may even have been too young for the family photo published with old John Olson in The Hong Kong Legacy, but I've forgotten what a five-month old baby looks like. If it was only a 3-day voyage from Manila to Hong Kong, I think that Nellie may have visited quite frequently. From the sad postcard that Sonny Boy wrote when the Olsons left Hong Kong in 1919, he clearly knew his cousins well and missed them and their amah terribly.

Thanks David. We can discount the Miss E. Olson that I found earlier, now that we know that Nellie became Mrs. Ritchie in 1914. The journeys of the Miss Olson in question were:

1916 April 3. Miss E. Olson arrives back from San Francisco on SS Chiyo Maru.

1916 April 7. Miss E. Olson departs for London on SS Malta.

 Research by Gwulo contributor aagg has found that there was a Miss E. Olson working at a school in Singapore contemporary with Nellie Ritchie, who we know was in Manila. I have now deleted the above two records from my "Family Chronology".

Ok thanks Jill.

Since I've got your attention for now, I'll put another little snippet here in this thread about something I just found which should mildly interest you.

I think I found a rare mention in print of John Olson's second wife (Ching Ah Fung: 1854-20th October 1915) just before she died.

There is an article on the "PROPOSED GIFT FROM THE WOMEN OF HONGKONG" (a motor ambulance for the Front) from the China Mail of 6th September 1915 with a long list of donors. Amongst the long list of names is a "Mrs J. Olson (Senior)" ...oh gosh...i just noticed this now...also a "Mrs C.E. Warren" and "Miss Evelyn Warren". There is a "Mrs Ritchie" but I don't know if that is Ellen though. Anyway...have a look at the list of names as you may recognize more. Funnily enough there is one donor just called "Nellie".

Source: The China Mail, page 4, 6th September 1915

 

Thanks David. This rings a bell. I'll have a dig through the articles that I printed out tomorrow. Of course I didn't know about Nellie being Mrs Ritchie at that time.

Sorry for the delay in getting back to you, David. Yes, I had noted the donations of Mrs. C.E. Warren and Miss Evelyn Warren in my "Family Chronology", (the collection was reported in the Hong Kong Telegraph as well) but the peculiar thing is that Evelyn started at Upper Chine School on the Isle of Wight in September 1915 and I also have a record of Hannah Warren arriving in London in 1915 and no record of her coming back that year. The Warrens may have been in the process of moving out of Fairview. As you point out, Mrs J. Olson (Senior) died in October 1915, so she would probably have been pretty ill in September. I wonder if the male members of the family actually made these donations in the names of their female family members. I think "Nellie" is probably "our" Nellie, but maybe not well known under her new surname. 

A big thank you to Team Gwulo which has helped me make two major breakthroughs in my family history in the last weeks. 1) The Olson/Warren family photos that were thought to have been taken at The Towers, 20 Broadwood Road were actually taken on the roof terrace of 98A Wanchai Road; 2) Nellie, the youngest of the Olson daughters, whose husband was thought to have been called Evert Melchers was married first to David Ritchie and second to Evert Hilkers. I can't help feeling that there has been some wool-pulling over our poor hard working eyes. So thank you in particular to aagg, to moddsey, to eurasian_david and to Robin as he boarded his flight, who have all contributed to setting my family story straight. Apologies if I have left anyone out. It's been a long haul. All future contributions welcome!