Everything tagged: Ellen Melcher

The actual first name of Sonny Boy Melcher has never been recorded by the Olson family, to whom he was most closely related. He was the son of Evert Melcher, resident of Shanghai and of Ellen (Nellie) Melcher, youngest daughter of the retired Swedish tavern owner, John Olson snr and his Chinese wife, Ching Ah Fung (later Ellen Olson). Sonny Boy was youngest grandchild of the elder Olsons and probably born in 1917, as his mother was still named in 1916 passenger lists as Miss E. Olson. Sonny Boy appears in Hong Kong family photos that show John Olson snr with all his grandsons.

Very little has been found out about Evert Melcher, husband of the youngest daughter of John Olson and Ching Ah Fung. He does not apparently spell his name with an "s", so is not a member of the famous Melchers family, we suppose. He was Dutch and lived and worked in Shanghai at the time that he and Nellie married. He is supposed to have worked for the East India Company and the family was posted to Indonesia. They returned to Holland during WW2. Nellie and Evert separated and it is not known whether Nellie, who emigrated to the U.S., married again.