Everything tagged: Hannah Warren

Nellie was the youngest daughter of John Olson and the fifth of his six children. She was step-sister of my grandmother, Hannah Warren. Her birth certificate gives her mother as Cheng A-Fung, who would later take Ellen as her Christian name, making two Ellens in the family. Nellie was born at 1 Ladder Street Terrace. The Ladies Directory gives her as living with her mother in Caine Road until at least 1907 after the birth of her nephew, Arthur, when her address is given at Charles and Hannah Warren's home at 2 Observatory Villas.

Elizabeth Warnes was the second daughter of John Olson snr. and half sister to Hannah Warren. Her mother was Ching Ah-Fung. Her other siblings were John Olson jnr., Charles W. Olson and Ellen Melcher née Olson. She married Charles Aspinell Warnes at St John's Cathedral in 1905. Their children were Iris, Marjorie and Cyril. Iris's and Marjorie's descendants now live in Australia. They lost touch with their brother, Cyril, who is thought to have emigrated to Canada. Elizabeth is buried in the Protestant Cemetery in Happy Valley near her parents.

Iris was the eldest child of Charles and Elizabeth Warnes (née Olson) and grandchild of John Olson snr. Iris, Marjorie and Cyril Warnes were the half-cousins of my father, Reg Warren.

To avoid confusion with the other John Olsons, this was the first son of John Olson snr. and my great-grandmother. Her name is given as Yau Kum on the birth certificate of my grandmother, Hannah Mabel Olson, John Olson’s second child by her. (He had changed his name from Jakobsson to Olson at the time of his son’s birth.) The gravestone inscription, which is very worn, reads “Sacred to the Memory of JOHN, infant son of J. and Y. Olson.