My Paternal Grandfather’s Mother’s Family
My paternal grandfather’s parents were Frederick Lewis and Mary Anne Drew. They married in Wandsworth on 8 March 1885. Her maiden name was Nolan.
The Nolan Family
Currently, I have relatively little information about the Nolan family. This is not enough to justify drawing a family tree.
Mary Anne Nolan
I know my great grandmother’s name from her gravestone which I visited with my father in 2010, see Chapter 58. However, in the 1891 census, her middle name is spelled Ann. From that census onwards, she was living in Nottinghamshire but that, and subsequent censuses, gave her place of birth as Kennington, Surrey. Based on ages recorded in those censuses, she would have been born in 1862 or 1863.
Doubts Over Date of Birth
However, I have been unable to find confirmatory details of her birth in 1862 or 1863. At least family trees on Ancestry, identify her as having been born in Kennington in 1860. If this is the case, her father was Thomas, a mechanical draughtsman, aged 22. Her mother was Mary Jane Mata (Matilda?) also aged 22. I do not have more details of either of these except that Mary Jane Mata may have died in 1879.
Schoolmistress?
If she was born in 1860, it is possible that she was the Mary Ann Nolan who was a schoolmistress boarding at Cottenham, Cambridgeshire. If so, it is unclear how she then met Frederick Lewis. Also, is it possible that a schoolmistress would have married a railway stoker/engine driver. Perhaps it is. Anyway, it seems they moved to Nottinghamshire soon after they were married as their oldest daughter was born there.