Sarah Ann Lamin (Annie)


(Click on any image to enlarge)

Annie was regularly mentioned in Harry's letters.  It would seem that Ethel's sister-in-law provided much needed support while Harry was otherwise engaged in the war. Some of her story, although a diversion from the main plot, may be interesting to the reader.



Sarah Ann was born in 1874 and so was 13 years older than Harry, 4 years older than Kate. Like Harry and the rest of her siblings, she attended Awsworth Board School. The sampler was produced as part of that education. Spot the deliberate mistake? I wonder if Annie ever noticed. 


For Annie, I also have a certificate from the School Inspector. Level 5 is, I believe, the standard that was needed at the end of schooling. As she was aged 13, that would be about right.




I can't find what happened next to her. She doesn't seem to appear in the 1891 census and  she wasn't at home with Harry, Kate and the rest of her family. At 17 she was  probably away working as a domestic servant, as by December 1896, that is the occupation recorded on the birth certificate of her son George. No father on there. George was illegitimate.


Update! Frances has found Annie on the 1891 census. All the details age, birthplace and, if read carefully, the name (Transcribed as Lamm, not Lamin) are correct. She was a servant living with the Hutchinson family at number 70 Wilson Street, in the centre of Derby, about 12 miles from her family. Well done Frances.


A "cold call" to the next door offices of AB Consulting found a very helpful Linda, who went out and took a photograph of number 70 for me. Some people are just so helpful. Thank you Linda. I can imagine Annie and Ada,  the other servant, in the top room.


By 1901, the census tells us that Annie is working as a " cook domestic", one of two servants, in one of the big houses in Lucknow Road, Mapperley in the city of Nottingham (still, a "posh" area of the city). Little George, aged 4, was living as a "nurse child" with the Lacey family in Radcliffe-on-Trent 7 miles away. This is terribly sad. Of course, Annie (recorded as that  - not Sarah Anne) - couldn't work with a baby son in tow, so some arrangement had to be made.  That is all I know for quite a while. I know that George did some service in The Great War. His son Ken told me that he thought he was in the Engineers but I can't identify him on any military records. 
Another update; George's birth was registered by "E. Lacey - Present at the birth Ratcliffe on Trent." Almost certainly Kate E Lacey of the family that was "nursing" George at the time of the 1901 census. 


We know Annie married a Mr Enoch Hartshorne in the summer of 1919 but I can't recall any mention of the man from family members.


 George married  in 1920 and , in the summer of 1929 emigrated to Australia with his wife and young son Ken. He visited England in the 1950s, I can just remember his visit. 
Ken, now in his 80s has visited quiet recently, staying with sister Anita.

Annie became the Auntie Annie that I can remember staying with when quite small. She lived about half a mile (a Km) from my family home. She died in 1954, aged 80 and is buried in the same cemetery as Kate and Connie. The picture shows Annie at the terraced house she lived in when I visited. The sharp-eyed readers may spot that, in the book, she's wrongly identified in the photograph of Willie's wedding.


I'll be packaging up the originals of these images and sending them off to Ken in Australia.


Next week Ethel.

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

Am enjoying these stories about Harry's family. I miss the blog but am so happy Harry made it home safe. Will be checking often to see how rest of his life went on. thanks Bill, this is history at its best. A loyal reader in US.

Anonymous said...

Love the blog and sad to see it coming to conclusion. Can I ask what the deliberate mistake is in the sampler? I keep looking at it and not seeing it.

Thanks!

Pte Harry Lamin said...

Shall I give it away? We're too familiar with words and so don't look at them properly once our brains have decoded them. I'd guess Annie got a ruler across her hand for this - or similar. BL

Anonymous said...

I had to look up “nurse child”; such a sad concept. Of course, it provided an explanation in turn for Connie’s place in Harry and Ethel’s household. Thank goodness for them providing her with a loving home.
The sampler is all the more special for the mistake – Annie must have been concentrating hard on her stitches!

Anonymous said...

Ah yes, now I see it. You are correct my brain was seeing what it thought it should be seeing, not what was actually there.

samlombard1313 said...

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Frances said...

I think I may have found Annie on the 1891 census!

On Find my Past, there's an Annie Lamin listed, born in 1874, occupation nurse (but obviously a domestic nurse as she's with a family called Hutchinson) in St Werburgh, Derby. Her birthplace is given as Annesley, Leicestershire, which would explain why I couldn't find her when putting Nottinghamshire as her birth county.

I went back to Ancestry and found the entry for the Hutchinson family. Annie's surname has been transcribed as Lamm. The image is quite poor, and it's easy to see why her name has been mis-transcribed.

Could this be Annie?

Pte Harry Lamin said...

This is definitely Annie. Thank you Frances. BL

Anonymous said...

Could the Hutchinson family be key to discovering who George's father was? She was probably working for them when she became pregnant? Is it possible he worked there too or lived close by?

Pte Harry Lamin said...

I can't think that we'll ever know. Detective work at 120 years distance is quite challenging. Nobody's going to admit to it now!

Anonymous said...

True :) but you'd be amazed how people love solving these sort of mysteries. Did you say George had a middle name? I vaguely remember that but can't see it in update?

Could there be a Lacey family connection?

Could the father be Mr Hutchinson? Or have I been watching too many 'Upstairs Downstairs' type dramas? :)

I have solved a similar situation in my own family history, it's not impossible to do so, even at a distance. I am working on others.

It may be possible to find out who Connie's father was much more easily - I think you noted she had a middle name that might have been the surname of her father?

By the way I've really enjoyed your project and am really enjoying the updates now. Thank you.

Frances said...

More on Annie and something on George

On the 1911 census, Annie is living back at home with her widowed father Henry, Kate, Harry, and Connie (acknowledged as Henry’s granddaughter). They are living at 145 Nottingham Road, Ilkeston.

Annie (35) has no occupation recorded; Kate (33) is a monthly nurse, and Harry (23) has “twist hand lace factory” as his occupation. Father Henry has “formerly oxide worker at chemical works.”

George Lamin, Annie’s son, is nowhere to be seen. I found him, still with the Lacey family, but they have now moved to Manchester. The address is given as 164 Upper Brook Street, Chorlton on Medlock, Manchester. George is 14, and a joiner’s apprentice.

By 1916, George is working at Chas. Macintosh & Co Limited, India Rubber Manufacturers. In military records (on Ancestry), the following memorandum, dated January 13 1916, is preserved:

“Dear Sir, the bearer, G. Lamin, wishes to join the Army for immediate service and we have released him from munition work for this purpose. Yours faithfully, Chas. Macintosh & Co. Ltd.”

George enlists aged 19 years and 1 month. His address on his papers shows that he was still at the same address as that given in the 1911 census. He is 5ft 8½ inches tall, and his occupation is given as shoemaker. He is passed for service with an A1 medical category. His next of kin is Arthur Lacey, who is his guardian. He is assigned a Sapper 440567 in the 497th (Kent) Field Company RE (Royal Engineers).

Some of the military records are charred round the edges, and difficult to read. But George was awarded one medal: the Victory medal, which he received and signed for in 1922!