The second mystery about Nan was the identity of her father. Family lore said Challoner. At that time the 1881 census was available online via Family Search, operated by the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter Day Saints (LDS), with which most family historians will be familiar. The family then lived at Bridgnorth Road, Compton, but there was no sign of a Challoner nearby.
Compton Bridge House, where Nan grew up.
Harriet senior was there with her parents, Edward Evans, 48, boatman, born Wolverhampton, and Susannah, 50, born Wombourne. Harriet senior was a domestic housemaid and her younger siblings: William, boatman; Jane, general domestic servant; Mary, laundress; Amey, Edward and Ruth, scholars; and Francis [girl], aged 2. The occupations of neighbours were a mixed bag of bricklayer, laundress, gardener, huckster (a hawker or pedlar), house painter, commercial clerk, police sergeant and constable, white smith, labourer at coal wharf, agricultural labourer. This variety was in stark contrast to the row upon row of coal mining men that my Dennis ancestors lived among.
That was all for the time being. It was not until the 1891 census was published via Ancestry.co.uk that more progress was made.
In March 2005, Dad and I visited the old house, which was home to a furnishings business and restaurant. The canal is on the far side of the house and to the rear are some workshops, which used to be stables for horses that hauled canal boats.
Andrew's Kindred 