Saturday 24 September 2011

Looking for Lottie

Lottie M Hanney appeared in my life when I began researching my family history. I had a very unhappy childhood but my grandparents gave me my happy memories thankfully. So a few years ago I decided to trace back to my ancestors and gain a sense of family from that. On the 1891 census a Lottie Hanney appeared listed with the occupants of my great grandparents house in Bath, Somerset. She was 13 years old and described as a Nurse/Domestic and immediately I was intrigued. I then discovered her aged 3 classed as a visitor on the 1881 census in a house in Bath along with 2 adults in their early 20's. More research revealed her on a passenger list of a liner docked in Southampton that had departed from New York in 1904....Lottie was now a 26 year old woman. And then she disappeared....after searching for months I couldn't find her on any records. So fast forward to September 2011 and Lottie presented herself to me again in my dreams and in my thoughts and I began looking again. I found a little more information that there was a Hanney connection - my great grandmothers sister had married a Charles Hanney....but no mention of a Lottie.
I've painted her recently standing in a doorway....and found 4 old photographs of a very similar doorway of my great grandparents house in Bath...I couldn't believe how similar it was...black with stone pillars..just as I had depicted.
So here she is again.....created in pastels...if only she could give me the answers....I'm still looking for Lottie.