Miss Tenn? Fenn? Lenn? of Folkestone Kent

[bearkat]

Did William or Charlotte FENN leave a will? Was Ada listed as a beneficiary?

[bearkat]

Here's a link to a notice The London Gazette 13th April 1982, for people to make a claim on Ada's estate.

http://www.london-gazette.co.uk/issues/48948/pages/5019/page.pdf

[kasden]

Well done....Ada's life is a little less of a mystery now...Iam becoming quite 'fond'of the old gal....
Kasden

[IgorStrav]

Yet another interesting evening, searching through the other Fenn family which, as I said before, unfortunately doesn't seem to be connected to the George Manville Fenns.

William Fenn came from Suffolk - I can't see him in the 1891 just ahead of his marriage to Charlotte Bussell, but I assume he must have come to Kent as that was where they married.

They had Ada Constance in 1899 as we have already discovered, and although I can see Charlotte and William in the 1911 in Folkestone, I still haven't found the 11 year old Ada Constance.

So far, I 've not been able to follow all of William's family, but Charlotte's mother, Susannah, was dead by 1911 so Ada isn't with her.  Charlotte's other siblings seem also to have died with the exception of her sister, Edith Annie, who married a Mr Thomas Crust in 1885.

They had a son Frank Hubert T Crust, born c 1885, and the family is in Folkestone in the 1901.  Thomas is a printer's foreman.

Frank Hubert T marries in Putney in 1910, and by then is an actor.  And I can see him coming back from the US (although, frustratingly, not actually going) in 1923, still describes as an actor.  He will be our Ada Constance's cousin.

I can't see either Frank Hubert T and his wife Mabel Ethel (nee Richmond) in the 1911, nor can I see (at present) his parents Thomas and Edith Annie.  Which is irritating, because that is presumably one place where Ada Constance, aged 12, could be staying.

More searching required.

My own ancestry comes from Kent, and I keep expecting to see one of my relatives turn up in this search.

[kasden]

curiouser and curiouser........actors now !..what an interesting family...and with yours coming from the area it could be  one of those 6 degrees of seperation situations too (what fun that would be )....I wonder who raised young Ada if she is  not with her parents when aged 11 ...boarding school perhaps?... or...do you think she spent time living in France as a child perhaps?...
all speculation but she did apparently study there as a younger woman before getting her teaching post at Folkestone...just when she went is the question.
Kasden

[bearkat]

Did William or Charlotte FENN leave a will? Was Ada listed as a beneficiary?

Charlotte of 31 Cheriton Gardens, Folkestone died in 1939.  She left £761 19s 8d to William, no occupation and Ada.

William of the same address died in 1841 leaving £6,388 14s 5d to Ada Constance, spinster.

[IgorStrav]

It seems certain, then, that the card was indeed to Ada Constance and that she moved with her parents to 31 Cheriton Gardens some time after 1911.

The other Fenn lady in the 1911 in Cheriton Gardens is a coincidence, though an interesting one from an interesting family.

Nobody can see Ada Constance in the 1911, though, can they (I have looked extensively and can't seem to turn her up, even though I've cast an eye over the rest of her parents' families).

As Kasden says, I wonder how she learned her French?

[bearkat]

I haven't been able to find her either.  Can only assume she was in France. 

[kasden]

Some former students of Miss Fenn have left posts on the Schools memory Page (Folkestone County School for Girls ) and anecdotally they seem to recall that she studied Chemistry in France however they think she could not manage the French to English translation of the tricky subject well enough to teach it in England and so taught French instead...she must have spent some time in France,doing or studying something.
One student remembers a French official passing through the area by train after the war and stopping to speak with the gathered student body at the station..Miss Fenn was apparently 'pushed forward' and spoke with him....natural enough I supose as she was the French Mistress and likely the most fluent and capable one to address him.
Someone else thought she was decorated by the French during the war and the Croix De Guerre was mentioned however a quick search does not list her as a recipient and this seems to be a school girl's romantic idea of what her formidable French teachers past  might have been.
What fun
Kasden