Biographical information supplied by Bernadette Siebert.
Ann Elizabeth Freeman was born in 1867 in Auckland to Alfred and Celina nee Knaggs. Alfred was from Lincolnshire, England and Celina was born in Yorkshire. They were married in 1867 in Auckland and Ann was the eldest of their nine children. Celina died in 1888 just after the birth of their last child, Edgar. The following year, Alfred married widowed Ann Flatt (nee McDermott) who had three young daughters. Alfred and Ann had two more children, one dying as a baby. The family farmed in Kamo, north of Whangarei.
Illness struck the family in November 1892. Within a week three of Annie’s siblings had died ‘of illness’Annie Ethel aged 9, Olive May aged 13, and Edgar aged 4.
Another brother, John, died in 1901 aged 21 and another brother Owen was killed in WW1.
On 18 February 1914, in Auckland, Annie, now aged 46, married a divorced 41 year old bricklayer, Arthur Gerald Lewis. Arthur was divorced from his first wife Ellen in 1912. Arthur had been a boarding-house keeper and Ellen had left with one of their boarders to live in Sydney, Australia. Arthur kept the three children, Edith, Florence and William.
Just eight months later, Arthur died in October 1914, aged 41 and was buried in the Waikumete Cemetery. His will, made after his divorce and before his marriage to Annie, left trustees for his children Edith and Florence until they were 21.
Annie continued to live at Edinburgh Street, central Auckland with her stepchildren. In 1928 both step-daughters were listed at the same address. Annie died in 1943 and was buried with her husband in Waikumete Cemetery. There is no headstone. In her will, Annie left her household goods and chattels to stepdaughter spinster Edith, and her property to be divided amongst both stepdaughters – Edith and Florence. Her estate was worth 1400 pounds.
Sources
- Findagrave
- Intentions to Marry 1914 Auckland
- Archway probate Arthur Gerald Lewis Ann Elizabeth Lewis
- PAPERS PAST New Zealand Herald, Volume XXIX, Issue 9075, 30 December 1892, Page 4
- PAPERS PAST New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIX, Issue 14998, 21 May 1912, Page 5
- Electoral Rolls (ancestry.com)