According to My Dad, Henry Frederick Coleman came from Germany. His name was originally Kalnung (Heinrich Kalnung ?). He served in the Merchant Navy and, on being discharged, emigrated to England, settled down and raised a family.

Not yet clear, is when he/we stopped being Kalnung and became Coleman.

In 1887, on his marriage certificate, and
In 1888, when John Henry was born, he was a baker.
In 1891, when Dora was born, he was working as a Railway Porter
In the 1901 Census he is listed as Park Keeper.

My Dad remembers that his "Grandad was a gruff old teutonic B******, who played the zither and the accordian, and sang tenor".

He remembers him working as a lavatory attendant at St. James Park in London ("Park keeper" !). My Dad would visit him in his "hut", after school, and his Granddad gave him cups of tea, and sang and played his accordion.

They lived in Victoria, London

Henry didn't like (hated !) his son's wife, Florence Moore, ("that Jewess !"). When she died, he moved in with his son, in Lambeth.


Update May 2013: I have been contacted by two of Henry's Greatgranddaughters and they have supplied some new information. Henry Frederick may not have been born in Germany after all. A new possibility is that he was born in a workhouse in St. Pancras, and tried to hide this fact by "saying different things to different people".

The 'paper trail' is very clear from his marriage onwards, but we are still looking for more 'proven' information on his earlier life, and origins.