Three Countries, One Family
The Nolan Lineage
Four generations, three passports, one surname. Traced from a Boston harbor to a Rhineland village to a courtyard in Chengdu.
Est. 19313 Branches4 Generations27 Names
I
U.S.
Walter Nolan
Merchant marine turned shipwright; kept a journal in three notebooks that started this whole archive.
Germany
Ilse Vogel Nolan
Left the Moselle valley in 1958; taught herself English from radio broadcasts and love letters.
II
U.S.
Richard Nolan
Stayed near the harbor; ran the family boatyard for thirty-one years.
Germany
Greta Nolan Hoffmann
Returned to Germany at nineteen; still keeps Walter’s shipwright tools in her cellar.
China
Wei Lin
Married into the family in 1985; brought the recipes that still open every reunion dinner.
III
U.S.
Sarah Nolan-Zhang
First branch cousin to marry across all three lines; started the annual reunion tradition.
Germany
Jonas Hoffmann
Restores old sailboats — a hobby he swears skipped a generation from Walter.
China
Mei Lin Nolan
Keeps the family ledger now; digitized Walter’s original notebooks in 2019.
U.S.
Daniel Nolan
Still lives four blocks from the old boatyard; teaches high school history.
Germany
Lena Hoffmann-Nolan
Moved to Chengdu for two years; came back fluent and married to Mei Lin’s cousin.
China
Tao Nolan
The family’s first professional photographer — most gallery images are his.
IV
U.S.
Owen Zhang
Named for Sarah’s grandfather; already asking for a boat of his own.
Germany
Frieda Hoffmann
Third Frieda in the family line — a name that always returns.
China
Xin Lin
Learning Mandarin, English and a little Trier dialect at once.
U.S.
Clara Nolan
The newest name added to the ledger, as of last spring.
Naming Traditions
What a name carries
In the American branch, first sons often inherit a grandfather’s name outright — hence three Walters across four generations.
In the German branch, names cycle rather than repeat exactly: Frieda, Greta and Ilse reappear every third generation, chosen by the grandmother.
In the Chinese branch, given names are often composed to echo a sibling’s or cousin’s, so that a generation shares a syllable — Wei, Mei and Xin all root back to the same character.
This tree is a living document. Dates, spellings and photographs are still being recovered from three households and two languages we don’t all speak fluently.
If you’re family and you’ve spotted a missing birthday, a misplaced city or a name we’ve gotten wrong, we would love to hear from you.