Anna Amanda Knowlton: WikiTree Orphan

Each week of 2026, I’m aiming to adopt at least one orphaned profile on WikiTree. These are profiles that have been created but no longer have a manager. I’m prioritising profiles that have very few sources.

This week was Anna Amanda Knowlton

AI Disclosure: I used generative AI to create this biography for Anna Knowlton by inputting all my research about her.

The Life of Anna Amanda (Knowlton) Fuller

Anna Amanda Knowlton, known as Annie, was born on 9 March 1824 in rural Quebec. She was the only child of Samuel Willard Knowlton, a farmer, and his wife, Amanda Lewis. Life in Shefford County during Annie’s childhood would have been simple and work-focused, centred around family and farming. When her mother died in 1840, Annie was just sixteen, and it’s likely she took on adult responsibilities early.

Not long after her mother’s death, on 2 February 1841, Annie married Giles Fuller, a farmer from nearby Bolton. The marriage was held at the Anglican church in Shefford, witnessed by Giles’s brother Benjamin. Annie’s family ties were small, while the Fuller family was large and well-known in the area, so marriage may have brought her into a close, kin-based farming community.

A year later, Annie chose to be baptised as a Methodist. She was eighteen by then, which was unusual, since most baptisms took place in infancy. The local history of Shefford suggests that people often moved between Protestant denominations, so Annie’s adult baptism might have reflected shifting influences within her community or her personal faith.

Annie and Giles raised three children — William, Luther, and Sarah — and worked their land in Bolton. Over time, they appeared in multiple census records alongside many other Fuller families living on nearby farms. Their household also included Giles’s aging father, Joseph Fuller, showing that several generations lived and worked together.

By 1871, Annie was living with her children and several relatives in Brome County. Giles does not appear on that census, but she was still listed as married. A decade later, in 1881, Giles is again documented with her, now in their late fifties, continuing to farm in the same area. They remained part of the Methodist community.

Through the 1890s, Giles and Annie lived with their son Luther and his family, helping with the farm as they aged. In 1901, Annie was recorded one last time: seventy-seven years old, still married, and living in Brome. Both she and Giles were again listed in the Church of England, suggesting they returned to their original denomination later in life.

Annie’s exact date of death hasn’t been confirmed, though some records suggest she died on 12 September 1907. Her life, traced through the records of Shefford and Brome, reflects the steady rhythm of rural Quebec in the 19th century — faith, work, and family all bound together in the history of one small farming community.

(follow the link to her WikiTree profile, which clearly lays out all the sources and documentation).