Jane Austen school librarian discovers family link

A librarian who works at a school named in memory of the one where Jane Austen studied says she was "excited" to discover she had family connections to the author.

Joanne Wenman works at The Abbey School in Reading, named after the Reading Abbey Gateway where Austen was educated from 1785.

Ms Wenman's 11th great-grandfather is Thomas Austen, also an ancestor of Jane Austen, or as the librarian explained to the BBC: "That makes me sixth cousin six times removed from Jane Austen."

Thomas Austen was born in 1534, which was 241 years before Jane was born in Steventon, Hampshire, on 16 December 1775.

The librarian is meeting other distant family members of the Pride and Prejudice novelist at a special coffee morning at the school on the day the world marks the 250th anniversary of her birth.

Her novels - which also include Sense and Sensibility, Emma, and Persuasion - are renowned for their wit, social observation and insights into the lives of early 19th Century women.

She did not marry and has no direct descendants.

Ms Wenman began researching her family tree two years ago.

"When I was looking at my family tree on [family history site] Ancestry these Austens started appearing," she explained.

"So my ninth great-grandmother is Jane Austen – not the Jane Austen but a different one – and then her grandfather is Thomas Austen.

"When I first saw a Jane Austen appear in the 1600s even that excited me. I know it sounds weird but it was seeing that name on my family tree."

This branch of Austens was based in Hawkhurst, in Kent, a village near to Horsmonden where the author's own immediate family were known to have roots.

"That made me quite excited and then I cross-referenced and checked everything... I did lots of research before I was convinced."

Ms Wenman, who is a "huge fan" of Jane Austen and did an undergraduate degree covering 19th Century literature, said the writer played a part in her becoming an English teacher for 20 years prior to working as a librarian.

She described some of these coincidences, including the school's own connection, as "uncanny", and that being related to Austen was "really nice and exciting".

"If somebody's already your hero and you admire them greatly it's going to mean so much more," she said.

Austen spent 18 months at the Reading Ladies Boarding School in the Reading Abbey Gateway.

She arrived at the boarding school aged nine, and was educated there alongside her sister Cassandra.

Dr Sarah Tullis, head of The Abbey School, said: "The whole school is delighted for Joanne.

"We already knew what a huge fan of Jane Austen she is and how much this connection would mean to her.

"What makes this even more special for us here at The Abbey is that it strengthens our connections with Jane Austen even further."