Success Stories

About 3 weeks ago I discovered the very sad story of my Great Aunt Ada. Born in Hampshire in 1886. She became pregnant at 15 and had her 1st son Ernest at 16. He died just over a year later in 1904. She married George in 1906 and their 1st child Constance was born in 1907. Her dearest brother William was killed in WW1 in November 1914 and then she lost her husband George at Flanders in April 1915. 3 months later her son Charles was born. They went to live with her widowed mother and sister. Poor Ada ended up in the workhouse and having suffered a breakdown, she was transferred from the workhouse to the County assylum where she died in 1919, leaving 2 orphaned children. I was devastated to discover this poor womans plight. I then discovered from the National Archives that her husbands medals were undelivered to his Next of Kin due to her illness and death. I set out to fnd her children and Grand- children. Charles and Constance had 3 children, one of which is deceased, one is very reclusive so I tried to find Charles' son Michael. I was given an address for Michael by another GR member called Whirley Whirley. I posted a letter to Michael this Tuesday and received an e-mail from him Wednesday. I was thrilled to discover that the medals had eventually reached George's family along with his wallet containing the bullet hole from the bullet that killed him. His son has donated these items to the Hampshire Regiment museum where I was able to view them yesterday. I am also waiting for transcriptions from the assylums' records to discover what happened to Great Aunt Ada.

I have made contact with a few living cousins, that I never knew existed, in the last few weeks thanks to the kindness of Whirley Whirley who has done numerous electoral register look ups for me. It has been so exciting and I would not have been able to do it without Whirley's help. So a great big THANK YOU to Whirley from me.