Success Stories

Finding Albert Edward Watkins My Mother-in-Law is 87 years old, her parents split up when she was a baby and never new her Father. She thought her name was Evans until she was sixteen when she needed a birth certificate for her first job and found that her real surname was Watkins and her Father was Albert Edward Watkins Sgt 5th Rifle Brigade. Her Mother would not talk about him and she thought he was dead. I was tracing my Family on the web and she said that she always wondered what happened to her Father. So I obtained the marriage certificate for her parents, found him on various censuses and obtained a birth certificate. I then traced his death in 1977 and obtained a death certificate. The informant was his son-in-law which meant that Audrey had a half sister. Sadly the informant had died in 2000 and his wife several years before. Talking to neighbours at the address on the cert, I found out that they had a son. And looking at BT directory enquiries I traced him and spoke to him on the phone. He said that his Mother had known she had a half Sister because of documents she had to obtain, but had never told her Brother and other Sister in case it upset them. He then sent emails to his cousin in Canada and she contacted me and said that her Aunt had informed her also that there was a half Sister and that it was wonderful that contact has been made, and would tell her Father as soon as the snow cleared because she wanted to tell him personally. So at the age of 87 my Mother–in-Law being an only child, my Wife being an only child, suddenly finds a whole new family they never knew about. Audrey is going to meet her youngest Sister for the first time on March 13th and dreams of meeting her Brother Donald before meeting her maker. This is a short account of the story from the Gosport and Portsmouth area. [email protected]