People   (Re-unions, trace old friends and relatives.)

Time. For an interesting update if everyone is ready.

Shortly after the last entry here in 2018, my cousin in Wigan arranged for a DNA submission for her Dad, my surviving uncle in Wigan, via Ancestry. She added herself last summer, as did another cousin from my other uncle in Australia. At the end of 2019, I followed suit.

The three of us showed up on the Ancestry DNA site closely linked together as we expected, along with a hundred or so very distant connections. On the 3rd weekend in May this year, a long weekend here in Canada, I popped onto Ancestry DNA again for another quick look. A very strong possible 1st cousin had turned up. Not the male we were thinking about, a female. I checked with my cousin in Wigan and she confirmed the same match showing on her account and her Dad’s, so I sent a message to the individual to say hello. Her Mum was born in 1930 in Leeds, Yorkshire!

Her Mum’s name was Cynthia and her Birth Certificate showed a Clara Bretton as her Mum and a Charles Goulding as her deceased Father . The father’s occupation was given as ‘Household Plumber’. We are all Gob Smacked!!!

Clara has proved herself to be one smart young woman! She kept her first name as we expected, her husbands first name and occupation, but listed him deceased.

When Clara’s father moved the family to Barnsley some time prior to WW1 to take a position as a Mine Inspector, they met a Goulding family in the area. Clara did Land Army work in the area until her father’s death in a colliery accident in 1917 that an inquest deemed very suspicious in nature. Her Mum they took the family back to settle in Wigan. So we now know where the fake husband’s last name came from. We think Clara may actually have been staying with this family in 1930, but need to explore that further now. In the meantime, however, we are admiring the reality tightrope walk Clara was on. Using information so close to her real identity, if she was ever caught out, she could easily say she was misinterpreted in what she said.

Still more to learn in this mystery, but when the lockdown lifts, there is going to be one amazing family party in Wigan! My uncle in Australia would have been thrilled to learn he is no longer the ‘baby’ in the group of siblings. Sadly, my uncle Terry in Wigan passed just weeks before this news broke, but we are sure he is delighted to watch it all start to unfold now.

That is all for the moment.

David