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

I'm fairly certain, LEP, that I know who Nellie's real, biological father was, on my OH's side - the youngish man concerned left the area, going to live with others of his family, where he married and had other children, but we've spent ages over the last few years trying to find this "Nellie" who had "had a good job as a demonstrator, was very stylish, and married a John Rutter".
As you know, it seemed to be compulsory to be called "John" if your surname was Rutter, in Wigan area, and I knew that this may not help me find Nellie unless I knew her maiden surname.
When the 1939 register came out I listed all the likely females, within 5 years either way of the age I'd been told she'd be, with husbands called John rutter, and found the perfect fit.
Then started the real fun of trying to discover her maiden name, and hence the poor unfortunate girl who was her Mum.All I had gained was her birthdate and his, as in my early post.
I'd struggled on for ages, more or less single-handed, unable to ask you experts because for some reason I simply could neither log on to this site since last year, nor could I re-register under another name. My E-mails to the Admin simply went unanswered until last week, when I made what what I felt would be a final effort at contact before giving up totally brought a helpful response from "Ron" - who wonderfully fixed it for me to slip back on here.
LEP, so good to hear from you again, thanks for your help, and so sorry you've not been well. Mygriffiths, you've been wonderful - again!(Interesting that there seem to be some links, my OH has "Griffiths" from Wigan after they left Shropshire, in his background.) Winnie, thank you so much for your help and efforts, I really do feel quite overawed by you all - I've only once passed through Wigan, to my knowledge, myself, and keep having to look at an old map I've cobbled up, to keep me understanding where is where.
So another bit of a family story seems more or less to have sorted itself out. Wonderful.
(Honestly, my side were all so straightforward - dare I say "boring", that OH's ancestors have really kept me working hard to find them!)
Off to bed now, probably dream about wandering miners and their wandering ........