This note is about the power of being tenacious, of never giving up whatever obstacles you face. It is a quality I'm told I'm blessed with, and I hope you are too.
Until two weeks ago the only things I knew about my Grandfather, Henry Scott (my Mum's Dad) was:
As I was growing up I often asked why it was that I saw my other grandparents and not him, and I guess while I was young it was easy for people to not answer, or avoid the subject. But when I started to trace our family in about 1968 Henry was top of my list to find out about. But this proved just about impossible. Living family relatives still would not talk about him, and it was as if he never existed. He was talked about so badly that I really did want to find out more and prove that he wasn't all bad. He was my grandad after all.
I was certain that I would find a descendant of one of his five sisters and two brothers who had a photo and could tell me about him - but no, it wasn't to be. After about five years of searching I did get in touch with a sister of my Gran who was prepared to talk to me but all I learned was:
At least that was something. Straight away I contacted North Thames Gas to ask about their employee records as that should include pension records and would give me an address - but they informed me that all the records were destroyed in a fire in the Blitz of London in WW2. Another dead end.
So then I tried contacting all the rowing clubs near Brentford/Kew to see if he was a member. I discovered that the gas company had a rowing club - that had to be it. Guess what? The club house burned down and with it all the records.
I kept looking over the years but at that time it was necessary to go to the record office to look things up and they were all over the country. A few years ago everything started to be stored online. That was revolutionary, now people could search for records from anywhere from the comfort of their own home. I thought that would solve all my problems - I searched records for death, electoral rolls, census returns, marriage, workhouse, schools, army, navy. You name it I looked, but still nothing.
What I had done though was find out lots of places he didn't live. I had been concentrating on Brentford and Isleworth, that was where he was born, grew up, married, and worked. I guessed that he hadn't moved far, so I began to look in nearby places that had rowing clubs, which focused me on Twickenham, Putney, Mortlake, and Richmond. But still nothing. My search had started in 1968 and still in 2016 Harry was a mystery.
A few weeks ago I mentioned to Becky (Phoebe's Mum and also searching her family history) that I had hit a long term brick wall with Harry. She said she would check a site that she used and came back to me with a newspaper article that seemed to be about Harry. This was to be the clue that led me to solving the whole mystery.
The article mentioned a court case in 1940 at Brentford Court when Harry and his wife were granted a separation. Bingo! That date tied in with when I thought he left the family home - it was him!!! Even better the article mentioned that he was living in Richmond. Oh yes, now we were really on a roll.
I couldn't find him on the electoral roll so made the assumption that he probably stayed in Richmond and would have died in that area. But I had no idea when exactly so started to trawl through the records. I found a death record for 1978 but wasn't sure it was him as the birth year was different to what I had. Luckily for me Richmond cemetery keeps records online and I could look up his grave location, but what I also found was the key to everything. Yes he was buried in Richmond but in the same grave were three more people - Mary Helen Scott, Irene Bertha Grace Cotter, and Thomas Noel Cotter. Now who were they? Could one of them be his second wife maybe? Was the other a daughter, do we have new relatives?
I searched to see if Harry married again around 1940 but found nothing. Then I remembered that as he was never divorced from my Gran he could not marry again while she was alive, but she died in 1955 so I looked again around then. Nothing. So I looked for his possible wife Mary Helen, could her maiden name be Grace as that name was given to the possible daughter. And yes, there it was, a Mary Helen Grace married Henry James Scott in Richmond 1957. I also found a birth record for Irene in 1940 and she was given the surname Scott even though her parents were not married at that time.
Well that was it, now I knew what had happened to Harry ... but was there a chance that Irene had any children? I knew her married name was Cotter and presumably she married a Thomas. I found the marriage but it was in Swadlincote, Derbyshire so I guess Irene also lived there, but she was buried in Richmond. Her death was recorded in Swadlincote so I searched the local paper obituary section to see if there was a notice, and yes there was. It gave the name of the funeral company so I emailed them to ask if they would put me in touch with one of the relatives who organised the funeral. Amazingly they did, and I received an email from Karen who it turns out is Irene's daughter. Incredible! Karen is my half first cousin.
We have emailed back and forth and she has told me about her grandfather (my grandfather too) and what he was like as a man. It seems he was liked by everyone, always had a smile on his face, had a great sense of humour, and enjoyed nothing more than a pint and watching football. How wonderful. Makes me so proud.
Even better she sent me this picture - at last, after 48 years of searching, my Grandad.
Until two weeks ago the only things I knew about my Grandfather, Henry Scott (my Mum's Dad) was:
- I knew hardly anything at all
- I had never seen him or spoken to him
- I did not have any photographs of him
- He left the family home when my Mum was 12 and was never seen again by the family
- Nobody had any idea where he went to live
- The family effectively wrote him out of their lives, pictures were destroyed, his sports trophies trashed
- They did not want to speak about him
- My uncle hated him, my Mum tried to find him but never did before she died, which made me even more determined to find what happened to him.
- My Gran never divorced him
As I was growing up I often asked why it was that I saw my other grandparents and not him, and I guess while I was young it was easy for people to not answer, or avoid the subject. But when I started to trace our family in about 1968 Henry was top of my list to find out about. But this proved just about impossible. Living family relatives still would not talk about him, and it was as if he never existed. He was talked about so badly that I really did want to find out more and prove that he wasn't all bad. He was my grandad after all.
I was certain that I would find a descendant of one of his five sisters and two brothers who had a photo and could tell me about him - but no, it wasn't to be. After about five years of searching I did get in touch with a sister of my Gran who was prepared to talk to me but all I learned was:
- he was known as 'Harry' or 'Scottie'
- he was a champion rower (interesting as I rowed at College)
- he worked for the gas company
- he had dark hair, and
- he and his brother were in a home as children and 'didn't have much of a childhood'
At least that was something. Straight away I contacted North Thames Gas to ask about their employee records as that should include pension records and would give me an address - but they informed me that all the records were destroyed in a fire in the Blitz of London in WW2. Another dead end.
So then I tried contacting all the rowing clubs near Brentford/Kew to see if he was a member. I discovered that the gas company had a rowing club - that had to be it. Guess what? The club house burned down and with it all the records.
I kept looking over the years but at that time it was necessary to go to the record office to look things up and they were all over the country. A few years ago everything started to be stored online. That was revolutionary, now people could search for records from anywhere from the comfort of their own home. I thought that would solve all my problems - I searched records for death, electoral rolls, census returns, marriage, workhouse, schools, army, navy. You name it I looked, but still nothing.
What I had done though was find out lots of places he didn't live. I had been concentrating on Brentford and Isleworth, that was where he was born, grew up, married, and worked. I guessed that he hadn't moved far, so I began to look in nearby places that had rowing clubs, which focused me on Twickenham, Putney, Mortlake, and Richmond. But still nothing. My search had started in 1968 and still in 2016 Harry was a mystery.
A few weeks ago I mentioned to Becky (Phoebe's Mum and also searching her family history) that I had hit a long term brick wall with Harry. She said she would check a site that she used and came back to me with a newspaper article that seemed to be about Harry. This was to be the clue that led me to solving the whole mystery.
The article mentioned a court case in 1940 at Brentford Court when Harry and his wife were granted a separation. Bingo! That date tied in with when I thought he left the family home - it was him!!! Even better the article mentioned that he was living in Richmond. Oh yes, now we were really on a roll.
I couldn't find him on the electoral roll so made the assumption that he probably stayed in Richmond and would have died in that area. But I had no idea when exactly so started to trawl through the records. I found a death record for 1978 but wasn't sure it was him as the birth year was different to what I had. Luckily for me Richmond cemetery keeps records online and I could look up his grave location, but what I also found was the key to everything. Yes he was buried in Richmond but in the same grave were three more people - Mary Helen Scott, Irene Bertha Grace Cotter, and Thomas Noel Cotter. Now who were they? Could one of them be his second wife maybe? Was the other a daughter, do we have new relatives?
I searched to see if Harry married again around 1940 but found nothing. Then I remembered that as he was never divorced from my Gran he could not marry again while she was alive, but she died in 1955 so I looked again around then. Nothing. So I looked for his possible wife Mary Helen, could her maiden name be Grace as that name was given to the possible daughter. And yes, there it was, a Mary Helen Grace married Henry James Scott in Richmond 1957. I also found a birth record for Irene in 1940 and she was given the surname Scott even though her parents were not married at that time.
Well that was it, now I knew what had happened to Harry ... but was there a chance that Irene had any children? I knew her married name was Cotter and presumably she married a Thomas. I found the marriage but it was in Swadlincote, Derbyshire so I guess Irene also lived there, but she was buried in Richmond. Her death was recorded in Swadlincote so I searched the local paper obituary section to see if there was a notice, and yes there was. It gave the name of the funeral company so I emailed them to ask if they would put me in touch with one of the relatives who organised the funeral. Amazingly they did, and I received an email from Karen who it turns out is Irene's daughter. Incredible! Karen is my half first cousin.
We have emailed back and forth and she has told me about her grandfather (my grandfather too) and what he was like as a man. It seems he was liked by everyone, always had a smile on his face, had a great sense of humour, and enjoyed nothing more than a pint and watching football. How wonderful. Makes me so proud.
Even better she sent me this picture - at last, after 48 years of searching, my Grandad.