My Big mistake 2

[annpa]

Confession time! I too have been asking for help about my brick wall, and very generous you were too with your hints.

For over 15 years (nearer to 20) I have been looking for my grandmother's brother James Kelly. I knew everything there was to know about him except his death date, though I thought it might have been around the time when I was about 9 or 10, as I remember my grandmother going to his funeral.
What we did know about him was that he had fought in the First World War in the Dardanelles and had been invalided back to Erskine House. I had always believed that he had remained at Erskine House until his death, but could not find a suitable entry in scotlandspeople. I spent a small(!) fortune on SP searching for him to no avail.

Yesterday I was on SP again looking at Previous Searches for other rellies and had an idle glance down the list of James Kellys. There was one there for Falkirk, which I had ignored on many occasions, because uncle Jimmy had died at Erskine House, hadn't he?

Anyway, what the heck, I looked at it, and, of course, it was my uncle Jimmy. He had died in Falkirk where he had been born. what a waste of time and money!! and it was in 1953, and I was right, I was 9 at the time. My childhood memories appear to be more accurate these days than the present ones!

[Rach]

and I was right, I was 9 at the time. My childhood memories appear to be more accurate these days than the present ones!

Well, Annpa, you know what they say when that starts to happen........

Seriously though, I don't think you are alone in overlooking something that's right in front of your nose. Just yesterday I was looking at an M.I. I added to my tree a little while ago and realised that it had information to get me back one more generation.
Rae

[LesleyB]

Hi Annpa
It would not be the first time I've done it, and I think we are all in danger of doing this...we make assumptions.

These assumptions are based on what we have already found out, and slowly those assumptions become sort of half-facts in our heads. Subconsciously, we begin to close our minds to other options which don't fit with the assumptions we have built up.

"He/She lived in Renfrewshire all his life" - oh, really, wasn't in Ireland at all then?
"He/She didn't marry so there will be no children on that branch" - never trust this one, especially when dealing with my tree!
"She was an old lady by that time, she must have died in Scotland" - try Canada! (Could not believe this one, the lady in question left Scotland aged 82, in the late 1800s, having lived in the same 10mile radius all her life. Strange but true)
"She was his third wife" - well you find the marriage entry then...she was his "bidey in".
All the above based on my lot.

I can think of a good few times I've caught myself doing this - and missed the blinking obvious as a result. I think the motto we perhaps need to research by is "Expect the unexpected" !
Glad you found him!

Best wishes
Lesley

[Miss Poohs]

Thank goodness you finally got him - well done how ever long it took.

I'd been looking for one of my mums uncles for ages too.

He'd been born in Ireland, and moved to England as a child, but I had no idea if he's ever married, or had children - or where in the world he'd gone to.

I had my flash of luck at PC - where I was trawling the deaths of William John Todd - I was wading through them all, and came across one death in Nairn - and taaaaa Naaaaahh it was him.

The poor soul died in a caravan park in Nairn while he was on holiday.

Sad eh?

[joette]

When you say Erskine House do you mean Erskine Hospital or to give it it's Sunday name-Princess Louise Hospital for Wounded Ex-Servicemen(Women)?
My Grandpa was also invalided there & in fact met my Granny there.
I have several photos of him & staff there.He went on to retrain & work in their Workshops as a Boot repairer & would walk the several miles to /from their each day despite the fact that he had lost a leg in France-he used to ask my Dad
"If you ever go to France have a look for my leg will you"?

[Anne H]

Joette wrote:

When you say Erskine House do you mean Erskine Hospital or to give it it's Sunday name-Princess Louise Hospital for Wounded Ex-Servicemen(Women)?
My Grandpa was also invalided there & in fact met my Granny there.

Joette,
My grandfather also lost a leg in France during WW1 and my granny took herself and youngest, three year old son (my Dad) off to France to look after him. Apparently they stayed for a couple of months and she helped cook for the men.

Do you know where your grandpa was taken while in France before he ended up in Erskine Hospital? Were all the wounded sent there to recover, and would there be any records?

Regards,
Anne H