RootsChat.Com

Just to let you all know I am STILL searching for some clue as to where William Briggs went to.

I would dearly love to find some trace of family and time is running out now.

Still " the show is not over until the fat lady stops singing"  and I will carry on until I take my last breath

Bye for now!

I would suggest that you write to the Stadt Archive ( Town Archives ) in Germany  giving as much information as you have got.

If you can write in German all the better but most Germans speak very good English and I am sure you will find them  very helpful.

I knew very little about my Grandfather Adolph Wieland as it had been kept a family secret for so long.

He was also interned at Knockaloe and had to leave his motherless family of eight in 1919.

I just kept on writing to whoever I could think of in Germany and eventually found where my grandfather had come from.

Eventually we were able to go to Germany and found his birthplace and the little house from where he baked and sold bread.  He was a master baker.

We even went into his house and met a lady whose family had known my grandfather.

We met family who knew nothing about us and finally all ended well.

 Good luck with your search.


Florence

I have already exhausted the Ireland connetion as I recently found an Irish cousin wno is the granddaughter of the family my dad stayed with.

I have also found a relative in Stoke.  Her grandmother and my grandfather were sister and brother. 

I am definitely going to try the M.O.D. again.

Thank you for all your advice

I have enquired from the M.O.D  regarding Williams records   It was quite some time ago but I was more or less told that unless I had a death certificate  and had proof that I was next of kin it was a definite no no.

Of course at that time I did not have the photographs which were given to me.

The gentleman who gave them to me  was the son of one of these officers and he was almost sure that he had seen one photograph which had the name Briggs on.   That was why the piece in the newspaper rang a with him.

He thought that the soldier wearing the spectacles was the same man who is on the original photo I have ie. William.

At first I thought not but have since changed my mind.  I only hope that it is not just wishful thinking on my part.   I sent a copy of my photo to Kew and they identified the badge as that of the R.A.M.C.


I will follow your advice and write to the M.O.D. again with all the info I have.


I understand your willingness to help.  To be honest I would do the same and indeed have.

This may amuse you

My grandfather was a German immigrant to this country in the early 1900s.   None of his grandchildren were aware of this as his children were afraid to say anything about their Germanic roots

He had been interned at Knockaloe P.O.W Campafter the sinking of the Lusitania.

I will not bore you as it is along story however, I joined the Anglo German Family History Soc. and a lady who lived in Scicily wanted to know where her grandfather had lived in Fallowfield.

My husband and I found the house which had since been converted to a children's nursery.

We took a photo to send to her and when a young lady came out to ask us what we were doing We told her and showed her the letter which this lady had sent.

We came home quite satisfied with ourselves and were just about to have a cup of tea when there was a knock on the door.

On answering there were two police officers there.  They asked what kind of a car we owned and had we been in the Fallowfield area a short while earlier.

They said that the lady who ran the nursery had reported that there had been a couple taking photographs and speeding off

I ask you Bonny and Clyde.  Two pensioners speeding off in a V.W.Golf


We laugh about it now of course and would do the same again

How very kind of you to take so much trouble to help me. 

It is strange what little bits you remember as a child what a pity we did not ask more questions of our parents.

But there again in my case both my parents knew very little in fact they both had quite troubled childhoods but in very different ways.
 
You have lifted my spirits as I felt as though my search would have to be put to bed.

I look forward to hearing from you again.

Could you please tell me how I can follow up the info regarding passenger lists.

Who would hold the originals.?

I am crossing my fingers