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My long lost USA relatives...

MikeMA

pfm Member
My great uncle Bertram (my maternal grandmother's brother) emigrated to the USA shortly after WW1, where he married and had two children, John and Bertram Jr. I met them all when I was a small child in the late 1950's when they came over to the UK to visit. Our families had kept in touch over the years until the son's died and then my mother, when we lost touch. However, the family has an unusual surname so this afternoon in an idle moment I googled it and, surprisingly quickly, tracked down Bertram Jr's son. He was named Michael after me and is a now a doctor in Arizona, and I've made email contact with him already and we are going to speak on the phone tomorrow. Not only that, but I found a recording made by a USA veterans organisation of his father recounting his time fighting in the Pacific in WW2 and being taken POW by the Japanese. He was a career officer in the USAAF and after WW2 was part of the US army of occupation in Japan and then Germany. It's well over 60 years since I last saw him and he's now long dead, but to hear his voice again quite by chance and thanks to Google is quite amazing, stunning even, and I still can't quite get over it. I don't suppose this makes much sense to anyone not acquainted with my family but I just felt the need to tell someone! This would have been almost impossible without the internet.
 
That is a wonderful story Mike! Reconnecting with long lost friends and relatives is such a gift. Hope you and your new found cousin have a great catch-up tomorrow!
 
What a fantastic story Mike, so much to catch up on! I’m sure your call tomorrow will be emotional but I hope it leads to good things.
 


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