Developing

the

Family History

of a Woman who was born in about 1952

When Very Little

was

Known Beforehand

The facts as presented:

Very sparse information was provided by the woman - a photocopy of a ship's ticket from 1950, when the father was transported from Italy to Canada; and copies of 2 letters from US armed forces personnel praising the father's behaviour and work ethic in Germany in 1949. I need you to do my family history, she said!

The challenge:

Goodness. Where to start? Well, at the beginning! So that's what I did.

The results:

After a great deal of searching, it was established that the woman's father had been born in a small village in eastern Poland late in 1926. He had been scooped up by German forces when he was 14 years old, and taken to work sites in central Germany. He was moved around a bit, and after the war ended he was shifted from one displaced person camp to another. He worked for American forces in western Germany for almost a year, and was returned to re-patriation camps. Then in 1950, he was shunted to Italy, place on board a ship, and transported to Canada. In Canada he went to the bush around Hornepayne, in northern Ontario, married, and eventually moved wih his family to Thunder Bay where he died. His memory lives on in various charitable causes to this day. But immediate access to Polish records caused a roadblock that was decided to not climb over.

After a great deal of very different searching, it was established that the woman's mother had been born in Finland, and spent many years in Denmark with her parents before emigrating to Canada in 1951. This family settled just north of Thunder Bay, where the woman's grandfather died unexpectedly. The woman's grandmother remarried, and maintained close ties with her much older sister, who had emigrated to the Thunder Bay area in 1906. Vital facts concerning the woman's great and great great grandparents in Finland were obtained, and it was decided to not pursue things any farther - even though with a bit of work the woman's ancestral lineages could be established back to the early 1600s or late 1500s.

- - - - Project 201231    (Completed 14 December 2022)