Thursday, March 26, 2009

Contacted by not-previously-known relatives

The Wallaces have quite a history in the Whickham/Sunniside/Ravensworth area I represent on Gateshead Council. It goes back over one hundred and fifty years and one day I shall explain some of it on this blog. But a brief summary is needed here.

Mr great grandfather Henry Wallace was land agent to Lord Ravensworth in the later Victorian period. He had 3 sons and 4 daughters. The eldest son was Atholl, followed by John, my grandfather. I wasn't sure if Atholl had any descendents. Well, now I do know. His grand daughter, Cheryl Wallace, now Klein, got in touch with me today via the Gateshead Council website. She explained on her email who her grandfather was and asked if we are related. Turns out that Atholl emigrated to Canada 100 years ago. I feel a visit to Canada is coming on!

The Council website has been very useful for long lost wings of the Wallace family to track me and Dad down. A few years ago, part of the family I thought had not survived the war (they were trapped in Holland when the Nazis invaded) managed to locate us via Gateshead Council website. The result was Dad, then 72 years old, met his sister Margaret, then 89, for the first time. It's an amazing story and as I said earlier, one of these days I will tell it, and show the video of when they first met.

---
Sent via BlackBerry

No comments: