Googled

A woman in Wales was diligently seeking relatives who had traveled across the pond at the turn of the century.  They were the missing links that she had been actively seeking to fill in gaps in her genealogy.  Her Irish grandmother, Bridget, had relayed stories about her older sister in Ireland.  She had become ill after the birth of her youngest son and died when he was four.  He was the youngest of four, the others being two sisters and a brother.  

Times were hard and World War I was in full swing.  Their father was in the Royal Navy which left his children without parental care.  Bridget took them in but because she already had five children including two sets of twins she was unable to manage  nine children.  Her elder sister came to the rescue until their father’s sister living in the States decided to travel to Ireland and take the four children back to the States.

A wake was held because they knew they would never see them again.  Irish brew flowed with the tears and they departed to Liverpool to wait for a ship. It was dangerous to cross  the ocean because the Germans were sinking any ship to or from England.  

While they were there, the zeppelins bombed Liverpool. Surviving the war, they at last boarded a ship and headed for Baltimore to settle in the Irish community.  

They arrived in America on Christmas Day 1919. When their father was discharged from the Royal Navy, he joined the family and became involved in their painting business.

The Welsh woman googled his son's name and Baltimore.  To her surprise, an article from the Pasadena Patch popped up.  It contained a story of a woman with the same last name who had written a book, The Plaid Robe.  She commented on the article, asking if this woman knew of a man from Ireland who had traveled to Baltimore and had four children.

The Pasadena Patch emailed the comment to the author who was visiting relatives in Florida.  A long lost relative was found!  Her husband was the link so he responded and found a second cousin who had pictures that he had never seen of his father as a baby held in his grandmother’s arms.

Last month they talked on Skype, visiting each other in their homes via video cameras connecting the two families.  The timing of her googled name was too perfect for coincidence.  

Because The Plaid Robe had been published in August, an article about it ran in the Maryland Gazette in November, the Pasadena Patch ran an article about the book in December and asked the author to be a blogger, thus the name was loose on the internet when she googled the name in February.  

However, if the Pasadena Patch had not notified the author of the comment to an old article, the cousin’s request would not have been noticed.  My husband’s family is connected at last and the photo will be a treasure for our children and grandchildren.