I spend most of my time at the moment doing historical research, most of it is for my daughter who teaches history and I like tracing my family tree.
I was looking on friends reunited and looking up my classmates from primary school. There was a surprising lack of entries. My school had been in a poor part of Manchester not far from the dye works, the rubber works, the chemical works, probably not the healthiest place to be! I had a photo of my class which I put on the web site. One face stood out, a young boy with an unusual name who said he wanted to marry me when he grew up. I remembered how special it had made me feel when he used to give me small gifts as a child, he used to give me the ring out of his lucky bags! I was the paint monitor at school and always gave him the best paints to paint with. I was so happy, I was given a level of attention I had up to that point never had before in my life.
Feeling nostalgic I looked on "find my past" to see if he had got married, but there was no entry, all the records from 1984 are on the computer and free to access to a point. I was upset to see that he had died at just 30 years of age. I guess it was him as his name was so unusual. It made me quite sad, perhaps it would have been better not too have looked.
By a strange coincidence it looked like one of his ancestors had married one of mine in the 1800's, so maybe there had been a genetic attraction. I think he may have been a third cousin.
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- 2009-04-21 @ 12:40:27
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- 2009-04-21 @ 15:07:44
A sad but interesting post Indigo.
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- 2009-04-23 @ 17:13:58
Your story is so nostalgic and sad. Never to see him again in this life. You write very well and brings back memories of old friends I cannot find anymore either. My favourite friend was Judith Holland, (nicknamed Holly.) She called me Jollyweez from Charlotte Joye Louise. She ran away with me from home. We caught a bus and arrived in Hereford from Ludlow. We had nowhere to sleep and we wandered around until 2:00 a.m., and then gave ourselves up at a police station where they gave us a cup of tea and called our parents. I caught merry hell. We were separated and never allowed to talk to each other again. That was in 1955 at the Girls Grammar School in Ludlow. I went back there in 1978 but nobody could help me when I asked after her. I still hope she will see me somewhere on these blogs and get in touch! She would be my age now, 66! Thanks for your story.
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- http://indigoblue
- 2009-04-25 @ 16:39:21
Perhaps you could find your friend on friends reunited. its free now, before you had to pay. I like the story of you running away, I bet it would be nice to catch up with your friend!
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- 2009-04-25 @ 16:59:40
I remember now: her name was Judith Hollings, not Holland. I live in Texas so if I Google-up: Friends United, would they find her in the UK? Thank you for the tip anyway. I am going to see what happens right now!
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- http://indigoblue
- 2009-04-26 @ 08:05:42
I did have a look for your friend on friends reunited but she doesn't seem to be on. Mostly you have to search by school, if you look you need to put your school in and your classmates should come up! its a lot of fun and its free. hope this helps!
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- 2009-04-26 @ 15:14:25
I looked up Girls Grammar School in Ludlow, Shropshire - and they came back with no such place. Well I know it was closed years ago but, somewhere, there must be old records in the archives from 1955, (long time ago!) I may just Google up the Grammar school in Ludlow - perhaps it was called 'High School' instead - but I don't think so. Thanks for all your helpful pointers Marika. Is a very nice site: Happy Sunday! jollyweez
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- 2009-04-29 @ 08:56:03
'Friends reunited' is free here in NZ.
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- http://indigoblue
- 2009-04-29 @ 10:54:15
So You have friends reunited over there too! I didn't know that.
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- 2009-04-29 @ 20:27:09
....and it's one of the few things in life today that is free.
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- 2009-04-30 @ 21:25:07
We hope that all is well with you and yours.
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- http://indigoblue
- 2009-04-30 @ 23:29:43
yes thank you skip !
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- 2009-05-02 @ 22:05:38
Just came to check your next post???
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- http://indigoblue
- 2009-05-03 @ 11:12:29
You are funny skip! Are you encouraging me to write?
skip2468
A very sad ending. Unfortunately research very often brings good news and bad news. However, I'm sure that you will be able to press on.