Dear All,
Well. You just couldn't make this up, could you
If you've been following this little saga, you'll all know the story from the start of the thread, so to be as concise as I can, the tale is picked up from when Carol started to PM with research info she'd spent some time on.......
The address in Herne Bay for 2002 showed an unrelated name as resident, and it appeared the address was now flats. Probably not worth pursuing.
Then she sent a death search result that seemed to match Mrs. Shinkfield,(Canterbury district, which Herne Bay comes under), for 1993, the year linking up with when we got the desk from hubby's uncle. So far, so good. Assumption desk came from house clearance during time of his antiques business.
Next she sent results of likely marriage between William Shinkfield and Margaret Bastin in Rugby. That's when my eyes popped out of my head - Bastin is the surname of hubby's uncle!!!!!!!!
Phoned Uncle. Didn't tell him why details of all this, just asked if he remembered where he'd got desk from. Reply? "Just a house clearance in the area". Told him about medals, and name of Shinkfield. Reply? "But they were my Aunt & Uncle!"
In a nutshell, he hadn't remembered he'd taken desk when clearing Aunt's house, and had therefore never mentioned it at the time. The Shinkfield name meant nothing to me, and therefore made no connection.
End result? The Shinkfields never had children, and he is the only surviving relative. He is amazed, delighted and very touched that the medals will be winging their way to him via recorded delivery within the next few days.
I am feeling a little red-faced and very bemused by the whole thing, but hey, I started the whole search with the best and truest of reasons; to reunite any family of the Shinkfields with such personal items, and that's been the result.
Needless to say, I've thanked Carol personally for her genius contribution to solving this mystery, and I thank all of you for your interest, information and support during my quest!
This is exactly what makes Rootschat such a brilliant site, thank you all for 'coming along for the ride'!
I got my happy ending
Mrs. T.
