We are a registered charity, based on the Isle of Man, set up to provide a visitors centre and archive at the site of the largest WW1 internment camp and we would be really happy to help.
We have carried out some initial research and found the internment record for Joseph Fingerneissl, born in Eferding on 27 February 1889.
Moving to Britain to work as a waiter, Joseph met his English born wife to be, Maria (Susan), who had been employed as a housemaid at the same boarding house in Eastbourne. Sadly for the couple, after only three years of marriage, 27 year old Joseph was forced to leave his marital home in Sevenoaks to be interned as an enemy "alien", with both the start and end of his internment involving time spent at Alexandra Palace internment camp. However, unlike many of the stories we are researching, this one does appear to have a happy ending, with the couple ultimately being reunited in Sevenoaks.
Please contact us via the E mail address on our website
www.knockaloe.im and we can provide you with more information about what we have found to date regarding his internment and ask you for further information you may have to allow us to research your husband's great-grandfather's story further.
We should love to add his story to our archive which will also allow us to continue to update you into the future as we progress our work collating information from various sources, as well as cross referencing with the information we are receiving from other descendants and are researching about other internees. Indeed Joseph was re-interned at Alexandra Palace only two days after another Austrian I was also researching this week who had transferred there from Knockaloe - I very much hope that information one of you has may help us all to learn more about the other.
Many thanks
Kind regards
Alison Jones
www.knockaloe.im