Within my family, it was unknown what had happened to my grandfather's sister. Catherine had last appeared on the 1901 Census at Uddingston, but my grandfather, if he knew, had never passed on any details to my father. We were all in the dark.
One day when searching for her, I saw a mysterious census for 1911, with HUNDREDS of young women all living at the same place in London. Information on the census was scanty but one of these woman had the same name as my missing ancestor. It gave was her name, Catherine, date of birth, born in Scotland. Could it be her? Million to one chance! ....And what kind of a place could this be with all these women anyway? I was mystified. Eventually, after going through page after page of this census, I discovered that all these women were in fact living at the Salvation Army headquarters in London, training to be Salvation Army Officers! It couldn't be her, could it?
I sensed it would be a complete waste of time - but I took the bull by the horns and wrote to the Salvation Army, asking if they might have any details about this Catherine from the 1911 census. I didn't hold out much hope. I was convinced it would be someone else.
...A short while later, I was dumbfounded to receive an amazing letter from the Salvation Army, telling me EVERYTHING about her - and enclosed was a brilliant, large photograph of her in full S.A. uniform with another S.A. officer she had married in 1907.
The letter explained that Catherine & her husband were very well known to them and they had both been sent out as Missionaries to India, and that's where they had been all there lives, helping the poor, the sick and dying. They were visiting Leper Colonies, treking over hills on horseback and struggling across remote rivers, just to reach these distant Leper Colonies. Shivers ran up and down my spine as I read this. Just couldn't stop the tears.
Catherine only returned to the U.K. when she became ill in the 1930's and she died shortly after in England. .... So now I knew what had happened to my long lost ancestor. She had led a completely unselfish life, devoting herself to helping other people. How wonderful is that?