Poll

Did your parents/grandparents meet because of WW2?

Yes
17 (73.9%)
No
6 (26.1%)

Total Members Voted: 23

Author Topic: Did your ancestors meet because of war?  (Read 1893 times)

Offline CarolA3

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Re: Did your ancestors meet because of war?
« Reply #18 on: Tuesday 01 January 19 12:13 GMT (UK) »
A young man from West Yorkshire, working in a woollen mill in 1939, joined the Army.  He met a young widow in Liverpool.  She was in domestic service and had a young daughter from her first marriage.

They married in Yorkshire in 1941 when the daughter was six.  After the war ended, they had a son together but eventually divorced.  I'm married to their son, who wouldn't exist if that soldier hadn't been sent to Liverpool and hadn't been willing to take care of the little girl as well as her mother.

(Btw both of our fathers were in the Royal Corps of Signals in WW2 and were at Monte Cassino.  They'd both died before we met, but you can't help wondering whether their paths might have crossed.)

Carol
OXFORDSHIRE / BERKSHIRE
Bullock, Cooper, Boler/Bowler, Wright, Robinson, Lee, Prior, Trinder, Newman, Walklin, Louch

Offline clairec666

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Re: Did your ancestors meet because of war?
« Reply #19 on: Tuesday 01 January 19 12:41 GMT (UK) »
Thanks everyone for sharing their stories. It's really good to know that information like this is getting passed down through the generations. I'm so glad that I've heard stories from my grandparents' generation, but unfortunately I've heard very few stories from the previous generation, i.e. my great-grandparents.
I have two sets of great-grandparents that married shortly after WW1, but no information about how they met. One couple both grew up in the same small town and married in 1919, so I suspect that their paths may have crossed even if the war hadn't happened.
The couple I'm most curious about married in 1919 - he came from a farming family in Shropshire, she came from an industrial area of the West Midlands, not too many miles away as the crow flies. His brothers all married local girls. I have no information about what he did during the war - no army records found, and no stories passed down through the generations - so I wonder if the war played some part in him spending time away from the farm and meeting his future wife in her home town.
Transcribing Essex records for FreeREG.
Current parishes - Burnham, Purleigh, Steeple.
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Offline Caw1

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Re: Did your ancestors meet because of war?
« Reply #20 on: Tuesday 01 January 19 13:57 GMT (UK) »
My parents paths wouldn't have crossed had it not been for WWII... some might say it would have been better if they hadn't... my fathers wife for one and my half siblings... but then I wouldn't be here!

Both my parents lived in Egypt, my mother from 1922 with my grandparents and my father from 1930 who was in the Palestine Police after leaving the tank reg in 1931.
When war broke out my mother aged 19 was back in Cairo on holiday and would have returned to UK to continue her studies... my grandfather left Cairo in 1938 leaving my grandmother and mother on their own!
My mother couldn't / unable to return to UK joined The British Embassy working in the decoding dept, there she became very good friends with a married lady Bella almost 10 years older than herself ( my fathers wife!) I expect Bella took pity on mum as my grandmother died in 1940 leaving my mum on her own!
Bella and my father had two children in 1943 and 1944, my half siblings. My father was CO of the ROAC and met my mother when she came to their house and the rest is history so to speak...
I'm a little confused with the circumstances though as my half sister told me one night Bella suggested our father took mum to a function as she couldn't go having two small children... but I have photos of them together well before 1943 so think something was going on long before that!
In 1950 they all left Egypt together ( for heavens sake!) and our father arranged for one of his Sargent's to find a home for Bella and the two children! Very odd set up!
They never divorced but after 1954 our father never saw his children again! They went to Canada in 1959 and we went to Ethiopia in 1955.
I only found all this out after my father had died and my mother would never talk about it!
Through wonderful people on this site I found my half siblings met them and pieced the story together!
Sadly I've no contact with them now... think they just wanted to 'meet and see' but hey ho that's life!

So really the war wrecked more than one families lives but I'm here to tell the tale because of those circumstances... like so many others I'm sure.

Caroline
Guy - UK,USA
Bangerter -UK,Australia,Switzerland
Harriss - UK, Australia
Merrall - UK
Swinnock - UK
Lloyd - UK