A friend recently inherited a suitcase full of old photos when an aged relative died. Amongst them was one showing four young boys, very smartly dressed in Eton collars, bow ties and straw boaters. On the back was written the names of the boys, and the label grandmama's birthday 1905. My friend was interested to know which of her ancestors was the "grandmama" mentioned, so I spent a couple of weeks researching the boys' names, in the area where her family was from.
Although I was able to find all four boys and their families, and traced their families backwards, forwards and sideways, I could not for the life in me find how they were related or who their common grandmama might be. And then one night the answer came to me. What if grandmama's birthday was actually "Grandmama's Birthday" and was the title of a play?
Newspapers.com came up trumps. It was indeed the name of a juvenile operetta which was apparently performed quite regularly around the turn of the 19th/20th century (and this made perfect sense when my friend remembered that her mother's maiden aunts were both music teachers). I kind of wish I had known that before I started searching.
Still it gave us both a good laugh and made a change from trying to break down my own brick walls!!
