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A MAN who relatives in America were trying to trace
has been found - through "A Dabber's Nantwich".
Mrs Jean Heart contacted me after reading this website and
decided that
"it looks like you
know Nantwich really well and probably know most of the people that have lived
there." The wife of the man was born in Nantwich.
Jean is a friend of a family who live
in "a small fishing
village in Hyde County called Engelhard" and who were trying to contact their
half brother, Colin Barrow, last heard of in Crewe in 1984. They were planning a
reunion and wanted Colin and his family to be there.
Jean suggested there might be a Colin
Barrow, electrician, listed in the Nantwich phone book. There wasn't, but there
were two listings for a
C. Barrow. I
e-mailed the phone numbers to Jean and the first one she dialled
was Colin.
Then came another e-mail from Jean
saying: "Through your help we have found and spoken to Colin and his wife, Babs."
I also suggested that Jean should
contact The Nantwich Chronicle to see if they could run a letter in the
nostalgia column about their search for Colin. But he was found before the
newspaper could help.
In her letter, Jean explained that back
in 1984, a
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brother,
Leon (Shine) Gibbs called on Colin and his family when they
were living "just outside Crewe". She
said "Shine
had been serving in Germany and was on his way back to
American so their visit was very short. Just a few hours.
"Colin said
he was preparing to move. We do not know where, but we assume he stayed in
Cheshire. The family is very close-knit and they are having a large family
reunion on June 20th. We would like Colin and his family to come and help with the arrangements."
Despite having two days of surgery,
Shine has spoken to Colin, as has Jean.
She told me: "It turns out Colin
and his son, Jason, were trying to locate my family, but ran into the same
problems we had navigating the ancestry-type web sites and got over loaded
with the amount of hits."
Jean concluded: "But, all is
straight now, John. We all really do appreciate your time and effort. I can
tell you there were many tears of joy today. If I ever get to come to
Cheshire I will be sure to come and say thank you again in person."
Since writing the above notes, Jean
contacted the Crewe Blog (see note, right). She adds: "It turns out
that Colin and Babs cannot come to America this year as his work scheduled
holds him back until next year.
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"I have
received replies to the blogs from Jules, Clive Wood and Tim Green.
Jules was kind enough to send the messages to me.
"Clive played Sunday League
football with Colin about 25 years ago and found he was a tough
opponent.
"Tim
went to primary school with Colin's son Lee and is one of his Facebook
Friends.
"All of these messages I passed
onto Hilda and her response was that a happy teenage-girl. This is not
only a close-knit hard working family, they also have God in their lives
- and it shows. And, the whole family also has a wicked sense of humour!
lCOLIN
is a member of the
family of the late
Leland Gibbs who was born in America. Colin was born in Halton, Runcorn,
Cheshire, and his wife, Barbara J. Locke, was born in Nantwich. They
were married in 1967 at St John's Church, Doddington, near Nantwich. The
couple are now believed to have three children.
NOTE: The Crewe Blog news site no longer exists,
although the domain name it used is in use. There is a This Is Crewe news
website on Twitter. I say that in the interests of fairness. I do not
run Crewe area links normally. |
