Blog post

Friday, January 15, 2010

A chance discovery

Among my grandfather's family papers was a little newspaper clipping. A young man's death notice. According to the notice the young man accidentally drowned in New Guinea, 1978, on his birthday. The notice gave enough information to construct a partial family tree, including a grandparent referred to only as "Couper".

Couper happens to be my grandfather's mother's maiden name, and every other paper stored with this clipping was a family paper. It seemed that this unfortunate young man was a relative, but despite knowing a little about his immediate family, I never knew how he fitted in and I've never tried in any serious way to find out.

Tonight, I stumbled onto a clue! Quite by chance I discovered that he was buried in the same plot as some of my known Couper relatives. Obviously the body was brought back to Australia for burial. The burial details still don't tell me exactly how he was connected, but they give a me a very plausible theory to work on!

1 comment:

  1. These "chance discoveries" add some challenges to our research. Godd luck with your sleuthing.