Finding Uncle Henry...

Many of us have lost dear relatives in wartime. My Grandad lost his only brother, killed in action in Flanders. The fields of Flanders, poppies and war graves stir deep emotions in me that I was unaware of until I began looking for my relatives on Ancestry.com. Every time I made a connection with someone from my ancestral past, the someone became a reality, a real figure, a person walking beside me.

And so it was with Uncle Henry. He was a sergeant in the British army, a Royal Engineer and married to Elizabeth. They were the parents of three small children. I know all this because Uncle Henry and two of his children are in my grandparents' wedding photo. Aunt Cissie (Elizabeth) was still in hospital at the time after having given birth to their third child.

After flying to Amsterdam from Heathrow, we took the train to Antwerp in Belgium where we were met by our friends Hans and Sofie. In the following days, we visited beautiful Belgian cities and villages. During our conversations, Hans told us that he was aware of the war graves, not far from where they lived, and so we journeyed to Flanders.

We drove through lots of farmland, saw lots of Belgian Blue cattle, fields of buttercups dotted with the odd poppy and finally arrived in a small village where lots of white headstones stood in perfect lines just as the soldiers who now lay there, had done.

We found Uncle Henry's headstone very quickly, not believing we had actually found where he is now, but so happy that we had. There are many sites like this. There are at least two British cemeteries, an Australian, a French, a Belgian and others we couldn't reach because of time restraints.

I have so many relatives in England, but know only a handful really. An important task now is to research Uncle Henry's family, his descendants. I know there are some, but just how many is still a mystery. My grandfather named one of his sons Henry Redden, after Uncle Henry. Recently I have contacted and I am getting to know the only daughter of the second Henry Redden.She is my own cousin. I had never known her but it has been the greatest reward.

Comments

[Trudy]

A very emotional journey indeed Christine...you have every right to proud of your ancestors and how nice to touch base with a descendant! Tx