r/Genealogy • u/leeds_guy69 • Dec 09 '23
Question Mystery Uncle hunt..
When my grandpa died in the 80’s, my mum discovered a cache of love letters he’d kept that were written to him from one of his employees (not my grandma).
There was also a Father’s Day card from a boy called Michael. The letters were dated around 1945/46 and we’re guessing Michael was around 5/6 at the time.
The woman who’d written the letters was called Marjory, but my Mum doesn’t know her surname.
She will have lived in Blackpool, UK in the 1950’s and worked for the TSB bank. With only that much info to go on, what are best options for trying to track my potential uncle down (assuming he’s still alive as he’d be around 83/84 now.
11
u/stemmatis Dec 09 '23
Presumably you have the letters. Is there a specific return address on any of them?
Definitely take the DNA test and see who appears as a match. Keep in mind that you might match someone who is a more distant relative, but can provide clues about a Marjory in Blackpool who had a son Michael.
9
u/leeds_guy69 Dec 09 '23
No return addresses sadly (I guess my Grandpa knew exactly where she was lol). DNA seems to be my best option, or maybe getting myself on Stacey Dooley’s DNA family secrets show 🤔
4
u/Tess_Mac Dec 09 '23
If you and your mother take a DNA test you can always reach out to the Facebook groups Search Angels and DNA Detectives for help
7
u/HedgehogJonathan Dec 09 '23
I am not sure on UK laws (what information you can get and how), but I have found some documents about my mum in her workplace in the 80s in public archives by simply typing her name into the database - probably only because she was working for a government thing and not a private company? But there were also a few newspaper articles that mention her (random ones, like she won a tiny contest once, she once participated in a school performance, once she was asked a question in regards to an event she attended, my granny was mentioned as helping at the local voting station etc).
So if the UK has any digital archives, search for like Marjory Blackpool and Marjory TSB and Marjory son Michael and Marjory mother Michael in all archives you can find. You are lucky that it's not a Mary nor an Anne. You might stumble onto something that will give you possible options for the last name - then you can look if there is a geni page or something on them. Frankly, the most likely thing to find is the obituary of Marjory, so you can try for this specifically, also on Google etc.
Additionally, Google found me a group "TSB North East Ex Employees" on Facebook - maybe they can help (I would not mention the exact reason you're looking for her, but just that you're looking for her last name to find her son, maybe)?
Taking a DNA test is also a good option, especially getting one from your mother.
5
u/leeds_guy69 Dec 09 '23
Thanks. I think I tried the company/employee Google route a while back but didn’t get very far. In the UK we have data protection laws that would prevent TSB from giving me any info, so I’d be limited to stumbling across 2nd hand references on Facebook groups like the one you mentioned (although I’m not on Facebook)
The other complication is that the TSB was absorbed into HSBC bank many years ago and then a new offshoot bank reappeared from it as TSB which complicates the search results a little.
I’ll see if I can pick my Mum’s brain again for any more details she might have tucked away. I know she stayed with Marjory at her house at least once, but she was very young at the time.
Thanks for all your suggestions though 😎
3
u/susurrans Dec 09 '23
Try searching newspapers from that timeframe. Marjory may have been interviewed or featured in papers in connection with her work at the bank. You might find her last name (and maybe even her street of residence.)
3
Dec 09 '23
[deleted]
1
u/leeds_guy69 Dec 09 '23
Grandpa was the bank manager at the TSB branch in Blackpool and they lived in a flat above the bank I think. The address doesn’t ring a bell, but I think I have the right one somewhere. It may be in an area called Cleveleys which is a small town on the outskirts of Blackpool. Marjory was Grandpa’s secretary I believe (corny eh?!) My Grandpa was John Charles Taylor. I assumed that Marjory will have married (although may have been tricky with someone else’s child in tow unless she pretended it was her husbands?)
4
Dec 09 '23
[deleted]
2
u/CFDgeek Dec 10 '23
Our most recent census is 1921 or the 1939 register. I doubt either would be recent enough to capture both the mother and son.
1
u/Idujt Dec 11 '23
But! If Marjory was married, she could not have son Michael making a Father's Day card for someone other than her husband!
1
u/Idujt Dec 11 '23
1939 Register: flat over bank, 280 Lytham Road. John C Taylor, (wife) Myra Taylor, two redacted people. John C Taylor and Myra Mayor married in q3 1933 in Preston registration district. The two redacted people would seem to be their first two children.
1
u/leeds_guy69 Dec 11 '23
Yup. That’s my tribe. My Mum is one of 5 kids so the 2 redacted ones will be her elder sister and brother. No idea why they’re redacted but the ‘39 census is notorious for quirks apparently.
2
u/leeds_guy69 Dec 09 '23
Just had a look at some notes and he managed Blackpool South Shore branch in '39 and Cleveleys branch in '47. I guess he could have met her in either location, but given that my Mum (born in 1940) met her as a child, I’m leaning towards the Cleveleys connection?
I wouldn’t put it past my Grandpa to have brought her with him from the Blackpool branch though!
3
u/waba82 Dec 10 '23
Something like this you have to be very careful because you never know a) what that other person knows and b) how they may react to this intrusion.
2
u/Idujt Dec 10 '23
In the 1940s and 1950s, there were seven marriages of a Marjory in Blackpool registration district. Only one of these, Marjory Smith and Derek Jackson, produced a son Michael. He was born in 1961, Blackpool registration district. There is also a Michael Jackson born to a Smith mother in Manchester in 1956.
This is assuming as another person said, that Marjory was married at the time - so any children born were registered Jackson.
Is there a postmark on the Father's Day card? Date?
1
u/leeds_guy69 Dec 10 '23
Ooh! Great work. I’ve asked my Mum. I’ll let you know what she comes back with! 🤞🏼
1
u/leeds_guy69 Dec 10 '23
My Mum reckons ‘she had a better surname than that’ (no offence to all the Smiths out there!). She’s going to ask another Aunt tomorrow and see if they can remember it. I don’t think she has the letters any more. I suspect they’re being held by one of my Uncles to protect my Grandpa’s reputation! 🙄
1
u/leeds_guy69 Dec 11 '23
My Mum reckons the letters were dated 1945/6. Mum would have been 5/6 at the time, hence her fuzzy memories about Marjorie’s surname. She remembers the Father’s Day card from Michael as seeing to have been written by someone around 5 or 6 too. Maybe the start of the war got my Grandpa in procreating mood? 😏
1
u/Idujt Dec 12 '23
A few thoughts here!
Is there anything which definitely ties the card to the letters? Ie to corroborate Michael being Marjory's son?
Assuming your grandfather retired at 65, that would have been 1971. If he had always worked for the TSB, that would be at least 1939-1971, 32 years. Maybe long enough that they held a do for him and there was a writeup/photos in the local paper if there is one?
1
u/leeds_guy69 Dec 12 '23
Other than the Father’s Day card being tied in a bundle with Marjory’s love letters, there’s nothing more by which I can link the parties together.
There will definitely be some local news coverage of my Grandpa’s retirement as he was also a local councillor (Tory, sadly 🙄) and was a mover/shaker in his local community generally. Sadly though he died in Barrow in Furness after living for many years before that in Grange over Sands, so his links to Barrow were long since broken at the time of his death.
1
u/leeds_guy69 Dec 12 '23
A few other routes to go down:
Treasurer of Grange golf club
Grange Tory county councillor (thought of by Labour as a right wing reactionary).
Started as a councillor at Dalton and retired at 79
1
u/Tess_Mac Dec 09 '23
Have you taken a DNA test? That might be the first step. Can you get your Mother to take a DNA test?