Genealogy Chat

My Great- Grandfather Christian E. was a German POW in Brigg on Pingley Farm. He used to work on Horkstow Grange on a Mr W.M. Robinsons Farm, where he had an affair with a woman who was possibly the Farm managers wife (possibly named Ida Curtis), but I'm not sure whether my Great-Grandmother is the most reliable source. She has found a piece of paper with a name and address Mrs J or I Curtis, from Bonby Brigg. But I can't figure out where she has got the address from, so it is possibly unreliable.
Ida wrote a letter to my great-grandfather after he was released and back in Germany, telling him that she had a baby (No name/No Gender) but either the letter got lost or my (very angry) great-grandmother threw it away. A few weeks ago someone who spoke English and according to my great-grandmother called Anna, called asking for my him. My grandmother, Christians daughter, is really excited that she may have a long lost sibling out there.
I have started looking for children in Lincolnshire named Curtis born in '48 and early '49. Is there anyway to figure out the mothers first name?

Welcome to the boards, Katharina.

If you look for possible births on FreeBMD:
https://www.freebmd.org.uk/cgi/search.pl

it will show you the mothers' maiden surnames.

If the mother's surname is the same as the child's surname, it may mean (though not necessarily) that the mother was unmarried.

You can then look for marriages of people with the relevant surnames.

However, it may be that Mrs Curtis (if she was indeed the mother ) may have been able to pretend that the child was her husband's, and therefore you would need to know her maiden name to be able to pinpoint any likely births.

Bonby Brigg would have been in Scunthorpe reg district

If the child was born in that area -
there's a Christine born Jan - March 1949, mms Smith.
Gareth B born Oct-Dec 1948, mms Goodacre;
Alan born Apr-June 1948, mms Marris;
Richard A born Jan-March 1948, mms Johnson.

But of course the mother might have gone elsewhere for the birth.

None of the mothers of those children seems to have been named Ida, apart from the Curtis /Smith couple - there are a couple of possibilities for them

Not that it helps but here's the Robinson household in 1939. I was rather hoping that there may have been worker's cottages but there appears only to be one occupied by a Harold Redhead who's a horseman.

Household (6 People)
The Grange Barton Horkstow , Glanford Brigg R.D., Lincolnshire (Parts of Lindsey), England

William Robinson
DOB 29 Aug 1884
SEX Male
OCCUPATION Farmer
MARITAL STATUS Married
SCHEDULE 65
SCHEDULE SUB NUMBER 1

Beatrice Robinson
DOB 02 Dec 1888
SEX Female
OCCUPATION Unpaid Domestic Duties
MARITAL STATUS Married
SCHEDULE 65
SCHEDULE SUB NUMBER 2

Arthur Ayer, August 1884, cowman, single

Sorry, this record is officially closed. Check if you can open a closed record.

Sorry, this record is officially closed. Check if you can open a closed record.

Sorry, this record is officially closed. Check if you can open a closed record.

Ref: RG101/6464F/007/34 Letter Code: TNGH
© Findmypast Ltd
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Did this German POW stay on after the war ended ? I thought they were returned home about 1946 ?

Katharina says, "Ida wrote a letter to my great-grandfather after he was released and back in Germany."

So either he'd given her his address before he left, or the letter was forwarded by the camp authorities.

Elizabeth .............

I think there might have been some sort of staggered release of POWs from the UK. Because of course many, if not most of them were not actually imprisoned in the camp as were POWs in Germany.

There was a POW camp in my home town, in a converted cotton mill, and it seems that there were prisoners there as late the winter of 1947.

Of course, not all POWs returned home either .......... the late great Bert Trautmann was the goalkeeper for Manchester City during the 1950s!


Googling Pingley gives a lot of results!

The following one seems to indicate that POWs were still there as late as 1948 ...... just as they were at Oldham.

https://derelictex.wordpress.com/2007/07/07/pingley-camp/

It might therefore help if Katharina could give us some idea of when her great grandfather returned to Germany

Thanks for your help :)
From what I understand he returned in 1948. And a letter written by the farmer Robinson (addressed to the prisoner camp, asking if he could return to the farm) was dated from late may '48.

I think if Ida was the wife of the farm manager she could have gotten the address one way or another, as Mr Robinson asked Christian to return with his wife. And my Grandmas name/address/phone number can be found in a phone book, so Ida's great-grandchildren could have also easily found her.

I have found a few people named Curtis born at the right time. We had a hunch that it might be Christine because the name got handed down generations. But the main problem is that I'm not sure about the last name, not to mention Ida's maiden name.

I'm also going to start to look for similar names like Eda, (counting in my grandma's pronunciation). But I am still only guessing without her last name :-(

Katharina ....

How would the name Edie fit with your grandmother's pronunciation?

Edie is a shortened version of Edith, although it could also be a name in its own right ........... I had an Aunt Edith who was always called Edie.

No, she pronounces it like Eda, but that's how she might read Ida, if she never heard Christian pronounce her name.

Could Edna be a possibility?

Any idea of an approximate age of the Anna who called please?

Bit of a longshot but looking for a Linconshire birth for an Anna mmn Curtis there is one with the surname Baines who seems to be the daughter of Nora Curtis (b. 1940) mmn Smith. Could Anna be of niece of the Christine b. 1949 mmn Smith?

Edna is pronounced almost the same in English and German. My grandmother is in her 90ies, although she has a good memory, it was a long time ago. But I'm trusting her memory and concentrating on Ida and Eda for now.

Anna is probably young, 20-something maybe.

So possibly a grand-daughter.

Christine may have married in 1981 in Scunthorpe reg district, but I don't see any Anna born of that marriage.

RG's suggestion of a niece seems as good an idea as any!