I had a box of old family photographs that was given to me as a child. Periodically, I would look through the box and wonder who the people in the photographs were, often dreaming about what their story was and how it was connected to me.

One photograph and a set of First World Warmedals is what sparked my interest the most. I knew the man in the photograph was my great-grandfather. I was told that he had died in the Great War and that is the reason our family ended up in the US. This information was told to me by my departed great aunt. She could only provide minimal information and this left me hungry for more. She knew the photograph was of her father and that he was a causality of the war.

After the death of my father in 2012, I decided to sign up for an account on a popular genealogy website. Not long after signing up, I discovered that my father’s family came from Pickering. Looking through the various documents was wonderful and informative but it was not enough for me. I was looking more for the sentimental aspect of my family history. I wanted to see photographs, hear stories, and really get to know the people in the photographs that I had stared at so many times.

I wrote to the Gazette & Herald, but was not sure what kind of response I would get, but within hours, I was contacted by my great-grandfather’s sister’s family. We have been corresponding for some time now and I have finally started receiving the information I was hoping for. It turns out that my new-found relatives have been wondering what happened to my family since 1920. The mystery has finally been solved and a family has been linked back together and it would not have been possible without the Gazette & Herald.

I have enclosed a photograph a new-found relative was kind enough to share with me. My grandmother and great aunt visited England and Scotland in 1920 and were fortunate enough to sit for this portrait. I had never seen this photograph of my grandmother or great aunt before; it was as if I was staring at a picture of myself as a child, the likeness was immediately recognisable.

Wendy Austin, US