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A MAN who relatives in America were
trying to trace has been found - through "A Dabber's
Nantwich".
Mrs Jean Heart contacted me after reading this website
and decided that
"it looks like you
know Nantwich really well and probably know most of the people that have lived
there." The wife of the man was born in Nantwich.
Jean is a friend of a family who live in "a
small fishing village in Hyde County called Engelhard" and who were trying to
contact their half brother, Colin Barrow, last heard of in Crewe in 1984. They were planning a reunion and wanted Colin and his family to be
there.
Jean suggested there might be a Colin
Barrow, electrician, listed in the Nantwich phone book. There wasn't, but there
were two
listings for a C. Barrow. I e-mailed the phone
numbers to Jean and the first one she dialled was Colin.
Then came another e-mail from Jean
saying: "Through your help we have found and
spoken to Colin and his wife, Babs."
I also suggested that Jean should
contact The Nantwich Chronicle to see if they could run a letter in the
nostalgia column about their search for Colin. But he was found before the
newspaper could help.
In her letter, Jean explained that
back in 1984, a brother,
Leon (Shine) Gibbs called on Colin and his family when they
were living "just outside Crewe". She said: "Shine had been serving in
Germany and was on his way back to American so their visit was very
short. Just a few hours. Colin said he was preparing to move. We do not
know where, but we assume he stayed in Cheshire. The family is very
close-knit and they are having a large family reunion on June 20th.
We would like Colin and his family to come and help with the arrangements."
Despite having two days of surgery,
Shine has spoken to
Colin, as has Jean.
She told me: "It turns out Colin and his son, Jason, were trying to
locate my family, but ran into the same problems we had navigating the
ancestry-type web sites and got over loaded with the amount of hits."
Jean concluded: "But,
all is straight now, John. We all really do appreciate your time and
effort. I can tell you there were many tears of joy today. If I ever get
to come to Cheshire I will be sure to come and say thank you again in person."
Since writing the above notes, Jean contacted
the Crewe Blog (www.crewe.tv). She now
adds:
"It turns out that Colin and Babs
cannot come to America this year as his work scheduled holds him back
until next year.
"I have received replies to the
blogs from Jules, Clive Wood and Tim Green.
"Jules
was kind enough to send the messages to me.
"Clive played Sunday League
football with Colin about 25 years ago and found he was a tough
opponent.
"Tim
went to primary school with Colin's son Lee and is one of his Facebook
Friends.
"All of these messages I passed
onto Hilda and her response was that a happy teenage-girl.This is not
only a close-knit hard working family, they also have God in their lives
- and it shows. And, the whole family also has a wicked sense of humour!
lCOLIN is a member of the
family of the late Leland
Gibbs who was born in America. Colin was born in Halton, Runcorn,
Cheshire, and his wife, Barbara J. Locke, was born in Nantwich. They were
married in 1967 at St John's Church, Doddington, near Nantwich. The
couple are now believed to have three children.
A look at Engelhard
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