MISSING . . . AND FOUND
THE DAILY MAIL offers the opportunity to re-establish contact with long-lost relatives and friends. Each week, MONICA PORTER features the story of someone trying to find a missing loved one and a tale of people reunited. Produced in conjunction with the voluntary tracing service Searching For A Memory, runn by Gill Whitley. ‘I’D LIKE to trace my cousin, Marjorie Smith, whom I haven’t seen since the Fifties,’ writes Sylvia Barnes (nee Smith), who lives near Stockport, Cheshire.
‘ Marjorie grew up in the Swinton/ Pendlebury area of Manchester and her parents were Jim and May.
‘Jim — my father’s brother — was a miner who lost his life in a pit accident. At some point after this tragedy, our two families lost touch.
‘I have two brothers, Bob and Jim, and in the Fifties we lived in Winton, Eccles. Marjorie was an only child. We were in our teens when we last saw her. She was a lovely person and very pretty. She had a boyfriend at the time, but I don’t know if she ever married or had children.
‘Marjorie would be in her 80s now. It would be lovely to renew contact after all these years.’
Sylvia, who is now in her 70s, attended a convent grammar school in Salford, then went on to study at secretarial college.
She worked in a university library in Manchester. She is divorced, and has two children and two grandchildren. NOT all of our searches have happy endings.
Two months ago, Peter Gage, 73, of Kingskerswell, Devon, wrote: ‘I’d like to trace Leslie Ferguson, whom I haven’t seen since September 1973. He came from Liverpool and we were great pals in the Merchant Navy in the Sixties, travelling to many parts of the world.
‘We sailed from Southampton and Liverpool on the Queen Mary, Carinthia of the Cunard Line and TSS Golfito, a banana boat of the Fyffes Line.
‘I left the Merchant Navy in 1966 for a career in finance and insurance. Leslie moved to San Diego, California, where he was a restaurant manager.
‘I often look at a treasured photo from those days, showing a group of us, including Les, relaxing with our pints.’
This sad email arrived from Alison Ferguson: ‘Leslie was my mum’s younger brother. She has fond memories of visiting him on the Queen Mary in the Sixties.
‘Unfortunately, he died in 2016. He lived in San Diego for many years and came back in 2009 to visit family. We are happy for Peter to get in touch for more details.’