Eureka Moment
Nicola Crawley found a confusing entry on her dad’s birth record, which led her on the trail of a man “with a strange accent”. With few other clues to go on, her discovery has been remarkable, says Gail Dixon
Nicola Crawley explains how a DNA test identified her biological grandfather and a new branch of her tree
The Second World War and its aftermath left lasting ripples in many family trees. Fathers had fewer rights in the mid-20th century and if a woman was prepared to bring up a child alone, she could end the relationship forever.
Nicola Crawley is a keen family historian who encountered a huge brick wall on her dad’s side. A journey of twists and turns began.
My Brick Wall
I started my research in 2009 and at that point I believed that my dad Peter Hogan was the eldest child of James Hogan and his wife Alice (née Conway). They lived in Manchester, and had six children. I didn’t know Grandma Alice well because she passed away in 1974, but I spent a lot of time with
Grandad James and idolised him. He died in 1994.
However, alarm bells started ringing when I tried to trace Dad’s line. I looked on the quarterly birth listings for Peter Hogan, born in February 1948, but all I could find was a handwritten postscript that gave his mother’s maiden name of Conway and the place and date of birth. There was a reference, but it led nowhere.
I ordered James and Alice’s marriage certificate and found that they didn’t get married until 1949 – over a year after Dad was born. I told Dad that I was researching the family tree and he said, “If you find any skeletons in the cupboard, let me know.” I exclaimed, “I think you might be the skeleton!” Immediately, he asked if it was to do with James.
Dad remembered a time when he had quarrelled with James as a teenager and Alice said, “You should be grateful to that man, because he adopted you.” Dad didn’t push it further because illegitimate children were bullied at school, but he believed that he had been conceived out of wedlock to James and Alice.
Dad also recalled that when he was leaving school in 1963, Alice said that his birth certificate had been lost so they ordered a new one. This gave his name as Peter Hogan, and his father’s name as James Hogan.
I wasn’t convinced that this was right, so I searched for a birth listing for Peter Conway, using Alice’s maiden name. There it was, with a reference to the handwritten postscript for Peter Hogan that I’d found earlier. We ordered the original birth
certificate from 1948 and it gave his name as Peter Conway, with no father listed.
Dad remained calm, but I went into a tailspin. We were left with a huge mystery – who was Dad’s biological father?
My Eureka Moment
Dad contacted his uncle Jim who lived with Alice when he was a teenager. Jim remembered my biological grandfather coming to the house after Dad was born, and that he spoke with a strange accent. But Alice told the man to go away and never come back.
A cousin of Dad believed that the mystery man was an American GI, so we spent years trying to find a DNA match there without any luck. Finally, in 2019, we got a second-cousin match on Ancestry ( ancestry.co.uk) – Carl Pearce. We contacted Carl, and he enabled us to pinpoint a UK family. Thomas Cole and his wife Diana Williams married in Swansea in 1910. They had six sons, any of whom could have been my biological grandfather!
Extensive research led me to the most likely candidate, David Edward Cole. He was born in Swansea in 1921 and moved to Halifax, just 25 miles from where Dad grew up in Manchester.
Sadly David passed away in 2008, but I discovered that he had had two sons: Michael, who had also passed away, and David junior. Michael’s son Mick was on Facebook, as was David, so I messaged them both.
Mick responded, and I told him that we might be cousins. His family knew nothing about us, and yet he was so welcoming and open. We had a long chat on the phone, and his uncle David rang me the next day.
David agreed to do a DNA test and – eureka – the results proved that he was Dad’s half-brother. So
I finally had the proof I needed: David Edward Cole was Dad’s biological father.
My Breakthrough
Dad and I have met some of our new relations, and it has been very emotional. Mick burst into tears when he saw Dad, because he looks so much like his father. It sounds like David Edward Cole was very similar to Dad in other ways too – a hard-working, straightforward family man.
It’s a huge relief to solve the mystery, but nothing can detract from the love and gratitude that Dad and I have for Grandad James. I’d also like to pay tribute to Alice, who must have been incredibly strong to contemplate raising a child on her own.