Recently I was part of a very moving experience.
A man, now 74 years old, lost his father during WWII
and his mother in 1946.
He knew his own name, but only remembered his
mother as Mom.
Despite many efforts in his native country, it was
impossible to find the mother's given name, because
in that country married women, even today, are often
referred to as Mrs. John Smith, if I should use a common
English name as an example. So when the mother
died in 1946, that was how she was registered.
No given name.
It was very frustrating!
Thanks to a woman I met in Frankfurt, I heard about
a pilot project where images of the marriage registers
for that city were recently put online.
Five hours of search yielded the result I had hoped
for - at the age of 74 this man now finally knows the name
of his mother, her exact birthdate, the names of
her parents and the witnesses at their wedding.
It felt good!
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