Or how our site helped someone find lost relatives <VBG>
We have a page at the State Level site called "Researching Funeral
Homes" by a funeral director named Mark Barker. Today I received the
following e-mail about how the TNGenWeb was a contributing factor of
reuniting 2 brothers with their half-brother.
I am really excited about this.
Bridgett
------- Forwarded Message Follows -------
From: CMBarker(a)aol.com
Date: Wed, 27 May 1998 21:48:57 EDT
To: bascs(a)wizard.com
Subject: Fwd: From Knoxville News Sentinel 5/26/98
This is a copy of the article from News Sentinel, minus photos. Thought you
might like to see same.
By Elizabeth A. Pooley
A genealogical search, initiated in August of 1997 by a resident of
Ontario, Canada, has ended with the discovery a half-brother,
47-year-old Richard M. Spry, living in North Knoxville.
"My parents were married in Edinburgh, Scotland, in 1937 and were
divorced in 1947. My older brother, Tony, and I went to live with our
father Edward Wiseman. There was no contact after that time. We knew
that she had remarried and heard that there was a child but that is
where it ended," said recently retired health administrator Eric
Wiseman.
With plenty of time on his hands, Wiseman, 58, decided it was time to
formulate a family tree and begin a search for his birth mother Winifred
"Mary" Wiseman. "I began by purchasing a family tree maker computer
program that contained the names of 35 million people. I knew that her
new married name was Spry and came up with several hits. I sent out
brief letters of inquiry and received replies but they didn't lead
anywhere."
Wiseman's search took off with the utilization of a CD death index
containing a majority of listings through out the United States.
Discovering that a Winifred Spry and John Spry had died in the state of
Tennessee, Wiseman said he began to "dig a little deeper," with social
security numbers and zip codes but along the way he came across some
information that would play a major roll in the discovery of his
half-brother Richard Spry.
"As I was waltzing along the Internet I came across the Tennessee
Genealogical Web page. There was an article entitled Researching Funeral
Home Records As a Genealogical tool written by a gentleman by the name
of Mark Barker, a funeral director at Rose Mortuary in Knoxville. The
death certificate that I ended up obtaining from the state of Tennessee
listed a funeral home. Imagine my surprise when it turned out to be Rose
Mortuary. I e-mailed Mr. Barker for more information on the obituary and
next of kin."
Barker provided Wiseman with the name, address and phone number of his
half brother Richard M. Spry and proceeded to phone Spry with news of
the inquiry. "Barker told me that I could come by and pick up the
information but I was so excited that I told him to fax it to my home
right away. As it turns out, my business office, Maybank Properties, is
located across the street from Rose Mortuary. How is that for a
coincidence," Spry said.
Spry immediately called his half-brother in Ontario. "Oh my God, it's
him. I've found my brother. It was the beginning of a new life. I was no
longer an only child with no family. I had two brothers, a sister-in-law
and two nieces. I was now the baby of the family."
Spry and Wiseman's conversation soon included a "three way hook up" with
the oldest brother, 59 year-old Tony Wiseman in England. "It was quite a
night, we were all pretty excited," Spry said.
Spry, along with his mother, had previously attempted to find his
half-brothers. "Mother tried in the early 1970's. She tried several
times but to no avail. Mother died in 1983 and I tried again but came up
against brick walls.
"It was as though they dropped off the face of the earth. I had even
heard rumors that one brother had moved to Australia and the other had
died in an auto wreck, both of which were untrue."
It was less than a week, from the initial phone call, that Eric Wiseman
pulled into the drive way of Richard Spry. He came with a camcorder and
family photographs dating back over 50 years.
"I have a picture of our older brother Tony taken when he married his
wife Kathleen. He was 27 at the time. Just look at the resemblance
between him and Richard. Isn't it remarkable?"
Barker said he was thrilled in playing a major roll in bringing Wiseman
and Spry together. "Researching funeral home records is a much-neglected
genealogical tool.
"These seldom-tapped records can be a gold mine for the researcher,
often yielding information unobtainable elsewhere. Remember that most
funeral directors are nice people and will respond favorably to your
request if you go about it in the right way."
>
~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~
Bridgett Smith
TNGenWeb State Coordinator
http://www.tngenweb.org/