Page updated - 07 December 2010
WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE?
Mrs. Doris Bryant, who lives in Great Cornard, has a moving story to tell about a nephew who she never thought she would see again. It is very similar to the histories that emerge from the UK television programme ‘Who do you think you are’.
Doris came from a large family - four brothers and three sisters. All her brothers served in World War II and sadly one of her brothers, Charles Alfred Pitt died at the D Day landings - he was in the Tank Corps and his tank was blown up two days after they landed. He was only 22 years of age and left behind a young wife and a son who had just been born. His widow re-married and moved away leaving her son with her parents.
Although Doris and the rest of her family tried to contact their sister-in-law at her mother’s house they were unsuccessful as all letters came back stating ‘not known at this address’. They even asked the people who were now living there but they did not know to where she had moved. So it was that Doris, and her family, lost touch with the little boy that was the son of Charles. Doris married and had three children and unhappily all her brothers and sisters passed away so there was no one who had known her brother or his son.
Then one day - 66 years
after her brother died she had a phone call out of the blue from a man
who said “I believe you are my aunty Dolly”. Doris was stunned as
only family members had ever called her Dolly and she knew straight away who
it could be - she had never forgotten her long lost nephew. She invited him
to come down from Doncaster where he lived so she could talk to him about
how he had found her and show him photos of the family.
William Pitt, the nephew of Doris, did not know anything about his father because his grandparents never spoke of him, and neither did his mother. However, when she died and he went to her house to sort out her belongings he discovered a box in a wardrobe which contained his father’s photo, a letter from the War Office informing his mother of his father’s death and also letters between his mother and father written whilst he was serving in the forces. This spurred him to search on the Internet to find out more about his missing family. He also sent away for his father’s birth and death certificates. By lucky co-incidence a grandson of one of Doris’s brothers was also searching on the Internet for the family’s history and discovered William on it. They contacted each other and he gave the phone number of Doris to William.
When William came to see
Doris he was shown the photo of himself as a baby with his mother - he had
never seen this photo and it was a very emotional moment for him and Doris.
So after 66 years both families were re-united - William had three sons so
all families got to know each other. William had been named after his
grandfather and looking on the Internet they can trace their family tree
back to William Pitt the Prime Minister and even further back.
Without the Internet it is unlikely that there would have been this reconciliation. So although people may complain about some aspects of the web, in this case, it produced a very happy ending.
Interview by Joan Herbert for Cornard News
12 November 2010