Is This Mr. Hale? Part 1
November, 2006, I was surfing the web, looking for genealogy, as usual. I had been contemplating buying a
book about the area my paternal grandmother had been born in. I decided to call the lady that had written the book and ask her a few questions before I invested any money into it. We talked about 45 minutes and I told her I would send her the money.
I received the book in early December and proceded to open the book and look at the index for my surnames. I was shocked to see only one "Hale" in the index. I thought I had just wasted my money!!
I started to read the story about my "surname" and told Donnie that I had a funny feeling that the man, Mr. Hale, in the book, was my great grandfather, John Hale. From my genealogy research I knew he had worked for the railroad and had married my great grandmother in that area. But, this Mr. Hale was married to another woman.
My grandmother had never told me about another marriage for her dad. In fact, no one in my family had ever heard about him being married again after he and my great grandmother were divorced. I had searched the
genealogy sites on the net and hadn't found a marriage for him to someone after his divorce from my great grandmother. Cold chills ran up my spine, I just knew it was him!!
I knew I was on to something!!
The next day I called the lady that had written the book. I asked her if she had gotten all of her cousins to write about their direct lines and then put it together as a book. She said, "Yes"!! I told her I needed to contact her cousin who had written the story about my great grandfather. She gave me a phone number to call her cousin. I called, but the number was no good, due to the area code being changed. I called her back and she gave me her cousins e-mail address.
I wrote a message to her cousin and asked her if she knew anything about the Mr. Hale in the book. She wrote back that she was 81 years old, remodeling her home, and everything was boxed up till the remodeling was done. BUT, she just might have a photo of Mr. Hale. She wrote that she would try to find it and send it to me over the net. Mr. Hale had been married to her great grandmother for a short time.
I figured I had hit a brick wall!! At her age, remodeling, etc. I didn't think I would ever hear from her again.
One day I got up, made my coffee and sat down at my computer and opened up my e-mail. I was floored to see one with the subject being: "Is This Mr. Hale?" I opened it and looking at me was my great grandfather, John Henry Hale!!! I wrote back and referred her to my website with a photo of my great grandfather’s photo from when he was younger and married to my great grandmother. She wrote back and said, "same eyes, same ears, same everything"!!
She and I started writing e-mails and discovered she would be coming to my hometown in September 2007 for a LST reunion for her husband who had been in WWII. We decided to meet each other then.
Tune in for Part 2 of "Is This Mr. Hale?"
Toujours Moi,
Claudette
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