You might recall that Kathryn had reached out to us concerning a journal and photographs that she had purchased on eBay that were once the property of US sailor, Gustave Erickson. These documents are dated 1914. She had wondered about who he was. I love challenges like this so I pecked away at it and found what I thought was the obituary of his son who had the same name. I found the phone numbers and addresses of Gustave Junior's siblings (these would be our Gustave's children) and called them, leaving messages on their machines. A few weeks later, having heard nothing, I phoned a second time and one person picked up but she was clearly reluctant to speak, no doubt she was on guard thinking I was looking to get something from her.  About three weeks ago, I sent these same three people envelopes containing photographs and some of the pages from his journal and a letter explaining that my purpose was to simply pass along these documents to Gustave's family. 

Today I received a call from one of his children. I don't fully understand the family saga but I think old Gustave had five children and for some reason, they were all put up for adoption to five different families. It seems that some of the siblings don't have anything to do with each other. It sounds like the separation of the siblings was very difficult and the woman I spoke to mentioned requiring therapy to heal. Still, she was thankful for the documents and very pleasant to chat with. She mentioned that she was on guard after receiving my phone messages but once she received the documents and my letter, she felt comfortable enough to phone me. That's probably all we'll know about that sailor from 100 years ago. 

Should Kathryn require any additional help tracing lost Americans, I'm at the ready, but no "John Smiths" please!

Peter T.