James Cross

The War Hero

The Story

We were tasked with completing a 5 generation family tree for a family which led back to a James Cross.

All that was really known were a few modern day names and an old family story that James had been killed in the war in a friendly fire incident.

The Investigation

This was a relatively straight forward search working back from the known modern names to uncover the ancestors which ultimately led us to James who was a great, great uncle of our client.

Eventually it was discovered that James died in 1941 in Blackpool and death certificates confirmed he had died after falling into a diabetic coma.

In our experience there is almost always a nugget of truth in old family stories so we looked a little deeper.

When he died in 1941 James left a widow who remarried in 1944. We found that her new husband had died in 1947 and it was him that was killed in a friendly fire incident in 1947. We were also able to find the grave site for both husbands with the 2nd husband being buried with full military honours for his service.

If you have a long lost relative you would like to find more about or you would just like to know your own ancestry please contact us on the form below including as much detail as you have as well as your contact details and we will be in touch to see if we can help you have a similar positive outcome.