Skeletons in the closet

Jessie was born in 1909 in Moray, Scotland by a Scottish father and a Irish mother. She was one of 9 children born in poor agricultural family. Being and oldest child she had to help to her mother doing a lots of chores all day long, every day. At the age of 14 she became domestic help for well off family who lived in nearby village. In 1931 she gave birth to a daughter out of wedlock. Her family as well as the wealthy family she worked for, kicked her out and she had no choice but to give her newborn daughter for adoption. She then left Scotland and went to London, UK. In 1936 she found herself pregnant again. She gave birth to Sheila in the late 1936 and went back to Scotland with the baby. She then married in 1940 and had no children until 1944 when her husband died in the WW2. Jessie never married again and had no other children. She died in Banff, Scotland in 2000.

Her daughter Sheila never knew her father. She went back to London to try and find him. She didn’t find her father but she found her husband number 1. Sheila got married in 1953 and didn’t have children before 1959. In 1959 she gave birth to a daughter Ivy. Sheila’s husband number 1 knew he isn’t the father and he made Sheila to give the baby Ivy for adoption which she eventually agreed to. They divorced in 1961. In 1963 Sheila had a son Mike out of wedlock. Her husband number 2 officially adopted him and they lived together until 1968. In 1968 Sheila gave birth to another daughter who wasn’t her husband’s child. They divorced and she got married again in 1969 to husband number 3 whom she lived with until she died.

I was hired to find Sheila’s biological father. The search was unbelievably difficult full of twists and turns. On the end I found him but I also discovered that he,himself was also illegitimate child born in a marriage. George(not real name) was born in 1903 and he fathered Sheila. He also had one son with his wife who was born in 1927. George was railworker who lived just round the corner of where Sheila was born. I wish Sheila was alive (she died in 2009), to tell her who her father is. All the search was done by extracting DNA of adopted daughter of Sheila, Ivy, and her half brother’s child.

I am very happy I solved this case because it was a big challenge for me. Ivy now has 5 half cousins who still live in Lambeth where her mum was born. Contacting of these cousins is on its way and I hope that they will be welcoming Ivy into their huge family.