The Ferry Accident

How Granduncle's Stubbornness Got His Little Sister Killed
Adrian, Mary, Violet and Rose (USA)

The picture we hold was our favourite as kids because it held a chilly family mystery. It is a picture of our grandmother, her brother and her little sister Sophia. It was taken when they still lived in the Netherlands. Our grandmother emigrated to the United States to marry our grandfather but her siblings stayed. Sophia, however, never got any older then her early twenties. Rumours went in the family that this had something to do with her brother. We never were able to find out, however, what had happened exactly. We hired Dutch Ancestry Coach to search for us and the story they found was a big surprise...

Cleansing Grandpa's Name

How A Family Man Ended Up Fighting For The Enemy
Ben (Australia)

My father came to Australia shortly after WWII as a ten year old boy with his mother, stepfather and siblings. They were determined to leave behind all the horrors lived and start a new life. Especially the shame grandpa had brought upon his family by fighting for the Germans. As he grew older my father started wondering why his father, whom he remembered as a kind and loving dad, had suddenly left his family during the war and ended up siding with the enemy. His mother passed away without clearing anything up for him. She simply refused to talk about it. Last Christmas I decided to go find the whole story myself to set my father's mind at ease. Dutch Ancestry Coach dived into the WWII records for us and what they found was amazing...

The Orphan Soldier

How The Search For A Baptism Record Led To An Unexpected Surprise
Diane (Canada)

I had started tracing my family tree with great enthusiasm until I hit a brick wall with the baptism record of my ancestor Lambert. I knew from his death record that he was born in IJzendijke but could find no record of him there, nor of the marriage of his parents. I hired Dutch Ancestry Coach to get me a copy of the baptism record and to find out more about his parents' marriage. This simple question lead us on an unexpected research adventure that ended with the accidental discovery of a very special document that had laid hidden in an archive for almost 250 years...