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 Laura's Box

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I am determined to find the owner or any living relative/s of the owner of this box to hand it back to them. If you can help in any way please email me

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Les writes

My interest in Laura Moran started when I saw the article in the Barnsley Chronicle about the box of documents found in Brierley Hall, having an interest in both Family and Local history decided to have a look at Gary’s Brierley Village web site to see what other information he might have that might help locate Laura.  I also contacted Gary to see if I could have a look at the contents of the box with a view to trying to find Laura to return them to her.

  Having obtained what information I could from the contents of the box I decided to treat it as a Family History Project and started to trace her family, using Barnsley Archive’s Birth, Marriage and Death records I found that Laura’s mother and father married in Barnsley in 1918 and that she had in fact six brothers three of whom died young and three who died in the 2000’s but without any family that I could find, so that just left Laura but there was no record of her in Barnsley after the mid 1950’s.

  It was time to look further a field so I started to look for a marriage for Laura only one that I could find that fitted Laura’s age and the right father’s name (they appear on the marriage certificate) was in Cheshire in 1958.  I now had a new Surname for Laura but that didn’t seem to help at all as I could not find any children born to Laura or even a death and the electoral registers didn’t help as there was no record that I could find.

  It was now time to look for her husband Thomas and here I had more luck finding his death in 1997 in London, but this didn’t help in returning the box so looking again at there marriage certificate I realised that Thomas was in fact a widower when he married Laura so I decided to look at Thomas’s previous marriage and found that he had two children with his first wife a boy and a girl.

   It was now time to find these children the boy Peter was in fact the one who led me to Laura via his children. I found a marriage for Peter in 1969 and his death in 2007. Checking for children from his marriage I found that he also had two children a boy called Daniel and girl called Beth and again I concentrated on the boy mainly because they don’t change their name when they marry, it was time to look at the electoral registers and found only one Daniel with the right middle and surname of the right age living in Cornwall, it was now time to consult the phone book and found him listed.

  I gave him a call about 5pm on a Saturday night and to my amazement after I explained why I was calling he confirmed that Laura was very much alive and well and living in London he agreed to give Laura a call and get her to call me back which she did about 7pm that same evening, she was amazed firstly that anyone had taken the time and trouble to try and find her and secondly how the box of documents found their way to Brierley Hall.

  Over the next couple of weeks Laura and I spoke on the telephone about to return the box too her and we agreed that would take it down to her in London, which I did accompanied by Michael Pointon at the end of March 2011. She is a lovely lady and very sprightly for someone of her age with a full social calendar and full of life as we talked over lunch in a pub near her home she told us she had left Barnsley in search of a better life and adventure and I think she certainly found that. 

  Laura was absolutely amazed to see the documents again after so many years but is at a loss to explain how or why they should have turned up in Brierley Hall, so if anyone can help try and resolve that mystery we are still trying to get to the bottom of it. I am also trying to help Laura find her Irish ancestry and still in contact with her so if anyone thinks they remember her or can help solve the mystery of the box please feel free to contact either direct or through Gary.

   One person I would like to get in contact if he reads this or anyone knows his whereabouts is Melvyn Jones or his sister Mary who’s father Les was caretaker at Brierley Hall in the sixties.

  You will have noticed that I have purposefully not mentioned Laura’s married this to protect Laura and her family’s privacy but if anyone does know her and wants to get in touch with her I will be only too pleased to arrange it.

  Les Parry Barnsley Road Brierley