What are the odds

[Nightryder]

After receiving the death cert for my great Uncle Edwin Butler, I find he died in 1987 in Sykefield house nursing home in Leicester.
I emailed the home & received a lovely reply from the owner,but he had only been the owner for 3 years & there were no records left of Edwin nor any staff still working their, I thought this was about as far as I could go with this,until in an idle moment (waiting for brit-gen members to wake up & post something for me to read) I had a look at the uk white pages,
I put in the name & address of the woman who was the informant on the death cert,there was 1 entry,same last name,same initials,not living at the same address but living on the same road as Sykefield house, I thought it was to good to be true that I had found the right person,but for the price of a stamp,thought it was worth a letter,
I received a reply today , I do have the right person,she does remember Edwin (who she knew as Ted) & she has a couple of friends who also worked at Sykefield & who remember him, they are all going to put their recollections together & write back to me, I was thrilled to bits, what where the odds ,when I wrote the letter, I had found the right person.

[SBSFamilyhistory]

How brilliant.

Sometimes it pays to take risks.

As you say if nothing came back or it had of been the wrong person, all it cost was a little bit of your time and the cost of some stationery and a stamp, nothing really.

Anyway as they say nothing ventured nothing gained.


Sue

[Sue Mackay]

You create your own luck in this game

My philosophy is that it's always worth the price of a stamp or a speculative e-mail. Many won't yield results, but it's worth it when the occasional one does!

So pleased for you.

[Nightryder]

The last time I sent a letter hoping for a reply was to the present occupier of a large house in Fleckney that had belonged to my GGrandparents,Id even included in the letter a copy of a very old photo of the house, I never received a reply,but found out why a few months later,through a work mate of my brother who had married a girl from Fleckney, The house had been converted into flats for the blind.........

[v.wells]

That is really lucky for you to have found that lady from Sykefield House, Nightyder! If only all our contacts were as friendly as she is! I am really hapy for you

(Too bad the other letter went to a home for the blind - no wonder you didn't get a reply)

[tony vines]

Sometimes life creates unintentional ironies. Sykefield House is across the road from the former Westcotes Maternity Home where I was born. So for decades new lives were ushered into the world on one side of the road as old lives were ushered out of it on the other. That of course was the private sector but of course the public sector does that all the time!