Making connections - HMS India, Sir William Pearce and the people I've met!

The first book I wrote, A Bare Chronicle of Existence - Stories and letters from internment in Norway during WW1, allowed me the opportunity to make connections with many different people. I was fortunate to create links to around 40 descendants of men who were on the boat - mostly men who had survived and were interned but a few people contacted me about men who had perished when the HMS India was torpedoed, The stories of from these families complimented the central story of Arnold Clarke and his letters. I also connected with the philatelic community and by doing so benefitted from their knowledge and their enthusiasm and through them have been led to more letters and have got closer to finding out how so many of Arnold's letters escaped the family collection. My writing and speaking, and indeed, researching has become so much richer and more rewarding because of these links. In some cases I have been able to expand a families knowledge on their family members experience of WW1 and in other situations, they've expanded my understanding or introduced me to new stories. I enjoy my writing and researching being such a collaborative process.

I did not think that my second book, Pearced - A True-ish Story would offer the same experience for me. I was aware that Sir William and Lady Dinah Pearce only had one child and he died childless so I was not expecting to run into many family members on the Pearce side. Our connection to the Pearce's was Dinah however despite her having over two dozen nieces and nephews, I have only found two other descendants of the Sowter girls so hopefully I can find more in the future, especially if the book gains some traction and more people read it! Of the six other women I researched and wrote about, I was aware that we did not know the name of one of them and the others had died over seventy years ago (many of them over 100 years ago). My only hope of making connections would seem to be using genealogy websites, which I did. I was very surprised to stumble across Sir William's illegitimate great grandson. If you have read this book or attended one of my talks, apologies for repeating myself but Edmund has become not only a vital source of information but also a sounding board, a research buddy and a wonderful support to my writing. I also made a brief but valuable connection with a relative of Florrie's and we shared information about her. I thought that perhaps that would be all and then, for some reason, I checked my long neglected inbox in Ancestry.com and found a year old reply to a message I had sent in 2023. I can not believe that in all the time I spend on that website, I had not seen that I had an unread message. Anyway, to cut a long story a bit shorter, I am now in contact with Adelaide's great grand daughter and once again, it has been a case of us sharing stories with each other and broadening each others knowledge and it's a wonderful thing. I know that with both Edmund and Anne, I have made contacts that I bounce ideas off, share information with and just know that a connection has been made.

So if you're someone who had a relative on HMS India or a Pearce, a Sowter, a Cootes, a Dawe, a Buziau or have any other connection to anyone I have written about, drop me a line, send me a note - let's make a connection!