>WW 2 Army Bracelet Resolution

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I posted this request on January 3 about the World War II Army bracelet found by a man in Belgium.

Yannick, the finder of the bracelet, wanted to find the family of the man, who he found through some research was born in Randolph county here in Alabama. Yannick thought the man had returned to live in Bessemer, which it seems turned out not to be true, but it led Yannick to contact people here to help.

I contacted a woman in Roanoke in her 80’s who said she was pretty sure I had the right family, but couldn’t give me more information until a few days later due to her vision and hearing impairment. She needed to wait until she had some assistance. When I called her back she gave me the name of a relative (Tim) in North Carolina who was doing some research on the family genealogy.

At the same time, my post was picked up by The Randolph Leader, who printed my information in the form of a letter. A local man, there, Howard, a cousin of Andrew Barfield, saw the letter and emailed me.

While this was going on, Yannick had found World War 2 Forums, a site formed for veterans, families and friends to exchange information, and posted information. You can read the responses there, and Howard actually posted on the site as well. (This is a great site with forums for genealogical, historical, honor, WW2 weapons and more).

While it seemed to everyone, Yannick included, that the correct Barfield family had been found, he was not 100% convinced until I confirmed with Howard and Tim, with the Army Serial Number, that it was indeed the right family.

As it turns out Howard (who is a retired nurse), has made many visits to Belgium and Germany and the Netherlands researching his family and has actually traced the family back to William the Conqueror (thus relating to all the royal houses of Europe).

So the bracelet is being returned to Andrew Barfield’s widow, who lives in Florida. But just as excited is his sister, Ollie Gay, who lives in Georgia, and will be celebrating her 100th birthday tomorrow! The family, and Ollie, are on cloud nine and this news will be the highlight of her (somewhat) surprise party on Saturday.

Thanks go out to Yannick for going to the trouble to make this happen, and to Jeff and the others at WW2F for providing the forum.

You can leave Birthday Wishes for Ollie here in the comments section and I will see that Howard delivers them to her tomorrow.