大象传媒

My Grandfather was an American soldier stationed in Lancashire during 1944. My Dad and I have made some attempts to find him but without success and this is mainly because we have virtually no information about him. I am hoping (and I think this is a long shot) that someone somewhere might read this and be able to help in some way. This is the story: we think my Grandfather's name was Charles C Watson. He met my Grandmother, Ivy Mellor in 1944. They had a son together, my Dad, Barry Kelly and he was born in January 1945. My Grandfather never saw my Dad and didn't keep in touch with my Grandmother. When my Dad was 5 years old, my Grandmother married an Englishman named John Kelly and he adopted my Dad. My Dad is brown, and his Grandfather could have been black, but equally he could have been of Mexican/Spanish descent. My Dad wasn鈥檛 told that John Kelly was not his real Father until he was 21 years old. The whole thing was treated as a shameful secret and my Dad has suffered greatly because of this. He was coloured, being brought up in a white family and when he questioned his parents about the way he looked, he was told that the differences were in his imagination! This is the reason we don't have very much information to help us find my Grandfather, no one in my Dad's family would discuss it. We got the name Charles C Watson from my Grandmother who mentioned this name only once, when my Dad was trying to get her to talk about what happened in 1944. My Grandmother, Ivy, died in 1985 and my Dad's adoptive Grandfather died a few years ago, so there is no one we can ask (not that they would have discussed it with us anyway). My Dad is desperate to find his real Father; he feels like a part of him is missing, as I do to some extent. So as I said, a long shot, but if anyone out there knew Ivy Mellor from the Oldham area during the 2nd World War, or had a similar experience to my Father鈥檚, please get in touch.

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