Appeal in Shropshire Star brings two cousins together
Two long-lost cousins have met for the first time – thanks to the Shropshire Star.
Leslie Jones, 71, from Waterford in Ireland, made an appeal in the paper last year for relatives living in the county to contact with him. He had left Shropshire when he was a boy.
The appeal was seen by his cousin Elaine Wood, from Copthorne in Shrewsbury, who couldn't believe the message from the relative she knew about but had never met. The pair got in touch and Leslie and his wife Angela recently travelled to Shropshire.
Mr Jones had put an appeal out to any descendants of his grandfather and grandmother Edmund and Julia Emma Jones, who lived in the Coalbrookdale area.
Mrs Wood, 65, whose maiden surname is Jones, said her husband Ron spotted the appeal in the paper.
The pair began corresponding and Leslie came to visit earlier this year. The two couples went to Coalbrookdale to see the house where he had lived before going to Ireland.
Mrs Wood said Leslie had also met Tom Gollins and Albert Wase on the trip, two men who had known his father.
She said: "He left Shropshire in the year I was born. I knew he lived in Ireland, but had never met him or anything. My uncle Bertram Leslie Jones married an Irish lady and he raised a family in Ireland."
She said the marriage broke up, with Leslie and his father returning to Shropshire, before Leslie went to Ireland to live with his mother. He then went to boarding school and eventually joined the air force.
Elaine said: "He didn't really know anything about his family, only bits he picked up. He knew the names of aunts and uncles and knew my dad was supposed to have been best man at his father and mother's wedding. Leslie had been over two or three times to try and find things out but with not much success."
He then contacted the Shropshire Star, which published his appeal – leading to a breakthrough in his search. Elaine said seeing the article had been very emotional as one of her other cousins, Jose, had been suggesting looking for Leslie, but had died before the appeal appeared in the paper.
"When I read it in the paper, I started to cry because I thought of Jose," she said.
The cousins remain in touch and Elaine hopes to soon visit Leslie in Ireland.
