OK. One from left field.
They say that the first love never really dies. After an absence of over thirty six years, I think they're right.
My first girlfriend and I started our relationship in early 1970 and it lasted for about a year or a bit more. We both worked for the same employer which was how we met. After we "split" (it was amicable because we lived so far apart), we both remained with the same government department but went our separate ways and never worked together again. We kept in touch occasionally and even attended another colleague's wedding in far northern NSW in 1974. As far as I can recollect, the last time we met was in passing whilst walking to work in the late 70's.
Recently, I became aware that she had passed away in 1980. She was only 26. I know precious little about her life after we separated, but from a very brief mention on a website, I have ascertained her date of death, the fact that she married and had two children. I have also been able to ascertain the names of those two children and her husband's name.
I now find that I seriously want to know what happened to her to have died so young but the gap of 36 years makes it difficult to work out where to search. I've tried the usual national searches against all the known family names in white pages, genealogy sites on the web (being limited here because they all want membership fees and I'd only use the site for this search) and even tried Facebook, where I've had one possible hit on her husband. (As soon as I can get my wife's Facebook access without her knowing, I'll try to go in and see if it's the husband, then take it from there if it is.)
Can anybody suggest other avenues I can legitimately try to contact family members after such a long time? Most of her siblings were girls and have obviously married, and even searching under anticipated married names has come up zip.
They say that the first love never really dies. After an absence of over thirty six years, I think they're right.
My first girlfriend and I started our relationship in early 1970 and it lasted for about a year or a bit more. We both worked for the same employer which was how we met. After we "split" (it was amicable because we lived so far apart), we both remained with the same government department but went our separate ways and never worked together again. We kept in touch occasionally and even attended another colleague's wedding in far northern NSW in 1974. As far as I can recollect, the last time we met was in passing whilst walking to work in the late 70's.
Recently, I became aware that she had passed away in 1980. She was only 26. I know precious little about her life after we separated, but from a very brief mention on a website, I have ascertained her date of death, the fact that she married and had two children. I have also been able to ascertain the names of those two children and her husband's name.
I now find that I seriously want to know what happened to her to have died so young but the gap of 36 years makes it difficult to work out where to search. I've tried the usual national searches against all the known family names in white pages, genealogy sites on the web (being limited here because they all want membership fees and I'd only use the site for this search) and even tried Facebook, where I've had one possible hit on her husband. (As soon as I can get my wife's Facebook access without her knowing, I'll try to go in and see if it's the husband, then take it from there if it is.)
Can anybody suggest other avenues I can legitimately try to contact family members after such a long time? Most of her siblings were girls and have obviously married, and even searching under anticipated married names has come up zip.