Genealogy Chat

Hya Janet, thanks so much for your help!!!! you have given me some food for thought. I got the name Bernard Lemon from records obtained from Somerset childrens dept social services, it is quite possible there was an attempt to anglasise? his name as a German name would have been unpopular just after the war. I will have a look at POW link.

Thanks again for your help.

Bernie X

There was a POW camp at Bridgewater its mentioned here

http://www.fortunecity.com/campus/dixie/921/PoWs/pows.htm

Can't imagine that someone wouuld have volunteered to help rebuild England. Could he not have been a german immigrant (from prior to the war) who had been put in an internment camp

Could your recollection of "Bernard Lemon" not be Bernhardt Lehmann?

It is only a possibility.

I wouldn't necessarily discount that one. Even though he was living in the Hostel he could have been a member of staff there.

Hi Shirley, can't stop now have to go to choir practice and bell ringing tonight !!:) Thanks for your help. I know mum was 20 in 1951so would imagine he would have been about same age but realy don't know. Speak again soon.

Bernie X

there's a Charles B Lemon reg in dec qtr1923 ,Shardlow which is Derbyshire. so may be the one found and the christian names turned around.
In which case probably not the Bernard you are looking for

do you have any idea of how old he was/
theres this death from Ancestry but dont know how you would verify if it was him

Name: Bernard Charles Lemon
Birth Date: 1 Sep 1923
Death Registration Month/Year: Dec 1987
Age at death (estimated): 64
Registration district: Derby
Inferred County: Derbyshire
Volume: 6
Page: 595

Hi Eileen thanks very much for your advice, I know he was living in a hostel for European Voluntry workers. These hostels were set up after the war to house non UK citizens who came here, one for work and to help rebuild the country. My mother was an Irish citizen and also lived in an EVW hostel in Coventry, sit is unlikely he would have been British. I am sure there must be records for migrant workers, but it's knowing how to access them.

Thanks again.

Bernie X

Start a process of elimination.........first search the birth records here and make sure he really wasn't born here...........you can get a lot of well intentioned mis-information from people who think they heard this or that..........it may be that Bernard Lemon was not European at all........he may just have worked there, or for people from there.........so see if you can find him on English, Scottish or Irish records first....if he is not on those records, then you would have to start asking for records from other countries .I think you can do this, but have no idea how.......someone on the Records board on this site will doubtless know, as they know all sorts of things..........

.1951 was not long after the end of the war..........a lot of people were allowed over here to work if they had a sponser in this country who guaranteed them....I think they had to be guaranteed a job, or in some way that they would not have to be given 'the dole ' also there were a large number of people here from Latvia.........so lots of different avenues to explore..........
Good luck
Eileen
birth name

Hya, can any one help please I was born in a Catholic home for unmarried mothers in Leeds October 1951my mothers name was Bridie Moss. late in 1951 my mother and I were taken by a man my mother told Catholic care was my father, his name was Bernard Lemon I think. He took us to North Newton near Bridgwater in Somerset.

Early in 1952 my mother and "Bernard Lemon" were separated. I have been told he was a European Voluntary Worker, possibly from Eastern Europe. His last known address was EVW Hostel Bridgwater. My mother then took me to a mother and baby hostel in Wellington Somerset were I was put up for adoption. I have recently traced my mother who sadly died in 1992 and my half brother and sister.

I would love to find out if Bernard Lemon was my father, and what happened to him but have no idea how to go about tracking him down. If anyone out there can help me I would be very grateful.!!!