The trail gets stronger

Was I ever on the wrong path!  (last post) 
   Thanks to some helpful archivists at the Alberta Provincial Archives, the search for my Dad's birth mother has taken a good, possible turn.
    They unearthed the mother's name on my Dad's birth certificate in a 1916 census when she was nine years old.  Then they found an obituary from several decades later.  This woman never married and the obituary says she never had children.  Yet the obituary says she loved crocheting baby blankets for friends' babies, handing out candy at Halloween and had many little friends whom she loved and loved her.    If this is the woman who gave birth to my Dad,  these small snippets into her life, I think, suggest a woman who continued to love the son she brought into this world.  And she found positive ways to live out her grief and love.
      Tracking down her brothers has so far led to dead ends.   But a couple of other names in the obituary look promising.  In my last posted, I said the trail was faint after 79 years.  But in this internet age, the path to find my Dad's birth mother have probably never been stronger. 

Do those eyebrows look like mine?

I've been on a hunt for my Dad’s birth Mom.  

          Nearly 79 years later, the trail is faint with paths that potentially lead one way or perhaps another.  Along one path I find photos of a man who may or may not have been Dad’s grandfather.   We look at the photos seeking facial similarities with Dad vocalizing our wonderings.  “Do those eyebrows look like mine?  I don’t think we have the same nose.”

Snippet of an old photo found in my research:  a relative?

 Dad, Mom, nephew and daughter, December 2011

          The connection between this man and Dad is possible. But I don’t yet have enough concrete evidence to approach any of the man’s living family members.   So my research continues.

            In the meantime, I post my daughter’s freckled face and receive a beautiful thank you from my Dad.   “I vaguely remember relatives remarking on my freckles but I don’t know at what age.  Many thanks and lots of love to you all.  Dad”

            Dad’s exact ancestry is unknown but among the known heritage he brought to the family, it does include wonderful freckles!