Vivienne has been searching for 2 years for further evidence of the Wilfling family's existence, then, on coming across the Moving Here site she found it! She searched records Moving Here has provided relevant for the Jewish community and although she is not yet sure her relative was Jewish, and he may not be, her story demonstrates that there are records of great value on the site to family historians.

Below is her diary of discoveries. Sometimes there is nothing quite like finding that vital missing clue!

To begin with when tracing my family all I had to go on was my mother's date of birth to obtain her original birth certificate, she was adopted. Then I came across the Moving Here site. Presently it has given me the impetus to continue my search after months of hitting my head against a brick wall.

I had information of his internment in 1916 at Alexandra Palace and thought that he had been sent back to Austria after WW1. I was able to print the exemption from internment of 1940 for Wilhelm Wilfling, and from this I have asked Company House if they can identify the employer he worked for. It's an off chance, but I have to try to find out any which way I can about them. A puzzle is that he is under the Jewish community, I thought he was Catholic, he married in a Catholic church. I would like to find out more about that. He also had a son called Wilhelm. I cannot find any of them or their descendants.

I started to wonder what had become of his 5 children. I obtained his marriage certificate to Emma, and the birth certificates of his 5 children, plus the death certificate of one, the 2nd born, Wilhelmina.

Grace, his youngest child, was my grandmother but I didn't know her, she tried to keep my mother for 6 months at a house in Golders Green where she worked as a housemaid. The father is said to be a Jewish medical student, but no name was given to the adoption agency. My mother was adopted at the age of one, and moved to the North of England.

In 1927 Grace's employers, The Clarendons at Golders Green sold the house and moved away just after the adoption took place. A year later the authorities looked for Grace for her signature for a legal adoption to take place, but could not find her anywhere in Britain. Maybe when I have found the answers and/or descendants I can then write a decent story for you. I long to see a photo of Grace to see if my mother inherited her Sophia Loren looks from her. Perhaps I am not the last Wilfling left in Britain.

I long to find the other Wilflings and the descendants.

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