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Looking for Rose Peck / family / descendants (WWII POW story)

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Hi everybody,

I realise that this is a shot in the dark, but I would be very grateful for a little help. I am trying as many websites, magazines and other sources as I can find in the hope of finding Rose or her descendants.

It is a lovely story and we would be so happy if we could write a happy ending for it.

 

I am trying to find a PECK family who had a farm during the Second World War on which at least one German prisoner of war was given work. Mrs Peck's first name (or, at least, the name she used) was ROSE.

 

The POW in question was Emil Lautenbach, born in 1913 in Hamburg.

He was taken prisoner in France, seriously wounded with bullet wounds to the chest/stomach. He was later transported to England where, after spending several months in hospital, he was registered to a number of POW camps. At some time during his stay in England, he worked on a farm (owned?) by Mrs Peck or the Peck family.

 

Mrs Peck treated Emil extremely well. She or her family even insisted on having his much younger brother Gustav (the lad was around 12 years old) sent to them after the war, so that they could care for him for a while and provide him with enough to eat.

 

The Lautenbach family were so grateful to the Pecks that Emil and his wife named their daughter Birgit Rose, born 1948, in honour of Mrs Peck.

The Lautenbachs had absolutely nothing after the war. Almost everything that Birgit had, from clothes to nappies to a pan for heating her baby food, was sent over to Germany by Mrs Peck.

 

When Birgit was christened in Hamburg in early 1949, Rose Peck was named as Godmother on the certificate. However, it seems unlikely that Mrs Peck was actually present at the christening.

 

We don't know why the contact terminated. One possibility is that Mrs Peck passed away - we have no idea how old she was. There is, of course, the possibility that she had children and grandchildren. If we could contact them, it would be wonderful.

 

I have lived in Germany for 30 years. We moved last year and Birgit is our landlady - and an absolutely wonderful person. I don't know if it is the fact that she now has a Brit living next door :D, but she would love to find out more about the Peck family.

 

Her father and uncle are both deceased and no family records, photos, etc. exist from that time. (With the exception of a few baby-photos of Birgit, plus a picture of a washing line full of baby clothes and nappies: the Lautenbachs were so grateful, they even took a photo of the gifts from Mrs Peck!)

 

Birgit would love to find Mrs Peck's descendants and finally say thank you to them. She does not know how to start looking, so I suggested that I try to help.

 

I realise that our "information" is extremely sparse, but maybe it rings a bell with someone. Alone the fact that Emil's baby brother visited the Pecks at least twice must have been quite unusual, directly after the war. Heaven knows how that was organised.

 

We have managed to find out (German military records office) which camps Emil was assigned to:

 

03.01.1945 Camp 18 Featherstone Park Haltwhistle Northumberland

 

05.03.1945 Camp 191 Crewe Hall Crewe Cheshire

 

28.02.1946 Camp 296 Racecourse Camp Doncaster West Riding Yorkshire OR Ravenfield Park Rotherham West Riding Yorkshire

 

04.07.1946 Camp 17 Lodge Moor Camp Sheffield West Riding Yorkshire OR London W.2.

 

06.07.1947 Camp 19 Happendon Camp Douglas Lanarkshire

 

01.08.1947 Returned to Germany

03.08.1947 Released from captivity

 

I have spent some time researching this already and it would appear likely that Emil would probably only have been able to actually live on the farm after the war had ended. if this is true, then his time at Camp 17 (Lodge Moor Camp, Sheffield, also known as Redmires) would be the most likely time period. We are not discounting any other possibilities, though!

 

We have been wading through census records and everything we can find on the Internet, but with no concrete leads so far. I would therefore be extremely grateful for any suggestions or help which you could give us, however insignificant they may seem.

 

I look forward very much to your reply!

 

Many thanks and best regards from Northern Germany,

Karen McDonald

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As it looks on Ancestry and the 1939 Register there only seems to be one person who seems to fit the bill. Dorothy Rose Peck born Dorothy R Jobling in 1914 and married Thomas D Peck in 1934. She died 1999. I will look for any children now. :)

Births Mar 1935

Peck Thomas D

Jobling

Sheffield

9c 749

 

 

Births Jun 1937

Peck Diana J

Jobling

Sheffield

9c 926

 

Births Sep 1941

 

Peck Daphne J D

Jobling

Sheffield

9c 1167a

 

Peck Janet D

Jobling

Sheffield

9c 1167

 

 

Births Sep 1943

 

Peck Duncan C

Jobling

Sheffield

9c 577

 

---------- Post added 12-11-2017 at 17:37 ----------

 

I have traced one family member up to date but can't post on an open forum so you need to contact me with your email address so I can pass on :)

Edited by Rivelin6

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Hello Rivelin,

 

Sorry I didn't reply yesterday (here and E-Mail), but I am away from home for a few days and have only limited Internet access.

 

Thank you very much indeed for all your hard work! Much as I hate to have to say it, it was, unfortunately, in vain. :blush:

 

We have today received a document which tells us, with 100% certainty, who our Rose was and where she lived. It's not the Dorothy Rose Peck. However, it looks as though "our" Rose did not live on a farm, so that was a wee bit of a red herring.

We still need to get to the bottom of that one...

 

The main thing is, we now know who it was we were seeking, where she lived and who her husband was. Now all I need to do is find out whether there are any living relatives (children or grandchildren). That would be absolutely wonderful.

 

Thanks again for your help. I really appreciate it!

 

Karen

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If you want any help with tracing living relatives let me know as I have done it a number of times for people. ☺

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