ORPHAN'S ROMANTIC STORY

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 62, 31 March 1937, Page 6

ORPHAN'S ROMANTIC STORY

-Own Correspondent)

Locate? Her Family After 60 Years ? • — FRAU GALLUS'S SEARCH

/By Air Mail—

• LONDON, March 3. Sixty years ago a two-year-old orphaned "baby in Scotland won the love of a German eouple by th& happiness of her smHe. Her name was Ann Massie. They adopted her and took her home wifh them to Germany. Ann grew ttp in ignorance of the secret of her parentage. She did not know until years later that her German father and xnother were not her real paTents. . ■ ®te only trace of Scotland left was that she wonld often say "Scotch porridge,". and nobody jknew. what it meant Gne 3ay the seoret of her , birth was revealed to her, b«£ not the secret of her parentage, because- nobody conld remember * anytHing more ' abont her family than that she came from Dundee* - . ; The years passed. She finished her ©ducatioa.in the best schools in Berlin "k* s beantiftil youfig woman she took her place in exclusive Berlin society. Two Fine Sons f km officer oi the German Army wooed her,- and she married him. He rose to a high place on the General Stafif, ancl two fine sons were born to them. Th« sons . grew to'maahood. Their mother, with the enterp'rise of her Scottish iaee, forsook the social'round ef an officer's wif e to enter on a business career. v She bnilt alone .two great businesses BOW well inown thronghout Germany, and from them drew a snbstantial fortane. ' Then one day, tnrning over thonsands #f letters left behind by her adopted parents, theto .came to her a great desire to see the land of her birth, to know the real story ofher .parents, and to meet relatives whomight still be clive. She came to Britain, and with the dynamic energy-that made her opo ©f the great business suceesses of Germany .she began her xomantio hnnt. . Records. Searched. She had the birth and marriage registers . of Scotland r thoroughly searched by experts. She called in the aid of the churches, and Presbyteries put their records at her disposal. For - more than a year she combed Scotland from Aberdeenshire to Angus. And finally this week she isin London on her way home with copies of the almost eomplete records of her family for as f ar back as such records of Scotland go. ; She found unknown relatives in the most diverse positions, and sometimes in the the most romaiftic circumstances. She discovered to her intease surprise that in California she had still living a sister she had never seen. She discovered, too, that • one of her relatives was the editor of the Sunday Express. Her name is Frau Gallus.

"It has been a wonderul expen(Saee," she said.to a Sunday Express peporter, "a fitting late chapter in a life that has been like a film story. "I went into business," she said, ** because in the war I rau a great hospital itf Germany and I did not like to sfop'work again, "I set myself to learn printing, and when I thought I kneW enough I developed a business which I still own completely and which is now the largest in Germany, After the printing • business came what is now one of ihe best-known German publi'shing businesses, issuing seientifie books and periodicals of all kinds. Her Search. lfHy two find sons now manage these businesses for me. One is a famous air pilot and motorist. 4He has taken every motoring certificate possible in Germany, in cluding one for driving a motor dust-cart. To secure this he had to work for a week-as a ^lustman, and, believe me, it was quite amusihg to _see this rich yOung rnan on his d.isteart. - "It was after my sons had relieved me of the burdens of business that 1 felt an intense desire to learn all abont my family. "It has been a difficult but most delightful search — difficult" as you may imagine, because when 1 began I knew nothing exeCpt. that my name was Ann .Massie and I was born in Dundee.

Two Branch^s. fthTow I fesi that I must still go on artd on. I have opened a branch of my business in Zurich and another in London. "In Scotland I found a young niece, Mrs. M, H. G. Murdoeh, I have brought her to London to train in the management of my London branch, to which I have given our joint maiden aame of Massie Publishing Gompany, ''As another tributc of affection to my old home, I am arranging now to publish in Germany a translation of the most popular biography ^ your King and Qneen. "SoOn I hope my niece will be able to handle with ease the responsibilities I am putting on her, and when she ean I shall then go to California to meet my long lost sister. "