My father is 86. He was born in Highgate, London. He left in order to take up employment in South Wales before the war… and married my mother at (roughly) age 22. From then on for the past 62 years of so we have a record of who he is, where he’s been and what he’s done. Before he arrived in South Wales… nothing.
He never talks of his family… if he ever had a family. He never talks of his youth, childhood, schooling… nothing relating to life *before* he arrived in Wales all those years ago. So for 22 years his life has been a blank to us.
We’ve asked him of course… repeatedly… and got nowhere. We think his fathers name was Harold and his mother’s name Anne… but that’s it. He might have had a sister… maybe even a brother… but this is conjecture based on a few hints he gave an aunt who is now deceased… and aunt on my mothers side of course… we have *no* idea if there are relatives on his side.
You may ask what the problem is. Well it’s because we have a gaping hole on one side of our lives. It’s very close to being the ‘identity crisis’ that adopted or fostered children face when they know nothing about their birth families.
Also of course we want to know about *him*… where he went to school… what he studied… who his friends were… what did *they* do with their lives etc etc. We want to know about the other half of the family… *is* there another half? Are there inherited diseases we should know about… a myriad of questions with only one person knowing at least some of the answers.
Over the years we’ve respected his clear wish not to discuss the issue… well clear in as much as when the question is asked he either ignores it or changes the subject… but we’ve never tried to discover his origins on the basis that one day he’d talk. Well he’s 86 and he hasn’t so time is running out for *us*.
It may be that even after 70 years the topic is still to painful, embarrasing or traumatic to talk about… but if so well *tell* us!! It’s so frustrating for us.
Was he abandoned as a child and brought up as an orphan? Was he illegitimate? Was his father or mother… or both… a murderer… a spy… or what?? We *think* his father was some sort of salesman who died in Europe of some illness… but again only conjecture.
Sorry to say but we feel this is grossly unfair and want to know our heritage.
Anyone got any ideas how we can persuade him to talk… even after all this time?
The Eclectic Interweb 
Ask him the name of the road he lived in and you can research that Rd.
We did it for our Rd and found a lot of people from Wales in London I’m sure Camden will have a few books on local history.
Have you checked the land registry and the electoral register?
Sodium Pentothal works in the films. Bit drastic maybe. 🙂