Hello, My complicated family tree research has been going on for years, but more intently for the past two years. My father (Reuben) and his eleven siblings were placed in St. John’s orphanages or family homes when their father, my grandfather, Henry Young, died in his hometown of Lourdes, Port au Port peninsula, at the age of 36 in May 1918, leaving my grandmother, Olivia Craniford (also spelled Cranford or Cranneford) widowed with 12 children below the ages of 14 years. Olivia, who was formerly from St. John’s, remarried and eventually settled in Antwerp, Belgium with Peter Sorensen, (originally from Amsterdam) where she had 6 more children who were raised there. For many years Olivia’s two families (in Newfoundland and Belgium) did not know of each other, except we were heard occasional rumblings of some alternating life change for Olivia or one of her siblings. However, the summer of 2013 was very special for five of Olivia’s female descendants (from Antwerp, Belgium, Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and Riverview, New Brunswick) who gathered for 10 days in St. John’s to get connected to each other and to the family roots of the Craniford /Young/ Sorensen families. It was an interesting, exciting, emotional, and busy ten day!! We spent a great deal of time at The Rooms, and visiting churches and cemeteries in the St. John’s area. We recorded factual information and made sense of many stories and rumours that we had heard over the years regarding the how and why of it all. We now have a fairly accurate written record of Olivia’s life, her 18 children, and their families (who now live in different parts of the US, Canada, and Belgium). However, we are hoping there is a Downhome reader who can help us complete a link to the Craniford/Young part of Olivia’s story. As the family reunion was coming to an end this past summer in St. John’s, we were feeling very sad that we could not find any record of one of Olivia’s children, Alexander Young. But amazingly, with the help of the Rooms records and a worker at the Forest Road Anglican Cemetery in St.John’s, we located Alexander’s gravesite. We would have visited the gravesite sometime between August 1-10, 2013. We feel there must be descendants of Alexander in the St. John’s area because there was a special note left on his headstone with fresh flowers. He was born January 17, 1914 Lourdes, NL. We know he died in 1949 and that he served in the Royal Artillery WW2, based on the information printed on his headstone. I am attaching a picture of Alexander Young’s headstone taken this August when we discovered it. It is our hope that someone who is related to Alexander or may have known him or his family, will get in touch with us just to help us complete an important gap in Olivia’s story and our family tree. Thank you in advance. I can be reach at jjcairns@nb.sympatico.ca. A genealogy & Downhome buff, Judy (Young) Cairns (granddaughter of Olivia Craniford –Young- Craniford)   Submitted By: Judy Young -Cairns