Calling Allentown PA.... (York, Greensburg, Sheffield: work, house, friend)

[spirit_of_the_sixties]

Hi! Greetings and salutations from across the Pond. My name is Pat and I'm writting this from Sheffield, Yorkshire, England. The reason for my intrusion on your forum is to attempt to contact an old pen pal of my mother's. I don't know if she is still alive let alone still living in Allentown PA !!.....My Mother's name was, at the time she was last in touch with her pen pal, Jean Woodhead and she was around 15 years old...she is now 80 this November!!! So that would make it around 1943/44 when they lost touch during the dark days of the second world war.
The young girl she was writting to was about the same age ( born around 1928) and her name was Marge Emery and she lived at 281, East Fairview Street, Allentown PA. There were no post codes in those days but according to Google maps the Postal code today is 18109. My mum often wonders what became of her wartime pen pal and would dearly like to get in touch again. I realise that posting this message is like clutching at straws, but if anyone knows ANYTHING about Marge Emery, please get in touch with me via this forum. Thanks for taking the time to read this post. best regards, Patrick.

[poconoproud]

Doesn't seem to be working anyway, hugh?

I googled her name, the address and came up with no hits, sir.

Did she ever write about any certain churches she was a parishoner of? Maybe you could find out about her that way?

[spirit_of_the_sixties]

I will look into it, thanks again.

[AutumnxBreeze]

Do you know how old this Marge Emery was? I just did a people search for that name and found a number of results. The one that seemed to apply most was a Marge Emery that was 75 years old, currently living in Greensburg, PA. I will direct message you the link if it'll help; Or you can just google peoplefinder. Good luck on your search, sorry I wasn't of much help.

[Back2PA]

How wonderful that your mother wants to reunite with an old friend! I'll try to be of help if I can.

I just did a quick search on ancestry.com. The latest searchable US census is from 1930, and there are 26 people listed in Allentown with the last name Emery on that census. Unfortunately none at the address given.

There's a good chance Marge wasn't born yet at the time of the 1930 census given the age and date range you supplied. But there is a good chance her parents lived somewhere in Allentown and she may have had siblings on that census as well.

Does your mother still have her pen pal letters? If so, take a look to see if any siblings were mentioned, or perhaps where her parents or grandparents were from. There are a couple of households with Austrian background on that census and that might be a clue. Chances are Marge's last name is no longer Emery but perhaps we could find a male relative who could provide more info.

If you have additional names or info to work from let me know and I'll do another search online.

Good luck!

Originally Posted by spirit_of_the_sixties

Hi! Greetings and salutations from across the Pond. My name is Pat and I'm writting this from Sheffield, Yorkshire, England. The reason for my intrusion on your forum is to attempt to contact an old pen pal of my mother's. I don't know if she is still alive let alone still living in Allentown PA !!.....My Mother's name was, at the time she was last in touch with her pen pal, Jean Woodhead and she was around 15 years old...she is now 80 this November!!! So that would make it around 1943/44 when they lost touch during the dark days of the second world war.
The young girl she was writting to was about the same age ( born around 1928) and her name was Marge Emery and she lived at 281, East Fairview Street, Allentown PA. There were no post codes in those days but according to Google maps the Postal code today is 18109. My mum often wonders what became of her wartime pen pal and would dearly like to get in touch again. I realise that posting this message is like clutching at straws, but if anyone knows ANYTHING about Marge Emery, please get in touch with me via this forum. Thanks for taking the time to read this post. best regards, Patrick.

[spirit_of_the_sixties]

Thanks back2PA and Autumnxbreeze you are being really helpfull, I'll check out your pointers and let you know.....