Equipped with just decades-old photographs and scant information about her uncle who had passed away in the 1930s, an Australian woman still managed to trace her relatives following an appeal in the Times of Malta.

Coral-Anne Laurence only had old photographs and scant information about her family, who lived in Corradino.Coral-Anne Laurence only had old photographs and scant information about her family, who lived in Corradino.

Coral-Anne Laurence flew over with her family, looking for the relatives of a boy whose heart-broken mother had destroyed all existing photos of him when he died aged nine.

Frederick Mudle was born in Malta more than 90 years ago to Emily and Henry, head groundsman of the then Corradino football grounds. 

Ms Laurence, the daughter of one of his sisters, Norah Jane, had said she would love to pay her respects to her uncle. However, the only information she had was the date of his death, the cause – “cardiac paralysis per endocarditis” – and that he had been buried at the Santa Maria Addolorata Cemetery.

When James Ishmael, Ms Laurence’s second cousin, read her appeal in the Times of Malta he started looking for the boy’s resting place, successfully locating it.

Mr Ishmael’s mother, the late Harriet, had sought refuge in the bomb shelter on the Corradino naval football grounds with her relatives, including her cousin, Norah Jane. Although Mr Ishmael was aware of his extended family, he had no idea where his relatives were, where to start looking or whether any of them were still alive. 

Following Ms Laurence’s appeal, he met her and her family together with his wife Josephine, brother Raymond and cousins Patrick Gabarretta and Antoinette Camilleri. The meeting was for Ms Laurence an amazing life episode. She had always wondered whether there was any surviving family in Malta.

It was a mixture of happiness and sadness for me

“Once the story about my search for little uncle Frederick’s grave was printed in the newspaper, within a day or so I made contact with many second and third cousins I never knew existed. 

“Some lived in Malta and one in the United States,” she said.

When she met her cousins, she immediately felt at home with them and it was amazing to look at the old photos that they had all brought with them, she remarked.

Her cousins had organised a temporary plaque to place on the grave.

“It was a mixture of happiness and sadness for me,” she said.

“It gives me great comfort that this nine-year-old boy, who was lost so many years ago, will now no longer be alone. I kept in constant contact with the many family members back home in Australia and they were all feeling very much like me. 

“Extremely grateful that, after all these years, we have found each other,” Ms Laurence added.

Together with her husband and son she also visited the Hibernians football grounds and they were shown around by the present groundsman.

They were even able to go into the house where her mother and family lived and were shown the entrance to the bomb shelter where they lived during the war.

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