My great uncle is a man named William John
McArthur (my Papa is John Willam-it seems to be a tradition in the family).
Anyway William took of from New Brunswick in 1959-60 for Wainwright, Alberta
and we've never seen or heard from him since.
The story goes that his house in NB burnt down and his infant child was killed,
terrible, but it gets worse, the cops (and possibly his wife) blamed him (not
actually his fault). He spent one night at my Papa's (possibly the 1st time my
Grandmother met him) and then took off for Alberta.
Interestingly, my toddler uncle couldn't tell the difference between his Da and
his uncle they looked so much alike.
He'd be about 70-72 years old, early 70s at any rate so I'm hopeful he's still
around.
He may also go by the last name Coates, as he was raised by the
neighbors...apparently the locals used to wonder how my Papa and his siblings
didn't literally starve to death. I know he's tough like the rest of the family
(Papa should have been dead decades ago...stubborn!)
I'm trying to find him ASAP, most of his siblings are long dead and my Papa is
in a nursing home with advanced Alzheimers...since there's only a year between
him and Papa (Papa is older) they were very close and I'd like to have him home
to see what's left of us all.