Peter has always remained a mystery. It’s as if I keep orbiting him but can’t quite reach close enough despite all these breadcrumbs around him that I keep picking up. Take the date which he passed away for instance: I just didn’t know it at all and all searches on Ancestry drew a blank, which is bizarre since I knew it had to be recent. But like a lot of the research I do, suddenly a shaft of light appears in which I can peek in and sometimes, better still, I get lucky.
Tonight, I just figured I would search for his name with the keywords “jewish“, and “methodist“, two things that feature prominently in his life. Viewing Google images kept being a miss but one thing that did pop up was a reference or two to a local camera club. Here’s one example, dated 23rd January, 2014:
Could that be him referred to in 2014? Well, I did find a photo which he had taken of somebody in the street and, discussing it with a friend at work, the notion that he might have been a photographer came up. And then there was this dated 7th March, 2018:
If that were him, it would mean that he had died anywhere between the 25th of February and probably the 3rd of March, the 3rd being the very last Saturday, assuming a Sunday start to the week. How could I confirm it though?
I did know where the service would be held and what would happen to his body because in a following newsletter, there was this from the 25th April, 2018:
Still nothing from Ancestry despite adding in the year of death as being 2018 and no luck from the methodist church’s website. Rats! OK, I’ve got one more shot - the probate service since they show the date of death.
Bingo! I feel sure that is him and that he died on the 2nd of March, 2018. One crumb closer but also a tinge of sadness at his inevitable passing. It’s lovely that he made it to approximately 90 years old and that he passed peacefully, though.