Irishman laid to rest after appeal for kin found relatives

The late John Joseph Gill.

John Joseph Gill, the man whose death prompted a search for his next of kin, has been laid to rest in England with a funeral attended by the niece he never knew existed.

The 86-year-old passed away on November 25 in a nursing home, having previously spent much of the previous 14 years in a different nursing home facility in Birmingham. Just after Christmas Birmingham City Council issued an appeal to find his next of kin, resulting in the identification of family including a niece living elsewhere in the city and a surviving brother who lives in Canada.

The funeral service took place at 3pm at Sutton New Hall Cemetery in Sutton Coldfield in the UK Midlands, with the service celebrated by the priest who was John Joseph's only regular visitor for much of the past 14 years.

Fr Anton Guziel said in advance of the funeral: "I used to go once a fortnight to take John Holy Communion along with one or two other residents in this home.

"I never met anyone else [that visited him], I never heard of anyone else, but I don’t know that I was the only one.

"He was brought in to see me when I came in, we said prayers, had Holy Communion, we would shake hands, I'd say 'are you alright John?', he would say 'yes', and I'd go on my way.

"He was a nice little man," Fr Anton said.

For much of the past 14 years John Joseph was a resident of the Hawthorns Care Home, before more recently moving to the Orchard House Nursing Home where he passed away.

Linda Smith still works at the Hawthorns, now in an admin position, and she was previously a manager. She remembers processing the paperwork when John first came to the facility.

"When he first came here he said he had been married and she was an escapologist," Ms Smith said.

Mental health

It appears John had mental health issues before this admission, having previously attended the Queen Elizabeth Psychiatric Hospital, and developed dementia. The work undertaken by Erin Research, a probate genealogy company, in tracing his relatives found that John's own information had been unreliable. He had never been married, he was born in Delvin in Co Westmeath, and not in Co Roscommon as initially suspected, and he had seven siblings, not nine.

Yet while some information has been forthcoming about the early stage of his life, and also regarding his later years, the decades where he lived and worked — possibly as a labourer — in the UK are still something of a blank.

Linda Smith recalls that the City Council facilitated his placement at the Hawthorns and described John as a "lovely man".

 "He was a very much liked resident and the staff really liked him."

She said he retained his Irish accent and was "quite lively", adding: "He liked to get up for a dance."

"He could not do a long conversation but you got the gist of it," she said. "He was a pussy cat, he was a lovely, lovely man."

Tracing service

Judith Orr of Irish in Britain said the organisation regularly gets calls from relatives seeking to trace members of their family with him they have lost contact.

"I get calls often from people in Ireland trying to trace people they have lost touch with, sometimes for decades. It's sad.

"For many hundred of individual Irish people, particularly the elderly, they are supported elsewhere, by luncheon clubs, befriending clubs.

"There would be many, many more people who would be much more isolated.

"Very often a case like this makes people think about a family member who emigrated 50 or 60 years ago."

'A very dignified send-off'

That is a view shared by Padraic Grennan of Erin Research, who established contact with John's family and who attended Friday's funeral service in Birmingham.

He confirmed that John’s niece was in attendance at the small service and said he was glad he had flown over to attend.

“It was a very dignified send-off,” he said.

Padraic said the start point for any effort to trace someone, such as John Joseph Gill, is the birth certificate. In this case, the incorrect date first provided meant expanding the search.

"When we found what was likely the correct birth cert we were able to build out the family tree from there,” he said.

That pro bono work led to Padraig making contact with John’s surviving brother in Canada.

"The natural reaction when we ring sometimes in scepticism,” Padriac said. "The brother still has his Irish accent and when I spoke to him he heard my accent and a rapport was built pretty quickly.

"He knew straight away it was genuine.

"All I was saying is he was very appreciative to get the call."

Funeral arrangements

The funeral arrangements were made by Ian Coxhead, Funerals and Protection of Property officer for Birmingham City Council. He was also responsible for the social media appeal at Christmas which sparked interest in the case.

Mr Coxhead said that it was understood John Joseph lost contact with his family as far back as the Sixties. He too was due to attend the funeral and said John's grave would be marked by a simple wooden cross "to start with", adding: "the expenses will probably come from his estate."

"John Joseph has yielded a vast amount of interest," he said, adding that the story had "really captured the imagination".

"I have got a similar case ongoing at the moment," he said, referring to a man born and bred in Birmingham, "and I have done a similar social media release and it has generated no such interest at all."

Mr Coxhead said that there had been "no special wishes" for the funeral, other than that John be interred. Even as he was laid to rest, vast sections of John’s life are still a mystery.

"No one really seems to know much about his life,” Padraic Grennan said.

"It was quite poignant standing there. A lot of stuff goes through your mind when you see someone being lowered into the ground, effectively by strangers."