Finding Alfred

“Well, he ran away when he was young,” my mother said when I asked about her brother Alfred and why they didn’t know where he was.

That was the story I was told anyway, but there is no evidence to back it up. In fact, there is no evidence to prove he even existed. If I didn’t have his birth certificate, I’d think he’d been a figment of my mother’s imagination.

I’ve managed to gather bits and pieces of information from relatives, who unfortunately, are all deceased now. One thing that did come to light was what made Alfred “disappear”. It seems, from what an Aunt of mine said, he was left holding the gun… quite literally.

Alfred didn’t run away; he was in juvenile detention. From what I was told, he got in with some older boys who committed a robbery. Alfred was there, but since he was underage, they left him with the gun. He was arrested.

My Aunt said the family had gone to visit him occasionally in “upstate New York” but she couldn’t recall which facility he was in. I’d written to every prison in New York State. None of them had any record of Alfred being an inmate either as a juvenile or an adult.

The last confirmed sighting of Uncle Alfred was around 1943 when my father was at Camp Carson in Colorado Springs. He and my mother were there waiting for him to be shipped out to serve his country.

Mom told me she was walking through a supermarket doing the shopping, looked up and there was Alfred. Of all places to meet your long, lost brother, in a supermarket in Colorado! He was also waiting to be shipped out, but oddly enough, he wasn’t at Camp Carson.

It seems Alfred was married with a daughter by then. I have photos of him and his family, along with one of him and my mother. He was wearing a uniform at the time.

Alfred and my mother spent two weeks together and then, typical Alfred, he disappeared again, only this time he took his family with him.

That was the last time we ever heard or saw anything about him.

All right, you say, this is the 21st century. Just do research and find him.

Well, not as easy as it sounds. There are records on Ancestry from the 1920 census that have him listed. That’s it. Sure, I find loads of records with an Alfred Ziegler listed, but they are all speculative. Apparently, the name Alfred Ziegler is more popular than you’d think. None of the files I found are conclusive, I can only make a guess that I’ve got the correct Alfred. That's not good enough.

You’d think I could find an arrest record, or a prison record, or a police report from when he was arrested. Nothing. Nada. No one has ever heard of this guy.

Many years ago, I found an article about his arrest, but try as I might, I can’t locate it again online. Yes, I can hear you saying well why didn’t you save it when you had it. I did, but that was two computers ago and it has since gotten lost. Once again, Alfred has disappeared without a trace .

So, I figured I’d go about it a different way. I tried to find his wife and daughter. It seems they don’t exist either. Of course, it’s difficult finding the wife if I don’t have her maiden name. I only have given names for them: Ann and Margaret, respectively.

I did find a grave in Calverton National Cemetery of an Alfred Ziegler, wife Ann. But the dates don’t match what I know to be true, so once again I can’t be sure it’s the same Alfred.

So, I ask for your help locating him. Here’s what I know for sure:

Alfred Ziegler

Father: William

Mother: Edith

Born: Brooklyn, NY in 1913

Some time around the beginning of WWII, he was in Colorado Springs, Colorado and in a uniform, although I don’t know which branch of the military it was. Maybe one of you can tell me?

That’s all I know. My quest to find Alfred will continue, although I’m fairly certain he’s dead by now.

So, I ask myself, how can someone simply drop off the face of the earth like that? Why would they want to? Your guess is as good as mine. I suspect this is going to be one of the ‘unsolved mysteries’ in my family.