Family history records found and returned to descendants in California

Friday, April 19, 2002

Almost everyone has heard the clich that the world is getting smaller every day. A recent incident simply proves that point. Last August, Jerry Hitchcock of Manila asked for my help in finding the owners of an old photo album/scrapbook that he had acquired. Several years ago his relatives, Winston and Wayne Hitchcock, bought an old 1940's delivery van. They eventually sold the vehicle to Don Hall. While he was restoring the van, Hall and his daughter, Debbie, found the album wedged between the walls of the truck and a peg-board lining material which had been installed by a previous owner. Debbie assumed the album belonged to a member of the Hitchcock family and gave it to Jerry. Someone had meticulously put the album together using photos, newspaper clippings, greeting cars, invitations, old stamps, certificates, and other mementos of the Cornelius Peter Dungan family. According to information in the album, Dungan had immigrated to Chicago from Dublin, Ireland, in 1870. He was associated with the International Silver Company and became its president in his later years. Because of its historical content, the album is a treasure to historians, but Hitchcock realized it would be priceless to a member of the Dungan family. He wanted the family to have the album and asked for my help in finding them via the Internet.

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