A FAMILY history devotee has told of her emotional journey to discover the grave of her grandfather in Germany, where he died in World War One.

It took Glenys Ellis, who grew up in Booth Street in Tottington, two years of painstaking research to uncover the identity and resting place of her maternal grandfather, who died from pneumonia in 1917 whilst he was a prisoner of war in the town of Minden.

The search led the 72-year-old to discover that her mother, who was born to a young unmarried woman in 1913, was adopted as a baby by the man she never realised was her father.

After a journey that put her in touch with distant relatives in Australia, Mrs Ellis travelled to Ohlsdorf Cemetery, Hamburg, last month to pay her respects to her grandfather, William Edward Roberts.

“I wept buckets when I found out and I still do now when I think about it,” she said.

“Everything went perfectly on the trip, like we had a guardian angel.

“It was a tremendous feeling seeing his name carved into the gravestone.

“I was very, very emotional because it was the end of a wonderful journey.

“We went to the church in Hamburg and I found it all very moving and thanked God for the journey I had been on.”

Mrs Ellis’ mother was unofficially handed over at three-months-old to Alice Roberts, a widow with two children of her own – one of which was William, a private in the Cheshire Regiment 21st Battalion.

Incredibly, grandmother-of-three Glenys, who worked as a housing manager for Bury Council and now lives in Egerton, Bolton, had known William’s sister Emma most of her life without realising they were family.

But she finally became certain of the family link after searching through World War One Army records released last year and finding that William’s payment slips showed he was paying for the upkeep of a child – his illegitimate daughter.

She added: “When the Army records were released last year I went through them very slowly and carefully.

“I was so dedicated to finding out about my mother’s family, and at each stone I unturned, there was something new.”