Photo of Canadian World War I soldier identified

Question

This photo hung on the wall of my grandfather's house when my father was a child.  His dad died in 1928 and much later this framed photo came to us.  Easy to recognize the child in the lap of the soldier as my Aunt Catherine, Dad's sister Catherine (Miller) Best.  But who was the soldier?  Dad didn't know.  If there were stories he was too young to remember.

In working on WikiTree I found the answer.  The soldier was Lance Corporal Fraser Robert Miller. http://WikiTree.com/wiki/Miller-65038.  Through newspaper notices I found he was back in Owen Sound, Ontario in 1917, before returning to the war.  His father, Henry Miller had died in 1916 so it was only natural that Fraser would visit his father's first cousin Charles Miller, who had a new daughter Catherine born.  The newspaper photo of Fraser left no doubt it was the same man.  Fraser died in May 1918 due to military error. 

Comments

Gorgeous photo Pat thank you for sharing

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Thank you, Susan.  Kind of you to comment.

Answer 1

I'm not related to him, but I am related to you, Pat! Thanks for sharing!

Comments

Thanks for noticing, David.  We are related through the woman Charles Miller (my grandfather) married.  Charles was 1st cousins with Fraser Miller's father.  So you say you're not related to Fraser but the Miller line is my big brick wall. If I could smash the wall, who knows.  

Answer 2

Congratulations, Pat, on successfully identifying Lance Corporal Fraser Robert Miller! And thank you for sharing your story of discovery. It's always great to hear how WikiTree has helped someone to break through a brick wall, identify a new family member, and even identify a mystery man in a photo. This gives me new hope for some of the mystery people in my photo collection.

Comments

Thank you, Star. WikiTree is important to new discoveries because it pushes us to create profiles based on sources. So I did that for Fraser. Many sources. I actually cried when I learned how he died. Then with G2G we discuss things based on prompts.  The monthly photo prompt had me post this picture and doing that caused me to connect it to the profile.  Was it Fraser with Aunt Catherine?  Checking a newspaper gave the answer.  Did he come home on leave so the photo could be taken? Yes.  Was there a newspaper photo? Yes. Same man.  If I just stayed on Ancestry or FamilySearch I wouldn't even have a profile for him and the framed photo would be Aunt Catherine with mystery soldier.  This site is soooo amazing!  So keep trying to find the answers to your questions, Star.