Douglas Peterson

William Joseph Peterson & Margaret Rose Holp Families of Panama & PA Douglas Peterson

After finding that we had the right person we set out to find some of the living relatives. We first looked to see if the lawyer was still practicing he had passed away but his son was still alive. He looked through his fathers files and found that Michael Winiarski was Joe's brother in law I looked his death records up and found his obit which mentioned 2 daughters Carol Baily and Ellen McDowell. After some looking we found that Carol had passed away Ellen after looking for a while was located and contacted. After 3 phone conversations agreed we where right. She began to think and gave us a call back and told us some things that answered some questions. Ellen said he was her favorite Uncle that he was a very quiet man and smoked a pipe. 1972 As we know Dad had been trying to find Joe and had ran his social security record and found his address and had flown to Philadelphia to talk with him. Joe came to the door and would not admit to being the same Joe Peterson. What we did not know is what had happened after Dad left. Joe had called Michael and he had Michael take him to the hotel where Dad was staying and Dad had already left. The hotel had refused to give Joe any information on how to contact Dad. You would think this weighted heavy on Joe and from Ellen "He seamed a heart broken man" Until in 1976 Joe committed suicide by turning the gas on and sticking his head in the oven. Michael found him. Ellen had several photos which we are trying to get from his days in Panama.