May 12, 2005

Half-century later, family mystery solved

It took 50 years, but Almaden family finally meets long lost relatives

By Jeanne Carbone Lewis
Staff Writer

A young man goes to Africa. He meets a woman and falls in love. They marry and have a child. In a perfect world, they would spend the rest of their lives together. But life is not always ideal.

A family reunion after 50 years: From left; Della Clark, John and Daniele Hall, Sabine, Jean-Luc and Josephine Hall and Sybil Barefoot. Photo by Jeanne Carbone Lewis

It was 1944. Twenty-one year old U.S. Army Pvt. John Hall of Kentucky serves his tour of duty in French-ruled Senecal, Africa assigned harbor work in Dakar.

He meets 17-year-old Margurite Cazin, a French girl, who lives there with her family. They fall in love and marry. They have a son they name John Jr.

After his tour ends, the young man leaves for the United States telling his wife he will send for her when he is assigned a post. He leaves with the belief his wife and son will soon follow. During the next five years, he sends numerous letters, money and even baby shoes to his family half a world away. He never hears back from her.

Unknown to Margurite, her mother hides the letters and gifts received from John. She does not want her daughter to move to another country so far away. Margurite believes she and the baby have been abandoned and divorces him in 1949. She remarries in 1953, moving to France with her new husband the next year. They have a son. Her spouse dies in a car accident in 1954.

Now living in Ohio, John believes his wife and baby are deceased, as he never received any correspondence. He marries a woman named Margie and has two sons, naming one John after the son he lost. Then sadly, he dies at 39. Relatives said he died brokenhearted, never resolving the loss of his first wife and son. The official cause of death was lung cancer.

John Hall’s passport, with a photo of John and Daniele Hall, circa 1960s.

As a young man, John Jr., the son who never knew his father, contacts the U.S. Embassy desiring to know if he is alive. Protecting their serviceman, they tell him to hire a private investigator. He eventually gives up the search though there is an empty space that only a father could fill. He marries a pretty girl, Daniele and they have a daughter and two sons, one he names Jean-Luc, the French equivalent of John.

Years pass by. Margurite sorts through her deceased mother’s old trunk in the attic and discovers the many letters and gifts of baby shoes from her long-lost husband. She has her grandson Jean-Luc translate them to her many times, weeping at the thought of her lost love. It is then Margaret realizes that her mother hid the letters and gifts, fearing she would be deserted if her daughter left for the United States.

“The letters all said the same thing,” said Jean-Luc, choosing his English words carefully as French is his native language. “My love, how are you and the baby doing? When will you come to the states? Did you receive…and so on. They were all written in pencil and they all had drawings of flowers and hearts.”

The Hall Brothers circa 1954 in Ohio. John is third from the left.

In 1988, Jean-Luc, the son of the man who thought he was abandoned, wants to know if his grandfather is alive and what happened all those many years ago. He contacts the U.S. Embassy and is told there is no news. He tells the story to his mother-in-law who suggests searching on the Internet for John Hall. A flicker of hope burns in Jean-Luc’s heart.

In l999, Jean-Luc has an accident on a frozen French road. He was carrying the letters his grandfather wrote to translate them to his father.


The vehicle was totaled and the correspondence declaring the love of his grandparents destroyed.

Jean-Luc survived the accident but was saddened by the loss declaring that the “only bright spot was that I read all the letters to my father and grandmother before she died.”

John Hall and Margurite, a few months pregnant, in 1944.

Jean-Luc married Sabine. His wife had a cousin living in Escondido, Calif. Her name is Lillian White. She visited them in France in 2000 and he told her of his desire to find his grandfather. She offered to post a notice with names, places and dates on the Internet and see if she could find him.

Serendipitously, Sybil Barefoot of Almaden was researching her genealogy and saw White’s notice. She responded saying she was related to the Halls. White put her in contact with Jean-Luc and a steady stream of correspondence began. It is then that John Hall discovered that his father is deceased. The good news is that he now has a family he never knew about.

And that began a whole new adventure. Barefoot and Jean-Luc talked about a visit. Relatives in Kentucky and Ohio were thrilled the French Halls wanted to visit. They had the same great grandfather as Jean-Luc and knew that he had died never knowing what had happened to his wife and son. For a man who had no clue about the paternal side of his family, it was wonderful knowing two half brothers and cousins across the Atlantic in America were welcoming him with open hearts.

“It’s an overwhelming story,” said Sybil Barefoot from her Almaden home where her new French relatives stayed and whose mother, Della Clark, was John’s first cousin. “When Jean-Luc called I thought it was a wrong number.

John Hall’s tombstone in Ohio. He died never knowing his son and wife were alive.

It’s a pity we didn’t find each other sooner, but there is so much satisfaction that we are together now. It’s a blessing. We hate to see them go.”

Last year the Halls had a family reunion but Jean-Luc and his father John could not attend. Barefoot and her husband, Granville, invited their newfound family this year and they came for three weeks.

“America is so big. We had to make a choice where we would go—Kentucky, Ohio or California. I wanted my father to come to California,” said Jean-Luc. “It’s a trip we really had to do. I really want to know my family and it is important for my father to know his roots. There has always been a lack in his life. This was an important trip.”

So John and Daniele Hall, who speak no English, son Jean-Luc, serving as an interpreter, and his wife Sabine and adopted 6-year-old daughter Josephine made the trip to America. The Barefoots surprised their French relatives with visits from cousins Edna, Marjorie and Phyllis from Kentucky and Ohio. They shared photos comparing resemblances of father and son. And they took them on a whirlwind tour of California: San Francisco, Monterey, Carmel and the redwoods. The French Halls prepared six-course meals of calamari over rice, shrimp salad, onion soup, boeuf bourguignon and sang songs after dinner. The family talked and shared late every night catching up on decades apart.

A family visit after 50 years. From left, Daniele Hall, Della Clark [Sybil’s mom], John Hall, Sabine Hall, Josephine Hall, Jean-Luc Hall and Granville Barefoot. Center in blue: Sybil Barefoot. Photo by Jeanne Lewis

“My father is knocked out,” said Jean-Luc interpreting his father’s French dialect. “He couldn’t believe we had such a family. We had very few photographs and now I have a suitcase full!”

“The family is so expansive,” said Barefoot. “John is overwhelmed. For a young man who thought he was abandoned to all of this family. It is wonderful.”

The reunion is over. The Halls have returned home to France; John and Daniele to Boulogna and Jean-Luc, Sabine and Josephine to Caen. They took home with them sweet memories of a family who loves them, plans for many more visits to come and the satisfaction of solving a 50-year-old mystery.