BARRIE LINK TO BABY FIND?
NEWS that detectives in America have launched an investigation into the discovery of two dead babies and the suggestion they are linked to Sir J.M. Barrie have been met with disdain by one of the organisers of the hugely successful Barrie 2010 celebrations (Forfar Dispatch 26.08.10)
For two weeks in May the Little Red Town was the focus of world-wide attention as the 150th anniversary of the Peter Pan author was celebrated at a number of events organised by the Kirriemuir Heritage Trust.
Local historian Sandra Affleck, chairman of the Trust's Barrie 2010 team, warned "speculation does not make fact" as the name of the town's famous son hit the headlines at the weekend.
Sunday newspapers referred to a report in the Los Angeles Times that the LAPD was investigating a Jean M. Barrie, whose trunk contained the mummified remains of two babies.
The trunk was stored for decades in the basement of a Los Angeles apartment building until they were discovered last week wrapped in newspapers from the 1930s.
Autopsy
As the county coroner began an autopsy on the bodies last Thursday, Los Angeles Police Department detectives were left to sift through a crime scene that is also a time capsule.
Among items found in the trunk were blank medical test forms which pointed detectives in the direction Jean M. Barrie, who lived in the area and may have worked as a nurse. She was born in San Francisco in 1916. Detectives said they found postcards in the trunk addressed to a Jean M. Barrie from a brother, Thomas, in San Francisco.
One of their biggest challenges is to determine whether a crime was committed.
Detectives are also considering other leads, including the possibility the trunk may have belonged to a different woman — also named Jean M. Barrie — who was a well-known storyteller and performer at the time.
This Jean Barrie is claimed to be a relative of James M. Barrie.
A copy of "Peter Pan" was found inside the trunk along with a membership certificate for the Peter Pan Woodland Club, a Big Bear resort.
An advert in the 1918 edition of Lyceum Magazine shows a stern-faced Barrie in a decorative lace and velvet dress. The ad hails her as a "Reader of Plays and Miscellaneous Programs" and describes her as "a close relative of Sir J.M. Barrie, author of The Little Minister."
Speaking on Monday, Mrs Affleck warned that "speculation does not make fact."
When the news broke at the weekend she looked at the family trees of two of the descendants of James M. Barrie's father, David, who was one of nine of a family.
"Anyone who claims to be a close relative of Barrie is a descendant of one of nine children.
"I have scoured both of those family trees and there is no Jean or Janet, as known in Scotland, on either, but that doesn't mean to say she wasn't a descendant of A.N. Other member of that family.
"It would appear the person kept memorabilia to do with her Barrie connection. An advert on the flier said she was a close relative of the author of the Little Minister. That might be correct but Barrie had no children so nobody is of his own DNA. Any mud people care to fling at his name has nothing to do with him personally."
Referring to the copy of Peter Pan, she added she had a copy of Peter Pan, as did lots of people.
Sensational journalism
"There is no suggestion Sir J.M. Barrie knew her. This may be a bit of sensational journalism. These are claims but name me a family in the land that does not have skeleton in the cupboard.
"Anything is possible but speculation does not make fact."
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Wednesday 23 May 2012
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