![A Winnipeg historian’s journey for family history](https://globalnews.ca/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/Mom-and-Grandpa-Barrie-ON-1940.jpg?quality=85&strip=all&w=720&h=379&crop=1)
A Winnipeg historian’s journey for family history
Global News
"I find it a little bit funny that somebody that I didn't know, two generations back, could inspire the direction that my life could take," Perrun said.
Jody Perrun never got to meet his grandfather.
Canadian Trooper John Clifford Brown died on Aug. 7, 1944. Stationed in France, he and 65 others were killed when American bombers misidentified their targets, dropping their bombs on a group of mostly Canadian soldiers. 250 soldiers were also wounded.
Growing up, Perrun heard stories of his how his grandfather went overseas to fight in WWII.
“My mom would tell stories about being a little girl, watching the newsreel footage… she would scan the screen to see if maybe she might catch a glimpse of her dad,” Perrun said.
Perrun’s mother Carol was just three years old when her father died. She met him just once, when she was a few months old. Her mother travelled from Manitoba to Ontario, where Brown was in military training.
“We have one set of photos, where they are together, she’s a baby, he’s holding her,” said Perrun, “and that was it.”
His death, Perrun says, left a hole in the family felt generations down the line.
“What happened? What went wrong?’ Perrun said.