Fortunately, the old records are available on some of our guns--both American and British. I was able to find out quite a bit on my Army & Navy pair, because the University of Glasgow has their record books.
And what I learned revealed several interesting coincidences. The guns were made in 1933, the year my parents were married. They were ordered by a retired British brigadier. (I retired as a colonel, and when I acquired the guns, I was within a year of the same age as the brigadier when he ordered them.) He remarried to a much younger wife, as did I--but he had 3 children from that marriage, to which my wife objected when I pointed out the similarities in our backgrounds. The guns are very close to original, never reproofed, and in their original motor case with the owner's initials. Thanks to google and an Anglophile friend, I was able to find out many more details about the previous owner and his career. I'd like to know how many driven shoots they saw, and when and why they left his family. But I feel very fortunate to know as much about them and their previous owner as I do.
