Family Tracing Experts

Brother & Sisters didn't know each other Existed

Family Tracing Experts

Brother & Sisters didn't know each other Existed

Over the last few months, we have had some fantastic results and choosing our next blog wasn’t easy. But I hope you agree, this really is a heart-warming success story!

 

William had been put into care at a very early age and contacted us with the aim to find out if he had any siblings.

Family Tracing Experts

Brother & Sisters Reunited

William spent his childhood growing up in care. It was not an easy life, but he had all he needed to get by. Throughout his childhood, and young adulthood, he never gave much thought to his biological family. He had never really thought about making contact, who they were, or if they were alive.

As time went by, he started to open up about his past to his close friends. And, in the pub over a pint one of his friends asked, “so did you have any brothers or sisters?”

It was something that William had never considered before. Obviously, he had a mother and father, but they gave him up. The reasons for this were said to be that they could not offer him the care and attention he needed. He respected that decision. But Brothers and sisters? That’s something that, for some reason, never came up.

Trace Long Lost Family

William's Son & His New Uncles

His file from the care home does not mention any of this, but he thought he wanted to explore if he was an only child or not. But how, and where to start, with no idea of what their names could be, how old they are, or if they even exist. So he started to look for a way of doing this. After a short search online, he found the People Location website and was put in touch with a case handler.

After a short consultation, we had proposed a line of enquiry that may well locate the details of potential brothers and sisters. He was sold, and instructed our team to get work.

We knew mum's name, and with that information, we started trawling birth matches in the and around the same area of Williams's birth and with around 15 years each side of Williams's birthdate.

It was an in-depth sweep but, in a few days, we had located several possible candidates. Many of these were ruled out quite quickly, some took a bit more time than others, but after the elimination process was complete, two remained who we could not discount. It looked very promising.

More research had been done to ensure we had everything 100% correct. After in-depth genealogy and analysis of the certificates and index entries, there was no doubt about it. William had 2 sisters who he had no idea about.

As the sisters had moved on in life and were adopted. They had new names and, in all likelihood, being sisters, they had likely married and again changed their names.  So the next hurdle to overcome was; what were their names before marriage, if they are married, and what are their names now?

With the information, we had on the two sisters we then got work sweeping the Uk for criteria matches. It’s a long process that takes time, but more importantly, it takes that expert touch, we know all the little points that can make or break a match, and in this case, the hard work paid off.

We located their maiden names, current names, their current addresses.

As I’m sure you can appreciate, William was shocked. TWO sisters! Wow. But who were they? Did they have any idea about William, and did they want to have contact, or pass on a message?

Tracing Long Lost Family

William's Son & His New Aunty

IN STEPS THE MEDIATIONS TEAM!

We have a dedicated team who are experts in this delicate initial step of making contact.

On this occasion, the sisters had no idea. They knew about each other and, they have been together since birth. The sisters were now and have always been close. So, no surprises there, they know they had each other but no idea about any other brothers or sisters!

This was a shocking revelation and, they really had no idea what to about. Should they pass on a message, should they pass up the opportunity to meet their long-lost brother? They didn’t know him and as they had no idea who he was and what he was about, the next step needed consideration.

The sisters needed to have a chat and they needed time to think. We encouraged them to speak to each other and their families. We know it wasn’t a decision to made likely. We always advise you to take each step one at a time and re-evaluate at each step. We suggested that the key to success is not to make any final decisions until you are absolutely ready. It can take weeks or months to finally decide and we encourage that they take this time.

So, we passed on a little information, we told each of them about key life events, what their likes and dislikes are, how they spend their time. And so this went on for several weeks.

Gradually this moved on to exchanging some photos. Once a face is put to the person it starts to make the situation more real.

And step by step by step, everyone started to warm up to the idea of direct contact.

More messages were passed and soon we exchanged emails. Great, they were talking but, it wasn’t yet over!

They decided to meet. Our team set up a meeting point in between them both, about an hour's drive for each of them in York.

William went with his son, and the two sisters were accompanied by husbands.

It started as a meal and ended as a reunion party.

William and his sisters are now firm Facebook friends and are planning many more meetups. Another name the Christmas card lists! And another family reunited.

This makes our work worthwhile. We love these reunions!

What a fantastic end to a fantastic job.

 

We wish them the very best with their new beginning!