Genes Reunited Blog

The first episode of Long Lost Family told the stories of Jennifer Wilson and Karen Lloyd.  Both had emotional tales, telling how they had never felt complete once they knew a close family member wasn't in their lives.

Jennifer had been looking for her twin sister for 66 years.  Separated at birth, and adopted by different families, Jennifer discovered she was a twin when she was 11 years old.  When her sister was adopted the family changed her name, which meant Jennifer kept hitting roadbocks in her search.  In 1985 there was a change in the law which meant adoption details could be searched by a family intermediary.  It was through this route of investigation that Jennifer found Kathleen, who lived three miles away from her.  Kathleen had no idea she had a twin sister and was elated to discover Jennifer, who she now sees weekly.

At the age of 7 Karen found her birth certificate and realised that who she thought were her parents were her grandparents, and her older sister was her biological Mother.  Her search for her Father, Peter Wells over 20 years was without success.  Her Mother remembered Peter had a brother, and research began to track him down as suspicion was that Peter was abroad.  Peter's brother was traced and his daughter contacted the researchers who explained that Peter was indeed abroad in Canada.  Father and daughter met for the first time, where emotions ran high and Peter said he felt his life was fulfilled.  Karen was delighted to learn she had a large readymade family, with 5 half brothers living abroad.

Both stories were incredibly powerful, as both ladies described how they felt something had always been missing in their life.  Each had exhausted all obvious family research routes, and had drawn a blank, Karen had even hired a private investigator.

The change in adoption law was a new route for Jennifer, and looking into a different line of the family helped Karen.  Even though details were scarce in both cases, the ending was incredibly happy and hopefully motivating for others in the same situation.

If you are looking for a relative, it's worth posting on the Genes message boards, especially the Trying to Find board, as our members are incredibly helpful and will endeavour to point you in the right direction.  With 250 million names on our trees, try searching these too and any name matches displayed, you can contact the tree owners.  You never know who you could be talking to soon. 

We're really looking forward to hearing the story of Wayne and Debbie next week on Long Lost Family next Thursday at 9pm.