Success Stories

This all started about 40 years ago. Ever since I can remember and I am now 53 years of age my mother who is now 87 years old, always spoke of her 3 missing brothers Ron, Roy and Jimmy, she never said much about them but always wondered where they were, When I was old enough to understand and talk to my mother I asked her about them and found out that when she was very young her mother gave them away Ron and Roy as a pair of brothers to one family and Jimmy to another and she never ever saw them again. Her mother never told her where they had gone and to whom they were given to but later on when she was old enough she found out the names of the families they were given to but no matter how hard she tried to find them she could not as the war had started and being from malaysia and in Japanese occupied territory had to abandon her search after the war the Japanese had destroyed alot of documents and so made her search a lot harder when we came to the Uk I was about 10 years of age and still my mother would talk about trying to find her brothers and wondered where they were if they were alive and well. when I was 15 I promised my mother that someday somehow I would find her brothers no matter what it took and no matter how long it took I would find them. But, I too came up with blanks and then the internet came along and a lot of searching databases and in 2001 thanks to genes reunited in helping me link up with distant relations i got a breakthrough finding my Uncle Jimmy in Denmark and reuniting my mother with her younger brother it was indeed a very happy day I finally got to meet an uncle I never knew and after being over 60 years apart my mum got to meet her brother, they stayed in contact with each and I kept in contact with him via windows messenger and my Uncle and I continued searching the internet along with genes reunited for my other 2 Uncles Ron & Roy sadly in 2005 my Uncle Jimmy died and 2 weeks later my father died and double blow for my mother but the saddest thing was 3 days later I. got a message via genes reunited that a distant cousins had found my other 2 Uncles one in South Africa and the other in Australia. I informed my
mother that I had found them and she rang them that night, only to discover that they never knew they had any family they thought they were alone with no living family one brother Roy living in Australia did not want to know a little too late was his response but the other Ron was absolutely ecstatic and was thrilled to hear that he had a living sister but, saddened to hear that he had, had a 2nd sister and 2 other brothers who were now dead. my mother and Uncle Ron who are both elderly Uncle Ron now approaching 89 and my mother now 87 are quite frail and cannot travel without aid and do not have the resources to meet up but are in contact with each via telephone. I was fortunate enough to be competing in an around the world yacht race with Clipper Ventures, in 2007/2008 and one of the stops was in Durban, South Africa and my husband drove me to Cape Town from Durban so that |I could meet him I only had 48 hours to get to Cape Town before we had to be back in Durban to set sail for the the next race. The meeting was amazing and very upsetting as I had only just found him and had to leave but I promised him I would come back and last christmas 2008 I returned to South Africa and spent 5 wonderful weeks with my Uncle Ron getting to know him I tried to answer all his questions about his mother my grandmother as I knew her as a child and from what my elder brothers and sister and my mother said about her but I only wished that my mother could have joined me to answer his questions in more detail but it was not to be she was still in Florida. hopefully my Uncle and mother will still be around long enough for me to reunite them then my promise to her will be complete and so will their lives. There is still so much more to tell but it would take for ever. I hope all those that read this never ever give up looking it dones eventually come together and thanks to all that have helped me find them you have made me very happy and will for ever be in your debt.

Regards
Varina