Success Stories

My mother spent six heart-breaking decades wondering where her first born son was, how he was, and if she would ever see him again. She, then aged twenty, was forced to make the painful decision to have him adopted back in the early 1950s.

Despite making many attempts to find him during sixty years of painful separation, Mum’s searches sadly yielded no results. Then, in the early 1990s, Mum gave all the information she had to me in the hope that I might have better luck in finding her son – my half-brother.

I put all the information I could onto the adoption contact register and waited hopefully for decades, but I heard nothing. I spent years waiting for a response from the adoption contact register but it turns out this was never going to happen as my brother didn't even know about it then. Social workers had tried but failed to track him down.

Then in 2006 I joined Genes Reunited, having previously been a member of Friends Reunited. I put the names of all my family members onto my tree. Nothing came of it until five years later, when I received some enquiries about my mother. One lady in particular messaged me twice and after a yearlong rally of messages back and forth between us we realized that my brother had been found! She was his partner, who wanted to find his natural mother for him.

We are so grateful to Genes Reunited for providing the link without which I doubt we would ever have been reunited. I can’t explain the relief and excitement at finding him after such a long time. I had always hoped that Mum would live to see the day when she could be reunited with her first born son again, and finally she did the grand age of 81.

I have written the story in a book which has now been published as a paperback short story called ‘He Came Back To Me Mum’ (ISBN 978-0-9927553-0-0, priced at £4.99 plus p & p). To find out more about getting a copy, please the Genes Reunited team by sending us a private message. I sincerely hope it will encourage others to pursue their searches for lost loved ones. The sense of fulfilment is absolutely priceless.

I urge anyone to share your family details into this site. Your never know and miracles really DO happen!

Lili-Ann O’Dee