Success Stories

Success using Genes & Friends Reunited. After my dad died in 1978, we found out that he had 2 daughters from a previous relationship, Linda & Gillian. We had photos but not much more, although we were told that Linda had died & Gillian been taken to Australia. After searching the GRO death indexes (more than once) we couldn't find Linda's death. We tried every avenue we could think of over the intervening years. When it opened I tried searching the Australian Friends Reunited, in case one of them was registered there, as well as every trying to find board I could find. We even tried the Salvation Army, but they couldn't help. I knew their mother's name & that she must of been born between 1920 & 1930, but there were at least 10 with the correct middle name plus more with just one christian name & I wasn't sure where she was born. I'd put the details I did have on GR, & contacted every likely one but with no luck. Then out of the blue at the beginning of this year my aunt remembered that the girls mother's parents had come from Edmonton, the only possible in the GRO index was in 1928, so I amended the details I had,searched again & found her listed by someone else (luckily a man). He did not reply to my contact, but I could see his surname, when I searched on GR for that surname in London I found he had listed both of my sisters using that, along with a number of others, I searched the GRO Birth Indexes & found that he & the others he listed were my sisters half-siblings I tried contacting another member listing the same names, again no response, so I looked on Friends Reunited instead & found Linda plus at least 5 of her half-siblings listed. So I contacted every one of them,apologising if my information was a shock to them & included my email address, & the next day got a reply from John their half-brother, who promised to pass the information on to his sisters. Gillian made contact the next day, Linda a few days later. We've since all met, so thank you Genes & Friends Reunited, 28 years of searching have finally paid off.