I have been researching my family tree for a few years now.
My father was the youngest of two children. His sister was 7 years older than him. When my father was 3 he contracted tuberculosis and was put in a sanitorium where he stayed for 6 years. Whilst he was in there his mother died, we presume from TB. What we didn't know at the time was that his sister was put into a childrens home as his father couldn't look after her. When my father left hospital aged 9 he was told that his sister had joined the airforce as she was 16 by this time. He never saw her again and she cut all ties with her family, or so we thought.
Years went by and my grandfather never stopped searching for her. He heard that she had moved up north so took my father on a train to the address he had in Newcastle upon Tyne, only to find out that she had already left there.
When my grandfather died in 1967 we tried all ways to find my father's sister again but to no avail. We even advertised in newspapers.
As i grew older i always said that i would find her. But i always drew a blank. Even on Genes Reunited for a couple of years i came up with nothing.
The finally on the 3rd November 2005 her son put his family tree on the website. At last all of my hard work had not been in vain, i had found her after 65 years. Unforunately she had been taken to hospital after suffering a stroke, and she died there on the 27th February 2006.
Although i never got chance to meet her, she was told all about me and cards were sent to her. It turns out that when she had been placed in the childrens home she was told that my father had been adopted and not that he was ill. She also presumed that her father had died.
From this i have found two cousins that i never knew existed and keep in touch with them regularly. Neither of them ever married and had already lost their father who also had no family, so when their mother died, had i not found them before they would have thought that they were on their own.
I am so pleased that i continued searching and it just shows that if you are determined enough you will succeed.
Lorraine Sheppard
Lorraine Sheppard
Please login if you wish to rate this article.