0:00:02 > 0:00:05Families can be driven apart for all manner of reasons.
0:00:05 > 0:00:08My mum went away and didn't come back.
0:00:08 > 0:00:10And when you do lose touch with your loved ones...
0:00:10 > 0:00:14- I never saw Kathleen again. - ..finding them can take a lifetime.
0:00:14 > 0:00:17I wonder where he is, I wonder what he's doing.
0:00:17 > 0:00:19You don't really know where to begin.
0:00:19 > 0:00:23Especially when they could be anywhere, at home or abroad.
0:00:25 > 0:00:28And that's where the family finders come in.
0:00:28 > 0:00:31Hi, it's the Salvation Army Family Tracing Service.
0:00:31 > 0:00:33From international organisations...
0:00:33 > 0:00:37There's never been a day when we've never had new enquiries.
0:00:37 > 0:00:40..to genealogy detective agencies...
0:00:40 > 0:00:42When is it you last had contact with him?
0:00:42 > 0:00:44..and dedicated one-man bands.
0:00:44 > 0:00:47I like to do the searches that other people can't get
0:00:47 > 0:00:48because it makes me feel good.
0:00:48 > 0:00:54They hunt through history to bring families back together again.
0:00:54 > 0:00:56You are my biological dad.
0:00:56 > 0:00:59In this series, we follow the work of the family finders.
0:00:59 > 0:01:01This case came from our Australian colleagues.
0:01:01 > 0:01:06Learning the tricks they use to track the missing relatives through time.
0:01:06 > 0:01:08I'm 68 years of age, she's 75 years of age
0:01:08 > 0:01:10and we're just starting off.
0:01:10 > 0:01:14And meeting the people whose lives they change along the way.
0:01:14 > 0:01:18- I said, "Well, this is your younger sister."- It's a miracle.
0:01:18 > 0:01:21I was struck speechless and I couldn't stop crying.
0:01:21 > 0:01:23It's a proud moment for Dad.
0:01:23 > 0:01:25That was the start of finding my family.
0:01:31 > 0:01:37Scattered amongst the UK population of just over 64 million people
0:01:37 > 0:01:39are many long-lost loved ones.
0:01:39 > 0:01:42And for those family members desperate to find them,
0:01:42 > 0:01:46it can feel like an impossible task.
0:01:46 > 0:01:50But around the country are bands of dedicated searchers who make
0:01:50 > 0:01:52it their quest to help reunite families,
0:01:52 > 0:01:55even when the odds are stacked against them.
0:01:57 > 0:02:01And for some of these family finders, the harder the case
0:02:01 > 0:02:03and the greater the challenge, the better.
0:02:05 > 0:02:09I thought this search was the most difficult search I'd ever done.
0:02:09 > 0:02:11So, professionally, from my point of view,
0:02:11 > 0:02:16we were in heaven with it, really. It was fantastic.
0:02:16 > 0:02:20Fraser Kinnie runs a family finding agency in Hartlepool.
0:02:20 > 0:02:23And the thrill of the chase is what gets him out of bed in the morning.
0:02:26 > 0:02:29Christina had been looking for her sisters for many, many years
0:02:29 > 0:02:33but I did feel that if anybody could do it, I felt I could do it.
0:02:38 > 0:02:42Christina Boston lives in Stockton-on-Tees in County Durham.
0:02:42 > 0:02:47She was born in Middlesbrough in 1971.
0:02:47 > 0:02:51Christina spent the first 18 months of her life with her
0:02:51 > 0:02:53birth mother, but was then taken into care
0:02:53 > 0:02:57until she was adopted by new parents, Pam and Brian.
0:02:59 > 0:03:01Really good happy times with the family.
0:03:01 > 0:03:05Absolutely brilliant parents. They fostered other children,
0:03:05 > 0:03:08so I had a big family to grow up with as well.
0:03:11 > 0:03:12When she was nine,
0:03:12 > 0:03:16Christina got wind of a letter which her birth mother had left for her.
0:03:18 > 0:03:21And I can remember asking my mum for this letter
0:03:21 > 0:03:23and wanted to know what was in it.
0:03:23 > 0:03:25And when I asked she said, "No problem, I'll give you it."
0:03:25 > 0:03:28She gave me it straight away and it was something like,
0:03:28 > 0:03:30"I love you, I didn't want to give you up," something like that.
0:03:30 > 0:03:34But it was just very short, very sweet
0:03:34 > 0:03:36and it just came from the heart.
0:03:36 > 0:03:40But it wasn't until she was 19 that her first husband
0:03:40 > 0:03:44took it upon himself to look for her birth mum.
0:03:44 > 0:03:46It actually had her address on the corner,
0:03:46 > 0:03:51where she lived years ago, and he just happened to go up to that house
0:03:51 > 0:03:54and asked the neighbour where she was living.
0:03:54 > 0:03:56So he took me there to this neighbour's house
0:03:56 > 0:03:57and she looked at me and she went,
0:03:57 > 0:04:00"You're Brenda's daughter, aren't you?"
0:04:02 > 0:04:06The neighbour didn't just know where Christina's mum was living,
0:04:06 > 0:04:08she knew where she was at that very moment.
0:04:10 > 0:04:12And she took me to her.
0:04:12 > 0:04:17She was actually in bingo in Stockton High Street.
0:04:17 > 0:04:20And I can remember to this day, on the intercom they said,
0:04:20 > 0:04:22"Can a Brenda Lillystone
0:04:22 > 0:04:26"go to the reception, your daughter's waiting."
0:04:26 > 0:04:29We just looked and stared at each other for a minute or two
0:04:29 > 0:04:32and then just sort of hugged each other and that was it.
0:04:32 > 0:04:34I just couldn't believe that all them years
0:04:34 > 0:04:37that I'd been living in Stockton, she lived round the corner.
0:04:37 > 0:04:39I said I'd probably passed her hundreds of times on the street.
0:04:42 > 0:04:47Christina and Brenda wasted no time in getting to know each other.
0:04:47 > 0:04:50And it wasn't long before Christina made another discovery that
0:04:50 > 0:04:52would shape the rest of her life.
0:04:52 > 0:04:54It turned out she had two sisters.
0:04:56 > 0:05:00Brenda told me that there were twin girls called
0:05:00 > 0:05:02Rosetta and Priscilla.
0:05:02 > 0:05:05But Brenda revealed she'd also had to give up Rosetta and Priscilla
0:05:05 > 0:05:08as a result of mental health problems.
0:05:08 > 0:05:12She didn't want to give us up, but because of the situation,
0:05:12 > 0:05:15she obviously couldn't cope with us at the time,
0:05:15 > 0:05:19but she gave us the best option she could give us by giving us up.
0:05:19 > 0:05:23Rosetta and Priscilla were the last children Brenda was allowed
0:05:23 > 0:05:26to have before the state intervened.
0:05:26 > 0:05:30Because of her health, they made her get sterilised.
0:05:30 > 0:05:33It was sad, she couldn't remember a lot and obviously
0:05:33 > 0:05:38because the other girls were taken away at a young age, that was
0:05:38 > 0:05:41something that, it destroyed her at the end.
0:05:41 > 0:05:44Christina resolved to track down her twin sisters -
0:05:44 > 0:05:48as much for Brenda's sake as for her own.
0:05:48 > 0:05:51Every time I went round to Brenda's she always
0:05:51 > 0:05:55talked about my sisters, that she didn't want to give us up
0:05:55 > 0:05:59and she always hoped that she would see them all one day.
0:05:59 > 0:06:01That was her dream, a bit like mine,
0:06:01 > 0:06:03that's all I ever wanted was to find my sisters.
0:06:03 > 0:06:08Christina did all she could to find the twins and fulfil her mum's dream.
0:06:08 > 0:06:14But the relationship with her birth mother ended as suddenly as it began.
0:06:15 > 0:06:17She passed away.
0:06:18 > 0:06:2047 years old.
0:06:20 > 0:06:21Her life was gone like that.
0:06:23 > 0:06:27I'm glad that I did get to meet her, very glad
0:06:27 > 0:06:31to meet my birth mother because it's something you can never get back.
0:06:31 > 0:06:33I didn't get a childhood with her but I did get to see her
0:06:33 > 0:06:36before she passed away, and it means a lot to me.
0:06:36 > 0:06:39After Brenda's death from a heart condition,
0:06:39 > 0:06:42Christina tried to carry on with her life.
0:06:42 > 0:06:46But as the years passed, her desire to find her sisters remained.
0:06:46 > 0:06:48And when she was in her 30s,
0:06:48 > 0:06:52she decided to ask her adoptive mum Pam for help.
0:06:52 > 0:06:59I've always felt that when we adopted you that when you wanted
0:06:59 > 0:07:01to find your family...
0:07:01 > 0:07:04I felt you had the right to know them if you wanted to.
0:07:04 > 0:07:07Pam took it upon herself to solve the case,
0:07:07 > 0:07:10researching adoption records, trawling websites
0:07:10 > 0:07:13and doing everything she could think of to try
0:07:13 > 0:07:16and find the elusive Rosetta and Priscilla.
0:07:16 > 0:07:19I literally went on adoption sites
0:07:19 > 0:07:24and left quite a few messages all over the place.
0:07:25 > 0:07:29For years, Pam and Christina hoped to hear from the girls
0:07:29 > 0:07:31or for a lead of any kind,
0:07:31 > 0:07:35but every avenue led to another dead end.
0:07:35 > 0:07:38- They were just not there. - Yeah.- We couldn't find them.
0:07:38 > 0:07:42The case became famous amongst amateur family finders,
0:07:42 > 0:07:44but despite their best efforts,
0:07:44 > 0:07:47Rosetta and Priscilla were no closer to being found.
0:07:47 > 0:07:51Until Fraser Kinnie decided to get involved.
0:07:51 > 0:07:55I'd known about this search for the twins for a long time.
0:07:55 > 0:07:59Probably four, five years, I'd seen their posts on social media
0:07:59 > 0:08:03and search websites and it always kind of interested me.
0:08:03 > 0:08:07The problem was, just like all the amateur enthusiasts,
0:08:07 > 0:08:09he couldn't find Rosetta and Priscilla.
0:08:09 > 0:08:12Most people who looked at this search were struggling
0:08:12 > 0:08:17because they were looking for the names Rosetta and Priscilla.
0:08:17 > 0:08:19And that's when Fraser had an idea.
0:08:19 > 0:08:22What if the names were the problem all along?
0:08:22 > 0:08:26He decided to test his theory.
0:08:26 > 0:08:29The difficulty in this search was that we didn't know
0:08:29 > 0:08:30what their new names were.
0:08:30 > 0:08:35We had to refer back to the adoption register for 1972.
0:08:35 > 0:08:37There was only one thing for it.
0:08:37 > 0:08:40Fraser began the laborious task of trawling through
0:08:40 > 0:08:43an entire year's worth of adoption records.
0:08:43 > 0:08:47What we're really looking for are two people with the same surname
0:08:47 > 0:08:51whose adoption numbers are in sequence.
0:08:51 > 0:08:56And then what we basically had to do was go through all of these,
0:08:56 > 0:08:59working out who all the twins were.
0:09:01 > 0:09:03I was then checking up on our system
0:09:03 > 0:09:06to see what their dates of birth were,
0:09:06 > 0:09:08to see if it was the 20th July, 1972,
0:09:08 > 0:09:10which we knew was the twins' date of birth.
0:09:10 > 0:09:16We found this page here and their date of births corresponded,
0:09:16 > 0:09:18so we knew there was a good chance these were the girls.
0:09:20 > 0:09:23Fraser had found two possible names.
0:09:23 > 0:09:26But would they be Christina's twin sisters?
0:09:26 > 0:09:30And if they were, how would they react to being found?
0:09:36 > 0:09:39As well as professionals like Fraser,
0:09:39 > 0:09:42the UK is home to thousands of amateur genealogists,
0:09:42 > 0:09:43who like nothing better
0:09:43 > 0:09:47than helping put other people back in touch with their lost family.
0:09:47 > 0:09:52One such enthusiast is Wendy Thompson, who by her own admission,
0:09:52 > 0:09:57is addicted to the thrill of uncovering family mysteries.
0:09:57 > 0:10:00It just became an absolute obsession, it really did.
0:10:00 > 0:10:04But little did Wendy realise when digging into one particular case,
0:10:04 > 0:10:09that she would make an unexpected discovery about her own family.
0:10:11 > 0:10:13Adrian Searle is 61
0:10:13 > 0:10:16and lives in Wootton Bridge on the Isle of Wight.
0:10:16 > 0:10:20I was born in London and then, in the very late '50s, early '60s,
0:10:20 > 0:10:24we all moved out to a place called Billericay in Essex.
0:10:24 > 0:10:29The family enjoyed a comfortable new life in the Essex countryside,
0:10:29 > 0:10:33but when Adrian was still just a boy, tragedy struck.
0:10:33 > 0:10:35And life would never be the same again.
0:10:35 > 0:10:37I was about ten or 11,
0:10:37 > 0:10:41and we were taking a day trip over to France,
0:10:41 > 0:10:46and we'd just got off the ferry and my mother was taken ill.
0:10:46 > 0:10:49And we drove to Calais Hospital.
0:10:49 > 0:10:54And I remember it now. That was four o'clock and at twenty-past four,
0:10:54 > 0:10:57my dad came out, his hair was standing on end,
0:10:57 > 0:11:00he was white as a sheet, and he just said, "She's dead, son."
0:11:01 > 0:11:03She'd died within 20 minutes.
0:11:05 > 0:11:07And that was just horrendous.
0:11:10 > 0:11:15We were absolutely devastated. You know, obviously. She was only 48.
0:11:16 > 0:11:20Despite his father's best efforts, the grief that followed
0:11:20 > 0:11:24his mother's death had a grave impact on all their relationships.
0:11:24 > 0:11:27It kind of destroyed the family.
0:11:27 > 0:11:31We never really got on and we just drifted apart.
0:11:31 > 0:11:34His father later remarried but relations
0:11:34 > 0:11:37between him and his son only worsened.
0:11:37 > 0:11:41And when Adrian was a teenager, things came to a head.
0:11:41 > 0:11:45He said, "You've got a choice". He said, "You can either work
0:11:45 > 0:11:48"and help your stepmother around the house, or you can get out."
0:11:48 > 0:11:51Well, that's like red rag to a bull to me.
0:11:51 > 0:11:53So I just packed my suitcase and that was it, I went.
0:11:53 > 0:11:58Still only 15, Adrian left home.
0:11:58 > 0:12:00I went in the catering trade,
0:12:00 > 0:12:02travelled around most of the country.
0:12:02 > 0:12:06My father and I never spoke for 15 years.
0:12:06 > 0:12:11Decades later, Adrian and his father resolved their differences.
0:12:11 > 0:12:13But his dad died in 1998.
0:12:15 > 0:12:20His dad's death highlighted how little Adrian knew about his life.
0:12:20 > 0:12:24He yearned to feel closer to him in the only way now possible -
0:12:24 > 0:12:26through researching his past.
0:12:28 > 0:12:31All through the time I knew my dad,
0:12:31 > 0:12:35he never once mentioned his father and I thought, he must have had one.
0:12:36 > 0:12:40I just presumed that his father had died during the First World War
0:12:40 > 0:12:43and he didn't really know his dad.
0:12:43 > 0:12:47Adrian had only the bare minimum to get him started.
0:12:47 > 0:12:51All I had to go on was my father's full name,
0:12:51 > 0:12:54and my grandmother's Christian name.
0:12:54 > 0:12:58After some detective work, he found a record of his grandad,
0:12:58 > 0:13:01but this discovery was bittersweet.
0:13:01 > 0:13:03He died in 1971.
0:13:03 > 0:13:08And by 1971, I was 19.
0:13:08 > 0:13:12He was still alive when I was a teenager. That was a total shock.
0:13:12 > 0:13:14Total shock.
0:13:14 > 0:13:18I felt cheated that I never got to even know my grandfather.
0:13:18 > 0:13:22This upsetting revelation begged the question,
0:13:22 > 0:13:27why had his father hidden Grandfather Searle from him?
0:13:27 > 0:13:31But little did Adrian know his quest to find out more
0:13:31 > 0:13:35was about to throw up an even more remarkable discovery.
0:13:39 > 0:13:42Christina Boston and her adoptive mum, Pam,
0:13:42 > 0:13:46had spent ten fruitless years searching for Christina's
0:13:46 > 0:13:49younger twin sisters, Priscilla and Rosetta.
0:13:49 > 0:13:52Professional family finder Fraser Kinnie
0:13:52 > 0:13:54tracked down a potential match,
0:13:54 > 0:13:56but far from being Priscilla and Rosetta,
0:13:56 > 0:14:01these twins had the rather less exotic names of Rachel and Sarah.
0:14:01 > 0:14:03When we got to this page and we saw Sarah and Rachel's name
0:14:03 > 0:14:06and we knew their dates of birth were the dates we were looking for,
0:14:06 > 0:14:10all of a sudden, we'd gone from 40,000 names, down to two.
0:14:10 > 0:14:12So what we then had to do
0:14:12 > 0:14:15was find out who they were and where they are today.
0:14:18 > 0:14:23With the hard part done, Fraser made quick work of locating the twins.
0:14:23 > 0:14:27And 300 miles away in Southampton,
0:14:27 > 0:14:30Sarah and Rachel were about to get the shock of their lives.
0:14:30 > 0:14:34- Give us a squeeze, then!- Oh! - Get off me, you're wet.
0:14:34 > 0:14:40About six months ago, we had a very strange phone call from
0:14:40 > 0:14:42a man called Fraser.
0:14:42 > 0:14:46And he says, "Do you know that your sister
0:14:46 > 0:14:52"has been searching for you for ten years or something like this?"
0:14:52 > 0:14:55And I'm like, "My God." Straight away, it was very strange.
0:14:55 > 0:15:00I got very emotional, very quickly, right, and I'm...
0:15:00 > 0:15:03I started crying, sitting on the bed and I'm like...
0:15:03 > 0:15:06- SHE MAKES STUTTERING SOUND - Like a gibbering wreck!
0:15:06 > 0:15:09My partner then thinks, "Oh, I'm going to have to phone Rachel now,
0:15:09 > 0:15:11"straight away, and tell her."
0:15:11 > 0:15:13- I was on the bus.- Oh, and it was...
0:15:13 > 0:15:16Oh, it was absolutely mad. Completely mad.
0:15:16 > 0:15:19- It was mad. - SHE LAUGHS
0:15:21 > 0:15:25Rachel and Sarah Garbutt were born within minutes of each other.
0:15:26 > 0:15:32We were fostered pretty much from when our mother gave birth,
0:15:32 > 0:15:36and then after the age of about one,
0:15:36 > 0:15:39we got officially adopted by our parents now.
0:15:39 > 0:15:42Obviously, we were lucky, I think, that we were kept together,
0:15:42 > 0:15:44because it could have been very different.
0:15:44 > 0:15:48- And, yeah, our childhood was quite a happy one, wasn't it?- It was.
0:15:48 > 0:15:51- It was very, very good, yeah, we... - We moved about a lot.
0:15:51 > 0:15:57Always, you know, doing clubs and you know, always together.
0:15:57 > 0:15:59As children, they took the news
0:15:59 > 0:16:02that they were adopted in their stride.
0:16:02 > 0:16:06Where we was younger, we was about seven, or thereabouts,
0:16:06 > 0:16:10she told us that we was adopted, explained in a way, you know, like,
0:16:10 > 0:16:14"Well, you were chosen, you were special, we chose you", you know.
0:16:14 > 0:16:18And said our natural mother had been ill,
0:16:18 > 0:16:22this is why we was looked after by them.
0:16:22 > 0:16:26It wasn't until they were older and Sarah had children of her own
0:16:26 > 0:16:29that the twins felt ready to find their birth mother,
0:16:29 > 0:16:32and ordered up the adoption papers.
0:16:32 > 0:16:37Rachel was born first, she was born Priscilla Lillystone.
0:16:37 > 0:16:42I was born second, and I was called Rosetta Lillystone.
0:16:42 > 0:16:45And it was really strange finding out
0:16:45 > 0:16:48you were born another different name.
0:16:48 > 0:16:51Eager to find their birth mother,
0:16:51 > 0:16:55Rachel turned to a colleague at work for help.
0:16:55 > 0:16:59There was a lady that used to do family tree sort of work.
0:16:59 > 0:17:03So I gave her what I knew, which was her name and her date of birth.
0:17:03 > 0:17:05And that was it. So I kept seeing her
0:17:05 > 0:17:08and she kept looking at me and never said anything,
0:17:08 > 0:17:09and I kept leaving it and leaving it,
0:17:09 > 0:17:12and then I thought, I'm going to ask her.
0:17:12 > 0:17:14So I approached and said, "Have you found out anything?"
0:17:14 > 0:17:16And she sort of looked at me a bit sheepish,
0:17:16 > 0:17:20and I thought, mmm. I said, "She's dead, isn't she?"
0:17:20 > 0:17:22And she said, "Yeah, she died, like, ten years ago."
0:17:23 > 0:17:25So that was all a bit of a shock, because I thought, well,
0:17:25 > 0:17:27she was only young.
0:17:27 > 0:17:29We never got to meet our natural mum.
0:17:29 > 0:17:33When we tried to do the trace, she'd already passed.
0:17:33 > 0:17:36So, unfortunately, for us, it was left too late.
0:17:36 > 0:17:40The twins had sadly missed out on the chance of
0:17:40 > 0:17:43ever getting to know their birth mother.
0:17:43 > 0:17:45But now they'd been put in touch
0:17:45 > 0:17:48with a sister they never knew they had.
0:17:48 > 0:17:53Fraser rung me out of the blue. A very excitable man, he was.
0:17:53 > 0:17:56Garbled all a load of stuff, and all I heard was, "I've found your twin sisters."
0:17:56 > 0:17:58And after that, I didn't care what else he said.
0:17:58 > 0:18:00I was that shocked, because it was out of the blue.
0:18:00 > 0:18:03We were excited because we had pulled off
0:18:03 > 0:18:07something that we felt was a really, really hard search.
0:18:07 > 0:18:11The three sisters had found each other after a lifetime apart.
0:18:11 > 0:18:14Making contact for the first time
0:18:14 > 0:18:16could have been a nerve-racking experience,
0:18:16 > 0:18:19but it turned out to be anything but.
0:18:19 > 0:18:21When I spoke to my sister, Sarah, for the first time,
0:18:21 > 0:18:25it was like we'd known each other for years.
0:18:25 > 0:18:28She said, "Yeah, I'm sat here, tears coming down my face and sort of...
0:18:28 > 0:18:30- SHE MAKES STUTTERING SOUND - "..a bit jittery."
0:18:30 > 0:18:32But, oh, it was brilliant.
0:18:32 > 0:18:36Christina's met her younger sisters on a handful of occasions,
0:18:36 > 0:18:40but there's someone extremely important the twins are yet to meet.
0:18:40 > 0:18:43Today, Christina's introducing Rachel and Sarah
0:18:43 > 0:18:47to her adoptive mum, Pam, for the very first time.
0:18:47 > 0:18:50I think I'm feeling more nervous now than I was when I first met them.
0:18:50 > 0:18:52- I don't know...- It's cos we're getting close,
0:18:52 > 0:18:54we're going to meet them any minute.
0:18:54 > 0:18:58Christina and Pam have travelled 300 miles from their home
0:18:58 > 0:19:00in Stockton-on-Tees to the south coast.
0:19:00 > 0:19:04And Pam's excited at what the day has in store.
0:19:04 > 0:19:07It's almost like... I'm extending my family.
0:19:07 > 0:19:11They're your sisters, but because you're my daughter...
0:19:11 > 0:19:14- It's like just accepting them as part of our family.- Yeah.
0:19:16 > 0:19:19But first, Pam leaves her adopted daughter Christina to meet
0:19:19 > 0:19:22her younger sisters on her own.
0:19:22 > 0:19:24- I'll see you later.- Right, bye, Mam.
0:19:25 > 0:19:29The twins can't wait to get back together with the older sister
0:19:29 > 0:19:30they never knew they had.
0:19:30 > 0:19:32Hi!
0:19:33 > 0:19:37Oh, how you doing?
0:19:37 > 0:19:39- All right?- How you doing?- Brilliant.
0:19:40 > 0:19:42- Hey, you.- Brilliant.
0:19:42 > 0:19:44LAUGHTER
0:19:44 > 0:19:46- I'm crying already.- I know.
0:19:46 > 0:19:48Oh...
0:19:49 > 0:19:52The sisters have already marked their new relationships
0:19:52 > 0:19:54with sister rings.
0:19:55 > 0:19:58- You've got your ring on. I've got mine on.- Yes.
0:19:58 > 0:20:02'When I got the sister ring off them, it made me feel like a sister.'
0:20:02 > 0:20:05It means so much to me, because it's all I ever wanted to do.
0:20:05 > 0:20:09As the twins never got to meet their birth mother,
0:20:09 > 0:20:11Christina's brought some treasured photos along
0:20:11 > 0:20:14to show Rachel and Sarah what she looked like.
0:20:14 > 0:20:17- That's... That's Brenda, and that's...- Oh, my goodness.
0:20:17 > 0:20:20..her husband Bob. That's their wedding day.
0:20:20 > 0:20:22Wow.
0:20:24 > 0:20:28Although Rachel and Sarah never got the chance to meet their mother,
0:20:28 > 0:20:32Christina's photos provide some sense of connection.
0:20:32 > 0:20:33I think you look like her.
0:20:33 > 0:20:35- Yeah, probably there is. - There's a bit, isn't there?
0:20:35 > 0:20:38- You think?- There is a resemblance. - I do, yeah, I do.
0:20:38 > 0:20:40Think there's a little bit there.
0:20:41 > 0:20:44It was her dream to meet us all. It just wasn't meant to be.
0:20:44 > 0:20:46- Oh, bless her.- Quite sad, really.
0:20:46 > 0:20:48- It is.- Mmm.- Yeah.
0:20:49 > 0:20:53But there's another very important person in Christina's life that she
0:20:53 > 0:20:57can't wait to introduce to her new-found sisters -
0:20:57 > 0:20:59her adoptive mum Pam,
0:20:59 > 0:21:04without whose help, they would never have been reunited.
0:21:04 > 0:21:06LAUGHTER
0:21:08 > 0:21:11- Hello.- Hiya, darling. How are you?
0:21:11 > 0:21:12- Thanks for coming.- Oh, God.
0:21:14 > 0:21:15Thanks for coming, Pam.
0:21:15 > 0:21:19- Oh.- It's really lovely to see you. - Oh, it's great.
0:21:19 > 0:21:21You're a star.
0:21:21 > 0:21:23I feel like a star.
0:21:24 > 0:21:26It's the end of the search, isn't it?
0:21:26 > 0:21:28It's...
0:21:28 > 0:21:30It's just...
0:21:30 > 0:21:32Well, what they call closure, I suppose, isn't it?
0:21:32 > 0:21:33It is, it is.
0:21:33 > 0:21:36And I was imagining you to be about six!
0:21:40 > 0:21:43It's just been the most wonderful experience, I think,
0:21:43 > 0:21:45- so far of my whole entire life. - It's been like a whirlwind.
0:21:45 > 0:21:49- Like a whirlwind.- It has, cos it's all happened so quickly.
0:21:49 > 0:21:53Cos that was Brenda's dream, to see all her daughters together,
0:21:53 > 0:21:54and unfortunately it didn't happen,
0:21:54 > 0:21:58but she's up there looking down, and I hope that she's happy up there,
0:21:58 > 0:22:02now that we've all met up and we're all together.
0:22:14 > 0:22:16Following his father's death,
0:22:16 > 0:22:19Adrian was shocked to discover that he'd had a grandfather
0:22:19 > 0:22:20who he'd never met.
0:22:21 > 0:22:26Once I found my grandfather, I could find where he was born,
0:22:26 > 0:22:29but I couldn't find anything previous.
0:22:29 > 0:22:32So he was a dead end, I couldn't go any further.
0:22:32 > 0:22:34I just thought, "Well, you know,
0:22:34 > 0:22:36"I'm going to need a little help here."
0:22:36 > 0:22:40Desperate to get to the bottom of this family mystery,
0:22:40 > 0:22:43he made a plea on an online forum.
0:22:43 > 0:22:47I put a notice on the... on the message board,
0:22:47 > 0:22:50and up popped this person called Wendy Thompson.
0:22:51 > 0:22:56Adrian's post was picked up by genealogy fanatic Wendy Thompson,
0:22:56 > 0:23:00who was online updating her own ever-growing family tree,
0:23:00 > 0:23:03and keeping an eye out for other people she could help.
0:23:04 > 0:23:09My tree is huge. We've got thousands of people on it.
0:23:11 > 0:23:15Wendy lives on the Sussex coast with her husband Colin.
0:23:15 > 0:23:17I was born in Birmingham,
0:23:17 > 0:23:20but we moved down to Brighton when I was 12.
0:23:20 > 0:23:25Like Adrian, her grandfather's life was shrouded in secrecy.
0:23:25 > 0:23:28My father rarely spoke about him,
0:23:28 > 0:23:30and yet, he was still alive when I was alive,
0:23:30 > 0:23:33and I never knew about any of my father's family
0:23:33 > 0:23:35apart from his mother.
0:23:35 > 0:23:39And again, just like Adrian, it was the death of Wendy's parents
0:23:39 > 0:23:43which ignited her preoccupation with the past.
0:23:43 > 0:23:48I got into genealogy when my parents died, 11 years ago.
0:23:48 > 0:23:51It just became such an obsession.
0:23:51 > 0:23:55Now, Wendy's obsession appeared to be taking her in an unexpected
0:23:55 > 0:23:59direction, because it wasn't just Adrian's life story that
0:23:59 > 0:24:01struck a chord, it was his surname.
0:24:01 > 0:24:03I thought, "Oh, I recognise that name,"
0:24:03 > 0:24:09and it was also a Searle, so that sort of got my interest.
0:24:11 > 0:24:14Searle was also Wendy's maiden name,
0:24:14 > 0:24:16and she began to suspect that she may have stumbled across
0:24:16 > 0:24:19a member of her own family,
0:24:19 > 0:24:23but to be sure, she needed more information.
0:24:23 > 0:24:26At the end of her e-mail, she said, "Who was your dad?"
0:24:27 > 0:24:30And obviously, I wrote back, and said Eric Albert William.
0:24:30 > 0:24:32So I found that, yes,
0:24:32 > 0:24:35it was the same person, same dates and everything,
0:24:35 > 0:24:40so I got back to him and said, "I think you and I are related."
0:24:40 > 0:24:46It turned out that Grandfather and her grandfather were brothers.
0:24:46 > 0:24:48And it was just really exciting.
0:24:48 > 0:24:50I'd said, "I think you're my second cousin."
0:24:50 > 0:24:52It was just a fantastic feeling.
0:24:53 > 0:24:56Adrian's wasted no time getting to know Wendy.
0:24:56 > 0:24:59Today, he's making the journey to the mainland from his home
0:24:59 > 0:25:04on the Isle of Wight to see her for only the third time.
0:25:04 > 0:25:06I look upon her as a sister,
0:25:06 > 0:25:09and making the journey to see my...
0:25:09 > 0:25:12my sister again, very emotional.
0:25:12 > 0:25:15Very emotional.
0:25:15 > 0:25:18I never had a brother, and always wanted one.
0:25:18 > 0:25:20And then, yes, he is my...
0:25:20 > 0:25:22- He is my adopted brother.- Brilliant.
0:25:24 > 0:25:27The two cousins have arranged to meet on the clifftops
0:25:27 > 0:25:30near Wendy's Brighton home.
0:25:30 > 0:25:33- Waiting for somebody special?- Hello.
0:25:33 > 0:25:36Today, Wendy and Adrian are on a mission.
0:25:36 > 0:25:37How are you doing?
0:25:39 > 0:25:42They've each been doing some more research,
0:25:42 > 0:25:45keen to get to the bottom of why there was such secrecy
0:25:45 > 0:25:47surrounding both their grandfathers' lives.
0:25:47 > 0:25:50Wendy's grandad's name was Victor,
0:25:50 > 0:25:55while Adrian's grandfather was Albert, or Harry to his friends.
0:25:55 > 0:25:58- Now, that's Harry.- Ah.
0:25:58 > 0:26:01He's quite like...quite like Victor.
0:26:01 > 0:26:02Same shaped faces, and everything.
0:26:02 > 0:26:05- Chunky.- He has, he's got the same cheekbones.
0:26:05 > 0:26:07- They were brothers, were they? - Yeah.- So...
0:26:07 > 0:26:10We shouldn't be surprised that they look alike.
0:26:10 > 0:26:13- Yes, the resemblance is there.- Yes.
0:26:13 > 0:26:16Wendy's been researching Albert's past,
0:26:16 > 0:26:19and has uncovered an extremely colourful life story.
0:26:19 > 0:26:22Goodness, you have been busy.
0:26:22 > 0:26:25And I've got here that your grandfather was a violinist,
0:26:25 > 0:26:27played in an orchestra...
0:26:27 > 0:26:30Albert was part of an orchestra who provided the soundtrack to the
0:26:30 > 0:26:35silent movies of the era, but it was a career with a short shelf life.
0:26:35 > 0:26:38The talkies came in in the late '20s.
0:26:38 > 0:26:40Yes, so he'd have been put out of work.
0:26:40 > 0:26:43- Probably been redundant.- Yes.
0:26:43 > 0:26:46Wendy thinks this fall from grace could explain why
0:26:46 > 0:26:48he was never spoken about.
0:26:48 > 0:26:51If he did have bad luck in his life,
0:26:51 > 0:26:55maybe he was ostracised from his family.
0:26:55 > 0:26:59But what of Wendy's grandfather, Albert's brother Victor?
0:26:59 > 0:27:02Wendy may have got to the bottom of why he, too,
0:27:02 > 0:27:04was shrouded in mystery.
0:27:04 > 0:27:06Victor was injured in the war.
0:27:06 > 0:27:07He lost an arm.
0:27:07 > 0:27:10Victor was suffering from shellshock,
0:27:10 > 0:27:13a common condition for serving soldiers at that time.
0:27:14 > 0:27:19He ended up mentally ill because of the war.
0:27:19 > 0:27:23He was in a hut, and they were captured and shot,
0:27:23 > 0:27:27and he never really recovered.
0:27:27 > 0:27:30It was an era in which mental health was poorly understood,
0:27:30 > 0:27:34and any issues could sometimes be swept under the carpet
0:27:34 > 0:27:36by embarrassed families.
0:27:36 > 0:27:39- That was a terrible time. - Dreadful, dreadful.
0:27:42 > 0:27:46Whatever the reason, the most important thing is that right here,
0:27:46 > 0:27:50right now, two lost cousins have found each other
0:27:50 > 0:27:53and are revelling in their new-found friendship.
0:27:53 > 0:27:56Fabulous experience, absolutely fabulous.
0:27:56 > 0:27:59Been lovely catching up with Wendy. Marvellous.
0:27:59 > 0:28:04I really do think that it would have been nicer to have known him
0:28:04 > 0:28:07a lot longer, so that I could have had a brother a lot longer.
0:28:07 > 0:28:12He's just one of the family, now, so, you know, he'll always be here.