0:00:02 > 0:00:04Families can be driven apart for all manner of reasons.
0:00:04 > 0:00:07My mum went away and didn't come back.
0:00:07 > 0:00:10And when you do lose touch with your loved ones...
0:00:10 > 0:00:13I never saw Kathleen again.
0:00:13 > 0:00:14..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 > 0:00:23..especially 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 > 0:00:34From international organisations...
0:00:34 > 0:00:37There's never been a day when we have 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 other people can't get,
0:00:47 > 0:00:49cos it makes me feel good.
0:00:49 > 0:00:54..they hunt through history, to bring families back together again.
0:00:54 > 0:00:56"You are my biological dad."
0:00:56 > 0:00:59In this series, we follow the work of the family finders...
0:00:59 > 0:01:02This case came from our Australian colleagues.
0:01:02 > 0:01:03..learning the tricks they use
0:01:03 > 0:01:06to track missing relatives through time...
0:01:06 > 0:01:10I'm 68 years of age. She's 75 years of age and we're just starting off.
0:01:10 > 0:01:14..and meeting the people whose lives they change along the way.
0:01:14 > 0:01:16I said, "Well, this is your younger sister."
0:01:16 > 0:01:18It'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.
0:01:33 > 0:01:37Across the UK, there are a range of family-finding organisations
0:01:37 > 0:01:39who will trace your relatives for a small fee.
0:01:39 > 0:01:43Often people who have lost contact through being fostered out
0:01:43 > 0:01:45at a young age, they often contact us
0:01:45 > 0:01:48and want to be back in touch with their siblings.
0:01:48 > 0:01:51But you don't always have to use a specialist agency.
0:01:51 > 0:01:55Many people do some DIY genealogy to find their relatives.
0:01:55 > 0:01:59Nowadays, you sit down at your computer, you click the mouse
0:01:59 > 0:02:02and, hopefully, the computer will do the searching for you.
0:02:02 > 0:02:06Which is exactly how Jonathan Fryer was traced by his family.
0:02:09 > 0:02:12Jonathan was adopted at the age of 18 months.
0:02:14 > 0:02:19I was born in June 1950, in Manchester, and grew up
0:02:19 > 0:02:24in Eccles, which is part of Salford, now part of Greater Manchester.
0:02:24 > 0:02:30And I was adopted into a family and had an older adopted sister.
0:02:30 > 0:02:34My adoptive family never made any attempt to hide the fact
0:02:34 > 0:02:37I was adopted and so, really, from the earliest age
0:02:37 > 0:02:40I knew that I wasn't really their child.
0:02:42 > 0:02:45Jonathan never felt part of the family.
0:02:45 > 0:02:48I very much felt like a fish out of water.
0:02:48 > 0:02:51Although it was materially very comfortable
0:02:51 > 0:02:56and I'm sure they tried to provide everything that they could for me,
0:02:56 > 0:03:00there was a real disconnect between me
0:03:00 > 0:03:04and, particularly, my adopted father, who was much older.
0:03:04 > 0:03:08He was quite far right wing, quite intolerant
0:03:08 > 0:03:12and, from a very early age, I had my mind open to the wider world.
0:03:13 > 0:03:16Despite the openness with which he learnt of his adoption,
0:03:16 > 0:03:19Jonathan was unable to discover any of the details.
0:03:21 > 0:03:24One of the most frustrating things, which really made me very angry
0:03:24 > 0:03:29as a child, was that I knew that my adopted parents had met my mother.
0:03:29 > 0:03:33They refused point-blank to tell me who she was.
0:03:33 > 0:03:37My adopted mother just said one time, "Oh, nobody special."
0:03:37 > 0:03:41And this really ate me up inside. It became a real bone of contention.
0:03:41 > 0:03:44I was angry about it, but they were even angrier.
0:03:46 > 0:03:50My adopted father said, "You mustn't keep asking, you mustn't.
0:03:50 > 0:03:52"You're so ungrateful."
0:03:52 > 0:03:55When I said, "Surely there must be some documents or something,"
0:03:55 > 0:03:59they said, "No, we've destroyed everything. You'll never find out."
0:03:59 > 0:04:04And when I was 13, my adopted father actually said,
0:04:04 > 0:04:06"I wish I hadn't adopted you."
0:04:07 > 0:04:10Jonathan put thoughts of his origins to the back of his mind,
0:04:10 > 0:04:12and after he left home,
0:04:12 > 0:04:16carved out a career as a war correspondent in Vietnam.
0:04:17 > 0:04:22Then, in 1975, the law regarding adoption documentation changed,
0:04:22 > 0:04:26allowing all adoptees over the age of 18 to access their records.
0:04:27 > 0:04:31I realised there was now a possibility to do
0:04:31 > 0:04:35a bit of detective work and to find out who I really am.
0:04:35 > 0:04:37Jonathan was now finally able to obtain
0:04:37 > 0:04:41his original birth certificate for the first time.
0:04:41 > 0:04:43I'll never forget the day it arrived because it arrived
0:04:43 > 0:04:47through the post - this is months after I'd started this process.
0:04:47 > 0:04:50And I opened it and there, suddenly,
0:04:50 > 0:04:53was a completely different set of names
0:04:53 > 0:04:56and I was no longer Jonathan Harold Fryer,
0:04:56 > 0:05:00which I never really felt I was, but Graeme Leslie Morton.
0:05:00 > 0:05:04- TEARFULLY:- And, suddenly, there was my mother's name.
0:05:11 > 0:05:13And I felt a huge relief.
0:05:15 > 0:05:18It was very emotional.
0:05:19 > 0:05:23When you've wanted to know for years...
0:05:23 > 0:05:27and, suddenly, there it was - Joyce Morton, formerly Ashcroft,
0:05:27 > 0:05:32with an address. Who was the father? Just a black line.
0:05:32 > 0:05:38And this was really the key to open the door to the paper trail.
0:05:40 > 0:05:44Months of research at the National Register Office revealed
0:05:44 > 0:05:47Jonathan also had an older half-sister.
0:05:48 > 0:05:52Another piece of the jigsaw had been put in, but it's not a jigsaw that
0:05:52 > 0:05:56you do overnight. It's a jigsaw you can take months or even years to do.
0:05:56 > 0:05:59In my case, it was years.
0:05:59 > 0:06:04Because, actually, each piece that's put in wrenches you.
0:06:04 > 0:06:07It's exciting, but it's also very difficult.
0:06:09 > 0:06:12Jonathan's birth certificate stated the address his mother
0:06:12 > 0:06:14had lived at when he was born.
0:06:14 > 0:06:18So, he took the train from London to Manchester, in the hope
0:06:18 > 0:06:20someone might know where she was now.
0:06:21 > 0:06:25I came up alone and found this street
0:06:25 > 0:06:28and the house over there, where she had lived.
0:06:28 > 0:06:31And it took me a few minutes to pluck up the courage
0:06:31 > 0:06:35to knock on the door and, then, of course, there was nobody there.
0:06:35 > 0:06:37I went to the house next door
0:06:37 > 0:06:42and there was a very nice elderly lady there who invited me in.
0:06:42 > 0:06:46And she said, "Oh, I remember her very well.
0:06:46 > 0:06:49"She was a very beautiful young woman with a great eye
0:06:49 > 0:06:52"for a man in uniform." And I thought, "Great.
0:06:52 > 0:06:55"Sounds just the sort of woman I would have loved."
0:06:57 > 0:07:00I was sad, as well, because one half of me
0:07:00 > 0:07:04had really hoped that this would be an opportunity to meet her.
0:07:04 > 0:07:06And the most disappointing thing was when the neighbour,
0:07:06 > 0:07:10although she remembered her very well, said she moved away years ago.
0:07:10 > 0:07:13No idea where she was and, so, I thought the chance of ever
0:07:13 > 0:07:16tracking her down would be extremely remote.
0:07:18 > 0:07:20There was something at the back of me sort of saying,
0:07:20 > 0:07:27"Well, if my mother knew where I was, knew who'd adopted me,
0:07:27 > 0:07:30"maybe she would have got in touch, if she wanted to."
0:07:30 > 0:07:32Having, in a sense,
0:07:32 > 0:07:37been rejected, I just couldn't bear to go through that again.
0:07:37 > 0:07:40And so I didn't follow it up any more.
0:07:42 > 0:07:46With nowhere left to go, Jonathan gave up his search.
0:07:46 > 0:07:50But little did he know that someone else was already looking for him.
0:07:57 > 0:08:00Sometimes, a fluke or coincidence can be the thing that brings
0:08:00 > 0:08:03families together after generations apart.
0:08:05 > 0:08:09In St Albans, retired geography teacher John Matthews has been
0:08:09 > 0:08:12researching his family tree for nearly ten years.
0:08:12 > 0:08:16I was born in 1947, in Wanstead in East London,
0:08:16 > 0:08:20and my family lived in Leyton in East London.
0:08:20 > 0:08:24John became a teacher, married and had a son.
0:08:24 > 0:08:26He was born in 1980.
0:08:26 > 0:08:30My wife passed away very shortly after he was born.
0:08:30 > 0:08:34John raised his son with the help of his parents and extended family.
0:08:36 > 0:08:40All through my life, the family has been the thing.
0:08:40 > 0:08:44We've been part of a large family group.
0:08:44 > 0:08:48Yeah, the family was everything to us.
0:08:48 > 0:08:51In the course of plotting his family tree,
0:08:51 > 0:08:54John got in contact with Judith Cook, the deputy town clerk
0:08:54 > 0:08:56at Ongar Town Council,
0:08:56 > 0:09:00to enquire about the grave records of one of his ancestors.
0:09:00 > 0:09:02So I rang up Judith and said,
0:09:02 > 0:09:09"Can you just check this one record for me? Winifred Holt, aged four."
0:09:09 > 0:09:11And she then rang me back.
0:09:11 > 0:09:15She said, "I've had some other people
0:09:15 > 0:09:21"asking about this same Winifred Holt's graveyard in 1899."
0:09:23 > 0:09:26The people, or rather person, who'd also been enquiring
0:09:26 > 0:09:30about these same records was Christine St Alban from Australia,
0:09:30 > 0:09:31who, on a visit to the UK,
0:09:31 > 0:09:36had stopped to visit the grave of her great-great aunt.
0:09:36 > 0:09:39A great-great aunt, it transpired, that John shares.
0:09:42 > 0:09:43I just couldn't believe it.
0:09:43 > 0:09:47I was absolutely flabbergasted and curious,
0:09:47 > 0:09:48and, sort of, elated.
0:09:48 > 0:09:51I said, "What can we do now? Where do we go from here?"
0:09:51 > 0:09:53I asked Mr Matthews if it would be OK
0:09:53 > 0:09:57to pass on his details to Christine and he said yes.
0:09:57 > 0:09:59So I put them in touch with each other
0:09:59 > 0:10:02and they found out that they were related.
0:10:02 > 0:10:04I can't believe it.
0:10:04 > 0:10:08After 16 years of searching for her lost English family,
0:10:08 > 0:10:13Christine was absolutely thrilled to have discovered John, her cousin.
0:10:13 > 0:10:16So, in the first e-mail, I write to John, I'm very formal and I say,
0:10:16 > 0:10:20"Hello, Mr Matthews." Because I didn't know how he would receive us.
0:10:20 > 0:10:22I didn't know if he wanted to know us.
0:10:22 > 0:10:24I didn't want to put any pressure on him.
0:10:24 > 0:10:26But really I was saying, "Write back! Write back!
0:10:26 > 0:10:28"I need to know about you!"
0:10:28 > 0:10:30And before I got onto the e-mail,
0:10:30 > 0:10:35I'd had this e-mail from Australia, saying, "I think we're cousins."
0:10:37 > 0:10:39And that was the night, we sat up, most of the night,
0:10:39 > 0:10:43e-mailing each other backwards and forwards. It was such a thrill!
0:10:44 > 0:10:47Well, I'm saying, "Who are you? What's your connection?
0:10:47 > 0:10:50"Why are you looking into this family?"
0:10:50 > 0:10:53It was Christine's cousin, Nana Rose,
0:10:53 > 0:10:56who first emigrated to Australia almost a century ago,
0:10:56 > 0:11:01leaving behind her sister Rita, who is John's grandmother.
0:11:01 > 0:11:04She knew nothing about my grandmother Rita.
0:11:04 > 0:11:07I knew nothing about her grandmother, so we exchanged a lot.
0:11:07 > 0:11:11She sent me some photographs and I sent her some photographs.
0:11:11 > 0:11:12It just blossomed from there.
0:11:14 > 0:11:16We have actually found a whole new family,
0:11:16 > 0:11:19we've found a whole new branch of the family.
0:11:22 > 0:11:26Just a few weeks after finding cousin John, Christine,
0:11:26 > 0:11:30her sister, her husband and her father have arrived in England
0:11:30 > 0:11:32to meet him for the very first time.
0:11:33 > 0:11:37It will be such a thrill to actually meet them.
0:11:37 > 0:11:40We've been to Ongar several times now
0:11:40 > 0:11:45and these people have been within a stone's throw of us all this time.
0:11:45 > 0:11:47So we've been running along parallel lines
0:11:47 > 0:11:49and now we've touched.
0:11:49 > 0:11:53For John, the years of researching his family tree
0:11:53 > 0:11:56are finally yielding what he searched for all along -
0:11:56 > 0:12:00a whole new group of relatives who have travelled all the way over
0:12:00 > 0:12:02from the other side of the world.
0:12:02 > 0:12:05Hopefully, in a very short space of time,
0:12:05 > 0:12:08I shall be driving into the council offices
0:12:08 > 0:12:13where I shall meet this cousin, Christine.
0:12:13 > 0:12:15I'm getting a bit nervous now!
0:12:19 > 0:12:23Family is everything to us, so this is a very big day.
0:12:23 > 0:12:25Very exciting.
0:12:25 > 0:12:28A bit... Oh, my heart's really pounding!
0:12:30 > 0:12:32Here we go!
0:12:36 > 0:12:40As John waits nervously for Christine's arrival...
0:12:40 > 0:12:42- All right? - Hello, you gorgeous girl! Thank you!
0:12:42 > 0:12:45..Christine is greeted by Judith,
0:12:45 > 0:12:48without whom this meeting would never have happened.
0:12:48 > 0:12:50Me? Oh, thank you!
0:12:50 > 0:12:52Thank you.
0:12:52 > 0:12:55John's nerves are getting the better of him.
0:12:55 > 0:12:58It's been building up and building up to us meeting.
0:12:58 > 0:13:01Quite nervous. In fact, I'm hugely nervous.
0:13:01 > 0:13:03I can't believe you did this for us.
0:13:03 > 0:13:06It's no problem. It's my pleasure.
0:13:06 > 0:13:09I'm going to cry. I wasn't... I'm not going to cry.
0:13:11 > 0:13:13DOOR OPENS
0:13:13 > 0:13:15Here we go.
0:13:18 > 0:13:20SHE LAUGHS
0:13:20 > 0:13:23- Christine...- Come here, you!
0:13:23 > 0:13:25- Oh, dear!- I can't believe...
0:13:25 > 0:13:29- I'm so wound up, I don't know about you.- I know.
0:13:29 > 0:13:32Oh, well done for getting here. Brilliant.
0:13:32 > 0:13:34Christine is wearing Nana Rose's wedding ring.
0:13:34 > 0:13:36I've got Nana's wedding ring.
0:13:36 > 0:13:39- Have you? Oh, that's nice. How nice is that?- Yeah.
0:13:41 > 0:13:43So...I had to wear it to show you.
0:13:43 > 0:13:47- That's brilliant.- Yeah. - That goes back to...1920?
0:13:47 > 0:13:50- Well, she wore it for...- 1919?
0:13:50 > 0:13:54- She wore it for nearly 80 years.- Good grief.
0:13:54 > 0:13:58- And then my mum wore it and now I'm custodian.- That's brilliant.
0:13:58 > 0:13:59Isn't it a great shame
0:13:59 > 0:14:04that we couldn't meet our older relatives earlier. Isn't it?
0:14:04 > 0:14:06Well, I came to find out a lot about my other relatives from you.
0:14:06 > 0:14:08And me vice-versa, so...
0:14:10 > 0:14:11I can't believe it.
0:14:13 > 0:14:16- This is my husband, Paul.- Hello, Paul.- Cousin John.- Hello, John.
0:14:16 > 0:14:19'While their grandmothers are no longer around,
0:14:19 > 0:14:22'other members of John's new-found family are here to greet him.'
0:14:22 > 0:14:25THEY CHUCKLE
0:14:29 > 0:14:31All of us know there's a...
0:14:31 > 0:14:33We've got a long way to go,
0:14:33 > 0:14:38exchanging stories and information and so on.
0:14:38 > 0:14:41We've got the rest of our lives now to share it together.
0:14:41 > 0:14:46It's...lovely to have reconnected with this family.
0:14:46 > 0:14:50It's taken us nearly 100 years to be able to reconnect the family.
0:14:50 > 0:14:53So, it's a very special day and I hope...
0:14:53 > 0:14:55I hope that our relatives are all watching
0:14:55 > 0:14:58and are enjoying this as much as we are.
0:15:05 > 0:15:08Jonathan Fryer was adopted as a baby in the 1950s,
0:15:08 > 0:15:11but he was never given any details.
0:15:11 > 0:15:15I knew that my adopted parents had met my mother.
0:15:15 > 0:15:18They refused point-blank to tell me who she was.
0:15:18 > 0:15:22When I said, "Surely there must be some documents or something?"
0:15:22 > 0:15:24They said, "No, we've destroyed everything.
0:15:24 > 0:15:25"You will never find out."
0:15:25 > 0:15:28As an adult, he obtained his birth certificate
0:15:28 > 0:15:30and discovered his real name.
0:15:30 > 0:15:33I was no longer Jonathan Harold Fryer -
0:15:33 > 0:15:35which I never really felt I was -
0:15:35 > 0:15:38but Graeme Leslie Morton.
0:15:38 > 0:15:42And he finally discovered who his real mother was.
0:15:42 > 0:15:46- TEARFULLY:- Suddenly, there was my mother's name.
0:15:46 > 0:15:53And this was really the key to open the door to the paper trail.
0:15:53 > 0:15:55But it wasn't just his mum he'd found -
0:15:55 > 0:15:58Jonathan also discovered he had a half-sister,
0:15:58 > 0:16:00but, fearing rejection,
0:16:00 > 0:16:03he abandoned all hope of ever making contact
0:16:03 > 0:16:05with any of his birth family.
0:16:05 > 0:16:08Having, in a sense, been rejected,
0:16:08 > 0:16:12I just couldn't bear to go through that again.
0:16:12 > 0:16:15But what he didn't know was that his half-sister Denise
0:16:15 > 0:16:17was also looking for him.
0:16:17 > 0:16:18I have always known about him.
0:16:18 > 0:16:21I can't remember a time that me mother sat down
0:16:21 > 0:16:26and told me about him, but I've just always known about Jonathan.
0:16:26 > 0:16:30Denise was born just after the end of World War II.
0:16:30 > 0:16:35I was born in 1945, in Irlam, near Manchester.
0:16:35 > 0:16:41Shortly after, my mother and father moved to Bristol.
0:16:41 > 0:16:44And we lived there for a year and then we came back.
0:16:44 > 0:16:47My mother and I came back on the train
0:16:47 > 0:16:50and my father never appeared for Christmas
0:16:50 > 0:16:53and I never saw him again after that.
0:16:53 > 0:16:57Me mother and I lived with my grandparents in Irlam
0:16:57 > 0:17:01for the next nine, ten years.
0:17:01 > 0:17:05During that time, she obviously had a relationship with someone,
0:17:05 > 0:17:08who, unfortunately, I don't know much about,
0:17:08 > 0:17:10and found that she was pregnant.
0:17:10 > 0:17:13She felt that there was no way that she could bring shame on the family
0:17:13 > 0:17:18by staying at home. So as soon as she started to show, that was it.
0:17:18 > 0:17:23She went away to a home for unmarried mothers.
0:17:23 > 0:17:26From what she said, it sounded like a dreadful life there.
0:17:26 > 0:17:29They were really made to feel as though they had to be punished
0:17:29 > 0:17:32because they were unmarried mothers.
0:17:32 > 0:17:35Despite the difficult decision Joyce had made, ultimately,
0:17:35 > 0:17:38she may have felt that it would give the young Jonathan
0:17:38 > 0:17:40the chance of a better life.
0:17:40 > 0:17:44She felt as though she couldn't afford to keep a child
0:17:44 > 0:17:47and offer another child any sort of a life,
0:17:47 > 0:17:50so she thought she was doing the best by Jonathan,
0:17:50 > 0:17:52by letting him be adopted by a couple
0:17:52 > 0:17:56that she thought would give him everything that she couldn't.
0:17:59 > 0:18:02She was so sorry that she couldn't have kept him
0:18:02 > 0:18:05and that we couldn't have been a family together.
0:18:05 > 0:18:08It's something that I don't think you ever get over.
0:18:08 > 0:18:11Denise's mother Joyce later remarried
0:18:11 > 0:18:14and Denise and her younger half-sister Gill
0:18:14 > 0:18:18grew up in the corner shop their parents ran in the town of Eccles.
0:18:18 > 0:18:23The shop was not far from where Jonathan lived and went to school.
0:18:23 > 0:18:28She used to go to the school gates to see him leaving or arriving.
0:18:28 > 0:18:34Just being able to see Jonathan made her feel better.
0:18:34 > 0:18:38I think Mum really kept watch over him
0:18:38 > 0:18:41until, probably, he went to grammar school.
0:18:41 > 0:18:45She knew that he'd got a scholarship to Manchester Grammar,
0:18:45 > 0:18:48which thrilled her to bits.
0:18:48 > 0:18:51However strong her emotional connection to Jonathan,
0:18:51 > 0:18:55Joyce didn't want to run the risk of upsetting his stable childhood.
0:18:55 > 0:19:00I think me mum felt guilty all her life, really.
0:19:00 > 0:19:02She was glad that he had a good life.
0:19:02 > 0:19:05She didn't want to interfere in it,
0:19:05 > 0:19:09because she wouldn't have wanted to ruin any part of his life.
0:19:12 > 0:19:15Decades later and with her mother now in the later years of her life,
0:19:15 > 0:19:19Denise felt it was time to try and track Jonathan down.
0:19:19 > 0:19:22Before Mother passed away,
0:19:22 > 0:19:25I wanted to find Jonathan,
0:19:25 > 0:19:30because I knew Mum would have loved to have known what he was doing.
0:19:30 > 0:19:31When we first got computers,
0:19:31 > 0:19:36we were on various sites looking for birth details.
0:19:36 > 0:19:38I didn't tell her that I was searching,
0:19:38 > 0:19:43because I didn't want her to be upset if we couldn't find him.
0:19:43 > 0:19:46I just wanted to surprise her and, unfortunately,
0:19:46 > 0:19:48I didn't get the chance to do that,
0:19:48 > 0:19:51because I looked and looked and couldn't find
0:19:51 > 0:19:54any details of him, at all.
0:19:54 > 0:19:59While Denise knew about Jonathan, her younger sister Gillian did not.
0:19:59 > 0:20:04I just assumed that me mother had told her everything about Jonathan,
0:20:04 > 0:20:06just as she'd told me,
0:20:06 > 0:20:09and it wasn't until last year that we realised
0:20:09 > 0:20:12that Gillian didn't know anything about Jonathan.
0:20:12 > 0:20:15It was only when Denise's daughter rang Gillian,
0:20:15 > 0:20:17in the course of doing the family tree,
0:20:17 > 0:20:20that Gillian learnt of Jonathan's existence.
0:20:20 > 0:20:23She said, "I need to ask you something.
0:20:23 > 0:20:26"I've been meaning to ask you for ages and ages and I keep forgetting.
0:20:26 > 0:20:29"Do you ever think about Jonathan?"
0:20:29 > 0:20:31I said, "Well, Jonathan who?"
0:20:31 > 0:20:34And she said, "Your brother, Jonathan!"
0:20:34 > 0:20:37"I haven't got a brother...
0:20:37 > 0:20:40"or have I?
0:20:40 > 0:20:42"I think you'd better put your mum on."
0:20:42 > 0:20:45The latest generation of internet search engines
0:20:45 > 0:20:49meant Gill could find Jonathan online in no time at all.
0:20:49 > 0:20:54After the phone call, I just googled "Jonathan Fryer, Eccles"
0:20:54 > 0:20:59and up popped his public profile page.
0:20:59 > 0:21:02It was just incredible.
0:21:02 > 0:21:05In the early life section,
0:21:05 > 0:21:09it says that he was born under the name of Graeme Leslie Morton
0:21:09 > 0:21:12and as soon as I saw that, I thought,
0:21:12 > 0:21:14"This has got to be him."
0:21:14 > 0:21:19It's really strange, because ten minutes earlier,
0:21:19 > 0:21:21I had no idea I had a brother
0:21:21 > 0:21:25and then, ten minutes later, I've got a brother
0:21:25 > 0:21:26and I've found him.
0:21:26 > 0:21:29We couldn't believe that I'd been searching for years
0:21:29 > 0:21:32and couldn't find him and, within ten minutes,
0:21:32 > 0:21:34she'd found our brother.
0:21:34 > 0:21:38It was so, so wonderful,
0:21:38 > 0:21:43but heartbreaking as well, because me mum had already died
0:21:43 > 0:21:45and she would have been so thrilled.
0:21:48 > 0:21:50Denise then wrote to Jonathan.
0:21:53 > 0:21:54Absolutely out of the blue,
0:21:54 > 0:21:57I got a letter and as soon as I opened the letter
0:21:57 > 0:22:00and saw the signature at the bottom - Denise -
0:22:00 > 0:22:04I knew it must be her, because I'd never forgotten that name,
0:22:04 > 0:22:07although it was 20 years since I'd done the search.
0:22:07 > 0:22:09And she starts, "Dear Jonathan,
0:22:09 > 0:22:13"this is a difficult, but exciting, letter to write
0:22:13 > 0:22:17"and I hope you will not find it an intrusion into your life.
0:22:17 > 0:22:21"I am quite sure that you are my half-brother.
0:22:23 > 0:22:26"My mother was Joyce Morton, nee Ashcroft
0:22:26 > 0:22:29"of 64 Baines Avenue, Irlam, Manchester.
0:22:29 > 0:22:32"If you would be interested in filling in some of the history
0:22:32 > 0:22:35"of your birth mother's side of the family
0:22:35 > 0:22:38"and/or wish to have contact with Gillian and myself,
0:22:38 > 0:22:39"we'd be more than happy."
0:22:39 > 0:22:43And at the bottom of Denise's letter, she's written,
0:22:43 > 0:22:48"P.S. Mum never forgot you, ever,
0:22:48 > 0:22:51"as I will, hopefully, have the chance to tell you."
0:22:54 > 0:22:59It was the most amazing feeling, suddenly to realise that,
0:22:59 > 0:23:04actually, all my worries and concerns were groundless
0:23:04 > 0:23:09and that, far from not wanting to have anything to do with me,
0:23:09 > 0:23:11at last, I had a family who did want me.
0:23:14 > 0:23:17Jonathan, Denise and Gill have since reunited.
0:23:17 > 0:23:19But today they're meeting up again
0:23:19 > 0:23:22to show Jonathan something of importance
0:23:22 > 0:23:23he hasn't seen before.
0:23:25 > 0:23:28Denise and Gill have arranged to meet Jonathan
0:23:28 > 0:23:30at the former local corner shop
0:23:30 > 0:23:32where they grew up with their mum, Joyce.
0:23:33 > 0:23:35It's only the second time I've seen Gill.
0:23:35 > 0:23:38Denise, it'll be the third time.
0:23:38 > 0:23:42So, it's great to have this opportunity to...
0:23:42 > 0:23:47to meet them again and also to put everything in context.
0:23:47 > 0:23:48There they are.
0:23:50 > 0:23:54Hello. Lovely to see you.
0:23:54 > 0:23:57Nice to see you.
0:23:57 > 0:24:01- Hello.- Nice see you. And how are you?
0:24:01 > 0:24:04- Oh, I'm fine, thanks.- Good. - It's been quite emotional, but...
0:24:04 > 0:24:06- Yes, yes, yes.- I can imagine.
0:24:06 > 0:24:09Putting everything together now, all the little bits of the jigsaw.
0:24:09 > 0:24:11This is number five.
0:24:13 > 0:24:16This is number five, where we were brought up.
0:24:16 > 0:24:20Yes, it sold everything - a real old-fashioned corner shop.
0:24:20 > 0:24:23- So this bit was a shop? - Yes, this was a shop window.
0:24:23 > 0:24:27- No, it's amazing to think you were just here and...- Yes.
0:24:27 > 0:24:30- I know, and you were so near. - Yes.- So near.
0:24:30 > 0:24:34Mother must have been able to just walk to the school.
0:24:34 > 0:24:37- It's well within walking distance.- Yes, yes, yes.
0:24:38 > 0:24:42Unaware they were growing up so close to each other,
0:24:42 > 0:24:45Gillian is now able to solve a lifelong mystery.
0:24:45 > 0:24:49I always wondered why we ended up in Eccles.
0:24:49 > 0:24:51- But now we know why. - Now we know why, yeah.
0:24:51 > 0:24:54It seems their mother, Joyce, moved to Eccles
0:24:54 > 0:24:59so she could continue to keep a close eye on her son, Jonathan.
0:24:59 > 0:25:02Jonathan takes them to his old primary school,
0:25:02 > 0:25:04just a couple of miles away from the corner shop.
0:25:06 > 0:25:08From what you've said, Denise,
0:25:08 > 0:25:13I imagine when Mother came to walk by and see if she could see me,
0:25:13 > 0:25:16she must have stood at these gates here.
0:25:19 > 0:25:23I just felt very emotional coming around the corner, then.
0:25:23 > 0:25:25Seeing the railings and...
0:25:25 > 0:25:27Because she's often said, you know,
0:25:27 > 0:25:31"I used to stand at the railings, looking, watching him play.
0:25:31 > 0:25:33"And seeing him arriving in the morning
0:25:33 > 0:25:35- "and leaving in the afternoon."- Yeah.
0:25:37 > 0:25:42I mean, it's so sad, in many ways, that she felt, understandably,
0:25:42 > 0:25:44in that age, that she had to give me up,
0:25:44 > 0:25:47- that it really wasn't possible... - Oh, yes, yes.
0:25:47 > 0:25:51..in that period, to keep a child in those circumstances.
0:25:51 > 0:25:54- It must have been awful for her. - Oh, dreadful.
0:25:54 > 0:25:59- And to... Years looking.- Yes, yes.
0:25:59 > 0:26:03I think it must be the worst thing that could ever happen to a woman,
0:26:03 > 0:26:06- having to give up a child. - Yeah.- The worst thing.
0:26:07 > 0:26:09Really terrible.
0:26:11 > 0:26:13But at least now, you know that she never forgot you,
0:26:13 > 0:26:16she was always looking over you.
0:26:16 > 0:26:19- Watching over you.- Yeah.
0:26:19 > 0:26:23- That's good. But it makes it harder, as well.- Yes, yes, yes.
0:26:28 > 0:26:30Jonathan now has the chance to visit
0:26:30 > 0:26:33the final resting place of his mother for the first time.
0:26:33 > 0:26:36And to catch up on some of the years that he's missed
0:26:36 > 0:26:37not knowing his new-found siblings.
0:26:40 > 0:26:45- This is Gillian and I when we were little...- Goodness.- ..with Mum.
0:26:45 > 0:26:50- Uh-huh. She certainly looks very jolly and happy.- Oh, she was, yes.
0:26:50 > 0:26:53She was a very happy person.
0:26:53 > 0:26:55- That's my mum.- There's Mum.
0:26:59 > 0:27:01I can't imagine
0:27:01 > 0:27:07how his life was, without knowing who he was.
0:27:07 > 0:27:11And that...that must just be amazing for him to find out.
0:27:11 > 0:27:13I like the way she's looking straight at you.
0:27:15 > 0:27:19- Yes, yes. Yes, you've got the same colour eyes as her.- Really?
0:27:19 > 0:27:24Yes. Yeah. Neither of us have, but you've got her eyes. Yes. Yeah.
0:27:24 > 0:27:29It's definitely an emotional journey for everybody.
0:27:29 > 0:27:31I'm glad we did it, though.
0:27:31 > 0:27:33Really glad we did it.
0:27:33 > 0:27:35It's such a shame that he can't be part
0:27:35 > 0:27:38of all that went on but, hopefully, we've got plenty more things
0:27:38 > 0:27:41going to be happening in the future.
0:27:41 > 0:27:46- We can keep in touch now the rest of our lives.- Yeah, absolutely.
0:27:46 > 0:27:49- There's no hiding from us now!- Oh, well...
0:27:49 > 0:27:51No, that's it, we're afraid you've got us now.
0:27:51 > 0:27:55It is terrific that, after 64 years,
0:27:55 > 0:28:00we've been able to put back together the family that was broken apart,
0:28:00 > 0:28:03which none of us would have wanted at the time.
0:28:03 > 0:28:07And for anyone who is in a similar situation,
0:28:07 > 0:28:08it's never too late.
0:28:08 > 0:28:10It's always worth trying.
0:28:10 > 0:28:15It's just an amazing feeling, suddenly, to know who I am.