Episode 2 Family Finders

Families can be driven apart for all manner of reasons.

I had no information at all about where my mum went.

And when you do lose touch with your loved ones...

You don't know who you are, where you've come from.

..finding them can take a lifetime...

I might have a brother that's still living here.

..especially when they could be anywhere - at home or abroad.

And that's where the family finders come in,

from international organisations...

Hi, it's the Salvation Army Family Tracing Service.

..to genealogy detective agencies...

For someone to say that it's changed their life,

it makes coming to work really, really special.

..and dedicated one-man bands.

It's a matter of how much effort you really want to put into it,

how badly you want to solve the problem.

They hunt through history to bring families back together again.

Finding new family is wonderful.

In this series, we follow the work of the family finders...

Suddenly, you get one spark of breakthrough and there they are.

..learning the tricks they use

to track missing relatives through time...

I didn't think I'd ever find sisters but I have.

..and meeting the people whose lives they change along the way.

I've been waiting to meet John my whole life.

Since we've met, I feel part of a family again.

You've just completed my life for me.

Families can lose contact with each other all too easily

and once that happens,

trying to trace each other again can feel like an overwhelming task.

Today, we meet Belinda, who set herself

an almost impossible challenge to find long-lost relatives in Peru.

To my amazement, up popped a phone number,

so I thought, "Well, if you don't try, you don't find out, do you?"

So, I rang.

And we follow the family split by both war and religion.

She didn't really like me because I was a Christian.

I had no real family.

I didn't have a sister to play with and, basically, I was on my own.

Belinda O'Brien always wondered

if she had any long-lost relatives out there.

She, like many others, set herself the task of finding out.

She turned family finder.

Born in Surrey in 1951, Belinda was the only child of Dolly and Cecil.

I was born of older parents. There's actually a generation missing.

My father was of the mind that, because of the war,

he didn't want to marry my mother previously,

in case anything untoward happened to him.

So, the war got in the way

and then they got married and then I came along.

She was close to her mum and dad but longed for a sibling.

As an only child, I can't say I've enjoyed it.

I would have liked to have had people of my own age around me

but I had a good childhood, so I can't complain,

but it was a bit lonely at times.

I wasn't at all aware of any other relatives.

I just thought it was our small, close-knit family.

When Belinda was in her early 20s, she flew the nest

and headed to London, where she met with an unexpected opportunity.

My modelling came about completely out of the blue.

I happened to go into a boutique in Marylebone High Street

that was owned by Martha Hill and I was wandering around

and she came up to me and she said,

"I'd like you to model for my catalogue."

And I just looked at her, completely amazed.

And, sure enough, that's what I did

and she knew quite a lot of influential people

and a month later, I'm with an agency

and I'm starting doing TV commercials

and it all just took off from there.

And it was her modelling career

which would lead Belinda to delve into the past.

I was booked to work on a video, a website for genealogy.

And I went into London, we did the shoot.

Their senior genealogist was there and he and I had a long chat

and part of my payment was a membership to the site

and it started me thinking,

"Well, perhaps this is a sign that I should do something

"about looking into members of the family from the past."

Excited at the prospect of unknown family out there,

Belinda logged on to the website.

It advised her to begin her search by digging out old family heirlooms.

There is an item of furniture in the hallway

that was always known as the Bible box.

My mother would put everything in there - birth, death, marriages,

anything to do with anything that she'd been to.

But right at the bottom was our family Bible

and that dates back to 1709.

I took it out and I was carrying it out into the kitchen

to start to read through it and, as I walked through the dining room,

an envelope fluttered to the floor.

And when I went back to pick it up, there were photographs inside

and there was also a letter on the old-fashioned thin airmail paper

and the letter had been sent to my aunt.

The letter was signed off by an "Auntie Clara",

a great-aunt Belinda never knew she had.

But there was another revelation to follow.

The address was Miraflores, which is in Lima in Peru.

The mention of Peru reignited a childhood memory

which, until now, Belinda had thought little of.

My aunt always wore this ring

and she left the ring to me when she died.

She had said, many years ago,

that it had been one of a pair of drop Victorian earrings

and the other one is in the wall of Lima Cathedral.

And...I didn't particularly take too much notice of it back then

but, perhaps, the link with my ring was through that side of the family.

I was really excited at the thought that I might have

some other relatives and I began to...

to do my own research.

Luckily for Belinda, she had inherited a box of family memories

which gave her a perfect starting point for her search.

If you want to set about doing some family finding,

the first thing to do is arm yourself with the facts.

Collate as many names and dates as possible

before you start your search.

Gather as much information as you can about key events

and ask any relatives for important family stories

and if they have any photos or letters relating to your ancestors.

And don't assume your missing relative

has stayed in the country of their birth.

If you're struggling to throw up any leads,

perhaps take your search global

and, if your enquiries do end up international,

it's a good idea to contact foreign embassies at home for information.

Through her efforts,

Belinda was discovering a whole new family in Peru.

From the photos in her mother's Bible box, Belinda came across

a picture of a bride and groom on their wedding day.

She noticed the same couple appeared in other photos and, luckily,

their names were written on the back - Rosemary and Heinz.

In a later photo, they'd had children.

Belinda had no luck finding the couple online,

so she began to search for their children instead.

I put in the name and his surname and, to my amazement,

up popped a building company in Austin in Texas.

And there was a phone number, so I thought,

"Well, if you don't try, you don't find out, do you?"

So, I rang and a gentleman answered, answered the phone.

I asked whether the name of his mother

was the name that I'd got written on this photograph

and he said, "Yes."

And I said, "Well, in that case, you and I are cousins."

And his retort to that was, "Oh, not another cousin!"

And I thought, "Oh..."

Oh, no, it just wasn't what I was expecting.

But he gave me his mother's mobile number and that was that

and I, sort of, licked my wounds for a while.

I was really, really deflated.

I was...quite down

and I thought, "Well, I can't expect everybody to feel the same

"or want the same."

He obviously comes from a large family

and to find another cousin wasn't, particularly, a big deal,

whereas for me, of course, it was a huge deal.

Belinda wasn't ready to give up on her search just yet

and little did she know her hunt would result

in a visitor from the other side of the world.

It's such an exciting time. I hardly slept last night!

In London, another family have been searching for a long-lost relative.

Barbara Cohen was born in north London

at the end of the Second World War.

My early memories of round this area was being bombed.

The pub down the road was completely flattened.

Her father, a Jewish tailor named Henry Shredniki,

met her mother, Jane, while she was working at his garment factory

in the East End.

They got married in 1943. I was born in 1945.

A factory owner by day, by night,

her father did what he could to help the war effort.

My father used to be what is known as a Home Guard.

He used to be in charge of the lights down the road,

making sure that everyone had blackouts,

because he was too ill to go into the army.

Henry was suffering from the early stages of Hodgkin's disease,

a rare form of cancer. He died when Barbara was almost three years old.

I haven't got any memories of my father whatsoever, which is a shame.

All I remember is that he was very tall

but then, bear in mind, I was very tiny.

After Barbara lost her father,

she was brought up as an only child by her mother

and a neighbour called Auntie Iris.

But she also remembers feeling

very much part of a wider Jewish community living in the area.

Round this area, at that particular time,

there was loads and loads of Jewish butcher shops, delicatessens.

You could just go out and buy whatever you wanted,

like bagels or, as some people call it, beigels.

It was a particularly Jewish area.

There's one childhood memory

which has never been far from Barbara's thoughts

and that is the day she met the older half-sister

she didn't know she had.

On the very first occasion that I met Sybil,

I didn't realise that she was my sister, half-sister.

It was very, very strange.

She was very tall, very, very dark black hair,

and it was, like, in a bun. I can remember that.

Later that day,

her mother explained who the mysterious visitor, Sybil, was.

"This is your sister but it's not from me, us.

"It's from Daddy's first wife."

And that's how she explained it to me

and I was quite shocked because I don't think you take it all in.

It's just like a blur. You think, "What's she talking about?

"I've been on my own all this time, all these years, just Mum and I."

I lost my father and that was it.

I didn't think I had any brothers or sisters or anything

and that was really my only recollection of her.

It's a shame, really, when you think back, isn't it,

that you lose a lot of time?

That day, Sybil left Barbara's life as quickly as she had entered it

and her mother brushed the visit under the carpet.

She'd never talked about it again, ever.

There were no other relatives that I could talk to about Sybil.

But Barbara never stopped wondering about her half-sister

and that brief encounter when she was a child.

I would have loved more contact with Sybil, a lot, lot more.

Years have gone by and I knew about Sybil but did nothing about it.

It was her partner, Michael,

who finally helped Barbara pluck up the courage

to search for her sister before it was too late.

Michael said to me, "For goodness' sake, let's see

"if we can find her after all these years.

"You know you've got one.

"We're going to definitely try and find her."

Here's an opportunity - let's try and find your sister.

I love history, I love looking into history.

If I get something into my head, I like to carry it out.

But all Michael had to go on were copies

of her father's birth, marriage and death certificates

and, rather than narrowing the search down,

these only complicated it further.

Well, here is Harry Samuel Shredniki.

-That's his death certificate.

-This is his death certificate.

Harry Henry Samuel Abraham.

And here is...Henry Samuel.

During his lifetime, her father had changed his name -

a common practice within the Jewish community of the day.

The father changed his name from Shredniki to Abraham.

That's how it was in those days.

Emigres wanted to disappear, especially Jewish emigres.

They didn't want to stand out,

they wanted to assimilate themselves into the population.

Fully armed with the various names that Barbara's father had gone by,

Michael could start his search in earnest.

I had an ancestry programme. We started tapping away at the keys.

How many Shrednikis can there be in the East End?

Thousands! Really.

And most of them, of course, were emigres from Russia, Poland,

all before the turn of the century

when they came over here originally to start their life

or their new life, and they all ended up in the East End.

Undeterred, he eventually struck gold.

He found a Shredniki whose dates matched up

and he had a daughter named Sybil.

Hours and hours of patient trawling through lists of names.

We got onto Sybil Shredniki, daughter of Harry Henry Abraham.

Now that they'd identified Sybil in the records,

Michael was able to see she had had a child

with a man called Axel Jensen

and that the pair had left the UK for Denmark.

It was time to take the search overseas.

So, we decided to, as a starting point, we would get in touch

with the Danish embassy and see if they had anyone with that name.

If Sybil was still alive, she'd be in her late 80s

but whether she was still in Denmark was anyone's guess.

All Michael and Barbara could do now was wait and hope.

In Surrey, only child Belinda had always hoped to be

part of a bigger family,

and fate had led her to the discovery of relatives

on the other side of the world in Peru.

I was really excited at the thought

that I might have some other relatives.

After lots of searching, Belinda finally found a contact number

for a long-lost cousin, Heinz, who had left Peru for Texas.

But he hadn't seemed to share her enthusiasm.

His comment was, "Oh, no, not more cousins!"

And I was so deflated.

Disheartened, Belinda put her search on the back burner,

but fate had other plans.

Strangely, one evening, I switched the television on,

ready to watch the news,

and it was on a different channel

and there was a documentary about Peru.

And I thought, "Oh, this is silly.

"This is a message telling me you've got to get on and do it."

And I sat there for about five minutes and then I thought,

"OK, go and ring her." But I couldn't find the number.

I'd written her mobile number down and I couldn't find it anywhere.

And I thought, "Oh, no, I'm going to have to phone HIM again."

Belinda was coming close to finding her cousin Rosemary,

the lady in the old wedding photo who, it turned out,

was also disappointed with her son's lukewarm telephone manner.

I was so upset!

He said, "Mum, I didn't have a pencil,

"I didn't have paper, you know?

"I'm covered with everything and I have no time for any cousins."

And I said, "Heinz, I really am upset."

And he said, "Well, probably she'll call again."

And I said, "I hope so."

Luckily, thousands of miles away, a dogged Belinda wasn't giving up.

And it was a very different person who answered the phone this time

and he said, "Thank goodness you've rung back. My mother went crazy."

He said, "Please give me your home number as well," which I did.

And then it wasn't that long afterwards

that I get a phone call from my lovely second cousin.

Belinda and Rosemary's grandmothers were sisters

but the cousins' lives had taken very different paths.

My mother was born in London.

She married my father who was a Peruvian

and he was a doctor in the Peruvian oil fields up north of Peru.

So, in 1945, when the war was over,

all the English people went back to England

but, as my dad was a Peruvian, we stayed in Peru and we moved to Lima.

The family made Lima their home but Rosemary's mother

and the older generation made sure they remained in contact

with their British relatives.

Well, after my mother passed away, I lost contact completely

and I knew nothing more and this was really my fault.

But all these years, I've been thinking

and everybody was asking me, "Don't you have any relatives in England?

"It's incredible.

"Your grandmother was English, your mother was English.

"Don't you have any cousins? Don't you have anybody?"

And I said, "Yes, but I don't know how to get through to them."

That was until Belinda contacted her and they reconnected straightaway.

We chatted and chatted and chatted and chatted

and it was like we'd known one another forever.

It was just quite amazing.

You know what?

I know she's my blood and she knows I'm her blood

because we are so similar in so many things.

I was so excited and it was wonderful to think

that, after all these years of assuming

that I'd only got my children around me as family,

that out there were, were these, these other people

that are actually part of family, so I, I was very, very happy.

And in no time, the women began planning their reunion.

I said, "Come and see us in February. It's summer."

And she said, "No, no, I can't wait. I can't wait till February.

"I have to get to know you before that."

And so I suggested that, maybe, if it was acceptable to them,

that I would pop over to Austin in Texas and say, "Howdy"...

..and see how we get on.

So, Belinda did just that.

To tell you truth, I was so excited, I was sort of numb.

I didn't know what to do.

I was going to buy balloons that said, "Welcome,"

and I was going to buy this and I was going to buy that

and everybody said to me,

"Rosemary, Belinda wants to see you, she doesn't want to see balloons."

And finally, the long-lost cousins came face to face.

-Belinda? Belinda!

-Ooh...

When we saw one another, I...my words to her were,

"My goodness, you're so little,"

and her words to me were, "I thought you were a brunette."

So, that was our first comments and then big hugs.

We just jumped into the car and we came back

and we started chatting

and I think we've never stopped talking the whole week.

It feels...

..wonderful having found her, because we are very similar.

We're both quite outgoing and when we were out and about together,

I mean, we really, really had fun.

I am so happy to have found Belinda, you have no idea.

She's changed my life because, really,

I feel that I belong somewhere.

I'm 80 years old now

and I have lost 60 years of my life with contact with my family.

It's a pity because family should be together.

I hope that we're together for a long time still.

Yeah, I'm very excited and very emotional.

Very emotional.

But Belinda knows I love her and I know she loves me

and I feel, now, that I'm connected with my roots and I'm very happy.

Finding new family is wonderful

because I, I've never had a big family.

This has opened a new chapter in my life...

..an exciting new chapter in my life.

But that wasn't the end of Belinda's story of her new-found family.

Not long after she returned from Texas,

she received an urgent call from Rosemary.

Another member of the family Belinda has never met

is arriving in the UK from Peru and wants to meet up.

Rosemary's very excited about us meeting

because she thinks we're going to get on very well together.

It is such an exciting time. I hardly slept last night.

Today, for the first time, Belinda's meeting Rosemary's son,

her cousin Alex.

-Hello!

-Hombre! Que pasa?

Oh!

-Primo pequeno.

-Primo pequeno.

-Welcome to London!

-Thank you, thank you.

-My goodness me!

I'm very excited. I'm nervous.

I've been sitting here, my heart absolutely jumping out of my chest.

Anyway, I've brought loads of pictures

-to try to explain to you how we link in.

-Oh, really?

So there's lots of interesting things to be looking at.

This is the first opportunity Belinda has had

to show her new family HER life in the UK.

Since discovering her Peruvian relatives,

Belinda's become quite the family finding enthusiast

and has spent hours collating old family photos

and building on their ever-growing family tree.

-So, these are your great-great-grandparents.

-Mmm-hmm.

-So then, they had eight children.

-From all these eight brothers...

-And sisters.

-And sisters...

-Yes.

-Clara finished in Peru, right?

-Yes.

With my grandmother and my mum, right?

-Yeah, so your mum and I are second cousins.

-Mmm-hmm.

-So you are my second cousin once removed.

-Mmm.

-And then your twins are my third cousins.

-Mmm-hmm.

This is an awful lot for you to absorb in one go, isn't it?

But it's amazing, it's amazing.

And there's one member of this family

who wasn't going to miss this reunion for the world.

-Hello!

-Hey! Hola, que tal?

-Hello.

-How did you two get along?

-Can you understand each other?

-Yes, yes, of course!

It's just incredible.

It's so difficult, sometimes, to digest.

And look here, my beautiful Belinda and my only sixth son.

Ah...there we go, look.

Anyway, you're looking beautiful

and I recognise that round your neck.

-Oh, yes.

-This is what I brought your mum from England.

-Oh, right.

Yeah, yeah, I know, and it brings you close to me.

I tell you what, I'll pop back next week, OK?

-OK!

-ROSEMARY LAUGHS

But I'm in Lima next week.

That's all right, I don't mind. I'll come to Lima.

OK, you can come to Lima whenever you want, Belinda,

I already told you that. You're more than welcome.

You've got such a big family.

-You said you were all by yourself round here.

-Uh-huh.

-You're not by yourself.

-I know, I know.

You've no idea, you've no idea,

so you're in for a shock or a treat -

-whatever way you like to look at it.

-Oh, bless you!

-Bless you.

-OK.

-Well, I'll see you again very soon.

OK. I'm so happy to see you together.

It's just, to me, it's just incredible.

It may be Peru next but today, they're on Belinda's home turf,

so they pack in as much sightseeing in London

in the short time they have together.

It's such a coincidence, you coming over now.

-Mmm, yes.

-Amazing.

They can't be in the real Lima together,

so Belinda's found a little Lima for them to visit.

Oh, it's a Peruvian restaurant! Look!

Today has been absolutely wonderful.

We had such a lovely time

and I'm still pinching myself to realise that it actually happened.

It was great. Belinda's so nice.

It was great to know about our family,

things that I didn't know and things that I'm going to find out

and I'm looking forward to seeing her in Lima, to show her around.

-Salud.

-Salud.

Amor y muchas pesetas.

Taking the step forward to get in touch has been wonderful.

Rosemary and I would love to find some other members of the family

and we're hoping that they're out there somewhere

and maybe fate will play another hand towards us and introduce us

to some other members of the family, cos that would just be lovely.

Lots of adventures ahead.

Maybe will be one day a big family reunion. That would be great.

In north London, Barbara Cohen has been searching

for the long-lost sister she last saw over 50 years ago.

Barbara and her partner, Michael, had traced her sister to Denmark,

but there, they thought the trail had gone cold.

Their last hope had been to send a letter to the Danish embassy.

Then, one day, an official-looking letter dropped through their door.

We got a note back from the Danish embassy

that have since found someone of that name

and it looks like she could well be the Sybil that we're looking for.

It appeared Sybil had remarried

and was now going by the name Sybil Vissing

and lived in the north of Denmark.

We wrote a letter, saying,

"Are you the Sybil that we think may have been Shredniki,

"might be my half-sister.

"Are you interested? Would you be interested in speaking to us?"

It was Sybil's son, Rene, who first saw the letter.

I went out to the mailbox and there was a letter...

..a letter from England.

And Mum was lying in the bed and said, "I know who this is."

We opened it and it was a nice letter.

-Yeah.

-If you are Sybil Joyce Abraham Shredniki...

-Yeah.

And if you wanted to get in touch with Barbara

-and she was explaining who she was.

-Yeah, I was surprised.

And the reply we got back was from her son, Rene,

her youngest son, Rene, and he said,

"We'd be delighted. We'd be over the moon."

Then I had Barbara on the phone and on the Skype

and so it was quite fun.

I was in floods of tears. I couldn't talk. I just couldn't talk.

It was...

too emotional to find someone that you had never,

hadn't seen for, what, over 50-odd years.

This was the only relative that you had

who had any connection to your father.

-Yeah.

-Because there was no-one else left.

My mother was born in East End of London, 1928,

and grew up, together with her mum and dad.

-I was a daddy's girl.

-You were daddy's girl.

-Yeah.

-SHE LAUGHS

-He was a good man.

-He felt a little bit alone because of...

-The Jewish community didn't...

-So, he was alone and I was alone.

-Yeah.

-So...

-So, you were...

-We had a lot in common.

It turned out their father, Henry Shredniki,

had had a whole other life before he met Barbara's mother.

As a young man, he'd fallen for a young Christian girl called Clara

and, against both their families' wishes, they'd eloped.

It must have been love to choose each other

but it also meant that they were very isolated.

And, in turn, their daughter was also cast adrift.

-I wasn't accepted there because I wasn't...

-A real Jew.

-Jew.

One day I was walking in the street with my father

and there came a woman...towards us.

I found out that was my father's mother but she said,

-"Is that one of yours?"

-Mmm.

It should be "One of your CHILDREN."

-It was me.

-Yeah.

But was it difficult to have friends

when you were...a mix of Jewish and Christian?

Yeah. I didn't really have friends. I was always alone.

-Did you feel lonely?

-Yeah. Yeah. I had my doggie.

-Yeah.

SHE LAUGHS

In the early 20th century, London's Jewish community was evolving fast.

The 1920s had seen thousands of Jews arrive in Britain,

with synagogues, schools, bakeries

and other Jewish businesses thriving.

But one thing which wasn't changing as fast

were views toward inter-faith marriages.

Sybil's father's decision to marry a Christian

would have been severely frowned upon

and, as many orthodox Jews only considered children to be Jewish

if their mother is Jewish, Sybil would not have been welcomed

within the local Jewish community.

But, despite being ostracised,

Sybil and her parents were a happy little unit

until two events shattered their lives.

In 1939, World War II broke out...

..and just two years later, her mother died from tuberculosis.

Eventually, Sybil's father, Henry, married again.

His second wife was Jane, Barbara's mother.

Jane was Jewish, which helped Henry's rehabilitation

back into the local Jewish community.

But it left little room for Sybil.

She didn't really like me because I was a Christian.

I had no real family.

Her father chose to be a 100% Jew

and back to the Jewish community, and Mum was never a part of this.

But Sybil was soon to start her own family.

She met a Danish sailor, Axel Jensen,

during the Second World War and quickly became pregnant.

But having a child out of wedlock only ostracised her further.

When their baby was three months old,

she and Axel emigrated to his native Denmark.

I think her father knew that it wasn't easy for her

to have a life in England.

I think that he supported her

of going abroad and start a new life.

Her father accompanied her to the docks at Harwich to say goodbye,

and so ended the British chapter of Sybil's life.

It was on a rare return visit to England

when she met Barbara as a child.

It was also during this trip she discovered that her father had died.

I met one of the workers that worked for my father.

-He told you that your father was dead.

-That my father was dead.

-And you didn't know?

-No.

-How was that? What did you feel?

Er, I didn't believe him at the time.

-No.

-But it was true.

After this point, Sybil lost contact with all her British family

until Barbara and Michael tracked her down.

Since we've met, I feel very close to her.

Her sons are absolutely adorable. I feel part of a family again.

Although I've got my own family and I've got my partner, Michael,

it's like having a blood relative again, which I never had.

I couldn't grow up with a sister,

I didn't have a sister to play with and, basically, I was on my own.

And that makes me sad that I didn't have more time with her

and only found her, like, recently.

The sisters met up not long after they got back in contact

and, determined to make up for lost time,

today Barbara's busy preparing for another trip to Denmark.

And this time, they're planning a very special gift.

Right, Michael, let's give this a whirl.

Barbara never knew Sybil growing up

but they had both lived in their father's house at different times.

Barbara's arranged to make a video

of the place they both once called home for her sister.

This would have been our mum and dad's bedroom.

And I remember this. This was our front room.

I hope Sybil really, really enjoys this video

and it brings back some nice memories for her.

Today, Barbara and Michael are making

the 1,500-mile round trip to Denmark.

Waiting for them is Barbara's newest nephew, Rene.

I can see him!

-Hi, how are you?

-Hi, hi.

-How are you?

-I'm fine, thank you.

-Long time, no see.

Now, hundreds of miles from where they were split up as little girls,

the long-lost sisters are in the same country again.

Although this is her fourth trip,

the thought of seeing Sybil again is almost too much for Barbara.

I've got terrible mixed emotions again.

My stomach's churning over.

I just can't wait to see her again.

As you can see, I'm crying, but I don't know...

That's not tears of sadness, it's tears of emotion coming out.

I can't wait to see her.

-Sybil! Hi, hi.

-Hi, hi.

MICHAEL: Hello, Sybil. Long time, no see.

-Lovely to see you again. Here's Michael.

-MICHAEL: I'm here.

Hi, Michael.

-MICHAEL: How are you feeling?

-I'm feeling quite well.

-You look good.

They can't wait to give Sybil a glimpse

of the place she once called home.

Barbara has made a video. See if you can recognise.

-VIDEO:

-'This would have been our mum and dad's bedroom

'and from the hall used to be a kitchen

-'which used to lead out into the...'

-Garden.

-'..garden.'

Wow. 'This was my bedroom.

'I'm hoping that this would have been your bedroom too.'

-Yeah, it was.

-'It leads onto the garden

'but it looks much smaller than what it used to be, obviously,

'cos I'm a big girl now and so are you.'

Then I went to school up the road -

Pancake Hill, that's what we used to call it.

I hoped this one day would happen.

Even though it has been a tough life for Mum in England,

it's nice to know that people from England were thinking of Mum

and how she was today.

Did you live here with your mum and dad

or had Mummy already passed away?

She died there.

The hospital's folk, they came and...

-Carried her outside.

-On a stretcher.

-OK.

-And I knew it was the last time I would see her.

-Ah, yeah.

-MICHAEL: How old were you then, Sybil?

-13.

-Oh, young.

You had a longer time than I did with him. I was only two and a half.

-Yeah.

-So you have happy memories of him.

-Our dad was a tailor.

-Yeah.

-And he made what, coats?

-Jackets and trousers and everything.

-Everything.

The sisters both have photos of their father they want to share.

-That's your dad.

-Oh, I can recognise him, yeah.

-Mum, are you in this photo?

-No.

-Why not?

-Because I wasn't Jewish.

-Oh, bless you.

-He always had boots.

-Uh-huh.

-That was because of the army.

Do you know about our dad and the army?

He decided, when he was 15, in the First World War, to go to war,

but his mum stopped him.

-Yeah, twice.

-Twice.

-THEY LAUGH

What was Daddy like? Was he funny? Was he happy?

-Was he serious? Did he ever tell you off, if you were naughty?

-No.

-"Go to your room."

-I don't think so.

-No, you don't think so. Wow.

It's nice to have memories, Sybil.

And one memory that has been passed down through the family

is exactly how Henry Shredniki slipped away

to secretly marry Sybil's mother.

He had a lunch pack in his pocket.

THEY LAUGH

MICHAEL: He was going out to lunch and he got married instead!

THEY LAUGH

He had spats.

Yeah, they're nice. Looks like a dancer from the 1920s.

-Yeah.

-In the black and white films.

-Yeah.

And the family likeness is striking.

-Do you remember who this is?

-Yeah.

-And my grandchildren.

-But he looks like our daddy.

-Yeah.

Two sisters, who each had their own tough beginning in life,

have finally got the happy ending they deserve

and their family couldn't be happier.

It's been fun to see them together, also laughing

and even though it was difficult times and they were split,

it's better later than never.

Because nobody knows how long time,

but it HAS happened and that's very important.

I love her very much and I hope that...

What, with the extended family, it's been fabulous.

-Skol.

-Skol.

-ALL:

-Skol.

-To all of you.

-All of you.

And this is just beautiful. It's been an amazing, amazing time.