Genes Reunited Blog
Welcome to the new Genes Reunited blog!
- We regularly add blogs covering a variety of topics. You can add your own comments at the bottom.
- The Genes Reunited Team will be writing blogs and keeping you up to date with changes happening on the site.
- In the future we hope to have guest bloggers that will be able to give you tips and advice as to how to trace your family history.
- The blogs will have various privacy settings, so that you can choose who you share your blog with.
Official Blogs
The British Newspaper Archive
Read about historical events at the time they were happening. Perhaps you'll discover your ancestor in their local newspaper?
Last week the third series of Long Lost Family returned to our screens and what an emotional start it was! If you have never watched the show before, Long Lost Family traces and reunites divided family members. The show is hosted by Davina McCall and Nicky Campbell and sponsored by Genes Reunited.
In the first episode, aired last Monday, Sue Udy was reunited with the daughter she gave up for adoption after decades of searching for her. She explains how she was forced to give her baby up at just 19 after her boyfriend abandoned her and her father disowned her. Sue is successfully reunited with her daughter in a very moving meeting. The first episode also saw Alan reunited with his mother. Alan spent years trying to uncover the truth and is finally reunited with his mother. He learns that after his mother gave him up for adoption, his parents stayed together and went on to have another child, his sister.
It was a very emotional start to Long Lost Family, there wasn’t a dry eye in the room!
The second episode which aired last night follows Wendy’s search for her father and Helen’s search for her son.
Wendy grew up in Derry in the late 1970s and discovered she was adopted when she was 7 years old. Her mother explained to her that she had fallen in love with an American serviceman, Grant Williams. The pair had been madly in love with each other but disaster stuck when Grant was accused of being a Republican sympathises and arrested. Grant was eventually deported back to America but stayed in contact with Wendy’s mother via letters. He learnt that he was to become a father and had planned to travel back to Ireland to help raise his child. Tragically his letters were intercepted by Wendy’s grandfather. Wendy and her father have a very moving reunion where Wendy learns that he treasured a baby photo of her all his life.
In episode 2 we also see Helen’s search for her son she was forced to give up for adoption more than 30 years ago. She is reunited with her son Dave in another heart-warming and emotional reunion.
If you missed either episode you can catch up here: http://itv.co/11XVqzX
Don’t forget to watch next week’s episode Monday 1st July at 9pm on ITV. Episode 3 focuses on brothers David and Paul’s search for their father in South Africa and Julia looks for her mother who left her to be brought up in a strict religious community.
What do you think of the series so far? Leave your thoughts in the comments box below.