Well my dads family, rich they were, totally cut contact with my mum when my dad died at age 49, never heard a word from them until…. About a year ago got an email from Genes reunited asking if I was the daughter of E Hobbs etc etc, well you could have knocked me down with a feather because it was the daughter of one of my dads sisters, she had all the papers from when my dad left his family aged about 19 to go to war, all his prisoner of war letters to home, everything from the day he left home up till he was discovered in the POW camp, she had been searching for our family for just over 6 years and wanted to return them back to his family.

I was so pleased. Since then I have also received a wooden plaque he kept as a prisoner, he was on Death railway, I have only just discovered his war history, he listed all the POW camps he was in, 14 in total. My partner, bless him, spent till very late one evening searching the maps and history on the internet, and both of us deciphering what he had carved on this plaque, by the way he use a jack knife and broken razor blade to carve whilst a prisoner.

Anyway to cut the story short, my family have been asked to meet us with the surviving aunts and uncles and their children. Since the first email I have discovered my father's parents did the same with another daughter of theirs also cutting contact.

I am really looking forward to meeting my lost aunts and uncles, even if they are now in their late 80 +, also my children are now discovering all their cousins.

We have now been added to the family tree, and being one of 8 its quite a lot of extra information, my mum has 24 grand children and 11 great grand children so the family tree has grown considerably now, and all because of Genes reunited. To date it goes back as far as 1852, which is when my dad parents married 10th January 1852, which strangely enough is my birthday 10th January 1952! There are lots of other similarities also!! Great things family trees.

rc