I found the long lost family my dad spent 50 years searching for
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A man who achieved his late father’s ‘life goal’ of finding his lost family, discovered that his cousin unknowingly cared for his father at the hospital and lived just down the street.
Ian Harrison, 66, a business coach born in Portsmouth and now living in Alberta, Canada, wishes his father, Peter, were still alive to meet the lost family he spent 50 years searching for.
Peter has been told that his father died during World War II, but at the age of 15 he discovered that he was alive, but his mother had lied to him to cover up her affair with a married man.
Peter spent years searching for his family with the help of his son Ian, who continued the search after his father died in 2003, and after taking an Ancestry DNA test in 2021, found a cousin.
Ian is still in touch with his new relatives, saying he “couldn’t have wished for a better family”, but he can’t help but get angry at the thought that his father didn’t get the same pleasure.
Ian Harrison, 66, a business coach born in Portsmouth and now living in Alberta, Canada, wishes his father, Peter, were still alive to meet the lost family he spent 50 years searching for. Pictured: Ian (right) with his cousins Les (left), Lynda (back left) and Glynis (back right)
Ian’s father, Peter (pictured), was told that his father, Percy, was killed in World War II, but was actually alive.
Ian found out that Lynda (left) cared for his father in hospital when he was dying of cancer, not knowing she was his niece
Ian thinks that, after meeting his father’s two brothers, they ‘would have been the best of friends’ and thinks it’s ‘heartbreaking’ that the three of them never got to know each other.
“I just wish my dad was still here to meet these wonderful people. I still can’t believe they’ve all been so close all this time,” Ian said.
Recalling how his father first found out the truth about his father, Ian explained: “His mother asked him to get something out of his room and came across his birth certificate, which did not show a father’s name.”
But he found a document showing an agreement to pay two shillings and sixpence a week as alimony.
Ian says that his cousin Les (left) could be his father’s twin because they look alike and have the same mannerisms.
Ian (pictured) was devastated when his family’s search for his father was cut short after he passed away from brain cancer and a stroke.
Ian met several of his cousins for the first time in 2021 and says they hit it off “like a house on fire”. In the photo: Ian with his cousin Glynis
I was terribly upset about the whole thing.
Ian explained why Percy’s identity was kept a secret, saying, “My father was the product of an affair between a married man and my grandmother.”
When this was revealed to Ian’s father, he was determined to find Percy and find out as much as he could about his father’s side of the family.
Peter spent decades searching and finding nothing, but when Ian learned of the mystery surrounding Percy, he became determined to find out more as well.
Ian and his father bought volumes of census CDs and learned that Peter’s father Percy had passed away.
Sadly, their search was cut short after Ian’s father passed away in January 2003 at St Christopher’s Hospital at the age of 67, after suffering a stroke and brain cancer.
But Ian continued the search, and after taking an Ancestry DNA test in 2021, he found a cousin.
After emailing back and forth for several months, to Ian’s surprise, it turned out that his cousin, Peter’s niece, was an attending sister at the same hospital that Ian’s father was at, and she cared for him in her care. last days.
He said: ‘Dad died being breastfed by one of the very people he had been looking for all his life.
‘Lynda knew about my father and she also didn’t know that the person she was nursing was in fact her long lost uncle. It was truly amazing.
Finally, in May 2022, Ian, his 69-year-old wife Christine, and their mother met Ian’s cousins in a pub.
Ian said: ‘We hit it off like a house on fire and it was honestly the most amazing experience.
‘I was so anxious to begin with.
“My mother cried because my cousin reminded her a lot of my father at that age: they really looked like twins and had the same gestures.
‘My uncle and father were even actual electrical mechanical engineers.’
After they met, Ian found out that Lynda lived down the street around the corner from her mother.
He said: ‘They probably would have walked side by side when they went shopping. It’s crazy.
They’ve kept in touch ever since, with Ian explaining: ‘They’ve been the most amazing family to me. I honestly couldn’t have wished for a nicer family.
‘And they’ve been very welcoming.
We’ve been exchanging stories and all sorts of things.
Ian explained how it felt to finally realize his father’s dream of finding his family, saying: ‘It has brought a wholeness, a closure, a contentment to my life.
Now we know our origins. We have a greater connection to our extended family.’
Despite the revelation, Ian couldn’t help but feel sad that his father was never able to meet his family or find out that Lynda was a relative.
He said: ‘Whenever we meet, or are just chatting about things, we always say how sad the three brothers never met.
‘I mean, I’m sure they would have been best friends. listening to the stories I’ve heard about Uncle Jack and Uncle Donald. It’s heartbreaking, really.
Ian would recommend Ancestry to anyone, saying, “Without this, he would never have been able to find my father’s family and achieve his life’s goal.”