 Richard Collinson: Internet search revealed family history |
A former teacher from Jersey is due to be reunited with his natural mother 61 years after he was adopted. Richard Collinson, who is a sports journalist at BBC Radio Jersey, was adopted during World War II when he was six months old.
Encouraged by the BBC series Who Do You Think You Are? Richard spoke to his 85-year-old biological mother for the first time on Thursday.
He discovered he has got two brothers and a sister.
 |  It is like winning the lottery and the pools in one go  |
He said: "My daughter Ilsa was going through our genealogy from the adoption certificate. "We had been motivated by the Who Do You Think You Are? programmes and she found that my family had come over to London from France in the 1700s.
"More searches on the internet revealed that my real mother had two sisters, one of whom had died two years ago.
"I spoke to the nursing home and they said that they remembered her sister coming to see her from Scotland."
After scouring telephone books, Mr Collinson struck lucky with the name and number of his mother who now lives on an island off the west coast of Scotland.
After consulting the adoption authorities, he called her and is due to be reunited next Thursday.
"I am feeling absolutely up for it," he said.
"It is like winning the lottery and the pools in one go.
"Everyone has been really positive and that has made it great."
One-Minute World News 
News services
E-mail this to a friend 
Printable version 
