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Long Lost Family foundlings

110 replies

Onefliesoverthecuckoosnest · 01/06/2020 11:30

Just thought I would let everyone know that there are two Long Lost Family specials tonight and tomorrow on ITV1. They are following three foundlings and tracing their families using DNA.

Definitely worth a watch.

OP posts:
covetingthepreciousthings · 01/06/2020 21:20

I'm watching, how amazing that two foundlings are siblings! Maybe amazing is the wrong word, as it's pretty tragic and we haven't heard the circumstances yet.. but wow!

I also didn't realise those babies were called 'Foundlings'.

incognitomum · 01/06/2020 22:31

I'm watching on catch up. Omg the brother and sister Shock

SingleHandSue · 01/06/2020 22:35

I watched this too, what a story! Even my grumpy, cynical DS was really interested and moved by it.

So amazing they were able to find each other, they both seemed lovely.

theliverpoolone · 01/06/2020 22:50

This was incredible, and so lovely that they were united. Hard to believe that the police/press at the time didn't make the connection though - found in identical bags! And the dad had another 14 children Shock

incognitomum · 01/06/2020 22:58

Band leader 7 nights a week...how did he get time to make all those babies 😁

Sarcelle · 01/06/2020 23:05

I actually felt so angry at the father. 14 kids, and the two abandoned ones. The mum must have been completely in thrall to him, he was 17 years older, married, different religion, and was unsupportive not once, but with a second child too. He may well have had more if he was "working" 7 days a week.

I am glad the siblings found each other, but I bet they have massive mixed emotions about the parents.

incognitomum · 01/06/2020 23:42

I know the poor siblings. Can't imagine what's going through their minds? Totally messed up.

covetingthepreciousthings · 02/06/2020 00:06

Obviously we don't know the circumstances of any of it really, but I just found it so tragic that their mum had been having an affair for that amount of time (30+ years?) and had given up two babies in that time too. Just so sad, even more so as she'd seemingly cared for at least one of them for a week or two before giving him up like that.

So it makes you wonder what happened, did she want to keep him but the father made her abandon them? Sad
I wonder if she ever tried to find them herself.

OculusThrift · 02/06/2020 00:08

Such a sad story.

I did wonder if she had put her daughter in the red tartan bag in the hope the siblings would be reunited.

TARSCOUT · 02/06/2020 00:10

He seemed more 'damaged' than she was I felt. I am so glad they've found each other though.

MissMarks · 02/06/2020 00:17

Heart breaking. So cross with the father. Also wonder what happened to his wife and if she knew.

Sarcelle · 02/06/2020 08:01

I think Dave looked quite stricken when they revealed that they were a by product of an affair and that he had 14 half-siblings. To leave one child abandoned is bad enough, but a second. She was 35 and 41 when she had them, not a teenage mum. I would love to know more about them, what she was like, how she could endure sitting on the sidelines of life without her children, whilst the father had a life elsewhere with such a huge brood of kids.

Thinking about the father makes me cross.

Deathraystare · 02/06/2020 08:54

It was all against them from the start - different religion, illigitimancy, married lover, 1950's and Ireland!

Sarcelle · 02/06/2020 09:31

Yes, but to do the same twice..? You'd think the first time would have been traumatic enough. He must have been some man...or perhaps she might have been damaged in some way. We will never know.

onlyreadingneverposting8 · 02/06/2020 09:38

What shocked me was the mother's wider family refused to have her identity revealed. That even now they obviously feel there is stigma and shame around what happened. Whereas, the father's family didn't feel the same way.
I got the impression Helen had mixed feelings towards her father when she found out and was identifying with her mother. 14 half siblings - 11 living must have been so so shocking. Helen, having been brought up in Southern Ireland must have immediately thought - "crikey have I passed one or more of them in the street and never known?!"

MissMarks · 02/06/2020 09:42

That is a very good point about the shame still being there to this day. Just so so sad.

Sarcelle · 02/06/2020 09:49

I suppose the shame is multifaceted, she was having an affair with a married man, and had two children that she abandoned in a callous way. You can see why you would not want people to know if you were related to her, even after all this time.

ssd · 02/06/2020 09:53

The mum was older than the dad, not the other way round.
I would have mixed feelings about both of them, not just the dad. I can understand not being able to keep the babies but abandoning them that way is awful. And I'd wonder why my mum never tried to find me. The dad sounded a waste of space.

Sarcelle · 02/06/2020 09:59

They said in the programme he was 17 years older than her?

He died in 1993, she died in 2017 aged 90. So if there was 17 years between them he was born in 1910 (so died aged 83 when she was 66), she was born in 1927.

Disclaimer - maths is not my strong point.

ssd · 02/06/2020 10:07

I'm sure it was the other way round but I'm probably wrong.

Goingonabit · 02/06/2020 10:14

Awful for the mother, was she given false promises every time, did she have PND and no help, did she have to hide her pregnancies.

It made me cry, I hope they can both settle a bit now.

And my god, I cried even more when the daughter said 'I hope she can be at peace now, knowing we are together Sad

I think they expected their Mother to have been a teenage mother, and possibly 15 years older than them, such a shock that she passed away aged 90.

Such a sad sad story.

Sarcelle · 02/06/2020 10:28

Their father was a married protestant with 14 children, but their mother was 17 years younger and a Catholic during a time of huge sectarian conflict.

the above is from the Mirror. So she was the younger one

SapatSea · 02/06/2020 10:58

I don't think the duffel bags were that distinctive. In the 60's and early 70's duffel bags were pretty much everywhere. My dad used one to take his lunch and spare clothes to work, we all had one for our school swimming togs as did all my friends in 60's NI most were a coloured tartan.

Normalmumandwife · 02/06/2020 10:59

At that time in Ireland, divorce was virtually impossible. I have known from past family whereby marriages broke down and a new relationship formed and they were in some ways known to be together but never accepted whilst the wife never saw her husband for 20 years. Divorced to all extents except in the eyes of the law and church.

Given they were together for 33 years this is what sounds to have happened but when he died then the lawful wife will have had all the responsibilities and money etc

So sad.. I'm not Irish and wasn't keen in Varadker but I do think he dragged Ireland into being a modern and progressive country

Mamia15 · 02/06/2020 11:02

Given that the father had 14 children with his wife it sounds like it was a 'proper' marriage though?