Long-lost family is found after 67 years

After growing up thinking he was an only child, a man was reunited with his long-lost family after 67 years.

Mr Michael Marvin, of Balderton, has now successfully reconnected with a brother, four cousins and an uncle.

Mr Marvin was adopted when he was six weeks old.

He said: "My adoptive mother didn’t really tell me much and I didn’t like asking too many questions.

"When I was 11 they told me I had been adopted.

"It seemed weird at first. They gave me a wonderful life and I felt a little bit disappointed because I thought they were my real parents, but I got used to it.

"Even when I got married I didn’t think to myself I wish my blood relatives were here because my adoptive parents were my family."

When his adoptive mother died Mr Marvin began looking to see if he could re-connect with his birth family.

He contacted Leicester Royal Infirmary, where he was born, and was directed to its records office in Wigston.

The records revealed that Mr Marvin’s birth mother had been involved in an accident with a bus and died when he was seven.

But they also showed she had three sons — one was born in 1941, Michael in 1943 and a third in 1945.

One of his brothers died the year before Mr Marvin started tracking them down.

He also found out he had four cousins and an uncle.

After making the discovery, Mr Marvin used a phone directory to look for people under his birth name, Adams, to contact each one.

He said: "By sheer luck I managed to get hold of a cousin, who was really pleased, and I still speak to them frequently over the phone."

Since tracking down his family, Mr Marvin has met all of them where they live in Leicester, Leeds, Hebden Bridge and Dunstable.

He meets once or twice a year with his brother, John, and one cousin, and keeps in contact with his other cousins.

"If people are really interested in looking for their birth families it is definitely well worth doing," he said.

Mr Marvin got in touch with the Advertiser after reading a similar story regarding long-lost family members.

The story focused on a child migrant, who was sent to Australia from the UK aged six in 1947, and has been reunited with his family he did not know existed after 70 years.

Tony ‘Blue’ McDonald, of Melbourne, has visited his brother, Mac Mallard, in Balderton.

They both grew up believing they were orphans, but learnt they had five other siblings, two of whom have now died.