'Absolutely fantastic' to meet family after 70-year search

WHEN John Kennedy received a phone call via an ancestry website, his 70-year search to find his family finally ended.

- BRYANA FRANCIS Reporter

That culminated in tears and high emotions when the 82-year-old finally got to hug his siblings.

The family met for the first time on Saturday at a hotel in South Wales after John travelled five hours from Yorkshire with his wife and daughter. And John had a simple message: “I can now rest within myself that I have a family.”

Although he never got the opportunity to meet his mother, he was able to meet four of his siblings - Kenneth Evans, 78, Betty Hender, 74, Frances Evans, 71 and Terry Evans, 62, who live in Nelson.

For John, whose adoptive sister died 15 years ago, finding out he has a large family in South Wales has proved quite the discovery.

He said: “I tried for years but it was always a dead end.

“Then going back a few months ago, my son-in-law said put your DNA on and there was a match. I didn’t know I had this many brothers and sisters that came as a shock.

“The only thing I ever dreamed of was seeing a picture of my birth mother and I finally got to see it.

“Today means a lot, a hell of a lot. I can rest within myself that I have a family.

“I've seen a picture of my mother and I’m learning things as I talk to them. It's brilliant, it's absolutely fantastic.”