Twins Reunited After 78 Years

“They were just five-months old when their mother made the heartbreaking decision to put them up for adoption in 1936.

Twins Ann Hunt and Elizabeth Hamel were then separated and faced the prospect of never seeing each other again.

But 78 years later the sisters found each other by chance and have reunited.

Ann from Aldershot, Hampshire, didn’t even know she had a sibling until her daughter Samantha Stacey discovered Elizabeth while tracing their family tree.

Elizabeth, who always knew she had a twin but had given up hope of ever finding her, had moved to Portland, Oregon, USA.

They have now earned a place in the Guinness Book Of World Records as the longest time apart for reunited twins after their emotional reunion in Los Angeles, California.

During their time apart, they have survived a World War, raised a family and have witnessed the birth of their grandchildren.

Ann said: ‘I was over the moon, I couldn’t speak. I let Elizabeth speak mostly, I had to pinch myself because I realised that I’ve got a sibling, a sister.

‘It’s so wonderful I’m not on my own any more. I’ve got no words to say. I’m so happy – I have Elizabeth.’

Elizabeth added: ‘I’ve been praying for her for many years. I thought – being adopted, she could be anywhere in the world. It was amazing to me that she was still in Aldershot.’

The girls were born out of wedlock in Aldershot and their mother Alice Patience Lamb couldn’t cope and both were to be adopted.

But domestic servant Alice couldn’t find anyone to adopt Elizabeth, because she had a curvature of the spine.

Ann was given up and she stayed in Aldershot all her life – unaware of who her mother was and that she had a twin.

Elizabeth stayed with her mother and later moved to Chester and then to the States when she got married.

Elizabeth, who is older than her twin by 20 minutes, said: ‘I had curvature of the spine, which in those days was something which made a person unadoptable.

‘We were both going to be adopted but when mother found out about the curvature of the spine, she decided to keep me.’

The pair got in touch after Samantha spent hundreds of hours tracing through birth records trying to find out details about her mum.

Samantha, 43, scoured local records for weeks, until eventually she discovered her grandmother’s name, Alice Lamb.

Last April, she then worked out that Alice had had a daughter, who lived in America, after tracking down her stepson, who lived in Chester.

Ann said: ‘Samantha said to me “we’ve found your sister but there’s a bonus – she’s your twin sister.”‘

Samantha added: ‘She was overjoyed – delighted. She instantly rang my sisters. She’s just very happy about it.’

They could not find a phone number but did have an address and Ann wrote a letter to her long-lost sister.

Elizabeth said: ‘When I saw the letter, my eyes popped open. I couldn’t get on the phone to give my long-lost sister a call fast enough.’

After a year of talking over the the phone the pair were reunited.

Their trip was funded by twin expert Dr Nancy Segal, Director of the Twin Studies Center (corr) at California State University.

She is now spending two days studying the pair, who beat the previous world record for separated twins by three years.

Dr Segal said: ‘Fascinating work on separated twins shows that here are twins growing up in totally different families, sometimes even totally different cultures, and yet they bring with them similar types of attitudes – in politics, religion, social behaviour.

‘Where do these things come from? It’s difficult to know exactly but it seems that their genes linked to intelligence, personality and temperament just lead them to have similar types of world views.’

While former printer Ann stayed in Aldershot her entire life, Elizabeth joined the Navy, where she met Jim – who sadly passed away in 2012 after 48 years of marriage.

The sisters may have only just met for the first time in decades, but it seems they have formed an unbreakable friendship.

Ann added: ‘I feel like I’ve known Liz all my life now.’

Ann raised three daughters, Suzanne Trusler, 51, Sarah, 47, and Samantha Stacey, 43.

Elizabeth Hamel raised two boys, one named Quinton, who both joined the navy like their mum.”

Reunited after 78 years: The moment twins separated at birth meet for the first time since 1936 (and both found out they married men called Jim[Daily Mail 5/2/14 by Wills Robinson]

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