Daughter Finds Mother after DNA Search

“Adopted Kathleen Fraser-Jackson’s search for her birth mother has proved to be a life transforming experience.

Kathleen, 63, hoped to find her but had no idea she would also discover a whole extended family

Last night the overjoyed grandma of 12 told the Sunday People: “My whole life has changed.”

She said: “Knowing who you are, where you come from, your background and your history.”

Her emotional journey is charted in Monday night’s hit show Long Lost Family, hosted by Davina McCall and Nicky Campbell.

In a first for the heart-warming ITV documentary series, it uses DNA in the search rather than electoral rolls and marriage and death certificates.

The results of the investigation into Kathleen’s past have been extraordinary, revealing family on her paternal as well as her maternal side.

It even found Teddy Burton, a half-brother on Kathleen’s dad’s side, living just a few miles from her in London.

Community worker Kathleen, who was put up for adoption as a baby, found out she also has family in Scotland, Canada and Jamaica.

Her birth mum, also called Kathleen, lived in Kensington, West London, got pregnant by a Jamaican man called Byron Burton.

But Kathleen always felt there was a hole in her life and tragedy struck when she was three when her adoptive mum died.

She was raised by her ­adoptive dad James, who died when she was 22.

She only found out by accident, aged 14, that she was adopted when she saw ­documents stating it.

Kathleen discovered through Long Lost Family that four years before her birth, her birth mother had another mixed-race child, called Jean Thomson, to a ­different partner.

Jean, now 69, was adopted at six months old. Kathleen senior, who is now 87, feared she would be an outcast in 50s Britain because she had mixed-race babies out of ­wedlock.

She moved to Kitchener, in Ontario, Canada, to start a new life. Through the show Kathleen, who lives in Wembley, North London, meets Jean, from Edinburgh, for the first time.

Kathleen said: “I’ve always wanted a big sister and Jean ­always wanted a little sister, and now we have that. We are like two peas in a pod.”

The half-sisters’ lives are also eerily similar.

Jean’s adoptive family also broke down when she was three – leaving her without an adoptive mum, too.

Once united, Jean and Kathleen had an emotional meeting with their birth mother, who went on to marry and have two more children.

Kathleen and Jean met half-siblings Alison and Graham. Kathleen said: “There’s just this ­instant bond with us when we met.

“The whole family is such a mix of cultures as well.

“Because of the age we all are we all really appreciate each other. It’s comfortable and just really lovely.”

She said she does not begrudge the fact that Alison and Graham grew up with her birth mum.

According to Kathleen, her mother’s own mother once warned her: “I’ll accept anything but I won’t ­accept a black child in the family.”

She said: “I can look at them and see their lives with my mum and see how it would have been for me if I grew up with my mum.

“It makes me content. They are ­living representations of how I would be. Alison and I have similarities, too.

“She teaches English to refugee ­children, and I teach literacy to immigrants.”

They’re now planning to ­reunite in Canada – five months after filming the show.

Kathleen said: “We have a WhatsApp group too between me, Jean and my mum and half siblings in Canada.

“We plan on going back over soon because I want to spend as much time with my mum as possible.”

In another incredible twist of fate, Long Lost Family’s DNA search also found Kathleen’s half-brother Teddy.

Teddy never knew he had an ­estranged sister either.

But he provided a valuable link to Kathleen’s Jamaican heritage. Sadly, Byron died two years ago.

She said: “When I heard about my brother I was ­gobsmacked, speechless. My mouth just fell open. My faith is that anything is possible with God and to me, this is the proof.”

Astonishingly, Teddy lives in one of Kathleen’s old stomping grounds of Shepherd’s Bush – just miles from her Wembley home.

She said: “I used to go to the market there, get my hair stuff from there, go to carnival.

“How many times could I have walked past him in the street and not known?” Since the show was filmed they have met up to learn even more about each other.

She said: “It would have been my dad’s 86th birthday the other day. We met up for that.

“We reminisced and ate food – Teddy likes to cook.

“Meeting the family – they say I look so much like my dad’s mum. It’s so lovely to hear.

“It’s so nice to meet people who look like me, it’s exciting.

“And then my colouring and stuff comes from my dad. It really is a mix. And then my nature and temperament.

“I’ve learnt my dad had a real love of life and couldn’t bear grudges. I’m like that too.

“I also discovered he’s a talker. He’d start and time would just go.

“My siblings told me he’d go into a shop to get something, leave them in the car and be gone an hour because he would become ­engaged in something.”

Meeting Teddy and the rest of her Jamaican family has helped ­connect her with her ­father – for whom she is still grieving.

She said: “Teddy feels sad because he spoke to my dad two days before he died and he honestly believes my dad wouldn’t have passed as he did if he’d known about me.

“That’s quite sad. For me, I try not to think about it because I think when Davina first told me I do think about the way that I cried.

“I remember the tears and the way that I felt when my mum was alive and wanted to see me.

“But it was a different kind of ­feeling about my dad – a real kind of grieving. It will take some time to get used to.”

Kathleen is now planning a trip to Jamaica and said she wants to throw a party with all her family but they can’t find a house big enough to ­accommodate everyone.”

Adopted woman finds entire extended family after tracking down mum with DNA test

[Mirror 7/6/19 by Helen Whitehouse]

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