I am 73 years old and all my life I have had to say “Oh my father died in the war, I have no family on that side”. My father was English and had enlisted in the Australian Army and my mother was Scottish, so my sister and I had no relatives here in Australia.

Last year, I put my children’s names and birth dates on a family tree on Ancestry.com.au. My husband who died 36 years ago came from Canada, and I thought the family there may one day look for us. As an afterthought, I added my own name and particulars to the family tree as well.

Some months later I get a message through Ancestry.com.au saying that maybe I had a connection to a family with my maiden name. We exchanged some emails, they asked a few questions and here I was the “prize”! I was the daughter of their long lost brother!

They had searched for me since the rest of family came to Australia in the 1950’s. It turned out that my father was the brother they were looking for.

I am so thrilled they found me. All I had were a couple of old snaps with my father when I was about 2 years old, and two photos of my mother and father taken in 1935. We are looking forward to a family reunion very soon.

Catherine Hoskinson, NSW