I used to love this programme but now they only seem to tell you half the story. Last night we had a man who was adopted as a baby and taken to Australia. A brother and sister were found in the UK but no mention was made of their father(s). Then we had another man adopted and taken to Canada and he also had several siblings in the UK. Again, no mention of father (s).
I watch Long Lost Family when I notice it is on - I love to see it when it all works out happily. The smile on the faces of the adopted people when they see photos of their birth family and intently scrutinise the image and feel connected for the first time says it all.
That episode you mentioned was focusing on searches which led to finding siblings.
Based on the age of the adoptees and the fact that their Mums were both young unmarried girls when their babies were born, it’s highly likely their father wasn’t mentioned on the birth certificate.
Back then, unmarried girls were often advised by adoption agencies / mother & baby homes not to record the father’s name on the birth certificate. It made it easier to get the adoption papers signed.
In this programme, the birth mothers had already died when contact with the adoptee was eventually made, so it’s possible that nobody knew the name of their birth fathers or they haven’t been able to find them.
Or perhaps the adoptee didn’t want to find particular family members or maybe the birth father did not want to be involved or named in the programme.
There could be lots of reasons that some family members don’t feature in every story of their family searches.
The Long Lost Family search and social work team have helped well over a 1,000 searchers looking for their long lost family over the years but it’s not always appropriate to film them all, for various reasons - I read somewhere that less than 20% of them have been filmed and broadcast.
I have noticed they often group similar stories together in one programme, as they did in the last one about siblings.
It’s often about Adoptees and their Mum searching for each other but sometimes it’s about Adoptees and Fathers or whole families.
Thanks for that very detailed explanation Boot.
What I wondered about both cases were are they really half siblings? If, as you say, the mothers were young when they got pregnant then chances are they went on to have their other kids with men other than the first father.
Sometimes these families reunite and we are told that the mother went on to have other children when she got married and often she told her new husband that she gave away her first child but he understood and encouraged her to search.
In the 2 cases highlighted in this episode absolutely no mention was made of fathers by any of the kids.
I do love this programme , I cry and blubber when they meet up . I always have hope they stay together . Life was very cruel to young girls then , parents too , it beggers belief to think parents forced adoption then refused to talk about it .
Yes, I wondered if they were full siblings or half siblings too.
I guess we’ll never know.
If the siblings had shared the same father, I guess he would have been mentioned unless he was still alive and had refused consent or if there was some reason his family didn’t want him to be mentioned.
In some cases the father may not have been advised of the pregnancy, so if nobody knew who the father was it would be almost impossible to do it via DNA testing.
Even if it was possible I am sure that most men would not like to be advised on TV that a one night stand , maybe 40 or 50 years ago had produced a child.
There are many cases where the lost offspring, or parent, don’t wont to meet, but Long Lost family still have done the work yet cannot televise it.
There are limits on how much info can be broadcast without the relevant persons approval.