He could be anywhere in the world.

I hope you can find him.

[man] Why did she let me go?

I want to know.

I need to know.

My brother was my whole world.

Where is he?

[Davina] There are many reasons why people across Britain are searching for missing family.

I found out... all my life is fake.

[man] What would that be like, if you never saw your child again?

Some have unsolved mysteries...

Behind every door, there's a story.

Behind that door's mine.

Others have difficult questions.

So, imagine the moment when the answer you need is just around the corner.

[Davina] I'm gonna be there in about 20 minutes.

-And the plot thickens.

-I know.

[Nicky] In this series, we uncover unexpected truths... -So this was deception?

-Yep, it was.

Mum was having an affair with somebody, and he wasn't Black.

...find people that no one else could trace... -We have found your brother.

-No way!

[laughs] ...and reunite families after a lifetime apart.

Just shows you that miracles still happen in this day and age.

[Davina] Often, when people come to us, they've been searching for a lifetime and hit brick wall after brick wall; disappointment after disappointment.

So, it takes a lot of bravery to try again.

[keyboard clacking] [boy] How old were you when you got adopted?

I was a baby.

[Davina] 67-year-old grandmother Joselyn Taylor was born profoundly deaf and adopted at 11 months old.

What was your adoptive mum like?

[Joselyn] Was a lovely woman.

Very kind.

Joselyn's mother told her she'd been left at a children's home when she was just two weeks old.

Joselyn's mum gave her one more life-changing piece of information.

Hi, Joselyn.

What can I get you?

I'll have a latte.

[shopkeeper] Bye.

[keyboard clacking] As soon as she was old enough, Joselyn began to search for her mother and brother.

Joselyn did find a past address and a marriage certificate.

But, eventually, she unearthed the one record she didn't want to find.

Joselyn also found out her brother's name-- James Pullan.

But after more than 20 years searching, she still couldn't locate him.

Then, around two years ago, she joined a DNA database and was delighted to get a sibling match.

But the person on the database was called James Ford.

Without a response from James Ford, Joselyn is in limbo.

[Nicky] Our specialist search team started with James Ford's online DNA profile.

They do share 2,000 centimorgans, so, yes, definitely half-siblings.

[woman] Yes.

But as James had not logged on to the site for several years, we needed to find another way to contact him.

The team couldn't find any record of James in the UK.

So, what did you do next?

We found James' marriage certificate.

So, we concentrated on his wife's family.

We made contact with his wife's niece, and, suddenly, I had a phone call from James.

He was in France.

[keyboard clacking] Although he grew up in the North of England, Joselyn's brother has been in the South of France for over 20 years.

All through her life, Joselyn has been haunted by unanswered questions about why she was adopted.

What happened to her big brother?

In the face of possible rejection, the need to know has spurred her on.

So, how will James feel about the fact that his little sister has been looking for him?

And why didn't he answer any of her messages?

James is retired from the Army, married, with four children and three grandchildren.

-Hey, James!

-Hello.

That's me.

-[laughs] -Come in.

-[Nicky] Nice to meet you.

-Thank you.

Ah.

Good of you to see me.

Well, it's my pleasure.

How do you feel about the fact that your sister Joselyn has been looking for you for so long?

Over the moon!

It's something I've always known.

-You've always known?

-Always known it.

And when I was a a lad, as they say, up North, my mother took me to a photographic studio.

I was posed with a baby for a photograph.

And I thought, "What's that?

Where's it come from?"

And I suspected then that my mother's given birth to a second baby, and, eventually, she said, "Yes, you do have a sister, but she's gone now, she's been adopted."

She couldn't cope with both of us.

I don't condemn my mother for that.

I felt a little bit sorry for her.

She was unmarried, and she had two or three jobs sometimes to keep food on the table.

Sounds like a good woman.

Oh, she was.

She was.

Yep.

I was loved by my mother, so it's... no doubt she would have cherished Joselyn too.

I've got so much to tell you.

Joselyn had a good adoption.

She had a really close, loving relationship with her mother.

Good, I'm really pleased for that.

Really pleased.

And she was born profoundly deaf and-- Oh, really?

Do you think your mother would have known?

I wouldn't have thought so, not being that little.

No way.

Joselyn has been looking for you for an awful long time.

One of the things she did was put her DNA onto the website.

She gets a notification that she has a brother, and she's left messages for you, but you have not responded.

Oh, dear.

Oh, dear.

That makes me feel terrible.

I was looking for my father I never knew.

Unfortunately, the right connections weren't coming through.

So, after three or four years, I stopped subscribing.

So, you didn't get any of her messages?

No.

No.

None at all.

I'll bet you're dying to see a photograph of her.

Oh, I'm most certainly.

Oh, yes.

Wow!

Oh, super.

[James] Yep.

Can't wait to see her again.

Again?

Well, she was that big when I saw her last.

So, it'll be the real thing next.

[cries] Oh!

God Almighty!

Oh... And you'll meet, very soon.

Oh, fabulous.

[cries] [Nicky] It's amazing, isn't it?

[cries] Yeah.

Oh, I'm extremely honored and pleased.

Di, look at this.

That's my sister!

-[Di] My goodness!

-Ooh!

[Di] Wow!

Brilliant.

Awww!

-At last.

-[crying] Oh, dear, dear.

Oh, dear James, darling.

Oh, you are silly.

[keyboard clacking] [Davina] It's over two years since Joselyn first sent her brother a message.

And now, I can finally give her his reply.

Ever since she heard about the little boy that walked into the family sweet shop all those years ago, Joselyn has been determined to trace her brother.

He's finally been found, and he can answer many of the questions that have haunted her throughout her life.

-Hi.

-Hello.

Come in.

We've arranged for a sign language interpreter to join us.

Thank you so much for talking to me today.

When did you start looking for your brother?

Well, we have found your brother.

He is really upset that he didn't see your email.

Never saw... ahhh... -[Davina] He never saw it.

-Right.

He really wants to see you.

About 20 years ago, he moved to France with his wife Diana.

He did.

He knew about you when he was a young boy.

He vividly remembers your birth mother organizing a shoot with a photographer-- What?!

...where he held you in his arms.

Really?

He's given me a photo of your birth mother.

This is your birth mother, Lois.

[Davina] Mmm.

[Davina] It wasn't because you are deaf.

She was unmarried when you were born.

[Joselyn] Yeah.

And life was very hard.

But he paints a picture of your birth mother of being someone who did care about her children, and it would have been very hard for her to let you go.

Oh, dear.

Do you want to see?

Yes, please.

There's James.

[Davina laughs] [Davina] Yeah.

[Davina] He's in the UK and would love to meet you.

Is that okay for you?

[Nicky] Joselyn will soon meet her brother James for the first time since they were tiny children.

But she's not the only person who's been missing from James' life, as he revealed to me when we first met.

[keyboard clacking] I've been looking for my father I never knew.

Unfortunately, one blind alley led to another, and I'm really, really very sad.

[crying] I never got to know him.

Would you like us to take on a search?

[James] Oh, come on!

Never!

-I mean, could you?

-[Nicky] We know nothing, but would you like us to have a look at it?

Most certainly.

See if we can find anything out.

Wow!

That would be great.

[Davina] We took on James' search, aware of quite how much his missing father meant to him.

When a parent is absent, it's not uncommon for a fantasy version to take shape in their child's mind.

But after years of longing and dreaming, will the reality match up?

[keyboard clacking] I used to sit on the steps, and the high street was just at the end there.

James has returned to the outskirts of Leeds, where he spent his early childhood.

[James] I was constantly asking about my father's whereabouts.

I never knew anything about him.

Never knew his name, nothing.

But there was one thing James' mother did tell him.

My father must have been a good man, because my mother said he offered his hand in marriage to her, and he offered to support her, married or not.

So, he wasn't a bad man.

Just he wasn't wanted.

-[James] Those were the days.

-[Diana] Yeah.

It wasn't until a few weeks before his marriage to wife Diana that James finally discovered his father's name.

Don't we look young?

And your mother, looking happy.

Ah... she is, isn't she?

It's rather nice.

During the wedding preparations, Diana took James' mother aside and asked her the name of James' father.

-She was so overwhelmed... -[James] True.

...it just came out as "Ford," and then she said "James Ford."

You realized that you'd had the name James, the same name as your father, all these years.

Which is amazing.

In fact, James discovered he shared his father's first two names, James Sydney, and immediately decided to change his last name from Pullan to Ford.

So, he and Diana became Mr. and Mrs. Ford.

[James] I thought it would be a link to him.

I'd be a Ford.

And you would feel closer to him?

Yes.

I'd love to have been closer.

[keyboard clacking] As a young man in the Army, James began to search for his father.

Somebody told me my father worked here and that he was an aircraft engineer.

If it was RAF, it would have been during the war.

James asked the airport if he could investigate the records, but he was told they were confidential.

I was a little bit deflated.

In fact, a lot deflated.

And I thought, "Here we go again.

Let's keep looking."

Eventually, James put his DNA on the database.

Not knowing my father is really an empty feeling that you're carrying all the time, which I don't want to anymore.

If he's passed on, I hope he had a very good life.

Good men deserve good lives.

I'd just like to know...

It's the first time I've talked in real depth about feelings of my father.

And the more I think about it... the more I've missed it.

[Nicky] We wanted to help.

So, our search team went back to James' DNA results, looking for links on his father's side.

Well, I'm just at the moment focusing on a cluster with a third cousin up in Scotland.

We found links to a branch of the family with the surname Foord, but spelt with an unusual double "O".

One of them moved to Yorkshire where our James was born.

So, he was of great interest.

What's more, his full name was James Sydney, with a Y, Foord, the same as our James.

We were certain this was James' father.

Born in 1927, it was not unexpected when we discovered he had died.

We've given James this news off-camera, but I do have something else to share with him.

[cell phone ringing] [James] Hello.

It's Nicky.

I'm so sorry about the news that your father's not with us anymore.

We've been able to find out where he is buried.

Wow!

That is gonna be powerful.

Thank you very much indeed.

I won't forget this.

[Davina] Today, James is visiting his father's grave for the first time.

Oh... [crying] Oh, dear.

Oh.

There you go, Dad.

Died at 42?

Wow!

"In loving memory of a dear husband and dad."

If he was a dad, then there's an offspring somewhere.

I wonder if that is a boy or a girl.

My goodness gracious!

Half brother or sister.

I keep gathering them, don't I?

Oh.

Oh, dear.

Oh... mind-blowing.

As we search for more possible siblings, James can finally meet the little sister who started it all-- Joselyn.

[sentimental music playing] [James] After all these years of thinking it was never gonna be possible, to find my sister...

I'd love to give her a hug.

See what happens.

[crying] I just wanted to hope everything goes well.

[Joselyn] Thank you.

Brother and sister will be joined by a sign language interpreter at a country house hotel close to where Joselyn was born.

Well... [James crying] Fantastic.

-I do remember holding a baby.

-You do?

And that was you.

-I know.

Sorry about that!

-Long time.

I went hiding in France.

I wasn't on the run.

[James] No.

I'm really pleased you found me, though.

I've often thought of you.

[James] I have.

I saw you for... 10, 15 minutes for a photo, then you were gone.

[laughs] And I can't hold you in my arms like that.

[James] We naturally click.

It was mutual, instantaneous.

It was natural, and it was wonderful.

When you were adopted, did you have a good life?

Well, our mother would have been very, very pleased.

[James] Yes.

So, she gave you a better life by saying bye-bye.

She never liked to talk about it.

Yes.

I know.

I wasn't hiding.

No!

Don't tell me off!

[Nicky] And in the search for James' paternal siblings, there's been a breakthrough.

Our search team investigated marriage and birth records... And we found not one, but three potential siblings on James' father side-- Anne, Elizabeth, and Ian.

And all of them are still living in Yorkshire.

We contacted the siblings.

They confirmed that their dad was the man we'd identified, and they agreed to meet me.

James always believed his father to be a good man, who wanted to be a part of his life.

And while, sadly, it's too late for them to meet, we have discovered three younger siblings.

What will this mean to Anne, Elizabeth, and Ian?

Did they know about their big brother?

And was their father anything like the man James imagined?

[doorbell ringing] -You Anne?

-Hiya, Nicky.

-How you doing?

-Fine, thank you.

Come in.

[Nicky] Thank you very much.

-[Nicky] Hi.

-[Elizabeth] Hiya.

[Nicky] Ian, Liz.

-Good to see you.

-[Ian] And you.

[Nicky] We've got a lot to talk about.

So, did you know about James?

-No, we didn't.

-[Liz] Not at all.

-[Ian] No.

-Not a clue.

-Real shock.

-[Nicky] Yeah.

But a good one!

How do you think your father would feel about this and the wonderful fact that James is coming into your life?

He'd be delighted, wouldn't he?

[Anne] He'd be absolutely over the moon.

[Ian] Yeah.

Without a doubt.

Just see us all together, yeah.

[Ian] Yeah, he'd love it.

Absolutely love it.

[Liz] Yeah.

So, how old were you all, and how did you lose him?

I was 12.

I was 11.

-I was 4.

-Four.

[Anne] He died of peritonitis... After a stomach operation.

[Nicky] What are your memories of him?

-[Anne] Oh, just... -[Liz] Oh, brilliant.

[Anne] All good, amazing.

Cooking Sunday dinner with him, pouring his cider out for him.

[Anne] Every day.

On Friday, he used to bring sweets for you two and some caps for my cap gun, didn't he, yeah?

[Anne] 'Cause he were a fantastic dad.

We absolutely adored him.

So, um, yeah, to lose him like we did at such an early age, was so sad.

[Nicky] God, that must have been devastating for you.

It were, yeah, yeah.

It was just so hard when we lost him, wasn't it?

[Liz] Yeah, really hard.

Very.

So, what does he know about my dad then?

James' mother didn't tell him very much, but he was told or had the idea that he was an aircraft engineer maybe at Leeds Bradford Airport?

[Anne] He was in the Royal Air Force.

And then he became an engineer, didn't he?

He knows that your dad, his dad, wanted to be a part of his life, and always did the right thing.

So, he knows that your dad is a good man and an honorable man.

-[Anne] Yeah.

-[Liz] That's good.

'Cause he were an absolutely wonderful man.

[Anne] Has he ever seen pictures of him or anything?

No.

Have you got one?

-[Liz] Yeah.

-We've got them.

[Nicky] That's a natty bow tie.

[sisters laugh] [Nicky] He was a good-looking man.

Does James look anything like him?

I were gonna just say that, yeah.

[Nicky] Yeah, I can see it.

-Do you have a picture of James?

-I do.

Can we have a look?

[all laugh] [Nicky] That's him.

-[Liz] Oh.

-[Anne] Glasses.

Oh, he's got a full head of hair still, hasn't he?

I know.

-I missed out somewhere.

-You have, yeah.

[Anne] He's got me Dad's hair then, Ian.

Aw, that's lovely.

-Really is.

-[Anne] Look at that smile... [Liz] Yeah.

-I can see a bit of me Dad.

-[Anne] Yeah.

Especially round there.

-His nose.

-Yeah.

[Ian] I always wanted a brother, didn't I?

[sisters] You did!

And you got us two, didn't you!

[laughs] [Anne] I just can't wait to meet him now.

[Liz] I can't.

[Davina] It's only two months since we first found James Ford in France.

In that time, we've reunited him with his sister Joselyn, and I can now tell him all about his father too.

Throughout his life, James has clutched at small fragments of information he had about his father, and he's spun them into an almost heroic fantasy figure.

I'm so relieved that I can tell him that his dream was anchored in fact-- his father was a good man.

And not only that, he went on to have three more children who can't wait to meet him and welcome him into their family.

We're meeting at a pub not far from where James grew up.

-[Davina] Hi, James.

-Hi, Davina.

-Nice to see you.

-And you.

Lovely to meet you.

-[Davina] Take a seat.

-Thank you.

So, you and Joselyn have found each other, but we took on this search to find out more about your birth father.

And I'm so sorry that we had to give you such sad news.

What was it like going to see where your father was laid to rest?

Painful.

But then, of course, Dad's grave said, uh: "Husband and Dad," which means there are offspring, and, hopefully, they're around still, and it would be nice to meet them.

Well, they are around.

Oh!

My goodness.

We've found them.

Whoa!

It's okay, we can take a minute.

[James sighs] Tell me.

You've got three siblings.

Three.

Oh, my goodness.

They are: -Anne... -Anne.

...then there's Elizabeth, and then there's Ian.

Ah.

Ian.

That means there's another male Ford around.

And another couple of sisters.

Well!

That's something else.

Did they ever know?

Were they ever told by my father that I was around?

The sad thing is, is that they lost him when they were very young.

And so, Anne, Elizabeth, and Ian had absolutely no idea, um, about you or your father's relationship with your mother.

But they have no doubt in their mind that he would have wanted to take care of you, because he was such a great, hands-on-- he was the man you hoped he would be.

Oh, fantastic.

Phew!

Uh...

I was hoping he would be.

You can wish for a dream that will never come true, but when it does, that's wonderful.

He was in the RAF.

I think we'd have made a great team as well, his RAF interest and my Army interest.

I often wondered what he looked like.

Have you got any photographs of him?

I have.

Um, this is your dad.

Whoa!

Do you know, I wore glasses at that age.

[Davina] He looks like you, right?

Or you look like him.

[laughs] Mm-hmm.

Lovely fella.

Wow!

Fantastic.

He's got his RAF tie on as well.

Yeah, brilliant.

Thank you.

I also have a picture of your three siblings... -Ooh... -...to show you.

The lady on the left is Anne, the one in the middle is Elizabeth, and, obviously, that's Ian.

[James] Oh, he's a big chap, isn't he?

Yeah.

Fantastic chap.

Well, I hope that they'll be as pleased to see me as I am to see them.

[Anne] He'll get a bit of a shock looking through all this.

[Ian] Ah... Today, James is going to meet his siblings, who've prepared a special gift for him-- a book of photographs of their father.

Can you imagine him, if he was still alive -and this had happened?

-[Ian] Ah, he'd be... [Anne] Yeah, he'd be over the moon, wouldn't he?

He would.

[Anne] I don't think I was expecting to feel so excited about meeting him.

I've been thinking so much about me Dad, so it's been a very emotional time.

[Ian] And so I grew up in a house full of girls, and I love me sisters, but I've always wanted a brother.

And now, I've finally got one.

The siblings are gathering at the village of Haworth, close to where their father lived.

-[Ian] Hi, Lizzie.

-[Liz] Hiya.

-All right?

-Yeah.

Are you?

-Yeah.

Excited?

-Yeah.

I just want to tell him all about our dad, how lovely he was, and we'll hope he'll join the family.

[Diana] Okay.

[sets parking brake] All the luck in the world.

Enjoy.

[James] Oh, I will.

[sentimental music playing] Ooh!

[James] Good people.

Hello.

-[Ian] Lovely to meet you.

-Ah, yeah!

Oh, I'm gonna hold you to that a lot later.

Lizzie.

[Liz] How lovely to... -[James] Anne.

-James.

At last.

[James] At last.

It took a long time.. -It is.

-...till today.

[James] Come on, let's sit down.

[Anne] Well, we we were just so shocked.

It were the last thing on Earth that we expected.

It were a nice shock.

You knew you had a brother or...?

-We'd no idea.

I mean... -[Liz] Didn't have a clue.

'Cause we were so young when me dad died, I honestly think when we'd reached 18, you know, he would have told us about you.

-[Liz] Yeah.

-[Anne] I really do.

And I think he'd have probably asked us to find you.

[Liz] Yeah.

Our Dad was, um, he was such a lovely man that, um, when we lost him, it was heartbreaking.

I would he could be here today to see this, 'cause he'd just... [Liz] Yeah, I know.

Ooh, hang on.

I'm really sorry for you and what you went through.

But I'm extraordinarily pleased he was a nice man.

[Anne] Yeah, very, yeah.

And that was everything I hoped he would be.

I thought my brother and sisters were lovely, charming people.

And now, I've actually got a link to my father's past and his present.

[Anne] We have done something for you.

-[James] Really?

-[Anne and Liz] Yeah.

Lovely.

Oh, hey!

Now... Ah-ha.

Not a bad-looking chap, I tell you, was he?

You can tell that you're a happily family there.

And I would have dearly loved a family like you.

-[Ian] Now you've got one.

-[Liz laughs] Oh, now we've got one, that's true, Ian, yes.

[Liz] I thought he were wonderful.

He couldn't have fitted in better.

He's gonna be a great brother, I think, don't you?

-[Ian] Definitely, yeah.

-He's a great guy, yeah.

-[Liz] Absolutely.

-[Ian] Really is.

[all] Yeah.

I was ever so pleased when I found out my father was a Foord.

So, I decided, along with my wife, to change my name by deed poll... -[Ian] Right.

-...to Foord.

However, a slight mistake.

[Liz laughs] Yeah.

Wait a minute, who are you laughing at?

-Double "O".

-Double "O", yes, you're right.

Well, I think the connection-- it is instant.

And it will continue, I'm sure.

I will be changing my name to double "O" Foord.

James Foord.

[keyboard clacking] Hello.

Come in.

-[Joselyn] Cheers.

-Cheers.

[James] I can't thank Joselyn enough.

She was the start of all of my finding a family.

And the family I've now got are brilliant.

Now, we are together... At last.

[James] Everything is because of you.

My sister, the girl who started it all.

[peaceful music playing]