At the end of last year I decided it was time for me to try to track down my father, who I never knew. I had very few details to go by, only knowing his name and an approximate idea of where he was born. I rang up several agencies who specialise these things and was not impressed at all. They all wanted to charge £2000 and promised nothing in return.
Having had this setback I was wondering if I would even get the investigation off the ground, but then, via more internet searches I discovered Finding Families. I spoke to the owner of the company, Louise, and was immediately impressed by what she said. Not only did she charge a lot less than other companies but she didn’t make false promises but explained how she would go about searching for my family. The first thing she told me to do was to do a DNA test, but she even helped me in this initial stage, from the information of the company to use for my DNA tests, to how later read the results and send them to her.
Once Louise got my DNA results she went straight to work in trying to trace my father. At all times Louise kept me informed of how she was progressing and the methods she was using. At all times she was very caring, kind and understanding and it was quite apparent she did this work as she enjoys helping others in their quest to find families, rather than to make a huge salary.
It only took Louise about two to three weeks to find some details of my family, which she shared with me. She had found out my father’s address overseas, or one he had used, as well as details of my siblings. For other companies this would have been the end of the matter, they would have just taken the money and run, but Louise was not at all like that. We discussed what to do and she offered to write to my father on my behalf which I accepted. She wrote a draft letter which she showed me, and after a few slight changes she sent off.
I waited patiently for a reply but after two months it was apparent I was not going to get a reply from my father. I thus rang Louise back up and told her the bad news, and again we discussed options. Louise had also found the addresses of my siblings, and with this information we wrote to them.
Only yesterday I heard back from my sister and now I am starting to get to know my family. It’s a wonderful ending and I know this is due more than anything else because the hard work and enthusiasm of Louise.
I really cannot praise Louise enough. She has been outstanding in every way from the initial conversation to this happy ending.