The amazing story of how Wigan-born cousins were reunited across the globe after 67 years
Wigan-born cousins have a lot of catching up to do having been reunited after the best part of seven decades.
In fact Hindley-born sisters Yvonne Gooding and Valerie Baker, who emigrated to Australia in 1958 with their parents and older sister Vicky, can’t be sure they’d ever before met Sheila Fairhurst, who has stayed local.
Even if they did, Sheila would only have been a few months old.
Yvonne and Val have come half way round the world from Queensland for a whistle-stop UK tour which included meeting 68-year-old Sheila, her siblings Tommy and Mandy and other family members including husband Trevor.
It included a moving visit to Hindley Cemetery to visit relatives’ graves, including that of Trevor and Sheila’s 19-year-old daughter Carly who was killed by her partner 20 years ago.
How this “reunion” all came about was through family on both sides of the planet deciding to research their roots at round about the same time several years ago via Ancestry.com.
Sheila said: “I’d known about these cousins all my life, because we talked about them, although I couldn’t remember them. They were among the ‘£10 Poms’ who went off to Australia for a new life and after that, we lost touch.
"It was only when Trevor got me Ancestry.com as a birthday present that I came up with their details and even the ship they sailed on.
"I got in touch with one of their sons but they were on a cruise; but eventually got through and we’ve been contacting each other since. To have them here in front of me is something different though: it’s wonderful.”
Yvonne, 70, said: “While we were on a cruise for my brother-in-law’s birthday, my son Malcolm did Ancestry.com for my father and came up with Sheila.
"It was just so exciting to find out we still had relatives in this part of the world.
"I celebrated my third birthday just before we left for Australia and have no memories of living here so there has been so much to catch up on.”
Valerie, 72, said: “I remembered Sheila and Tommy’s names but was never sure how they fitted into the family. It’s so exciting now everything has clicked into place we have all these extra relatives. We had to come for a visit.”