Genes Reunited Blog

Did you miss episode 3 of Long Lost Family, or need a refresh? It was another great watch, so here's a quick recap. In last night's episode Peter Arundel and Maureen Saville were both searching for their birth mothers.

The second episode of series proved to be another emotional one. We followed two very different stories this week. First of all we met Brenda. She fell pregnant and moved to a Mother and Baby home when she was 3 months gone. She lived there with her daughter Joanne until she was 6 weeks old. Sadly keeping the baby wasn’t an option for Brenda and so she had no choice but to give her up for adoption.

This week saw the return of ITV1 series Long Lost Family, and the first episode proved to be the emotional rollercoaster reunion we had hoped for. Taking me from a state of sadness and sympathy to one of joy and happiness as the relatives are reunited and I reach for yet another tissue to dry the stream of tears running down my face.

April Fool and her family revealed in the 1911 Census

You have probably noticed that we now add links to the social media websites Facebook and Twitter at the bottom of our newsletters. These might be names you have heard of but don't know much about. We thought it would be helpful if we explain a bit about both websites to you and why we use them.

Last Thursday saw the last in the series of Find My Past, and what an episode it was.

We are very pleased and proud to announce that you can now access the British Newspaper Archive on Genes Reunited. This is unlike any other data set available online, and will give you an insight into what was going on in the world whilst your ancestors were alive. View articles written at the time of key events in history, such as the breaking news of the sinking of the Titanic, or the reports following the grisly murders of Jack the Ripper.

During World War One, 306 British Soldiers were sentenced to death for cowardice or desertion. These men were taken out, tied to a post, and shot at dawn by their own side. Today it is believed that many of them were suffering from shell shock and in 2006 all of them were officially pardoned by the Government.

This week Find My Past reunited three people whose ancestors were all linked in some way to Jack the Ripper. Jack the Ripper was the name given to the unknown serial killer who brutally murdered 5 prostitutes in the Whitechapel area of East London in 1888.

This week's episode of Find My Past focused on the Mutiny that occurred on board HMS Bounty on 28th April 1789.