We  reunite brother and sister separated for 38 years

Betty 70, found her missing brother on her iPad, having never used a computer before. 

The retiree from Telford had been separated from her brother, Jack since 1974. She had shunned technology until this year when her 33-year-old son bought her an iPad. The first thing she did with it was to access 192.com and find her missing relative.  

By accessing 192.com, Betty obtained an address for Jack despite only knowing the city he might be living in.

“ It was so easy to find him and I couldn’t have done it without the iPad. I put his name into 192.com and ‘Birmingham’ and his address  just popped up.

She added: “I wrote a letter to Jack on Thursday, and on Sunday he called me back. I was astounded. I couldn’t believe it was him. He wanted to know all that had happened in my life.”

“I was recently at a Butlins 1950’s dance and I thought it was time to put old disagreements to rest and get back in touch. “It’s something I wanted to do for a while,” she explained.

The first ever email Sue wrote was from her iPad to 192.com to thank them for helping her find Jack. 

The email read: ‘Have found my long lost brother on 192.com after 38 years I’m so happy I cannot believe this has happened so quickly…we are hoping to get together when the weather improves thank you 192.com, brilliant.’

Dominic Blackburn, Product Director of 192.com said “192.com has the addresses of more than 35 million people in the UK, thereby helping Sue to contact Keith, despite such a long a period of separation.”

Directory enquiry data is available for free on the site, but to access all of 192.com’s 700 million records, users have to purchase ‘credits’ from 30p each. Sue used just six credits to find her long lost brother.

Employees are now more selective about where they work, and will check the financial health of a business before committing to employment. 

That’s according to recruitment specialists the Huntress Group and 192.com which polled thousands of employees identifying what due diligence steps are taken prior to employment.

One in five of the survey said they would check to see if a company is financially stable before accepting a job offer, and 1 in 10 employees haven’t accepted an offer from a business due to a poor financial record.  Twelve percent said they were more selective about where they work since the downturn.

 “As we recover from the recession, financial stability is not just a concern for organisations, said Kristen Zeilerbauer, Managing Director of Huntress Group’s technology division, “Workers want to know they are finding stable and challenging employment. Highly skilled professionals can be even more selective about where they want to work.” 

Fifty nine percent of the survey said they would refuse work from a company with an unfavourable Company Credit Report.  Company Credit Reports  provide a snapshot of the financial health of a business and expose County Court Judgements – legal judgements that a company failed to pay a debt.

“Jobseekers should read a Company Credit Report on 192.com to see if a potential employer is a sinking ship. Ask of them: are they financially robust, do they service their debt and do senior staff stay put,” said Dominic Blackburn, Product Director of 192.com Limited.     

Sixty five percent of the employees said they are particularly concerned about businesses with County Court Judgments, and over half would be deterred by a company with a high turn-over of Company Directors. 

The survey also found that 75% of employees prefer a good salary over favourable benefits. The poll quizzed 2000 employees across the country. The majority of respondents worked in IT 33%, Accountancy or Finance 25% and Sales 12%. 

To find out what a Company Credit Report says about your potential employer visit  192.com to utilise 700 million public records, including Company Reports, Directors Records, and Edited Electoral Roll listings.

Nephew found after 40 years

192.com provides missing link to British family

A Melbourne Mum used the internet to find her missing nephew 28 years after emigrating from the UK. 

“ When you move abroad, family becomes more important,” said  Mary*, 65, “ I just wanted to find out what had happened to them and to know they were all ok.”  

Mary was 23 when she discovered her father had a son by a previous marriage. 

“My Father never wanted to talk about his first marriage and had no idea where his son was. He died shortly before I moved to Australia in the early 1980’s, but I was determined to continue the search for my missing brother Brian.*

Mary embarked on a painstaking search for Brian, finding his birth and marriage certificates at a family records centre in London.

Through the records, Mary found out that Brian had changed his surname by deed-poll, and that he had a son, Tom* as revealed in a birth record, bringing to light a nephew she never knew existed. 

 After putting Tom’s name into 192.com, the UK’s leading people-finding website, she found a listing matching every criteria she was looking for.

192.com contains the contact details of millions of UK residents, gathering official public data all on one website. This data includes 26.5 million names and addresses from the UK’s current edited electoral roll. This is the database UK residents can choose to share their contact details with when they register to vote.

“I found Tom’s contact details within a few clicks. With great trepidation I rang his number, aware that it would be a really sensitive a phone call. There was an answering machine, so I left a message saying I believed there was a connection to our family.

“I never expected a call back, so I called once again, and his wife answered saying that Tom probably was related. When he finally called back I was overjoyed.”

“I went to meet Tom in England in 2009. It was very easy and we got along very well,” said Mary. “In some ways it’s not a bad thing to live so far apart, as there’s no pressure to keep in touch every day,” she added.   

“Finding my nephew just goes to show what can happen if you never give up on your hopes and dreams,” Mary says.

*Names have been changed. Image is of actors.

192.com is helping reunite members of the South Atlantic Medal Association, SAMA 82.

To read the latest news coverage have a look at the Falkands Island Network.  

We are keen to reunite all veterans and British Army personel. To learn how, listen to our interview with British Forces Brodcasting Radio.  

SAMA 82 are also raising money for a Falklands war memorial. To donate to it, please go here

The memorial will be at the National Memorial Arboretum.

Visual search on 192.com

We have added thousands of new shop-front photos to the business search on 192.com this week. We now have more than 330 thousand pictures of retail properties across the UK – that’s nearly twice as many as we had before.

As well as giving you a clearer picture of those businesses, this adds to the charm of our visual search function – if you haven’t seen it, it allows you to flip through the shop-front pictures, which can allow you to find a shop that you remember by sight. Alternatively you can use it to take a virtual walk down your local high street – or any high street in the UK that takes your fancy.

Coventry Cathedral hosts Norcap adoption service

• Adoption support charity AAA NORCAP hosts reconciliation service for adoptees
• Hundreds attended the March 17, af event.
• Music marks the 30^th birthday of the charity

NORCAP, a leading adoption support charity for adults effected by adoption hosted a Service of Reconciliation in Coventry Cathedral on March 17, the day before Mother’s Day.     

Hundreds of adopted adults, birth relatives and adopters attended the event.

Many of the congregation  benefited from NORCAP’s use of 192.com, which uses the edited electoral roll to reconnect missing family and friends.

“Through using powerful databases like 192.com we are able to reconnect relatives” explains Ms Milsted. “Our specialist researchers find over 90% of the people they look for and provide support for over 300 families each year, securing a successful reunion in most cases.  Without services like 192.com many such reunions would not be possible.”

A recent beneficiary of NORCAP and 192.com was Sarah Brynes from Melbourne who found her half-brother after a 49 year separation.

“As all adoptees must ask, what are my parents like? Do they look like me? It’s an instinctive need to know who they are. For me it more than simple curiosity, it was an overwhelming, all-consuming desire that had to be resolved.”

Using the 27 million edited electoral rolls on 192.com, Sarah was able to track her birth mother’s movements from her last known address in Sussex.

“Without 192.com I’m not sure if I ever would have found them. This is a life changing event for me and the end of a very long road,” Sarah said.

Sarah made contact with her half-brother using NORCAP as an intermediary service, which helped Sarah make contact with her birth-mother.

Dominic Blackburn, Product Director of 192.com, said: “192.com helps reunites hundreds and families a year, and we are delighted to have been of assistance to NORCAP and other adoption charities.”

AAA NORCAP is home to the UK’s longest established Contact Register. Thousands of relatives have been successfully approached by NORCAP on behalf of adoptees over the years. The charity started in 1982 and offers a people-finding and intermediary service.  

NORCAP’S ‘ribbon ceremony’ also featured at the March 17 event, accompanied by local singers and musicians. Each year the service is held, participants write on a piece of ribbon the name of the person they want to think about.

The ribbons are tied together and joined to hundreds of ribbons from previous years. At the end of the ceremony, the ribbons are gathered to take to the next year’s ceremony.

We’re helping veterans from the Falklands conflict and other campaigns to reunite with old friends.

To find out how, listen to our interview with the British Forces Broadcasting services, BFBS Radio:  http://soundcloud.com/192-com/britishforcesradiomarch20

We have 700 million UK public records, including over 35 million residential names and addresses from the edited electoral roll.  This information is now freely available to members of the South Atlantic Medal Association, SAMA 82 a veterans group named after the medal awarded to the 30,000 service personnel and civilians who participated in the liberation of the Falkland Islands in 1982.

 “192.com reunites thousands of friends and families by making public records more accessible, explains Dominic Blackburn, 192.com’s Product Director. “We are keen to reunite veterans from all conflicts, and are proud to offer free assistance to SAMA 82 members,” he added.

Mike Bowles, chairman of SAMA 82 said: “For the 30^th anniversary of the conflict we’re encouraging veterans to get back in touch with each other. It is hoped 192.com can be a useful resource for those looking for missing friends in the UK.”

One user of the site is the World War 2 Veteran Robin Brown, who uses the site to reunite hundreds of friends and ex-servicemen from all around the world.

“192.com is the centre of my operations. It’s an excellent resource. In the old days one used to have to trawl through libraries, and now one can access the edited electoral roll at the touch of a button,” Mr Brown said.  

Military reunions aided by 192.com include an RAF Brize Norton reunion, and a meeting of old service colleges who lost touch for 56 years.

The Falklands conflict lasted between April 2 to June 14, 1982 with the loss of 255 British and 655 Argentinean lives. To mark the 30^th anniversary of the war, SAMA 82 members will be making a pilgrimage to the Islands in November. The week-long visit is hoped to coincide with Remembrance Sunday, and is primarily for veterans who have not returned to the Falkland Islands since 1982 and next-of-kin of those killed in action.

Those looking for families or friends or ex-service colleagues are encouraged to contact 192.com through our Facebook page. 

George was a radio operator in the first Battalion The Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers in 1945.  He was often stationed in India, and his elite company specialised in demolition.  

In June 1945 he was walking to his billet near Richmond, and stopped outside a social gathering. 

A young woman, Miss Vera Jane came outside to say hello. During their brief encounter George and Vera struck up a friendship. Vera invited George to stay with her family in the North of England, in case he couldn’t get home leave. 

This was their first and last conversation before the pair lost touch for decades. George was stationed in Ireland and later India, and lost track of where Vera was.

Now in his 80s, George decided to look for Vera.“Thanks to 192.com I managed to find her again after 67 years of searching,” he said. 

Using the edited electoral roll records on 192.com, Jim found Vera. The pair hope to meet in the next few months.

Kathy of  Basildon reunited with her mother last Christmas after 37 years apart, introducing her for the first time to her grandaughter, Grace. 

Kathy employed the people-finding expert Robin Brown, 87, who uses 192.com to search through the edited electoral roll to find missing family and friends.

Mrs McGoven briefly reconnected with her estranged mother when she was thirteen but lost touch again in subsequent years. Then, in adult life, Kathy decided to find her once and for all, and contacted Robin Brown. “Robin found my mother after just three hours of searching, said Kathy. It’s been wonderful to reunite.”

World War Two veteran Mr Brown runs his website using 192.com to power his people searches. In Kathy’s case, Robin was able to identify her mother’s address, by looking on 192.com to see who her mother was living with, namely, her boyfriend whose name was supplied to Robin by Kathy. Before passing on the address, Robin advised Kathy to approach her mother gently, by first writing her a letter of introduction.

“ I wrote a letter to my mother and within a few days I got a phone call.  We just made small talk but it was lovely,” said Kathy.   

Of the five applications Mr Brown gets a day to find missing people, he expects to successfully covert two of these, often reuniting people who have been out of touch for decades.   

“192.com is the centre of my operations,” he said, “Giving me access to wealth of data, from telephone directory records to  births marriages and deaths indexes, and the edited electoral roll, supplying names and addresses that otherwise would be buried in local libraries.”

“The people searches that give me the most pleasure are the ones that lead to reuniting close relatives who have been missing a lifetime. It really brings home to me how important the family unit is,” he said.

Dominic Blackburn, Product Director of 192.com said; “We help reunite hundreds of families a year and we are delighted to have helped Kathy find her Mother.”