A FAMILY has been reunited after 56 years this time and all because someone in Australia decided to Google his own name.

It is the happiest Christmas ever for a Seaton family but also bittersweet because a long-lost relative has arrived “home” too late to meet his father.

This story stretches back to 1969 when John Singleton, then four, was taken to Australia by his mother and the man he grew up thinking was his father.

Fast-forward 54 years and John told his partner Deb’s daughter and granddaughter to try Googling their names

They all thought it was great fun, but John did not try it until a couple of days before Christmas two years ago when he discovered what he thought was a scam of some kind.

He found that he was listed as someone who was the result of a family search. All the details fitted him, except it said he had gone to Australia with his stepfather.

“I rang my mother to tell her of the “scam” and here was silence on the other end of the phone. I still didn’t think anything of it.

“But we were having Christmas lunch when my mother range me to say she had not slept, and she had something to tell me – the post on Google was correct!”

The person looking for him was Tracey Nicholson,

Her mother, Betty Walker of Croftfield Road, Seaton, was the only sibling of the late Jackie Davison.

John learned, from this family, that he had had an older and younger sister who had both died at a very early age. His parents had split up and he had been taken to Australia by his parents. He had no memory of West.

“I have only ever been back here once, in the 1980s. My mother’s mother died in Aspatria and we came back to sort out her things. I now know that my father was alive then and living just 20 minutes away. That hurts more than anything. I could have seen him.”

Betty, with tears in her eyes, assured her nephew that her rother would have been ecstatic.

“He never forgot you.”

The family has kept in constant contact weekly since discovering each other.

John has also developed a close relationship with Stella, Jackie’s second wife, and is learning more about his father from those who loved him.

Deb, John’s partner, said discovering his West Cumbrian family has transformed John.

“He didn’t get on with the man he thought was his father and always felt that his siblings were treated better than him. Finding out that he had a father and relatives here – it’s like a weight has been lifted from his shoulders.”

The family has met up in real life for Christmas.

“Tracey and I went to Manchester to meet them off the plane. They were practically last off. I was beside myself.”

The Walker’s house is groaning with gorgeous Christmas decorations but this year ts is not the sparkling lights or festive fare that is making the season jolly!

This year Christmas is in the joy of the hearts of a family reunited.