Author Topic: Looking for 1/2 brother, I just learned of. Please help!!  (Read 1448 times)

Offline Jomot

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Re: Looking for 1/2 brother, I just learned of. Please help!!
« Reply #9 on: Friday 11 March 16 01:07 GMT (UK) »
I wish you well in your search, but a word of caution / advice if I may.  Aged 17 my son was in the position of your 'newly discovered' half-sibling and was contacted out of the blue on social media.  Whilst he's generally pleased it happened, it has also caused him a lot of emotional pain.

Having felt happy & secure in his world he suddenly found himself experiencing feelings of loss & abandonment by the father he'd never known.  Four years later he still suffers feelings of anxiety and insecurity that were never there before, and questions why his 'father' wanted his other children but not him.  He is currently on anti-depressants & struggling with feelings of low self-worth, for which he's receiving counselling / therapy.

20 is still very young, and whilst I understand your excitement please remember that real people are involved here - real people with real lives & real emotions - so don't go bursting in like a bulldozer.  As well as the feelings it brought out in my son, the sudden re-emergence of my ex brought painful memories to the surface for me too - I was shaking and crying for days afterwards.  My husband was devastated too - he'd brought my son up from being a baby and had always been 'dad' - what if my son suddenly stopped loving him?

I had never kept the truth from my son but some mothers do, so remember that too.  Perhaps this young man has only ever heard bad things about your father - if your version of him is all 'good' then what will that do to his relationship with his mother, the woman he's presumably lived with all his life?    How will you feel if you hear your father being bad-mouthed?

You sound so excited & are clearly are longing to meet him & bring him 'in' to your family - and that's just wonderful - but please, put yourself in his shoes too and don't let your enthusiasm take over your senses.   

But to end on a positive note, despite the pain & anxiety my son is happy he met his half-siblings & still keeps in touch.  Their different upbringings means they are not particularly close, but when the chips are down they know they are 'family' and can count on each other, and that means a lot to them all, and to me.
MORGAN: Glamorgan, Durham, Ohio. DAVIS/DAVIES/DAVID: Glamorgan, Ohio.  GIBSON: Leicestershire, Durham, North Yorkshire.  RAIN/RAINE: Cumberland.  TAYLOR: North Yorks. BOURDAS: North Yorks. JEFFREYS: Worcestershire & Northumberland. FORBES: Berwickshire, CHEESMOND: Durham/Northumberland. WINTER: Durham/Northumberland. SNOWBALL: Durham.

Offline Ruskie

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Re: Looking for 1/2 brother, I just learned of. Please help!!
« Reply #10 on: Friday 11 March 16 01:51 GMT (UK) »
Very good points Jomot.
As the OP has just discovered the half brother it does make you wonder if neither of them knew of the other's existence, so the issues you raise are very relevant.

Offline tatt1994

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Re: Looking for 1/2 brother, I just learned of. Please help!!
« Reply #11 on: Friday 11 March 16 07:38 GMT (UK) »
I helped a friend trace a relative and I'd also sound a note of caution on this. It can stir up all sorts of emotion and there can be totally unrealistic expectations of what contact will achieve. The relative is a stranger and they may or may not share any interests with you. It can be helpful to learn more of your medical history but please think hard about why you are doing this.

A good place to start is here http://www.salvationarmy.org.uk/reuniting-families

If you dont want to use that service or to pay we set up free family trees on Genes Reunited, ancestry and find my past. When the relative learnt they had been adopted they came looking for my friend. Contact was actually made because my friend had a tree that included grandparents and great-grandparents and a distant cousin made contact first. I helped because they were both mature adults and my friend already had emotional issues related to their parent's departure that might be helped by tracing the parent. Personally I don't think anyone under 21 should be contacted as despite legally being adults in Britain at 18 they aren't mature enough to cope.