Thanks to MyHeritage, I Found a First Cousin I Had Been Seeking For Decades

My name is Anne Marie, I live in Seine-et-Marne, France, and I’ve been doing genealogy for over 30 years. I started by tracing the history of my family and that of my husband. What began as a hobby turned into a true passion.

Anne Marie Gaudron

Over the years, I’ve discovered many significant pieces of our history: the migrations of my paternal family between Italy and France, and some life paths that were very complex.

One of the most poignant mysteries concerned my maternal grandmother. As a child, I had heard fragments of a difficult family story: she had several children from different fathers, and two of them were placed in foster care. But I had no names, no dates, no leads to follow.

A first cousin found… and an unforgettable meeting

In 2005, with the rise of the Internet, I published my research on a free genealogy website. One day, I received an alert: someone had mentioned the same grandmother as me — but with errors in her first name and date of birth. Intrigued, I decided to reach out.

After exchanging several messages, we spoke on the phone. The conversation lasted for hours. Bit by bit, our information matched up. We realized we were cousins: his father was my grandmother’s second child, placed in foster care and later adopted. His name is Bernard. Thanks to him, we were able to access his father’s child welfare file.

Anne Marie with Bernard

Even better: Bernard’s father was still alive. My mother was able to meet her half-brother for the first time. It was an indescribable emotion. An article was even published in the local newspaper in Le Creusot to tell the story of this long-awaited family reunion.

The newspaper article about Anne Marie’s mother Micheline and her half-brother Maurice

MyHeritage helps solve one last mystery

Despite this incredible breakthrough, one question lingered in my mind: my grandmother’s first child — the one whose father took him back after placement. I never stopped searching, even after the death of Bernard’s father and the serious stroke my own mother suffered.

I held onto hope that the story wasn’t over.

In 2022, a true miracle happened. The son of my grandmother’s first child signed up on MyHeritage. He began building his family tree with the names of his parents and grandparents… and our trees matched. I received an email notifying me that we had Smart Matches™!

I contacted him immediately through the MyHeritage inbox. At first, he was cautious — which I completely understood. So I gave him details about his grandfather, then about our grandmother. Little by little, trust was established. Just like with Bernard, we eventually spoke on the phone. And the magic happened once again: we are cousins.

An emotional family reunion

Thanks to MyHeritage, I was able to bring together the three branches of my maternal grandmother’s family. The three of us met, along with our respective families. It was a powerful moment, filled with emotion. I like to think that, from above, my grandmother is watching us with love and pride.

Since that meeting, we’ve all stayed in touch. We talk regularly. The story of my family — my grandmother’s and her separated children’s — has found connection and continuity once again.

Thank you, MyHeritage. Thanks to you, what once seemed lost forever has been restored.

Many thanks to Anne Marie for sharing this wonderful story with us! If you’ve also made an incredible discovery with MyHeritage, we’d love to hear about it. Please send it to us via this form or email us at stories@myheritage.com.