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Genealogist reunites brother and sister after 75 years





Roger Mitchell helped Rose Burleigh, aged 78, from Exeter, find her brother John Stubbs, 77, from Chichester, after they were separated in 1938.
Mr Mitchell, who is a friend of Mrs Burleigh, spent a couple of months researching on the internet and looking through records to try and locate Mr Stubbs.
The process sparked e-mail responses from Australia and Britain until a contact number was found.
The siblings spoke to each other in a touching phone call as it was the first time either of them knew that the other was still alive, before being reunited at the BBC television studios in Southampton.
Mrs Burleigh was adopted by her aunt for unknown reasons and stayed on the Isle of Wight, while her brother was sent to live their grandparents in Chichester.
Their mother Gladys was killed in 1941 and their soldier father, Frederick Charles Stubbs, was captured and spent the war in a prisoner-of-war camp.
On his release, Mr Stubbs went to find his children but the adoptive parents refused to give Rose back making it the last time the children saw each other.
Mr Mitchell said: "I'm absolutely delighted to have reunited them. To find them both was the highlight of my amateur genealogy career."



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