A retired nurse learned she had a secret brother after a stranger knocked on her front door.
Linda Gunn-Russo from, Birkdale, had spent a usual day at home when she received on knock on her door from a woman who claimed to be her niece. She had been tracked down through a DNA ancestry website.
Linda was born as a result of an affair between Italian American serviceman Mid Russo, who was stationed in the UK during World War II and Elizabeth Gunn. She was born in Liverpool in 1946 and adopted by Kathleen and Thomas Rogan at the age of two.
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The 75-year-old had lived her entire life on Merseyside unaware she had a half-brother living right on her doorstep. But the secret was out when her niece, Lorraine Ward, came to visit. Linda and her brother Derek Hogan share the same father and were born just six months apart.
Speaking to the ECHO she said: “My niece said my DNA had matched with her father and she told me I had a brother. I couldn’t believe it and guess where he was? Wigan, literally up the road, we could’ve met before now and not even known”.
After confirming the DNA was a match Linda and Derek decided to meet for the first time. She said: “I turned up in a dress that I had made of the American flag, and he turned up strangely enough with the American flag on his belt we laughed about that but the meeting was just amazing”.
After winning a landmark case against her adoption agency in 2001 to reveal the identity of her father Linda tracked down relatives across the globe. Through this search she was able to find cousins in New England and her niece Lorraine found two half-sisters elsewhere in America.
Linda said getting to know her extended family has helped with her sense of identity she said: “Don’t get me wrong the family that raised me were wonderful but now I’ve got a niece and a nephew. Along with great nieces and great nephews and I think wow I’ve got all of this family all of a sudden. I'm close with Lorraine, we speak on the phone every few weeks".
She said: "I’m used to doing the searching, so it was nice to have it the other way round this time and if there is anybody else out there searching, I hope this will give them the encouragement never to give up”.
