Testimonials

Below is a selection of cases John has undertaken.

Hello John. After giving up on a response from Maureen and deciding not to contact her son whom you gave me as a fall back, I checked my mail yesterday and was thrilled to bits to find a beautiful letter from Maureen with apologies for not getting in touch earlier. I had tears reading it and am ready to get back to her but have a small issue. Maureen has put her address in the letter but not her surname. I cannot find any of the emails that we exchanged with her details and would like to have her surname on the envelope when I write to her. We will be using email later but at this time her computer is offline.

Luton School days—Australia -Andalucia.

Throughout, John demonstrated a disarmingly and unexpectedly sincere approach. In addition and quite unexpectedly these days no pressure over money/payments etc. The topic was solely confined to questions of background history. However, after 40 years data was scarce.

I had her maiden name and the school we both attended. I recalled her father was an airline pilot, albeit I got the name of the wrong airline!

Amazingly within 2 days -good news had a positive fix. Bad news- her married name was Smith. Nevertheless, John did not seem the least bit perturbed. Being so excited I sent the fastest money transfer they had ever received!  A week later-wonderful news, John, had found her!

Then suddenly, fright set in. What to write after 40 years?  But John came to the rescue here. Then around one week later I literally danced for joy when I received her reply.

It’s now been a year and all going well communicating every day. I promise you, like me you will not regret putting your faith in John, and his team. In conclusion, I can’t thank them enough and after one year of writing, we remain in touch. There is a strong possibility this will progress to something more serious.  “Wanda” is now in Andalucia, and “Dave” is in  Australia.   Names redacted,

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Hello John,

Our clients first met in 1961-1961. At that time Cecil was an accomplished racing car driver. Thanks for your message…Cecil (name redacted) and I don’t mind you using our ‘story’ but would not like to have our names and locations revealed if that’s ok.

To fill you in a bit, after the initial contact we conversed sporadically for a year or two.

I went to a reunion with the other people we were at College with, but Cecil didn’t because his wife (June-redacted) was too frail to travel. The inevitable happened and she sadly died in January 2022.

Cecil was devastated and I and others tried to help him through all that by keeping in touch over the phone.

These chats became more regular and eventually Cec invited me and Dave xxx (mutual college friend) to stay at his in April this year. Dave pulled out through ill health but I went anyway because I wanted to see Cec again and it seemed time.

We had religiously avoided sending any photos to each other or having face-to-face conversations on our mobile, so turning up at Hastings Station was an interesting moment!

I can honestly say it is as if we have never been parted and that is said with absolutely no disrespect to our other partners and children. It is just the way it is.

Wonderful, and it couldn’t have happened without you.

Cec enjoyed talking to you very much when you contacted him, and he hasn’t forgotten you. Please add this to your list of successes! Best wishes, Jillian

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I feared she may think I grassed her up, which I didn’t.

Here unfortunately we eventually had a sad ending. The Lady we searched for died almost 20 years ago.

Hi, I would very much like to contact a friend who disappeared from my life in about 1974. I fear she may think I grassed her up, which I didn’t . Please advise me how to start your search. With kind regards

Gillian Dob xxxx 1947 Parents XX Sisters XXX Child XXX Born Durham Childhood Great Witley Worcs Married? 1974 Kidderminster High School. Hull University 1966-9 Cambridge University 1969-70 Teacher BOAC air hostess ?1972-4 Lived Kensington Ham house Richmond Park?1974 Putney or Barnes? 1975 Houseboat Barnes ?1975? Divorced? Remarried Last I saw of her

Response Hiya John,’

It’s really close here today. We are in a narrow valley, surrounded by boggy hills …..oops …

Thank you for such a good service, and although I am more upset about xxxx dying so young, I can contact her sister who you found xxx and xxxx. Sadly, I imagine her parents are probably still alive… nothing worse and such lovely people. I will recommend your services. All best wishes to you both Helen

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Letter received from UK ex-pat living in Australia. Lovely lady in her late 80s. ____________________________________________________

We met at school in Tottenham 1964. Hi, John, you were pretty confident you found John and you were spot on thanks for all your hard work in finding him for me I’ve spoken to him today he rang me Happy days  I was looking for a long lost friend myself all avenues come to a dead end so I got in contact with friends reconnected and was greeted with a friendly approachable person. I gave him the information which was very limited name month year of birth etc. Must say no way did I think he would find him so I was over the moon when after 3 weeks he had a name and indeed it was my long lost friend. I highly recommend Friends reconnect can’t praise them enough and all at very reasonable rates compared to other websites   Barry Gunther  Tottenham.  ____________________________________________________

Note from Friendreconnected here: The eventual outcome of this search was hugely disappointing, not to mention quite callous and cruel, in our opinion Dear John. Thank you for your message yesterday, and additional information. I hope that the following information is not too boring, this is my story!! I was at the local grammar school (xxx) xxxx was attending the local secondary modern school (xxxxx) I was introduced to Pxxxx, by a school friend who lived at RAF Cottesmore. It was love at first sight, we started dating, every weekend, a letter from P every week, cinema in Stamford or xxxx on Saturday night, on Sundays I pushed biked 13 miles to see xxx and her mum, dad and brothers, played Monopoly, went for walks, and had afternoon tea, then cycled home mostly when it was dark! This relationship lasted approximately 8-9 months Her father was posted to RAF xxxx, and after a few letters, unable to see each other eventually the relationship finished. We were both attending our individual school during the friendship!! Note from Friendrecommected. We were unable to locate the lady directly but found her brother. We wrote to him and his answer was quite staggering. He said she was living abroad (hence our being unable to find her) and he had spoken to her but she had no recollection of him whatsoever-amazing. Our client has photos of him together with the brother and her playing in his uncle’s garden. Yes, his uncle lived in the village. There was in our opinion something not right and left us quite enraged. We saw photos of the girl in question and the bother all playing together. What a terrible smack in the face for our client. We of course did not charge him for this search. Regards John _______________________________________________________________

Peggy from Finland arrived in the UK in 1967 to take up a summer job. Working as a live-in assistant for a national charity-managed orphanage (Methodist Church). The information we had to work with was as follows:

• A Christian name was an adopted Anglicized version given by her UK work colleagues.
• Originated from Helsinki.
• Her father was British. He served in WW2 in the British Army. That’s it? We had no surname and just a UK “nicknamed” Christian name.

We began with the institution where “Peggy” worked. Unfortunately, it closed down in the 1980s. Some records are kept, but DATA protection proved a stubborn barrier. Tried various UK Forums related to her ex-employer/ Finland ex-pats, zilch! The Finland Embassy! Wouldn’t so much as acknowledge four emails we sent them! Next up, Facebook forums in Finland-Zilch The next initiative. We advertised for paid freelancers in Finland to work on Press media, radio, etc. Eureka! A national newspaper took up the story happily, resulting in us finding “Peggy”. Now a 75-year-old mum and gran still living in Helsinki! “Thanks very much, John and Libby, for all you did to bring us together again, a miracle, Derek and Paivi.

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Muswell Hill-Hornsey-Barnet-Haringey-South of France .

An elderly gentleman age 75 asked us to find his- “Eileen” whom he had not seen since 1967. He had a Christian name, town, road, and a vague recollection of the house she once lived with her parents in 1967. Worked at a local Coop corner store. Name of an old friend, “Veronica” living close-by in Wood Green. Here is what he gave us in the way of events. Dated during the summer of 1967. A lovely girl but for me a bit too clingy. Eventually, due to my intransigent attitude, we parted. I think I imagined I was a bit of a “James Dean” macho and unkind was the way to go. Ironically 5 years later by pure chance, I happened to bump into her again in a local corner shop where she was working. That turned out to be the last time I ever saw her. It could have been a defining moment to reunite us. But being a very awkward encounter I just kind of clammed up. Our client wanted to feel and savour the journey to where he thought was her house. A re-run of a journey he made by car so often 55 years ago. So we arranged to take him at no extra charge incidentally. Having found the house, we moved on quite well. We don’t want to bore you with the finer details here, but it wasn’t easy. We were beset by a host of false starts. Mainly due to incorrect assumptions, poor guesswork. Our search took in the UK, South of France and ironically back to Muswell Hill. Today, a widow aged 74 and sadly living in a residential care home. Note: They have rekindled their friendship and our client happily visits her virtually every day. It’s now payback time for his foolish behaviour. _________________________________________________________________

NEXT CASE:- His parting shot was If only I had conducted this search earlier! Thanks, John (Inspector Columbo MK 11)  for your brilliant service. Eternally grateful. Terry and Eileen. A jaw-dropping (forgive the pun) Victory-Prized From The Jaws of Defeat. Truly Unbelievable! To read the full story click here!

———————————————————————————————————- Dear Friends Reconnected, Despite the search taking more than 3 months to conclude I am so very grateful and forever in your debt. You took this case on, after initially rejecting it. For the right reasons, you thought I might be wasting my money. However, at my insistence, and taking on board your reservations, you took it on. How you managed to find my old friend was nothing short of a miracle. Having to navigate two divorces-surname changes, different addresses, and a myriad number of other substantial challenges you finally found her. I am glad you kept going on it, and if I listened to me, would never have found her. LOL  Anyway, thank you so much.

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Trevor Wilson PS. We are getting on great, with 40 years of catching up to do. Nikki France. is the one shown on the homepage video. See here Hi John, Nikki France here. After a very delayed reaction from my darling mother, there were 5 solid hours of very happy tears and laughter and I can confirm it was an absolute success! I cannot thank you enough for bringing fantastic friends back together. x