As a young man, Tom Yeo vividly remembers being told by a family friend that he had “Irish eyes”.
The throwaway comment always stuck in his mind – as Tom had been adopted and knew nothing about his origins.
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It was only when he became a father that he decided to find out more – and was surprised to discover, when he received his adoption file, that he had been abandoned at Reading train station when he was a two-week-old baby.
Incredibly, he was seen with the woman who left him there. However, despite the police releasing a full description and his situation appearing on the front page of the local newspaper, he was never found.
Dad-of-five Tom, 58, who now lives in Nottingham, told The Sun: “It was a huge shock.
“She bought a ticket to Bristol but disappeared.”
With no clues, he turned to ITV’s Long Lost Family: Born Without Trace, who discovered he has a biological cousin, Martina Evenden, 56, who lives in Dublin.
But in a new twist, after spending decades hoping that a surviving relative could finally shed light on his roots, Tom discovered that Martina couldn’t help because she was a foundling like him, having been left outside a church. when he was just a few hours old. .
It’s the first time in the show’s history that they’ve met and reunited two cousins, both foundlings.
Now the pair’s moving story features in the first episode of the latest series, which starts tonight.
Tom told The Sun: “When they told me I thought, ‘Ah, we’re both in the same situation.’ We have something that connects us in a certain way.
“It was incredible to meet Martina. We are very close.”
And he adds: “It was the first part of the family I met. Until that moment, my children were my only blood family.”
Martina, 56, who lives in Dublin, says: “It was amazing to finally meet someone related to you as I’ve never had that before.
“From day one, we just froze. We got along well. I feel like I’ve known him for years. We just understand each other.
The two are related to Tom’s biological mother Margaret – known as Peggy – and Martina’s biological father Joseph, so it seems a complete coincidence that both women gave up their newborns.
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Currently, very few babies are registered as abandoned at birth in England and Wales.
However, last week it was revealed that three newborn babies found abandoned in London parks seven years ago belong to the same parents.
Pregnancy ‘shame’
Foundling Tom, an accountant, was found under a waiting room bench on October 15, 1965.
A police report details how he was well nourished and cared for, noting that there was also a spare diaper and a bottle wrapped in a bag.
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The cameras on the touching hit show follow him as he returns to the place where his mother chose to leave him, now a pub, for the first time.
Tom was later adopted, something his adoptive parents explained early on.
Tom says: “I remember this from my earliest memories. Every year, they marked the official adoption date with gifts.
“But there was never a conversation about how I was found. I can understand why really.”
He adds: “I had a brilliant upbringing with my adoptive parents, but I always wanted to know where I came from.”
And Tom’s family friend is right about his comment when the show’s search team discovers that Peggy and her biological father, Stephen, were both Irish and from the same area in County Leitrim.
The team also locates another cousin, Maria, who can provide more information about Peggy, who would have been 35 when she gave birth to Tom, and lived in England and worked as a nanny.
Three newborns abandoned by the same parents
BABIES are rarely abandoned in the UK, but last week it was revealed that a newborn found inside a shopping bag has two siblings abandoned in similar circumstances.
‘Baby Elsa’, named after the Frozen protagonist, was found in sub-zero temperatures in Newham, east London, in January.
She was believed to be less than an hour old when she was discovered by a dog walker, wrapped in a towel inside a reusable shopping bag and with her umbilical cord still attached.
The Metropolitan Police suspect that Elsa was born following a ‘hidden pregnancy’ – where a woman does not tell healthcare professionals that she is pregnant.
DNA tests have since revealed that Elsa has two siblings – a brother and a sister, who were abandoned in 2017 and 2019 respectively, just a few kilometers from where she was found.
The other babies, Harry and Roman, were discovered wrapped in blankets. Both were adopted.
The parents of the three children have not yet been identified.
At East London Family Court last week, Judge Carol Atkinson ruled that the biological link between ‘Elsa’ and the other two children could be exposed.
It was considered to be of “great public interest” due to the fact that babies are rarely abandoned in modern Britain.
The trio are among five cases of children abandoned at birth in the last four years in England and Wales.
In 2020, a baby was discovered in Hackney, east London, and another was found in Birmingham in 2021. The mothers of both were located several months later.
She would have known that she could not keep the baby for fear of losing her job and, as a single woman, could not return to her native Ireland due to shame.
Tom says: “My biological mother was a nanny, so she knew how to look after children. She did everything she could for me. She left me in a place where she knew I would be found quickly.
“But at that time it just wasn’t possible for her to raise a baby.
“I felt sorry for her being in that situation. She was someone who took care of children, but she couldn’t take care of her own baby. When I found out she was a nanny, I thought it must have been doubly difficult for her.”
‘Great sin’
Martina, an office administrator, was found by the team while uploading her details to a DNA website in her attempt to find her biological parents.
Before that, she even managed to track down the sexton who met her outside St Joesph’s Church in Dublin to see if he had any further information, but was unable to help her.
Martina says: “I had been looking for a long, long time.
“After being found, I was taken to hospital before being sent to a mother and baby home for three months until I was adopted by my parents.”
She left me in a place where she knew I would be found quickly… at that time it simply wasn’t possible for her to raise a baby.
Tone
The team discovers that Martina’s biological mother, coincidentally also named Peggy, was a housekeeper and was 41 when she had her – and that she has three older half-sisters.
She says: “They were born into mother and baby homes. I found that a little shocking.”
With contraception unavailable in Ireland during this period, mother and baby homes were extremely common in the country.
These institutions mainly housed women who became pregnant outside of marriage, which was widely considered shameful throughout most of the 20th century in Ireland.
Martina says: “It was considered a great sin.”
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In 2015, a investigation was launched to investigate the mass deaths of children and the mistreatment of women in mother and baby homes.
Martina says: “You realize what my mother might have had to deal with and maybe she didn’t want to fight with me again.”
Unfortunately, both biological parents are no longer alive. Tom’s mother died in 1990 and his father passed away in 2000.
Martina says: “My mother died in 2018, so I missed her.”
Very little information is known about his father, Joseph. He was last known and heard from in the 1980s.
But they take comfort in knowing their other relatives.
I felt sorry for her being in that situation. She was someone who took care of children, but she couldn’t take care of her own baby.
Tom Yeo
Martina, who has no children and lives with her husband Gerry, 56, a sales manager, has since met a half-sister and a cousin who knew her biological mother.
She says: “I was nervous but excited to meet them. They are so friendly. They told me I look a lot like my mother.”
She must meet another half-sister, but a third, who was adopted in America, has not yet been located.
And during filming, Tom meets three of his five half-siblings – Deidre, Mary and Stephen – on his father’s side.
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He says: “It was a shock for them to find out they had a half-brother, but they have been really nice to me.
“Everyone says I look like my father.”
Since then, his brothers have also traveled to England to visit Tom, his wife Danniella, 56, a first aid trainer, their three children from their first marriage and two stepchildren.
Although Tom never met his biological mother, who later moved to Australia and is believed to have had no further children, he was thrilled to discover that she may have found happiness later in life.
He says: “I recently found out she had a partner in Australia. I was very happy to hear that.”
Long Lost Family Born Without Trace airs on ITV1 and ITVX on consecutive nights from tonight, June 10, at 9pm
This story originally appeared on The-sun.com read the full story
