Brother finally finds his long lost sister

The 72-year-old was abandoned when he was three-years-old after his mother walked out of the family home following the breakdown of her marriage.

He never knew that she had set up a new life for herself in the US where she remarried before giving birth to a daughter called Diane – Mr Haydon's half-sister.

For years the siblings spent their lives more than 4,000 miles apart unaware the other existed. But after his sister stumbled across his existence while researching her family history they have now been brought together for the first time.

Mr Haydon from Bloxwich said: "The realisation at my age to find that you've got a sister is a tremendous feeling. No money in the world can buy that kind of feeling.

"If you don't have something, then you receive it, it's a wonderful thing to find what you've got."

The retired salesman had tried to trace his mother through archives but the breakthrough came when he was given an iPad for Christmas.

He used the gadget to scour family history sites and signed up to social media site Facebook. Unbeknown to him, his half-sister was also researching her family history at home in Tennessee with her husband Doug Messer.

She said: "I thought my mother's birth name was Eileen Haydon but I couldn't get a birth certificate because I was looking for the wrong name.

"Then I found this little chat room called Rootschat. I'd tried all the major ancestry sites and couldn't find anything but this site has lots of users who all help each other.

"It didn't take long for me to find out that my mother had married before and that her maiden name was Pinches."

The discovery uncovered a host of information including that Eileen had two sons, although one named Paul had died from whooping cough. "I said one of whom has died? Are you telling me I have a brother?" the 58-year-old said. "Then one of the ladies helped me track down his address and I found him on Facebook."

Mrs Messer, a lawyer, sent Mr Haydon a letter explaining she had information on his mother who had died several years earlier aged 89, before dropping the bombshell that he had a half-sister

She said: "John said he would love to speak to her daughter and I said I can tell you anything you want to know. I'm her daughter. There was no response from him and my first thought was that he'd had a heart attack but I finally got a response. Two words – love you."

The pair met for the first time at New Street Station in Birmingham after Diane came over to visit him.

Mr Haydon of Ganton Road said the news he had a sister came as a shock but he is looking forward to getting to know her after years spent apart. "I almost had a heart attack and fell off my chair when Diane told me I had a half-sister," he said. "It was like an atom bomb going off.

"I had tried so long over the years to find out more about my mum and what had happened to her but in those days we didn't have the technology."

The siblings' mother grew up in Tong Street in Chuckery and was an only child but by aged 14 she was an orphan after her parents both died young.

She married in 1942 aged 21 and lived in the Butts before leaving for Paris in July 1945 where she worked as an artist.

In 1945 she boarded a cargo ship with 600 men on board and arrived in New York where she worked as a window dresser in Macy's before moving to New Orleans and remarrying Pete Marquize. Although Mr Haydon is unaware of her motives, it is believed she was suffering from personal tragedy after the death of her son.

Mr Haydon, who worked for United Biscuits before retiring, said: "Why mum walked out still remains a mystery but in those days if your marriage broke up it was a serious thing and after Paul died that may have just tipped her over the edge so she ran and kept going.

"My father raised me but he never spoke about what happened, I think he found it too painful and he didn't like me asking."

Mr Haydon, who has two children, Lee, 47, and Lesley, 49, six grandchildren and two great-great grandchildren, intends to visit Mrs Messer again in November for a family wedding.

The two have been getting to know each other and speaking on Skype every day.

Mrs Messer, an only child, added: "John encouraged me to buy an iPad so we can FaceTime and see each other. It's fantastic to have a whole new family. I was an only child and mum and dad had both passed so I had no family, apart from my husband and some cousins in New Orleans, and now I have a huge family. It's wonderful."