Note in book opens up new chapter for family

Fostered at the age of five, only those closest to Pat Ceney knew about the early years of her life.

Imagine her surprise then when a book bought totally by chance by her sister-in-law contained a scrap of paper with both her birth name and fostered maiden name scribbled on.

There, among the pages of A Mother's Courage, was a bookmark bearing the words "Ann Bell, Patricia Briggs, 6 years".

The book itself had started life in Waterlooville, Hampshire, before being bought second-hand in Wombourne Sainsbury's by Mrs Ceney's sister-in-law Ivy Beaton.

Pat, now aged 70, said she went cold when Ivy made the discovery four months after initially buying the novel.

It is now hoped the extraordinary coincidence will lead the retired doctor's receptionist to her long-lost half-brother, who is believed to have settled in Hampshire after being fostered in the 1950s.

"It was so spooky," says Pat, a mother-of-four from Wombourne.

"Why would anyone know both of these names? It's not as if all my friends know about this part of my past."

It is believed the "6 years" on the bookmark may incorrectly refer to the age when Pat was fostered.

Daughter Alison Jones has been working on Pat's family tree for 13 years.

The focus of her work has been finding out about Pat's life, especially her birth mother Elsie Bell who died in 1976.

She even placed an advert in the Express & Star, through which she found Pat's half-sister Sheila Bell, who is in her 60s from Kidderminster.

When Alison spoke to Sheila she revealed she has a twin brother, named Alexander, who is now believed to be in Hampshire.

Alison said: "Sheila hasn't seen her brother since they were separated at six years old.

"It would be lovely if finding this book led to the family being re-united. The Salvation Army have said to Sheila that they believe her twin brother had settled in Hampshire.

"I've no idea how they knew that, but they could have been involved in the fostering process at that stage."

Mrs Ceney, who is married to Stan, a 72-year-old engineer, and has four grandchildren, was one of Elsie's 16 children.

Elsie had been married to Edward Bell since 1936 but he died in 1944.

Pat was then fostered from an orphanage in December 1946 by Pc Bayden Briggs and his wife Annie. Pat recalls: "They wanted to adopt a little girl because my father worked a lot of late shifts and they wanted someone to keep my mother company.

"They tried a couple of times to adopt me but my birth mother, for whatever reason, wouldn't give consent.The same issue arose when I wanted to get married.

"You had to be 21 until you could do so without parental consent so I had to wait because my birth mother wouldn't give it."

Alison said she had tracked down around eight or nine of her mother's 15 siblings through birth records online and with the help of her mother's newly-found half-sister.

She said: "Elsie was my grandmother and there are so many blanks I want to fill in. I want to try and understand her better."

Anyone with information, can get in touch via alisonmjones11@yahoo.co.uk.