Family tree search spanned 80 years - now there's a happy ending

Life in Scotland was very different: Gladys was raised on a croft in Ardtoe, Acharacle on the Ardnamurchan Peninsula by loving Gaelic-speaking foster parents.

Too young to suspect any different, she believed the devoted couple, Mary and Duncan Cameron, were her real parents.

Gladys Johnston's search for her birth parents spanned 80 years and took her back to Dublin (Image: Solus Productions)

It was only when she was 11 and as they tried to formalise her adoption to ensure that, when the time came, she could inherit their croft, Gladys learned the shocking truth: she was not who she thought she was.

Later she discovered her real mother, was a young, unmarried Irish woman. Against a background of 1930s hardship and stigma, Catherine Dorothy Kearney had been forced to give up her baby.

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Gladys’ moving search to piece together her mother’s story and track down long-lost relatives was told in a 2016 BBC Alba documentary that followed her as she met family for the first time, including a half-sister who shared her name.

Tragically, Gladys’ mother had died just months earlier, and she never got to meet her.

But while uncovering her mother’s difficult story brought some comfort, it left a glaring gap: who was her father?

Gladys Johnston (right) with her half-sister, Annette (left) (Image: Solus Productions)

Now 88-years-old, Glady has finally uncovered the missing pieces and discovered not only who her father was but met a new family of half-sisters, nieces and nephews.

The latest moving instalment of her remarkable search for her blood family will be told next week in a BBC ALBA documentary which follows her to Dublin to meet relatives from her father’s side.

It leads her to the steps of his family home, where her half-sisters and half-brother enjoyed happy childhoods, completely unaware of her existence.

And, in poignant final scenes, she arrives at Deansgrange Cemetery in Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown in County Dublin, to lay a bouquet of pretty Highland wildflowers at the graveside of her father, Joseph Quinn.

The moment is particularly touching, as Gladys reflects on her mother’s experience of being forced to give up her baby and her years of wondering about her family roots.

“I was brought up with wonderful parents and I must not forget them,” she says. “But I’m so lucky now that I have found out exactly who my birth parents were.

“I’m so happy that I have found my real family.

“My mind will be at peace.”

In Gladys Deireadh na Sgeòil - Story Complete, she is joined by presenter Cathy Macdonald, who also shared Gladys’ first journey to Dublin in 2016.

Gladys Johnston's search for her family is the subject of a new BBC ALBA documentary (Image: Solus Productions)

The presenter, who is moved to tears as she watches Gladys meet her relatives for the first time, says: “I have seldom been so immersed in someone else’s captivating tale.”

Gladys was just 11-years-old when she learned in a shocking visit from a Dublin official that she was Irish-born and was to be adopted by the Scottish couple she had believed to be her parents.

“She quite abruptly said, ‘I’m here from Ireland to let you know that the people you are with are not your birth parents’,” says Gladys, who lives in Spean Bridge near Fort William with husband, Jimmy, 94.

“It was horrendous. I said I couldn’t believe it.

“She just said ‘You’ll be alright, you’ve got a good home and you’ll be quite happy’.”

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However the news cast a long shadow over Gladys for decades and,  she tells the documentary, left her a feeling that something was missing.

“I thought ‘I’m alone in this world, who do I belong to?’

“Everybody else had a family and knew who their relatives were.”

Gladys Johnston has finally traced her blood parents, Catherine Dorothy Kearney and Joseph Quinn (Image: Solus Productions)

Gladys’ journey to discover her mother’s story took her to Dublin where she learned about the horrors of Bethany House orphanage where she had been born, and where many children died from neglect and sickness.

Sadly, Gladys missed out on meeting her birth mother by just a few months, but she discovered she had a half-sister.

Gladys says: “I thought this is just half the journey. I’ve traced my mother but it would be wonderful to find out who my father was. And it bothered me a lot.”

Her granddaughter suggested trying an ancestral DNA kit in the hope it might reveal some answers.

It took just three months to receive the results which revealed family members from her father’s side.

The discovery led to her connecting over a video call with an older half-sister living in Florida, Mari, and meeting her younger half-sister, Annette, who travelled from her home in Ireland.

The highly charged encounter was captured on camera by the documentary producers, Solus Productions.

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Gladys says: “It was like talking to people I’d known forever; they felt like relatives.

“After all these years, I am just in wonderland. I’m as happy as I’ve ever been.”

Director Tony Kearney, of Solus Productions, says seeing them meet for the first time was a privilege.

“Filming the moment these sisters met was nerve-wracking — it was a one-take chance. But we captured the excitement and raw emotion perfectly. The entire crew was in tears.”

Gladys Johnston aged three, at Bethany Home, Dublin (Image: Solus Productions)

In Dublin, Gladys tried to unravel the mystery of how her birth mother and father may have met.

It’s thought Joseph, who often travelled as part of his job with the Irish electricity board, may have lodged at a boarding house in Drogheda where Catherine Dorothy worked as a servant.

Precise details of how their paths crossed will never be known.

However, Gladys discovered Joseph was married with a young child at the time, and that her mother made no known attempt to tell him she was pregnant.

Gladys Johnston's family search has revealed two long lost half sisters, Annette (left) and Mari (Image: Solus Productions)

Reflecting on the emotional journey, Gladys says: “I never saw my mother during this lifetime, and likewise, I never saw my father during this lifetime.

“I am so pleased to have found out who he was. And now, I feel at peace.”

Gladys Deireadh na Sgeòil - Story Complete, in Gaelic with English subtitles, premieres on BBC ALBA and BBC iPlayer on Tuesday 17 September at 8.30pm (in Gaelic with English subtitles). It will also be available on BBC iPlayer along with the original documentary, ‘Gladys’.