A WOMAN who has spent the last 40 years desperately trying to track down her family has at last been reunited with them at an emotional gathering.Betty Moore (nee Crane), 66, whose mother Marie Allum was from Ipswich, was taken to the United States when she was six-years-old after her parents separated and she lost contact with her family in this country.

A WOMAN who has spent the last 40 years desperately trying to track down her family has at last been reunited with them at an emotional gathering.

Betty Moore (nee Crane), 66, whose mother Marie Allum was from Ipswich, was taken to the United States when she was six-years-old after her parents separated and she lost contact with her family in this country.

Her mother and her father, Herbert Crane from Norwich split up and Miss Allum took her and her younger brother to Michigan.

Although her mother remarried, that relationship collapsed when Betty was 14-years-old and she and her brother were adopted into separate families. Although she knew she had family in the UK, she was never given any details.

Thanks to Mrs Moore's tenacity and the assistance of the internet, she eventually traced her mother's relatives two years ago after finding her American siblings in 2002, and from there she was able to locate her father's family.

On Saturday, her uncle Cyril Crane, 71, hosted a massive party at his home in Bramerton, near Norwich, to introduce Betty to her father's family she had never met.

A tearful Mrs Moore said the reunion had filled a huge gap in her life.

“I have been searching for my family for more than 40 years,” she said. “No words can describe how I feel right now. Thanks to the internet I was able to finally trace my mother's family and then I found out my father's name was Crane.

“I searched every Crane in the phone book until I tracked down a cousin and then it all came together. It is so wonderful meeting everyone here today and it has filled a gap that I have had to suffer for most of my life.”

Mrs Moore's mother died in 2002 but even on her death bed did not give her any details of her family. There was no family tree and no one else to tell her about the family she had left behind in the UK.

Mr Crane said: “It is amazing that we are finally all together. It is wonderful we have finally been given the chance to celebrate in this way.”

N Have you been reunited with a long-lost relative? Tell us your story by writing to Your Letters, Evening Star, 30 Lower Brook Street, Ipswich, IP4 1AN or send an e-mail to eveningstarletters@eveningstar.co.uk