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On the age of 19, Maureen Blaize discovered the person she believed was her father was not her organic dad. Her son Tommy’s friendship with Strictly champion Stacey Dooley helped her uncover who her dad was
Picture: BBC/Minnow Movies)
Watching Strictly Come Dancing is at all times emotional for Maureen Blaize.
Her son Tommy has been a singer within the present for the reason that hit BBC collection started and as his pitch excellent voice belts out something from ballads to rock, Maureen’s satisfaction spills over to tears.
After every episode she has requested herself the identical query: the place does his musical expertise come from?
Maureen has been unable to hint her household’s skills and traits as a result of, on the age of 19, she found the person she believed was her father was not her organic dad.
Extremely, Tommy’s friendship with Strictly champion Stacey Dooley unravelled the thriller of her blood father’s id.
Maureen, 79, from Toxteth in Liverpool, says: “To get to this age and discover out who my father was is thoughts blowing. I’m nonetheless pinching myself.
“I used to lie in mattress at evening considering, who am I? The place have I come from? Now I begin each day kissing my dad’s {photograph}.
“I’ll by no means cease thanking Tommy and Stacey for all their assist in discovering the lacking piece of me.”
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BBC/Minnow Movies)
Maureen grew up with a way of being by some means totally different in her household with two elder siblings. However cultural norms of the Fifties and 60s, and her mom’s quiet and personal character, meant she was by no means informed the complete reality.
She says: “I at all times had a powerful feeling I didn’t belong. I simply didn’t gel with my elder siblings.
“My mum was white and my father, as I knew him, was black and from west Africa.
“After I was 19 and wanted each dad and mom to signal a kind, that’s when the bombshell dropped. My mom broke down and mentioned, ‘He’s not your actual father’. That was all she informed me. It hit me like a brick. My mom shut herself down then – she didn’t need to speak about it.
“In these days having a child out of wedlock was one of many largest shames ever. She didn’t inform anyone besides her greatest good friend.”
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BBC/Minnow Movies)
Maureen questioned her mum’s good friend however gleaned little further data. “She informed me she knew Mum was seeing an American serviceman who was over right here in the course of the conflict. That’s all she gave away – nothing else.
“By the point my mom was pregnant he’d already gone again to America.”
Maureen’s sons Tommy, 59, Tony, 58 and Darrin, 56, had tried to analysis household timber for any clues to their grandfather’s id. However in the course of the Second World Conflict, black US troopers fathered greater than 2,000 infants whereas stationed in Britain. Pinpointing Maureen’s father and not using a title appeared inconceivable.
Tommy says: “I at all times had a nagging feeling of guilt that I wanted to assist Mum with the seek for her dad, as a result of she had at all times executed the whole lot for me and my two brothers. Turning into a dad myself made me realise what Mum missed out on.
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PA)
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@TommyBlaize)
“Mum at all times liked dancing and music, and me and my brothers shaped slightly band after we had been youthful. We felt the music didn’t come from my dad’s aspect, whereas my mum was at all times singing or practising harmonies with us.
“Me and Stacey turned pals on Strictly and after we toured collectively we turned even nearer. After I noticed her current the primary Household DNA Secrets and techniques collection I dropped her a line to inform her about Mum and the producers rapidly obtained in contact.”
Maureen, who misplaced her husband Tommy 4 years in the past, gave a pattern of DNA to the nation’s high geneticists. With no title or different data, relations may solely be traced if her genes matched any members of the family on her father’s aspect who had beforehand taken a DNA check on worldwide databases of 30 million folks.
However whereas ready for the outcomes, Maureen’s well being took a flip for the more serious. “I had two strokes then open coronary heart surgical procedure,” she says. “I didn’t have time to be scared as a result of I used to be taken straight in to surgical procedure. However I did say to medical doctors, ‘I haven’t completed what I used to be doing – I want to come back again’. That’s why I’m right here and getting stronger each day.”
Maureen was understandably anxious about listening to the outcomes of her DNA check. However when Stacey returned to her house she helped her really feel comfy.
“Stacey’s a stunning, down-to-earth pleasant woman who got here in, kicked off her sneakers and made me a cup of tea,” says Maureen. “Listening to her information felt surreal. It was one of the best day of my life, aside from the times my sons had been born.”
Stacey defined that Maureen’s DNA had matched first cousins on her paternal aspect and had pinpointed her dad as Augusta Partitions, an African American born in Tennessee 1914. Augusta was a farmer earlier than the conflict and didn’t have another youngsters. He died in 1978.
Maureen says: “Listening to my dad’s title, and seeing his image, was a second I’ll always remember. It’s onerous to explain the sensation of such happiness.
“I discovered a body for the image that day. And that’s the image I kiss each morning as quickly as I wake.”
Stacey had extra data for Maureen and Tommy. Not solely did relations nonetheless dwell lower than a mile from the place Augusta had grown up, they had been determined to satisfy the brand new member of the household.
And so they had been capable of make clear the lifelong query Maureen had over her household’s immense musical expertise.
Tommy says: “Stacey found that Mum’s cousin Joe Nathan Partitions was a superb musician who performed the saxophone with Howlin’ Wolf, a legendary blues singer.
“Now we all know the place our household’s music got here from. She confirmed us a movie of him and it blew me away.
“I’ve been taking part in Howlin’ Wolf music ever since and telling everybody we’re associated.”
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Picture:
BBC/Minnow Movies/Lizzie Patterson)
Though unhappy her father died with out understanding he had created her, Maureen is proud his household’s musical legacy lives on.
Now she enjoys zoom catch-ups together with her first cousins and is attending to know extra about her father.
“Discovering I had new household was great. Being accepted by them with open arms was one thing I by no means dared dream. One cousin had been to Liverpool three or 4 occasions with out realising she had household right here.
“Stacey and Tommy serving to to seek out my dad has modified me without end. I really feel full. It’s been an extended journey however lastly I’m at peace.”
DNA Household Secrets and techniques is on Wednesday 18th Might at 9pm on BBC Two and iPlayer
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