Long Lost Family Born Without Trace: What Happened Next

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Long Lost Family Born Without Trace: What Happened Next

In this ‘What Happened Next?’ episode of Born Without Trace, we revisit two foundlings as they build family ties and make more life-changing discoveries.

In 1968, Caroline Harris-Gray was found at a hospital in North London, left in a vegetable box in the matron’s office. She went on to have a very happy adoption, but has always had questions about her identity, and about who it was that left her and why. When Caroline saw a newspaper article written from the time she was found, she discovered she was left in a dress and knitted cardigan:

Davina delivered the news that her birth father had sadly died, but that she had paternal family who could tell her more about him. Caroline connected with her paternal siblings Tina and Paul, and Aunt Gloria.

Brilliantly, when Caroline’s story went out on television, someone very special was watching and instantly recognised the story. It was Jan, the Police Officer who had been called to the hospital in Tottenham when Caroline was found.

Jan had kept photos of Caroline for decades, and now she knows why she did. Jan joyfully hands them over to her.

But that isn’t the end. The team also make the most significant breakthrough in Caroline’s case, answering the questions she has lived with for a lifetime, and bringing even more heart-warming family connections.  

Harvey Shackell is the foundling who was left on a doorstep on Christmas night in 1960. In the original programme, he met Vera Wood, owner of that doorstep who herself had been looking for him for years! And also his full sister Cherry and the largest number of half siblings we have ever found.

This programme catches up with Harvey and learns how his life has been transformed by the meeting this band of brothers (and sisters). They form an exceptionally loving tribe, into which Harvey has been fully welcomed:

We also see more of his new, extraordinary relationship with Vera, the woman whose doorstep he was left on, and find out how that connection has transformed his life, and got him through the most painful grief.

Produced by Wall-to-Wall Productions for ITV.