Peterborough Man Abandoned as a Baby Finally Finds His Birth Family

A man from Peterborough, England, spent 65 years wondering about his origins — and he finally found the answers he had been looking for. David Stevenson was a foundling, which means he was a baby who was left behind by his birth parents and found by strangers. When he was just a few days old in 1960, someone discovered him in the hallway of an apartment building in Golders Green, London. He was later adopted by the Stevenson family, but the mystery of where he came from stayed with him his whole life.

David always knew he was a foundling because his adoptive parents had told him. However, it was not until he had children of his own that the question really began to matter to him. He started to wonder about his birth family and what had happened before he was found. 'Growing up, I knew I was a foundling,' he said. 'But it wasn't until I had children of my own that I started to think about where I had come from.'

Searching for answers was not easy. David said there was very little information about his birth parents in his adoption records. He described the search as 'like finding a needle in a haystack.' But his wife, Julie Stevenson, refused to give up. She looked through his records and found a police report that helped move the search forward.

Julie discovered the name of the police officer who had found David as a baby — a woman named PC Tegwin Curl. The officer told them she had never forgotten the day she rescued David. Julie said, 'The police officer said she had never forgotten rescuing David. It was one of the most poignant events in her career.' This new lead gave the family important details about the day David was discovered.

In 2015, David visited the Foundling Museum and connected with the team behind ITV's TV show Long Lost Family. The show used DNA testing and family history research to help identify his birth mother. Her name was Petra, and she was born in the Netherlands in 1940. She had grown up in a Catholic family and later moved to France and then England to work as an au pair, which is a person who lives with a family and helps care for their children.

Petra became pregnant with David when she was 19 years old. It is not completely clear whether she knew she was pregnant when she first arrived in London. However, she carried the pregnancy to full term and appeared to have had support from people around her. David believes she may have made plans for someone to take care of him, but thinks something may have gone wrong with those plans.

Sadly, Petra died in 2010, before David could meet her. Even so, David does not feel angry toward her. He said he has 'nothing but sympathy' for his birth mother. He explained that it was very hard for young, unmarried women to raise children on their own in the 1950s and 1960s. 'I think she did the best she could,' he said.

Julie also encouraged people not to judge Petra's choices. 'We have to believe she had her reasons for not feeling she could come forward, and that's okay,' Julie said. Even though David never got to meet Petra in person, her relatives have shared many stories about her. He learned that she was a very loving person.

Thanks to DNA technology, David was able to connect with living relatives. A woman in Canada matched with him on a DNA website, and that connection led him to his mother's family in Rotterdam, in the Netherlands. He has since met his mother's sister, Maryanne, and several cousins. David also discovered that his great-grandmother was Indonesian, adding yet another layer to his family story.

David's journey was featured on ITV's Long Lost Family — Born Without Trace. He said the experience has been life-changing and that DNA technology made it all possible. There is still more to learn — David mentioned that he has not yet fully explored his birth father's side of the family. But for now, after 65 years of questions, he finally has some answers.