A father and daughter have been reunited by the Internet after more than 50 years.

Dinah Worth, from Northamptonshire in England, spent a year searching for Robert James Donothan, an American GI who had been forced to leave her and her mother Joan during World War II.

She contacted the Salvation Army and various veterans' organisations without any luck. Then her friend's son, Ian Swift, suggested they try the Internet.

Whowhere.com

Ian began the search by putting a message on a missing persons bulletin board. "That drew a blank, so I decided to try e-mail," he said.

He went to the search site www.whowhere.com and entered Robert's surname. "15 matches came up so I e-mailed all of them," said Ian. Care had to be taken in case Robert had any family who did not know about his past and so the message was vague, but Ian was able to include Robert's GI number.

What Dinah and Ian didn't know was that while they were sitting in England searching the Net for news of her father, he was undertaking a similar search for news of her from across the Atlantic.

As soon as Robert spotted the message he realised this was the breakthrough he had been waiting for and replied immediately. Ian then asked him whether he knew anyone in Northamptonshire, England. The reply came back that he had known Joan during the war and had a daughter called Dinah.

According to Dinah it was a wonderful moment and one she had been dreaming about. "It was unbelievable really. I was amazed at how quick it happened once we had decided to try to trace my dad on the Internet", she said.

Dinah rang Robert that evening to find out that he had been looking for her ever since he left England in the forties. He had even bought his computer for the specific purpose of searching the Net for Dinah.

Wedding Ring Clue

Dinah was only alerted to the fact that Robert was her father after her mother died 18-months ago. She had been looking through some old family photographs when she noticed that her mum was not wearing a wedding ring in a mother-and-baby snap.

She then tried to find her birth certificate, but instead found a form that said she had been adopted by the man she had always thought was her dad. Dinah then went to the local town hall and found Robert's name and GI number on her birth certificate.

It was then that she realised she had to track him down. Now the father and daughter, re-united by the Net, are planning a get together in April to catch up on a lifetime's news.

Dinah now has her own computer and with her son's help, she is learning to use the Internet. Now she has found her long-lost dad she says she intends to get the hang of shopping on the Internet. "It seems such good fun, I will always be so grateful for the way it helped me find my father," she said.
 

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