In the summer of 2002, as I was surfing the internet, I came across a website for people looking for their long-lost relatives across the world.

I saw that there were Bulgarian immigrants or their descendants looking for relatives who had remained in Bulgaria, and with whom they had lost contact during the long years of communism.

There were stories of children looking for their mothers, daughters looking for their fathers and brothers and sisters looking for each other.

I got curious when I found this website, and my Editor-in-Chief, Venelina Gocheva, suggested that I do a story about this. Then letters started pouring in, and ever since then I have done a 'reunion' story each week.

In the six years in which I have compiled the lost relatives page in the mass-circulation Bulgarian-language daily 24 Chassa ("24 Hours"), I have managed to help many separated families whose members were looking for each other.  

I thought that eventually the flow of letters would wane within a year or two, but it is astonishing that people keep on writing me and coming to see me.  It is scary how many families were separated. And now there is a trend of parents looking for their children or vice versa.

In my quest to help separated families, I sought help in many places and in many countries, but it is not easy.

In the US, for instance, there are many free public records and it is not hard to find people, but in Australia and Argentina, for instance, is really difficult, because the records are not easily available.  For this reason myself and a colleague from one of the Melbourne dailies, The Age, wrote a story about six cases in which Bulgarians were looking for their relatives in Australia. In most cases it is about mothers looking for their children or brothers and sisters looking for their siblings.

Now that I have the Australian Salvation Army helping  out,  I'm more optimistic about Australia, but  now I'm having trouble achieving success with cases concerning people in Argentina and other South American countries.

The Argentinian ambassador in Sofia advised me to ask the Bulgarian embassy in Argentina for help.  But the Bulgarian consul there made it clear that it was very hard to do anything for me. On the other hand, there are very helpful Bulgarian officials in other embassies like in France, Australia or Germany.
The Bulgarian embassy in Canada is also aware of my project and has more than once referred to me Canadians looking for their Bulgarian relatives.

I have come across many heartbreaking and interesting stories. There is the story of an American woman who came to Bulgaria to fulfill her deceased husband's last wish to go to his mother's grave, take some soil and bring it back to scatter it on his grave. There is the story of a father who was looking for his two children taken abroad by their mother after the divorce. There is also the story of a mother, dying of cancer, looking for her son who immigrated to the US.

In 95 per cent of cases, when I find relatives, they respond very positively and start exchanging letters, calls and visits.

There are five per cent in which relatives are found but have no interest in resuming relations.

I continue to receive phone calls, e-mails and letters from people trying to find their relatives. Every indication is that there will be more and more coming.

If you have Bulgarian connections and would like my assistance, please send me a message.  My schedule will prohibit my time on this site, I would rather spend my time researching to help reunite people.   If you are someone whom I have helped, please comment and share with others your success story.  Thank you and best wishes in your research.