It’s a family affair as 60 get together

2:06pm Wednesday 7th May 2008

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GENERATIONS of family members descended from two Worcester brothers have been gathering to raise a glass to their shared heritage.

More than 60 members of the Darling family met at the Oak Apple pub in Spetchley Road, Worcester, for their third UK reunion. The cousins, nieces, granddaughters and other relations are all descended from Benjamin and Henry Darling who lived in the 19th century.

Among the four generations of guests were the family's oldest members, June Bick, aged 84, and the newest, Zak Darling, who is just two months old. Jayne Saunders, aged 49, of Kingston Avenue, off Bilford Road, Worcester, is descended from Benjamin Darling on her grandmother's side and attended the reunion with her mother Jean Mansell, aged 80.

She said: "It was wonderful and we even met someone who lives in the same road as us. My mother met a cousin she hadn't seen in 60 years."

Combing online archives and parish records, the family have discovered Henry was born in Church Street in 1825 - the second oldest of four sisters and eight brothers.

He became a tailor in the city but following his marriage in Middlesex emigrated to Adelaide in South Australia on the SS Sibella with his wife and two daughters in 1848.

Henry set up as a gold prospector earning enough to buy land and build houses, some of which stand today, and two of his descendants flew over to the UK for the get together.

Benjamin stayed on in Worcester living in St Paul's Street. Martin Darling, his great-great-grandson, said the idea for a reunion had grown out of some digging into the family's past.

He said: "A cousin put me in touch with my second cousin in Northamptonshire who gave me lots of information. We then got a call from a Darling in Adelaide and she had got our phone number through the Genes Reunited website."

Since then, the family have organised reunions both in the UK and Australia bringing together relatives here in Worcester, the West Midlands and from further afield.

Mr Darling, from Oxfordshire, said: "The thing is you get the feeling you have known these people for years.

"They might be fourth cousins but we all talk like we know each other.

Anyone who thinks they are part of the Darling family is asked to e-mail information@thedarlings.net