A WOMAN searching for her natural mother after being adopted as a child is appealing to Ilkley residents to help piece together the jigsaw of her past.

Joan Williams is anxious to trace her family history - and be reunited with the mother she has not seen for more than 50 years.

Mrs Williams said: "There must be somebody in the area who knew her or knew of her. I am hoping to get any information I can to find out where she is now. I have to face the fact that it is possible that she is dead but at least I will know what happened to her."

Mrs Williams, who now lives in Lancashire, has found, through a search in the Ilkley Gazette archives, that her mother Dorothy May Hutchinson, nee Furness, lived and worked in the town in 1946.

Mrs Hutchinson, who was separated from her husband, Joseph, was employed as a cook at Rupert Lodge, in Rupert Road, when Mrs Williams was a small child.

Mrs Williams was sent to a day nursery and picked up by her mother at weekends.

She was later put up for adoption, at the age of three, to Frank and Olive Senior, of Bradford.

Mrs Williams said: "I was at the nursery from Monday to Friday and then I was taken to Rupert Lodge at weekends. It was difficult for her to manage with a three-year-old and do a job like that as well."

Mrs Williams, 57, only found out that she was adopted as a teenager and began to trace her family 15 years ago when her adoptive mother died.

She managed to find her father but he was unable to give her any information as to the whereabouts of her mother.

Other relatives she tracked down to Devon also drew a blank.

Mrs Williams said: "It is as if she disappeared without trace."

Now she is praying Ilkley residents may hold the key to her past.

Anyone with any information can contact Mrs Williams on 01995 605202 or at The Nook, Church Street, Garstang, Lancashire, PR3 1PA or contact the Gazette office.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.