Adrian Stone's life has been profoundly shaped by loss and resilience. The 52-year-old former music producer experienced the early death of his father from a brain haemorrhage when he was just seven years old. In 1985, he witnessed his 13-year-old brother Kevin being confined to a wheelchair after a tragic car accident in St Pauls, Bristol. Their mother, Elaine McCarthy, dedicated her life to caring for Kevin while raising Adrian, their sister Sammy, and three other siblings single-handedly.
A Family's Strength Tested
In 2008, Elaine developed Guillain–Barré syndrome, a rare autoimmune disorder that left her unable to walk or talk in her fifties. "She was the matriarch, the strength, the nucleus of our family. Seeing her in that dark place hit me like a ton of bricks," Adrian recalls. Sitting at her bedside in intensive care, he found himself contemplating his family's history and the source of his mother's remarkable strength over the years.
Knowing his grandfather Hubert McCarthy was part of the Windrush Generation, having emigrated from Jamaica to the UK in 1955 before sending for his family, Adrian sought distraction from his mother's declining health. He began visiting the family history centre of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in South Kensington, embarking on what would become a lifelong passion.
The Detective Work Begins
"This was before search engines and everything being digitised," Adrian explains. "I spent hours on the microfiche reader, going through all the different parishes where my family lived. The staff would want to go home, but I would be there until closing, asking for one more scan, one more document."
Adrian soon transformed into an ancestry detective, meticulously sifting facts from fiction, correcting misspelled names in records, and gradually constructing a basic family tree that he verified with relatives in Jamaica. "I used to write all the film numbers down, logging and recording. I had loads of notebooks. Sometimes I would skip work early because I had the bug. It took over my life – but it was also a healing tool and a coping mechanism."
A Monumental Discovery
Even after his mother's health recovered, Adrian continued his investigations, travelling across the UK to research at institutions including:
- The British Library
- The National Archives
- The National Records of Scotland
His research eventually took him to Jamaica, where he meticulously examined birth, death, and marriage records in churches to build a comprehensive picture of his family history. After five years of dedicated work, Adrian had created a family tree spanning an incredible 30 metres of paper, identifying approximately 20,000 relatives.
"It's a lifelong project," he reflects. "When people think they've done their family tree, they haven't even started."
The Missing Piece
Despite his remarkable success, one relative remained elusive – his own half-brother. All Adrian possessed was a single photograph of him as a baby standing with his white mother, without even knowing his name.
This changed dramatically when Adrian submitted a saliva swab to genetic testing service AncestryDNA ten years ago. In 2021, the results revealed a very close match with a young woman in the UK. Sensing an immediate connection, Adrian messaged her through the service, explaining he believed she was related to his long-lost half-brother.
"She told me: 'My dad doesn't know who his dad is, because he died young.' And that was it. She was my niece, and I'd found my brother."
An Emotional Reunion
After discovering his brother's name was Jon, Adrian reached out with a heartfelt message: "My name is Adrian. I'm your brother. Our father passed away when he was very young, and I only have a few memories of him, but I would love to get to know you."
Jon's response was immediate and characteristically straightforward: "Yeah. I could tell you were my brother, because you've got the same head shape." Adrian recalls with laughter, "He's the light-skinned version of me. He's just an easy going guy. His mother was Irish and he wasn't connected to Caribbean culture. I was to be the first Black family member that he's met."
The brothers arranged an emotional reunion at a family address in Stoke-on-Trent in 2021, embracing in a bear hug before Adrian introduced Jon to the rest of his family and their sister Sammy. "It was just beautiful," Adrian remembers. "He told me he didn't know why everyone was so nice to him – he'd never had that close connection like he saw within my family."
Uncanny Similarities
As they talked, the brothers discovered remarkable coincidences. Both Jon and their father had worked in engineering as capstan operators, despite never having met. Even more astonishingly, Jon's middle name was Renee – the same middle name as Adrian's daughter, though this was completely coincidental.
Months later, Adrian took Jon to visit their father Luke's grave, a profoundly emotional experience. "You can't put it into words, what's not said is understood," Adrian reflects.
Tragedy and Healing
Tragically, just three days after their planned visit to the grave (which their sister Sammy couldn't attend at the last moment), Sammy collapsed and died from heart failure without having shown any previous illness. "She only got to know Jon for a few months," Adrian says. "It was hard to accept losing her like that. She was my closest sibling, so it was like a piece of me passing."
"In a weird way, it was like my long lost brother was an angel that had come along to help me through that time."
Though Jon lives in Birmingham, 100 miles from Adrian, the brothers remain close, seeing each other whenever possible.
Building Connections
Adrian has since transformed his passion into his award-winning genealogy business, Own History, where he conducts workshops to support others uncovering their family trees. He also works in prisons, helping inmates understand the importance of family connections ahead of their release.
He continues to trace new family members in his spare time. "I film when I meet them and it's a beautiful moment, because a lot of them are on my doorstep," he explains. "I've found family that live where I park my car every day. My son Tyrrell found out his sports teacher was related. His mother was first cousins with my grandmother – they used to swim together at the beach in Jamaica."
Remarkable Connections
Through his extensive research, Adrian has discovered fascinating connections, including:
- Sharing DNA with Bob Marley's daughter Cedella
- Being related to R&B artist Ella Mai
- Having family ties to record-breaking Jamaican sprinter Asafa Powell
He has also traced his earliest slave ancestor, Ebo Venus, in the registers for the Kellits Plantation in Clarendon, Jamaica, and connected relatives back to Ghana and Nigeria. His extraordinary family tree is now displayed in London's Science Museum.
A Philosophical Perspective
Having experienced significant loss, Adrian has developed a philosophical approach to life. "Losing people close to me has shown that you never know how much time you have," he explains. "All this research I have done has given me a stronger sense of identity, which is important – especially for people who are not born in the Caribbean, as it builds a bridge to people embracing you and sharing love with you."
"It also gives you the chance to give them something back – whether that is a record, some knowledge or a link to a family member. And that is priceless."
Adrian's journey demonstrates how genealogy serves not just as a link to the past, but as a powerful means of creating meaningful connections in the present, proving that human relationships remain among life's most valuable treasures.
