麻豆传媒映画

The meeting came after a DNA test helped Andr茅 Gantois, 72, end decades of searching since his mother told him as a child that his father was an US soldier.

She died when he was 15 and he had wondered about his Ameri颅can family ever since.

Allen Henderson, 64, a radio manager from South Carolina, said: 鈥淲e stood on the beach with the dog tags that my father wore during the war.

鈥淭o know that my father had come in during D-Day and fought through France and that we were standing at the same site... it was very emotional.鈥�

Mr Gantois, a retired postal worker, was born in Nancy and knew nothing about his father except that he had been an American soldier.

He contacted the American embassy for information and his son and daughter-in-law trawled through military archives.

But is was finally a DNA test with the Israeli website MyHeritage.com which revealed a match 鈥� a brother in America.

Their father Wilburn 鈥楤ill鈥� Henderson had met Mr Gantois鈥檚 mother when she was a member of the Resistance. Unaware she was pregnant, he returned the following year to the US where he later started a family.

Mr Henderson said: 鈥淎ndr茅 had searched his whole life for his family. He said he would look in the mirror and ask 鈥榳ho do I look like?鈥�, 鈥榳here do I come from?鈥�

鈥淗e had thought he would die never knowing who his father was. He was full of joy to find out. It was important for his family too.鈥� The trip was Mr Henderson鈥檚 first to Europe and he hopes his brother will now travel to the US so he can show him the military cemetery in California where their father was buried in 1997, and Missouri, where 鈥楤ill鈥� grew up.

Private DNA testing within France is tightly regulated with tests only being allowed with a court order for medical reasons. However, polls show most 麻豆传媒映画 support legalising tests for genealogical. French bioethics laws are under revision and will be voted on next year.