A WITNEY-BORN grandmother has made a heartfelt plea for information that could reunite her with the sister she never knew.

After being reunited with her half-sister, Jennifer Coville is now on a mission to track her missing sister Patricia, who she believes could be living in West Oxfordshire.

Miss Coville, 63, was born in Witney to parents Len and Barbara Agnes, who lived at Kilkenny Farm in Brize Norton during the 1940s and 1950s.

Throughout her life she grew up thinking she only had one brother, John, who was 12 when she was born.

But to her astonishment she found out only three months ago that she had a half-sister, who came forward to introduce herself, and another sister, whom she is still trying to track down.

Miss Coville, who now lives in Cambridgeshire with her husband Peter Philips, believes Patricia could be living in the Witney area, and is appealing for anyone with information to come forward.

Miss Coville said: “I was only three when she was born on June 5, 1955, and my parents then got divorced that month.

“I don’t know why she was given away. My mother never told us anything.

“Perhaps she didn’t want to be a single mother with three children. Women had to look after themselves those days, nobody else did.

“I know she was a premature baby and that when my mother carried me, she barely showed at all. So she might not have showed with my sister. So maybe my father never even knew.”

Bed and breakfast owner Miss Coville said she signed up to Ancestry Online, which is how her half-sister found her. She was then told she had another sister, who may be a full blood relation.

She added: “Patricia was adopted when she was about one, and she would have been given a new birth certificate with a new surname.

“I’m very excited to know if she is a full sister. My cousins, who are sisters, had a big falling out a few years ago and stopped talking.

“So I got involved and wrote them both letters. I said ‘you’re so lucky you have a sister, I’ve always wanted one!’ They made up after that.”

Patricia June Coville, who may have been given a new name at a very young age, was adopted by a West Oxfordshire family when she was one, but lived with her adoptive parents before that.

She was premature and weighed four pounds and nine ounces, after being born in the Nuffield Maternity Home in Oxford.

A spokesman for Oxfordshire County Council, said the council could not comment on Miss Coville’s situation due to confidentiality issues.

Jennifer Coville lives in Huntingdon with her husband. She has two children, Tamsin and Simon, and three grandchildren, Isaak, 12, and twins, Scarlett and Olivia, eight.

* If you can help Miss Coville’s search contact the Oxford Mail at marcher@nqo.com or on 01865 425411.