A RADIO presenter has found family he never knew existed thanks to researchers from the Essex Records Office.

Dave Monk, who presents a show on BBC Essex, travelled to Canada to meet the long lost relatives after the researchers found a connection.

Mr Monk, who has presented a number of programmes about local history during a 30-year broadcasting career, has never known who his grandfather was, but researchers were able to discover he was a Canadian pilot who died in the First World War.

Mr Monk, who believed the only family he had left was his wife Caroline, found Lieutenant Kenneth Matthewson had a number of relatives back in Canada.

The delighted DJ said: “It’s been incredible. It was just Caroline and I before, so to find out I have a whole family in Canada was unbelievable.

“Meeting them was so emotional.

It has given me a new insight into who I am and where I come from.”

Archivists from the Essex Records Office began delving into his past after they were booked on to his radio show.

They found that another family on the other side of the Atlantic were mourning the loss of Lieutenant Matthewson, who left for war in 1915 but never came home. The Essex Records Office discovered the missing soldier was in fact the grandfather Dave never met.

Sue Eakin, one of Dave’s Canadian second cousins, said: “To discover there was a living legacy of Kenneth Matthewson, was marvellous. I can’t tell you howmuch it means to the whole family.”

  • The story is set to be featured on BBC One's Inside Out at 7.30pm on Monday.