ITV Long Lost Family: An abandoned child turned teacher searches for relatives in Leicester

A university professor who was abandoned as a child is appealing to Leicestershire residents to help uncover her family history after her parents were traced to the town.

Liz Deutsch, 59, was abandoned in hand-knitted clothes in a wicker basket outside a sports club in Birmingham when she was just six weeks old.

Now, almost six decades later, her appearance on ITV’s Long Lost Family: Born Without Trace has revealed she has crucial links to Leicester and hopes LeicestershireLive readers may hold the key to unlocking more of her past.

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Despite numerous public appeals, Liz’s mother was never found and the child was placed in long-term foster care, remaining there until the age of 16. She then got her bachelor’s degree and a college degree before becoming a nurse and is now a teacher. of Nursing Practice as part of a collaboration between Coventry University’s Center for Research in Care Excellence (CCE) and University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire NHS Trust.

Liz told LeicestershireLive that she had to deal with life “her own way”. “In foster care, no one is necessarily going to help you find your way when you leave care,” she said. “I didn’t have any ‘bank of (mum) and dad’ – I had to make my own way from the age of 16.”

Four years ago, Liz contacted the Long Lost Family team, hoping to appear on the hit show. The breakthrough came in October 2023, when Liz received an unexpected call from the show’s producer. They suggested it was time to start filming her story, which eventually led to the final production which recently aired on ITV.

During filming, Liz finally learned her mother’s identity and what happened to her. Liz’s birth mother was Muriel Cox and she and her relatives were all from Leicester.

Muriel lived in Dale Street, Highfields. Muriel’s parents, Herbert Charles Cox and Suzannah Gran, also lived in the area.

Muriel had an older sister, Hilda, who lived in her parents’ former home in Dale Street until her death in 2009.

In her later years, Muriel suffered from dementia and was cared for by neighbours, including a woman called Vicky, the show revealed.

In the programme, Liz had an emotional encounter with a second cousin, Christine Jones, who had been tracked down.

Liz said: “They’re keeping that big moment for TV, and my reaction now is that it satisfied the parameters of understanding where I came from. I feel liberated; not because of the stigma of being in foster care because that’s a massive life issue, but it brought me some comfort and I have no regrets.”

Now Liz is particularly keen to hear from anyone who may have known her birth mother Muriel, her aunt Hilda or her grandparents Herbert and Suzannah. Any information, no matter how small, could help piece together more of her family history.

If you can help, email [email protected]

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