WHEN Felice Berman urged long-lost relatives to get in touch through the Jewish Telegraph Roots Directory feature in 2005, she received no response.

But seven years later, a second cousin in America - who Felice knew nothing of before last week - has contacted her to begin a new family relationship.

Hillary Gordon, of New York, was getting her latest fix of news of the British Jewish community from the JT website when she came across an old, archived picture she recognised.

It was of her grandfather Max and his sister Rebecca - and had been placed there all that time ago by Felice.

Felice, of Sunnybank, explained: "I was looking for Max Gordon, my great uncle, who moved to America from Stockport with his wife Rose and son Harry.

"They left two sisters here - my grandmother Rebecca Cooper and her sister Annie Eventhall."

Between the early 1930s and last Wednesday, the two sides of the family had no contact.

"Out of the blue, I got an email from a Hillary Gordon - Max's granddaughter," recalled Felice, who works in the Jewish Telegraph's advertising department.

"She was scanning through the JT's online Roots Directory and saw this photograph.

"Hillary knew her family were from Stockport and she made contact."

Felice, married to Ivor, has also discovered Hillary's sister, Francis, lives in Santa Barbara, California.

She continued: "I was absolutely gobsmacked. Unfortunately, her father Harry - my father's first cousin - has passed away, which I was very upset to hear.

"He apparently did not speak much about his family in Stockport."

The pair have been catching up via emails - and in a few months will meet for the first time when Felice and Ivor fly to California.

Felice added: "It's crazy that I put it up in 2005 and it's only come to something in 2012.

"The lesson is to put something in the JT . . . and sooner or later you will get in touch with your family."