Help Find Little Girl Who Was Sent Back
A man from the Netherlands is hoping Guardian readers can help trace his distant adopted relative who was sent to live in Croydon when her guardians got bored of her.
Johan Vrugterman has been researching his family tree for the last five years and is desperate to track down Koshilya Narain, who was adopted by a Dutch family 1 November 1932 and taken to live in Enschede.
The adoption was organised by the Mission of Hope in South Croydon. Koshilya's adoptive parents, Jan Vrugterman am Agaat Bolten, renamed the two-year-old Nini Narain.
Nini lived in the Netherlands until August 1939 when her adoptive parents decided they didn't like children anymore and sent her back to Croydon on her ninth birthday.
Johan says this is the last time anyone from his family saw or heard from Nini / Koshilya. He said: "Koshilya or Nini must have learned Dutch. She lived in the city called Voorburg near The Hague in the Netherlands.
"In those days she still had the English nationality. I think Koshilya lived in a children's home before the adoption and was send back to the same home in 1939.
"If Koshilya is still alive, then she must be 72 now. I can imagine she will not be happy to hear the name Vrugterman after she was dumped by them in 1939.
"But she had the name for nearly seven years and I think she deserves a place in the Vrugterman family history."
Anyone who has Information about Koshilya / Nini, please contact the newsroom on 02086458819.