Man in UK looking for 'De Souza' family, who adopted his late grandma & lived in Sembawang & Queenstown

A student living in England, is looking for the Singaporean relatives of his late grandmother, Irene, 81.

Noah turned to Reddit in an appeal to online users for more information on the "De Souzas", who had adopted Irene shortly after she was born.

Noah posted in the Reddit threads, r/Singapore and r/askSingapore, sharing that he had previously attempted to find his grandmother's family without success.

Irene returned to Singapore in the early 2000s, but failed to find any leads.

However, her recent passing motivated him to try seeking them out again.

Noah first posted on Reddit three years ago, in hopes of finding more details about his grandmother's adoptive family.

At that time, he included a photo of her and his dad as a child.

Born in 1944 and adopted by the De Souzas

According to Noah, his grandmother was born in Singapore on Feb. 7, 1944.

Shortly after she was born, she was adopted by the De Souza family, who are of Portuguese and Chinese descent.

His grandmother's adoptive parents consisted of mother, Agnes De Souza, and father, Edmond.

In the family was also a step-sibling, Susan, who later became Susan Chan after marriage, but is believed to be divorced.

There are also three step-brothers, Fredrick, William and Patrick.

Noah described the De Souzas as devout Catholics who regularly attended church.

They were known to have lived in the Sembawang and Queenstown area, near Commonwealth Drive.

Noah said the family were Eurasian.

Lived along Burmah Road after marriage

Noah added that his grandmother attended a convent school, possibly with the name "St. Mary's", although his searches online have come up empty.

Online users suggested that "St. Mary's" might be Marymount Convent School.

Irene got married in October 1970, according to her marriage certificate, and briefly resided along "9 Burma Road".

This could be a possible misspelling of "9 Burmah Road" in Little India, one user commented.

Irene was also friends with Dora Suares and Henry Lesslar Robert, but lost contact with them, Noah said.

In 1972, Irene left with her husband for the UK.

"Any information, or ideas into how I could locate them would be greatly appreciated," Noah wrote about his grandmother's adoptive family.

Along with the brief descriptions, Noah also shared photos of Irene and her family.

Obituary lead

One user responded that there exists a 1997 obituary for a woman named Agnes Lucy De Souza nee Chia, who passed away at the age of 80 on Mar. 23 that year.

The obituary listed her husband as "Edmund De Souza", and her sons as Patrick and Frederick De Souza.

One William Oliveiro was listed as an adopted son, while her daughter was Faridah De Souza Abdullah.

At the time, Agnes had five grandchildren.

In response to this lead, Noah acknowledged that the details appeared to line up perfectly with his grandmother's background, given that Agnes and Edmund were the names of Irene's adoptive parents.

Noah wrote that he can be reached if anyone else has any leads or information.

Top image via u/nuohnoa / Reddit.