After 76 years apart, sisters Ruth Foster and Violet Mishler had a lot to say when they met for the first time.

Their family was broken up in 1919 when their father died. The mother was pregnant with Violet and placed her five oldest children in a Montana orphanage. She hoped to return to reunite them, but all of the children except the oldest boy eventually were adopted.

It was a project that stretched over five decades for family members to track each other down. One by one, family members Walt Hough, Marie Mottrem, Robert Stoner, Ed Crouch and Ruth Foster were reunited - all of them except for the baby, Violet Rose.

“I think everyone had just about given up all hope of finding her after 76 years, said Nancy Coffelt, Ruth’s daughter. “When there’s a missing piece of the puzzle, you go looking for it. The kids went looking for Aunt Vi because she had just been born when they were separated.”

The big break came recently when a family member discovered the mother’s maiden name and traced her to Fond Du Lac, Wis., where she returned after her husband’s death. The local historical society provided the name of a man with the same last name as the mother’s maiden name and he provided the leads necessary.

“I couldn’t talk. I couldn’t believe it,” Ruth said, of her first phone call with her sister, located in Gillette, Wyo. Violet, when told that family members had found their missing sister, said, “I told them I didn’t know I was lost.”

, DataTimes