The initiative drew inspiration from the story of Irishman John Joseph Gill, whose 2022 death in England sparked a family search.

After the 86-year-old moved into many assisted living facilities and lost contact with his relatives, parts of Mr. Gill's family were found thanks to a call from Birmingham City Council.

Padraic Grennan, CEO of Erin's Call, who assisted in finding his family, claimed the matter attracted media attention at the time.

Erin's Call became engaged, according to Mr. Grennan, since no next-of-kin appeared to be stepping forward to claim Mr. Gill's remains, despite requests made at the time by Birmingham City Council.

He said that the information the council possessed was false, including the erroneous county and day of birth.

Erin's Call pieced together his relatives' whereabouts by using a "process of elimination" to identify the real Mr. Gill and obtain the right birth certificate.

He added that instead of being genealogical hobbyists, Erin's Call is a professional, albeit free, service that mostly works with lawyers who are administering estates, such as with someone listed in a will who is missing or who has no known next of kin.

After that, it assembles a family tree and provides a report to solicitors so they may allocate the estate.

With his background in Safe Home Ireland, an organisation that assists the diaspora in their quest for return home, Mr. Grennan said it was felt that Erin's Call could be of "real benefit" to the diaspora who lack the connections or resources necessary to locate their family or find their way back home in their later years.

According to him, the charity wants to connect with Irish emigrant support agencies both domestically and abroad to spread the word about the availability of the free service.

Erin's Call, he emphasised, "respects everybody's privacy" in situations where someone "may not want to be found.”

"When or if we find that individual, obviously we would explain why we're making contact and ask them if they're happy for us then to provide that person's contact details to our client.

"But our clients are made aware at the outset. If it's a no-no that's the end of the process as far as we're concerned - we don't pass over the information."