A woman in England was reunited with her long-lost father after 56 years when he was “suggested” as a friend on Facebook.

Karen Harris, 56, was adopted as a little girl and only knew her father's name was Trevor Sinden, an electrician from Croydon, reports The Scotsman, a national daily in Scotland.

She came to know the name from a social worker when she had approached an adoption agency at the age of 18, seeking her birth parents.

Since then, she tried to find him but failed with the little information she had.

Decades later, she saw the name on the “suggested friends” feature on Facebook, reports The Scotsman.

Karen, of Penryn, Cornwall, found that Trevor lived in Kent, about 350 miles away. After browsing through the profile and from his details and history, she realised she might have finally found her father.

They connected over the social media site and chatted for weeks before they met for the first time in an emotional reunion on January 17 in Lyme Regis, Dorset, roughly halfway between Cornwall and Kent.

It seemed as if they have known each other their whole lives, they both said.

Karen told The Scotsman that her birth parents gave her up for adoption in the early 1960s.

Her parents were teenagers and she was born out of wedlock, which was frowned upon in those days, she said.

“Now I’ve found completion. I’ve found connection and completion and I’m cherishing it.”

“I’m incredibly blessed to find him now,” Karen added.

“It’s like all of her Christmasses at the same time. It’s so surreal, the chances of actually meeting were so slim,” Trevor, 72, said.

Karen had earlier managed to track down her mother based on information provided by the social worker, around a decade later.

But finding her father proved to be more difficult.

“I have looked on the internet but could never find her. It’s early days but I feel we already know each other quite well,” Trevor said.

“If it wasn’t for Facebook we wouldn't have met.”