|
my dad did it, hes a big genealogy/ancestry buff. it wasnt surprising.
what was more surprising is having my cousin, on my mom's side contact me via social networking. see, my mom's biological mother was only in the picture until she was about 3, and then my grandfather divorced her, and fairly unique for the time, got full custody of my mom and aunt. and that side of the family has always been a bit of dead end.
but out of the blue, someone contacted me claiming to be my cousin. and i was cautious at first, but it turns out, its probably true. and she had a full back to germany geneology and family tree, including notes on personalities, funny stories, etc. which was a very cool connection.
turns out all over the family tree there are these disconnections, and the notion that before modern divorce, everyone was raised in a mom + dad nuclear family is largely a lie. there are at least 3 of these disconnections in the last 100 years in my family tree.
the saddest one is a letter we have from my great aunt. she ran away with a boot legger, to chicago, and a year later sent a letter to the family that said "hey, this was a mistake, and i want to go home. but i also understand that what i did wasn't socially acceptable, and if you dont want me back because of it, i understand" .... and the letter didnt come with a return address. so somewhere, there is a whole branch of my family that thinks, wrongly, they were kicked out of the family. be real interesting to see what happened there.
tragic what puritanical rules have done to people throughout the past.
|