[wdfifteen]

Yeah, we have a doozy.
My cousin is not a blood relative.
No one knew except my aunt and uncle, and perhaps my grandparents. All four of them had passed on when "Bill" died (names have been changed), so no one knows the story of how he came into our family. There were rumors in the family that he was adopted, but the rumors were never confirmed.
We always knew him as "Bill Smith." When he died his obituary told his life story, which is the life story of the man we all knew as Bill. It got all the details of his life right, the name of his "parents" and "sister," his childhood home, schools he graduated from - everything. But it called him "Joe Jones" throughout the story, until it got to the end. In one short sentence it said, "Joe was called Bill to his friends and family," with no other explanation. After his death his wife, who always called him "Bill" confirmed that the name on their marriage license is "Joe Jones"
We don't know where is birth parents went, why my aunt and uncle took him on, or why he was never legally adopted, or why all of this was kept such a secret.