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My findings didn't change me but I found deep respect for my grandparents on both sides. Going waaay back in the family tree, there were extreme ups and downs, but each set of grandparents became heroes to me. The hard work, dedication, wisdom, overcoming of tragedies.
A lot of life is just plain luck, good or bad and it's how you deal with it that matters. Give up or keep putting one foot in front of the other.
Learning about all of these other adoptions in my grandmothers sisters lines, it's amazing that I never dated any of them because they were around the same age, some in neighboring towns in my state.
I'm with you on this, Roselvr! I grew up in small Wisc town, surrounded by even smaller towns. In my social circles and most particularly in my K-12 school, I was friends with kids I had no idea were my 1st/2nd/3rd cousins. They were from:
1) my mystery grandfather's (Emil's) great-nieces and nephews
2) My grandmother's (Florence's) grandmother's 2nd marriage. GG-grandma and 1st hubby had two kids, he died when they were young, GG-grandma remarried months later, lived in the same small town and began having babies again. Her daughter (G-grandma) married early. So, GG-grandma AND G-grandma were having kids at the same time, some in the same years, many with very similar first and middle names, but different last names.
3) grandmother Florence's nieces and nephews
I didn't know any of this until 2015. Either did my sisters. Why didn't anyone tell us? What if one of us started fooling with some boy cousin, caught pregnant, with neither party realizing we were related? What a mess that would've been. Guess I'll never know until I after I die and get to ask them.
On top of that, I would've really liked to get to know these cousins. One family, who were my great-uncle's kids, lived just down the street. I rode my bike past their house at least once a week. We're great friends now, but all those childhood years ..... just lost.
very proud of my heritage on my mothers side .. things i only found about maybe 15 years or so ago .. i never gave much thought to family history till i got on in years and was close to maybe meeting some of them in person ,, or maybe in spirit ..my mother was a Hyatt .. Hyatts town Maryland and Hyattsville Maryland were named after distant relatives . The Hyatt hotel chain uses our name but is not associated any other way ,, Washington DC is thought to be located on land deeded or previously owned by a Hyatt .. Hyatts fought on bought sides the of the revolutionary war and the war of northern aggression .. the Hyatt family has a British family seal .. i`m not sure what that means ... my mothers mother was a Briscoe .. the Briscoes were somewhat prominent in Tennessee back a few hundred years .. one was a Governor and another owned land rented by Davy Crocket in his youth .. my family name Moon and my dads mother Baker was somewhat un illustrious but a whole cemetery in our home town was named after dozens of Moons who perished during the war of northern aggression ..i dont know much about the Bakers but many dozens of them are in north Bama ...
very proud of my heritage on my mothers side .. things i only found about maybe 15 years or so ago .. i never gave much thought to family history till i got on in years and was close to maybe meeting some of them in person ,, or maybe in spirit ..my mother was a Hyatt .. Hyatts town Maryland and Hyattsville Maryland were named after distant relatives . The Hyatt hotel chain uses our name but is not associated any other way ,, Washington DC is thought to be located on land deeded or previously owned by a Hyatt .. Hyatts fought on bought sides the of the revolutionary war and the war of northern aggression .. the Hyatt family has a British family seal .. i`m not sure what that means ... my mothers mother was a Briscoe .. the Briscoes were somewhat prominent in Tennessee back a few hundred years .. one was a Governor and another owned land rented by Davy Crocket in his youth .. my family name Moon and my dads mother Baker was somewhat un illustrious but a whole cemetery in our home town was named after dozens of Moons who perished during the war of northern aggression ..i dont know much about the Bakers but many dozens of them are in north Bama ...
Does your Briscoe line trace back to MD too? One of Cumberland's most prominent early citizens (and not my relative so far as I can trace) was a Hanson Briscoe whose family was from downstate Maryland.
Does your Briscoe line trace back to MD too? One of Cumberland's most prominent early citizens (and not my relative so far as I can trace) was a Hanson Briscoe whose family was from downstate Maryland.
i will look into that and reply accordingly . there is also some Jones in my family .. Admiral Richard Jones of her majesties Royal Navy and his siblings of the same name .. its been years since i read the family book ..
I've been researching my ancestry a few years and don't think it has changed my self perception. I've always been a bit of a history buff, and genealogy has given me areas and periods of history to dig into that I hadn't before.
I must admit though, I never realized how many people I share a common connection to until I started the research.
I didn't find out through ancestry search but when I found out my blood type was not the same as my mother or father and that it would be impossible to have both of them as my parents I started questioning my mother. She would never admit to anything until shortly before she died. She told me she was pregnant with me when she met my father, however she didn't know it at the time. This was in the days before you had early home pregnancy tests. When I found out it shocked me to my core. I felt like I didn't know who I really was and now I knew nothing about any health issues on my "father's" side.
I managed to track down my half brother and sister only to find out my bio dad had died about 8 years prior from Alzheimer's. Another shock. We haven't met yet but had plans to do so before Covid. Now I'm not even sure I want to meet them. What's the point now.
I didn't find out through ancestry search but when I found out my blood type was not the same as my mother or father and that it would be impossible to have both of them as my parents I started questioning my mother. She would never admit to anything until shortly before she died. She told me she was pregnant with me when she met my father, however she didn't know it at the time. This was in the days before you had early home pregnancy tests. When I found out it shocked me to my core. I felt like I didn't know who I really was and now I knew nothing about any health issues on my "father's" side.
I managed to track down my half brother and sister only to find out my bio dad had died about 8 years prior from Alzheimer's. Another shock. We haven't met yet but had plans to do so before Covid. Now I'm not even sure I want to meet them. What's the point now.
Some things are better left alone in my opinion.
This would be a big emotional shock and take some care to adjust to.
Take it slow, it might not be that bad.
I look at my parents, who I had very little in common with, and am happy to be myself, I am not them.
Slightly, but most lined up with what we knew from paper trail.
My mom's side of the family has lived in the United States only since the late 1800s and early 1900s. They include mostly German (and one Norwegian) Lutherans, and Central European Mennonites/Hutterites, many of whom came from Russia. They largely settled in South Dakota and Minnesota.
My dad's side of the family are mostly English (though the surname traces back to Scotland in the 1600s) and have lived on the East Coast (Massachusetts and Vermont especially) since Mayflower times. Episcopalians and some Methodists and Catholics.
We once speculated maybe some Jewish ancestry on Mom's side, and maybe some Native ancestry on Dad's side. Nope, pure European Gentile per 23andMe and Ancestry. The German, English, and Norwegian percentages/DNA are firmly traceable. I have very little of anything else.
Culturally and socially, I tend more toward Mom's side. I'm a stubborn, time-conscious, often humorless, impersonal German, and Lutheranism makes more sense to me than the other sects. My diction and syntax are very much like my Dad's side of the family, though.
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. there is also some Jones in my family .. Admiral Richard Jones of her majesties Royal Navy and his siblings of the same name .. its been years since i read the family book ..
