Things you find out from family later in life.

CSB

My mother told me her father had a college scholarship when he graduated high school but his father talked him into staying home and helping out on the farm. When I was a child and they were both still living I sensed some tension between my grandfather and great grandfather but never knew what it was about. I also found out my grandmother had a miscarriage, so I potentially could have had another aunt or uncle.

My grandmother worked in a munitions factory during WWII while my grandfather was stationed in the South Pacific. Neither her kids nor her grandkids knew until the late 2000s.

quote:

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I guess death was just so much more common in early 20th century it wasn’t seen as big of a deal.

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As high as 20 percent of children born in the United States in 1910 died before the age of 5.

The United States average for children per family was 4, and rural families 6-7.

So it was probably rare to not have lost a child.

I found out that Henry Ford was a great great great uncle of mine.

My grandmother had an uncle who had a falling out with his father in his late teens and headed out west. He ended up out in California where he eventually married and had a family. No one heard from him again until about 30 years later, and then only intermittently after that. My dad corresponded with one of his adult grandchildren a few years ago when she was trying to find out some family history. Her grandfather had told them an elaborate story about growing up on a plantation and having to leave after killing a riverboat gambler in a fight over a card game, absolutely none of which was true.

My grandpa was born in austria just before wwii. He ended up in America with his parents while his (much) older brothers stayed to fight. I got a grandpa who invaded Germany on one side and great uncles on the other who fought for Germany.

My cousin once was on a safari in a far off place, probably africa. He got trampled in a stampede and died. I wish I could've talked to him about it and said "mufasa why were you there couldn't you run?".

Meeting my half sister and niece when I was 4 took some explaining about an earlier marriage. Later when looking online at family history 3 deaths turned out not to have been due to natural causes as I had been told. Rough spots had been smoothed out during telling. No DNA surprises so far.

Have an half aunt that I have never seen. Paw Paw was a rolling stone.