Some things are better kept private, and if you’re like most people, you probably have five riveting secrets stashed away somewhere that you never told a single soul. However, they can’t be hidden forever, and it’s just a matter of time before the skeletons in the closet are discovered.
People in this online thread were discussing the said discoveries, only this time they found them among their family members, who kept them successfully concealed for quite a few years. From unknown kidnappings to lost twins, these juicy stories give telenovelas a run for their money. To uncover them, all you have to do is scroll down!
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My dad had an affair after 40 years of marriage and my parents broke up - to be fair I understood why, my mum was very aggressive toward him and it was hard to be around even as adults. What was tough was my mum made sure everyone knew he was the ‘bad guy’ and he lost friends, etc. but, years later when I wanted to get dna tests for my mum, brother and I for fun to see our family tree my mum broke down crying and begged me not to get the tests. I asked my dad about it and he broke down crying in a restaurant (never really seen him cry before) and he told me that when I was conceived my mum had also been caught having an affair with her boss - so there was a chance I was not my dads child. He never mentioned it even when mum was going nuts about his affair. My dad is 80 now and we decided to get a paternity test so he could know before he passes and the cool news is that I am his biological daughter :-) I think I loved my dad and respected him even more after this as he raised me so lovingly I had no idea of the drama behind my existence. I realised even more what a great dad I have.
20 years after his death we found out my grandfather had been quite a senior scientist on the 'Tube Alloys' project to develop a British nuclear bomb. No one in the family even knew he had any scientific qualifications. He owned and operated several successful butchers shops until his retirement. We found out when nan passed 20 years later and we found his papers.
adreddit298:
Man took the Official Secrets Act seriously!
We discovered, shortly before her death, that my Nana worked with Alan Turing on the "Enigma" code-breaking during the war. She didn't have a particularly influential role in the actual code-breaking itself, she mainly worked on intercepting the Enigma codes and passing them on to Turing and his team. But yeah, she knew him and worked directly alongside him on a daily basis.
This all came about because we were going through her old paperwork etc, because she was poorly at the time and was moving into a smaller place, and we found some old ration books n'that relating to the war in some old tin boxes. She never really liked speaking about the war, and someone in the family asked her what she actually did back then.
We were all absolutely gobsmacked when she told us, even my Mum (her daughter) didn't really know what she did. It all checked out, and there's even a couple of old photos of the team (including Dilly Knox!) with Nana there alongside these people that I've had digitally restored.
Nana just didn't think it was important. She was just doing her bit for the war effort, and said she actually felt guilty that she had what she thought was a relatively "safe" job back then.
Apart from that, I've got a cousin in Australia who appeared in a few episodes of Home and Away. From my Nana's side of the fam, obviously. Ha!
One of the leading experts on the psychology of secrets, psychologist Michael Slepian, and his colleagues have found that the most common secrets are related to (in this order) lies told to significant others, having romantic desires while single, money, and personal finances.
Evan Imber-Black, professor of marriage and family therapy, explains that “people keep secrets for all kinds of reasons, but mainly to protect relationships, themselves, or others. Secrets become harmful when a relationship is injured or when it haunts the secret holder.”
I am British / white and have a blood disorder predominantly found in Arabs. I took a DNA test and found out that my grandad wasnt my dad's real dad.
My grandmother ran a boarding house during the war and must have met someone, and as a result my dad was born.
There's nobody alive to share the gossip with.
Found out at 48 I had a twin sister. Her daughter found me on social media. I had no idea she existed.
A great uncle was a police officer in Cardiff. He was married to one of a pair of identical twins. After a decade of marriage, he ran off with the other twin.
KingJacoPax:
Well, at least we know he had a type.
Even though hiding something is common, it often comes at a cost. Evidence from Slepian's studies suggests that concealing information results in lower life satisfaction and quality relationships and even manifests in poor psychological and physical health.
However, the effect doesn’t come from the stress or anxiety of keeping a secret, but rather from the feelings associated with shame, isolation, and inauthenticity.
“The hard part of having a secret is not that you have to hide it, but that you have to live with it, alone in your thoughts,” Slepian says. “These experiences can leave us feeling helpless, and holding a secret back in conversation is just a small slice of the pain and stress caused by secrets."
A distant relative of mine was a pirate and was hanged for smuggling in the Carribbean.
My mum has a big old grandfather clock in her living room with wierd white bits inbedded in it. She didn’t tell me for years that one of my relatives unalived themselves with a 12b shotgun and that it was bits of said relative’s skull in the clock.
I recently found out that my late mother sold my original Air Jordans from 1985 for $28,000 a few years ago. I kept asking her while she was alive to let me have my shoes, but she insisted that I would do something stupid like selling them. That explains the 2015 Mercedes she drove until her death.
Meanwhile, people who reveal their hidden truths tend to be healthier than those who chronically keep them tucked away. More likely than not, people will react positively to being confided in. It might take a dash of courage, but disclosing secrets can make a person feel instantly better and even help form bonds and connections with others.
My dad used to live in a cave. He was a part of a gang/subculture in the 1960s/early 70s called the Troggs. They used to squat in the show caves in Matlock Bath, and had quite a bad reputation stacked against them by the locals. There were crazy rumours spread about them, from "they have d**g fuelled orgies in the woods" to "they do black magic rituals in the caves" etc. In reality, they just did a lot of d***s. Whilst also living in caves.
One day as a kid I found a newspaper clipping of some article from the 90s called "Wild Thing!" or something, and there was a picture of a younger him with his Trogg mates down a cave. Then he told me everything and it blew my mind.
My grandad died maybe 15 years ago now. We knew he was adopted but that was about it, no idea about his birth family or any of that, trail was cold. Not long after he died the family was contacted by someone claiming to be his birth brother who had been tracking him down, we thought it was phoney but when we saw pictures of the guy the resemblance was uncanny.
He really wanted to meet his brother, he was unaware he was a week late as he had just died. Anyway we arrange to meet not only him but the entire birth family including my great grandmother who was celebrating her 90th.
Apparently she gave birth to him very young and out of wedlock so she was forced to give him up for adoption.
We knew for decades my grandad was adopted and to meet them all at once was bittersweet; great to finally find them but sucks my grandad died like literally a week before.
Only found out recently that my biological grandfather was in a mental institution with schizophrenia. He thought he was God.
Nothing to be ashamed about. His brain just produces more dopamine then average. It happens. He isn't less than and I wish people would stop the stigma of mental health.
My great aunt who lives in a tiny rural town had her little toes surgically removed to fit into a pair of shoes..?! I still have so many questions that haven’t been answered.
I found some letters and a diary in my grandma's place after she passed. Apparently she used to work as maid for an important doctor (before only rich people could go to uni and become doctors) when she was 14. The man got her pregnant and then tried to convince her to abort. She refused, so he made her marry one of the family workers (my grandpa).
This was shocking since my grandparents loved each other so much and looked like a great couple, they both built a solid family and gave their children a good education.
My great uncle (my nan's brother) was a getaway driver for a couple of bank jobs back in the 50s. Got caught and did time, but after release still drove around in a Jag, and bought my nan a nice new car every couple of years...
I was adopted as a baby. It was made clear my birth parents had had a one night stand, got pregnant, and couldnt abort because of their Catholic upbringing. They were both very poor, Irish immigrants trying to get decent work in London. I accepted this completely, they wanted a better life for me.
I contacted them at around 15, to let them know I was doing well, and what GCSEs I would be doing. They replied, and it turned out they had got back together (maybe not ever been apart) and had 2 boys together. My full biological brothers. They are living in Ireland now, and their family still is unaware of my existence.
That was a pretty rough thing to find out at 15. I have come to terms with it now at 36, with two children. They still made a sensible decision. But oof all the same.
I was reading about the contact thinking aw, a happy ending. It didn't occur to me her POV would probably be more betrayal and abandonment instead of happy family she could be a part of. I blame the 15 minutes of Hallmark movies I was exposed to while visiting my mom.
My great grandmother set her husband on fire who was the chief of police,
apparantly he was a twat to her.
Can't force myself to feel bad for abusive men killed by their wives. They had it coming.
My sister was born prematurely and had quite a few complications. She was in and out of hospital constantly. She needed risky surgery, emphasis on risky. Apparently it was a 20% survival rate. They went ahead with it and she later died that night. She was only 11 months old.
I was twelve years old at the time and that's what I was told and believed for the next twenty years.
What actually happened is that she had survived the surgery and was doing really well, she could have even gone home that day. However the surgeon recommended that she stay at the hospital overnight just in case. She choked on her own vomit, simply due to lack of staff and mismanagement.
Always thought we were descended from vikings, the family name is the same as a Viking settlement/village near us, turns out grandad, who looked Italian-black hair and olive skin-was abandoned at the settlement as a newborn by Irish travellers who were passing and was named after the village. I found this out in my fifties, which was a surprise.
When I did my ancestry search, I was hoping hard I would verify Scandinavian heritage. My skin tone, eyes and hair colours are appropriate, as is my maiden name. I was thrilled to find I was correct, with no surprises. So my name has survived for many hundreds of years and will continue.
My grandads brother had another family that nobody knew about until the funeral when they all turned up as well.
I was always told my grandfather was helping the sheriff of Nottingham when I was little and would visit him. Turns out he was serving life for taking a shotgun to his pregnant housekeeper, his kid of course.
My Mum dated a serial killer before he was known to be one. She didn't tell me about this until a few years ago, when the man in question was being mentioned in the news again.
My uncle was (technically) a hitman. He got paid to kill someone back in the 80's. He was released from prison at some point in the 2000's, I forget exactly when. I got curious about it so Googled his name and what'd been done and found a nice little article about it
Dad had also gone to prison, around the same time as my uncle, for about 8 or 9 years for "iron bar and axe attacks"
Fun family.
My Granddad planned to rob a bank with his mates, but when they climbed up onto the roof, the police were already there waiting for them.
My mum always told us that her mum (my grandmother) had died when she was 4 and that her brother was still born. Anyway, after my mum died, my dad just casually told us YEARS LATER that actually my grandmother had run off, taking her son with her and abandoned my mum when she was four, so I probably still have an uncle somewhere out there.
And people are surprised about the stories online about people dating and finding out later they are cousins.
But they're right! (Warning: numbers follow.) With ~8 billion people, assume ~3 billion have dated in such a timeframe that their stories could end up online. Further, suppose the odds of dating someone and finding out you're cousins is ~1 in 1 million, or ~1500 stories & 3,000 people. Here's the tricky part. Assume they're randomly distributed. If you time traveled back before when they knew and asked them, the reasonable thing for them to say would be "no, the odds are 1 in a million." Which is right in my model! So they should be surprised to learn that they are! What you're doing is looking at the results and then asking them to guess. If I roll a die and it comes up six, then say to someone, "Hey, I rolled a die, what are the odds it came up six?", they should answer one in six, because that's the guess you should make with no info; but the real odds are 1, as it did. Sorry if this is hard to follow. A good thing from Wikipedia is en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Law_of_truly_large_numbers.
Load More Replies...I always wonder what made them do it. There are so many possibilities. The most likely probably that she wasn‘t happy with her husband, had an affair that resulted in the second child and ran off with that childs father. But it could also be a mental problem, or abuse and she wasn‘t able to take the daughter too. OR she might have been abducted and killed but never found. …
That my great grandfather took his own life. Shellshock from WW1 as far as anyone knows. He was a farmer so had access to guns; just walked out into a field one day and shot himself.
Not my family but me and a friend found out through the ancestry website that his grandfather had a second family in the Philippines where he was frequently stationed with the army back in the day.
We kept finding an entry somebody had made on their family tree that matched his details, but we just ignored it thinking it was a coincidence. Eventually we looked at it.
What gave it away Some of his kids over there even had the same names as his kids here.
If he had chosen different names we wouldn’t have noticed and he might have got away with it!
My dad's uncle blew himself up with dynamite on his front porch like 50 years ago....does that count?
My dad tells it as a funny story...that crazy uncle.
My mum was kidnapped as a child.
ETA: she’s told me I’m not allowed to say anything more than that 😂 but it’s not a case anyone would’ve heard of before anyone gets too curious. It was definitely a WHAT THE F**K moment for me however.
My uncle hid a body his friend ran over ….
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My something greats-uncle is Johnny Weissmuller, Olympic gold medalist and original Tarzan actor in the 1930s live-action movies
Saved two lives, too. I'd recommend the book 'Johnny Weissmuller, Twice the Hero. If for no other reason than the photographs. Quite entrancing, well-written. Because of it I read a book about Cheeta, and found out when I was reading it Cheeta was still alive.
Load More Replies...My great grandfather was a member of the supervisory board of a large shipyard in WW2 building warships and submarines. Since he was of sinthi and roma heritage his employeers helped him destroy all his certificates and evidence of said heritage and covered up for him to keep him from beeing sent to prison and propably worse.
Omg this is incredible! I hope he lived a long and wonderful life ❤️
Load More Replies...Not as interesting as most of these, but we recently found out that one of my great-grandfather's went to jail twice in the late 1800s-early 1900s for for shooting (and not killing, thankfully) different neighbors. My grandmother who passed in 2009 never spoke about him, but she did always say no one was super torn up about him being killed by a horse and buggy on the family property...now we know why...
My favorite one is that my my great, great aunt ran a house of ill repute in Lansing, MI for many, many years. She also allegedly killed at least two of her six husbands (a third was never found) two of "her girls" for having naughty fun time with said husbands. By the time, they were going to prosecute her, she was really old and had cancer so the prosecutor had her put on home detention awaiting trial thinking she wouldn't live but another couple of months. She lived for another three years and ran her business the entire time, just from her home instead of her carpet store. She died a very, very wealthy woman and left everything to her "roommate" Frida.
My FIL was a part of the US secret service. We did not learn of this until his funeral, when it was told as a part of the eulogy. At one point he had the nuclear codes given to him during JFK's administration and he locked himself in a hotel room and stayed up all night with the "football" because he was so nervous. Absolutely crazy. We knew he worked with the government somehow but he would never give specifics.
I uncovered a few years back that my parents went to great lengths to conceal that I was born with a double genital tubercle. They really went all out concealing it ("coincidentally" moving within 20 miles of a neonatal care facility because of a "job opportunity" that my grandfather set up, using said hospital instead of the clinic less than 10 miles away and much more affordable, explaining the long hospital stay as my taking extra long to get into position to be born...). They even gaslit me my entire life that my genital situation was normal. Bit of a shock when I found out, but it did explain an awful lot...
Rumors that an uncle, 100% Italian, was "connected". That is, somehow affiliated with organized crime. Just a ha ha in most of the family. Until I was old enough to notice the men stationed outside of his kid's weddings and receptions. That happened when I was about 28 because that outdoor venue at a vineyard needed more "watchers" stationed around the place. And I had seen The Godfather by then.
My grandparents marred when they were 16 and my grandfather was murdered when he was 25. The murderer was his best friend and the reason was that he had fallen in love with my grandmother. The police ruled the shooting accidental and the murderer went to my grandmother and told her they should get married so that he could take care of her and the 4 kids. My grandmother beat him to a pulp with the frying pan. She was locked in a mental institution for it. I found out about it after a friend and I heard a shot when we were out playing. The murderer had committed suicide 20 years after the murder.
There's an ax murderer in my family tree. Back in the 1800s what they'd call a "simple" farm worker fell in love with the farmer's daughter. He was in his 60s, she was 15-16. Her dad told him "no way" so he took an ax to the father and then shot the daughter and the wife. Had to double-check with my aunt to make sure I understood it correctly.
Every Christmas my dad told the story of his uncle, a truck driver, that ran d***s for the police. He turned himself in and they locked him in his cell and burned him alive. My dad had a picture of his uncle's corpse on an autopsy table. He was charred. Merry Christmas everyone.
My weirdest ones: One of my great-aunts had two sons, 18 years apart. Her younger son was also her grandson. And another ancestor had an illegal abortion she did not survive because back then they were all illegal. Stupid patriarchy. Oh, and one of my great-uncles starred in some pornos in the 1950s.
I was always told that my paternal grandmother, moved from Georgia to Texas with her then husband and 4 kids during the depression. I was also told that her husband deserted her in Texas with the children. Truth was, my grandmother became the caregiver of a dying woman & my grandmother began having an affair with the husband of the dying woman. Her then husband threaten to shoot the man. This man was wealthy & well connected in the town. The sheriff came and told my grandmother's husband to leave Texas and never come back. My grandmother divorced her 1st husband & listed reason as desertion, and she married the man she was having an affair with, after his wife died. They had my father, and his 2 sisters.
Another: my great great uncle was a white store owner in Alabama right after slavery was abolished but while racism was still rampant. He put an ad in the newspaper that basically said “hey Black folks, come to my store and I’ll treat you with respect like a human, you can wait in the same lines as white people and use the same amenities etc.” Apparently he was harassed quite a bit for it. Very proud of him although he died before I was born. I have that newspaper ad framed on my wall but I can’t figure out how to post a pic on BP without jumping through hoops 😅 I had another white American ancestor who owned 4-6 slaves and we are intensely ashamed of him, my mum actually recently found many photos and documents on the slaves’ identities that don’t even give them a last name and she turned it all over to the American NAACP and other important organizations so they can try to find the families (sorry we’re Canadian so I can’t remember exactly which American organizations she found to help but it was 2-3!)
I’ve never met my biological father and he’s been missing for over 20 years but now that I’m in my 30s I’ve decided to start investigating. I want to find his family (my family?) first and connect with them, and then try to figure out what happened to him. I know very little info about him except his full name and that he’s a missing person, I’ve never even seen a photo. Feels like a podcast or Netflix show kind of lol but I started a couple months ago and I’ve been documenting it.
@Bexxxx that is kind of awesome! I've always loved family mysteries and have been digging into my own family history to learn a lot. If you ever need any help, feel free to message me ;)
Load More Replies...my grandma and grandpa were first cousins and had my mom. the way he told it, it was consensual. grandma says it most definitely was not consensual and she was "highly encouraged" to keep family business private. everyone knew, no one talked about it. she went on to marry a man from another state taking my mom with her and my mom didnt meet her bio dad till she was an adult.
My parents were first cousins. My two grandmothers were sisters. It also makes my father my uncle and my mother my aunt, and my siblings are also my cousins. My father's sister also married her cousin (3rd). One of my brothers went out with one of their daughters. Everyone said "No kids please!". LOL. There is no ill-effect on any of us.
Load More Replies...I'm related to a Javanese Sultan. One of his daughters married a Dutch Translator.
My grandfather was a getaway driver for his parents who robbed banks and when he got done serving a 12 years stint he hooked up with an old cell mate and crossed state lines to rob another bank a d when the sheriff pulled them over they shot and killed him. He ended up turning in his buddy and got sentenced to work for the military cutting hair til his death in 1967
Hey! Why can't I read the whole story?? It's just the image and an unfinished sentence above it...
I have read others suggesting to go directly to the website as opposed to the app. I hope this helps as I personally never encountered this problem.
Load More Replies...I knew a lot about my mother who grew up in the depression but she said if she told me everything, she was afraid I wouldn't love her anymore. It broke my heart. I already knew she had been thru a lot with a father and uncle known to molest the neighborhood children. Her mom died when she was only 2.
My mum's family has a tradition of naming second sons William. This tradition has been going on dating back to the late 1500s early 1600s with the first known William of the family being some noble in service to the Tudors if I remember correctly he did something to do with finances I don't remember exactly. In the more recent generations William has been being used as a middle name.
My something greats-uncle is Johnny Weissmuller, Olympic gold medalist and original Tarzan actor in the 1930s live-action movies
Saved two lives, too. I'd recommend the book 'Johnny Weissmuller, Twice the Hero. If for no other reason than the photographs. Quite entrancing, well-written. Because of it I read a book about Cheeta, and found out when I was reading it Cheeta was still alive.
Load More Replies...My great grandfather was a member of the supervisory board of a large shipyard in WW2 building warships and submarines. Since he was of sinthi and roma heritage his employeers helped him destroy all his certificates and evidence of said heritage and covered up for him to keep him from beeing sent to prison and propably worse.
Omg this is incredible! I hope he lived a long and wonderful life ❤️
Load More Replies...Not as interesting as most of these, but we recently found out that one of my great-grandfather's went to jail twice in the late 1800s-early 1900s for for shooting (and not killing, thankfully) different neighbors. My grandmother who passed in 2009 never spoke about him, but she did always say no one was super torn up about him being killed by a horse and buggy on the family property...now we know why...
My favorite one is that my my great, great aunt ran a house of ill repute in Lansing, MI for many, many years. She also allegedly killed at least two of her six husbands (a third was never found) two of "her girls" for having naughty fun time with said husbands. By the time, they were going to prosecute her, she was really old and had cancer so the prosecutor had her put on home detention awaiting trial thinking she wouldn't live but another couple of months. She lived for another three years and ran her business the entire time, just from her home instead of her carpet store. She died a very, very wealthy woman and left everything to her "roommate" Frida.
My FIL was a part of the US secret service. We did not learn of this until his funeral, when it was told as a part of the eulogy. At one point he had the nuclear codes given to him during JFK's administration and he locked himself in a hotel room and stayed up all night with the "football" because he was so nervous. Absolutely crazy. We knew he worked with the government somehow but he would never give specifics.
I uncovered a few years back that my parents went to great lengths to conceal that I was born with a double genital tubercle. They really went all out concealing it ("coincidentally" moving within 20 miles of a neonatal care facility because of a "job opportunity" that my grandfather set up, using said hospital instead of the clinic less than 10 miles away and much more affordable, explaining the long hospital stay as my taking extra long to get into position to be born...). They even gaslit me my entire life that my genital situation was normal. Bit of a shock when I found out, but it did explain an awful lot...
Rumors that an uncle, 100% Italian, was "connected". That is, somehow affiliated with organized crime. Just a ha ha in most of the family. Until I was old enough to notice the men stationed outside of his kid's weddings and receptions. That happened when I was about 28 because that outdoor venue at a vineyard needed more "watchers" stationed around the place. And I had seen The Godfather by then.
My grandparents marred when they were 16 and my grandfather was murdered when he was 25. The murderer was his best friend and the reason was that he had fallen in love with my grandmother. The police ruled the shooting accidental and the murderer went to my grandmother and told her they should get married so that he could take care of her and the 4 kids. My grandmother beat him to a pulp with the frying pan. She was locked in a mental institution for it. I found out about it after a friend and I heard a shot when we were out playing. The murderer had committed suicide 20 years after the murder.
There's an ax murderer in my family tree. Back in the 1800s what they'd call a "simple" farm worker fell in love with the farmer's daughter. He was in his 60s, she was 15-16. Her dad told him "no way" so he took an ax to the father and then shot the daughter and the wife. Had to double-check with my aunt to make sure I understood it correctly.
Every Christmas my dad told the story of his uncle, a truck driver, that ran d***s for the police. He turned himself in and they locked him in his cell and burned him alive. My dad had a picture of his uncle's corpse on an autopsy table. He was charred. Merry Christmas everyone.
My weirdest ones: One of my great-aunts had two sons, 18 years apart. Her younger son was also her grandson. And another ancestor had an illegal abortion she did not survive because back then they were all illegal. Stupid patriarchy. Oh, and one of my great-uncles starred in some pornos in the 1950s.
I was always told that my paternal grandmother, moved from Georgia to Texas with her then husband and 4 kids during the depression. I was also told that her husband deserted her in Texas with the children. Truth was, my grandmother became the caregiver of a dying woman & my grandmother began having an affair with the husband of the dying woman. Her then husband threaten to shoot the man. This man was wealthy & well connected in the town. The sheriff came and told my grandmother's husband to leave Texas and never come back. My grandmother divorced her 1st husband & listed reason as desertion, and she married the man she was having an affair with, after his wife died. They had my father, and his 2 sisters.
Another: my great great uncle was a white store owner in Alabama right after slavery was abolished but while racism was still rampant. He put an ad in the newspaper that basically said “hey Black folks, come to my store and I’ll treat you with respect like a human, you can wait in the same lines as white people and use the same amenities etc.” Apparently he was harassed quite a bit for it. Very proud of him although he died before I was born. I have that newspaper ad framed on my wall but I can’t figure out how to post a pic on BP without jumping through hoops 😅 I had another white American ancestor who owned 4-6 slaves and we are intensely ashamed of him, my mum actually recently found many photos and documents on the slaves’ identities that don’t even give them a last name and she turned it all over to the American NAACP and other important organizations so they can try to find the families (sorry we’re Canadian so I can’t remember exactly which American organizations she found to help but it was 2-3!)
I’ve never met my biological father and he’s been missing for over 20 years but now that I’m in my 30s I’ve decided to start investigating. I want to find his family (my family?) first and connect with them, and then try to figure out what happened to him. I know very little info about him except his full name and that he’s a missing person, I’ve never even seen a photo. Feels like a podcast or Netflix show kind of lol but I started a couple months ago and I’ve been documenting it.
@Bexxxx that is kind of awesome! I've always loved family mysteries and have been digging into my own family history to learn a lot. If you ever need any help, feel free to message me ;)
Load More Replies...my grandma and grandpa were first cousins and had my mom. the way he told it, it was consensual. grandma says it most definitely was not consensual and she was "highly encouraged" to keep family business private. everyone knew, no one talked about it. she went on to marry a man from another state taking my mom with her and my mom didnt meet her bio dad till she was an adult.
My parents were first cousins. My two grandmothers were sisters. It also makes my father my uncle and my mother my aunt, and my siblings are also my cousins. My father's sister also married her cousin (3rd). One of my brothers went out with one of their daughters. Everyone said "No kids please!". LOL. There is no ill-effect on any of us.
Load More Replies...I'm related to a Javanese Sultan. One of his daughters married a Dutch Translator.
My grandfather was a getaway driver for his parents who robbed banks and when he got done serving a 12 years stint he hooked up with an old cell mate and crossed state lines to rob another bank a d when the sheriff pulled them over they shot and killed him. He ended up turning in his buddy and got sentenced to work for the military cutting hair til his death in 1967
Hey! Why can't I read the whole story?? It's just the image and an unfinished sentence above it...
I have read others suggesting to go directly to the website as opposed to the app. I hope this helps as I personally never encountered this problem.
Load More Replies...I knew a lot about my mother who grew up in the depression but she said if she told me everything, she was afraid I wouldn't love her anymore. It broke my heart. I already knew she had been thru a lot with a father and uncle known to molest the neighborhood children. Her mom died when she was only 2.
My mum's family has a tradition of naming second sons William. This tradition has been going on dating back to the late 1500s early 1600s with the first known William of the family being some noble in service to the Tudors if I remember correctly he did something to do with finances I don't remember exactly. In the more recent generations William has been being used as a middle name.