Check out the video below. I think it’s the coolest story. A father in Memphis finally meets his German daughter and grandson. I don’t know why it took them 50 years to find each other. but I’m happy for the father, daughter, and grandson. I’m sure it gives hope to a lot of folks who are trying to find and connect with parents/children. I had a friend who was adopted. He lived his whole life wondering who his birth parents were and died not knowing.
Reading the story and watching the little video clip reminded me that I never knew either one of my grandfathers. My father’s father died the year before I was born. My mother didn’t know who her father was. At least that’s what she told me. I swear, growing up, I felt like no one was telling me the truth about anything.
Anyway, years ago, when I asked Aunt Irma, my mother’s sister, who my mother’s father was, she said, “I don’t know…I think mom may have been messin’ around with the milkman.” Ha! Did my grandmother take the secret to her grave?
Oh well, everyone’s gone now, so I’ve been searching on ancestry.com to try to find a record of something…some kind of connection. So far, I’ve found several records of my grandmother (born in Delta, Pennsylvania), her mother and father, a brother, and a husband who was my aunt and uncle’s father. Her husband enlisted in World War I and again in World War II. It’s amazing scrolling through all of the scanned records with hand-written entries.
On a 1930 census, my grandmother was listed as a widow with two teen-aged children (my aunt and uncle), and on a 1940 census, she was listed as married-head of household. According to what was written on the form, there was no husband living there. Only my 24- and 27-year-old aunt and uncle, and my seven-year-old mother. I haven’t found any record of my mother’s birth yet. I know my grandmother had her at home and she was born with two extra pinkies (my grandmother kept them in a jar, lol). That’s all I know.
Other than that, my mother’s half of my DNA remains a partial mystery. My search continues…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gR2UkVuB3y8