Bitten by the bug!

Ralph and I had our DNA done a few years ago, just for fun and to see if there were any ethnic surprises. There weren't. Then a few months ago I was contacted via Ancestry by a few people that shared DNA with me. 

When Joseph died, I needed a big distraction from grief. Crying wasn't productive, and wasn't helping. I got the idea to start a family tree so I could put him on it. I had a good start from information I'd gotten from my grandparents way back when Heather was little. 

It's a rabbit hole! Every time you put a person on the tree, you get these little green leaves- hints. Those hints lead you to more people! I'm up to over 500 people, and back several generations from some branches!

I know that my mom's parents had split when she was really little. My grandmother dumped my mom with her grandmother when she was five, so that my grandmother could get together with another man and have five more kids. I knew that her father got together with another woman and had a bunch of kids- my mom would occasionally mention it, but she had no relationship with him or his second family.

Come to find out that mom's father lived one town over from us, and told his other children that mom was a cousin! The bastard never told them she was their sister! I've found this out from connecting with others of his grandchildren via Ancestry. Sounds like he and my grandmother were quite the pair, and not in a good way. They both abandoned my mom, did the right thing for her but for all the wrong reasons. She had a good childhood with her grandmother and step grandfather (who was also her uncle). But imagine knowing that neither of your parents wanted you to live with them. It left her with lifelong issues, that I understand so much better now, and my heart breaks for her.