Family secrets
I was poking around Rootsweb the other day, and found an entry for my great-grandfather and his descendants. Looking at the entries, it must have been filled in by a 2nd or so cousin of mine. That in itself is weird. I don’t think of myself as having cousins. (A topic for another time, perhaps.)
Anyway, so I saw my grandmother’s name, and noticed that the data is incomplete — understandable since she wasn’t on the branch for the person who created the tree — and I can’t decide if I want to contact this person to give them more information. This is partly due to shyness, and partly due to the fact that my mom seemed to not want to associate with her family once her mother died.
But that’s not why I started this post. I realized that Rootsweb and other genealogy-type research places tell you that birth, death and marriage records are a good way to fill out your family tree. And as far as the information in those records is correct and complete, I suppose they are. But what about the case, say, with my mother? Her mother wasn’t married when she was born. I have no idea if Grandma ever married my biological grandfather (not that it matters). It could be that the man my mom called “Dad” was just a guy her mom lived with. I dunno. I wish I could’ve asked, but it seemed to bother Mom to talk about it.
How odd we are, in this society. We think that not-married mothers must be a new phenomenon. People living together without marriage — how modern! Our generation invented sex, at least the interesting bits! How silly we are. Well, at least we aren’t illegitimate anymore, are we?
And how do you put all this on a family tree?
