General Chat

Imagine my surprise to find that one of my parents uncles had married, produced offspring and is happily kicking on an others tree, and I guess somewhere on the map!

Even my parent had been led to believe that the uncle had no family, but it would appear that a family rift led him to being told such.

What odd families to carry on a lie over generations!

there are a lot of odd families about :-D

My parent is in their eighties and didn't even know he had any cousins all his life! How weird is that?! :-0

This is the sort of thing that I reckon most people think happens to "other people"

Always suprised when the truth comes out.

Will you be trying to find your great uncles descendents? I wonder if they will be as suprised as you and your parent are!



Good luck in whatever you do now.

The story goes that the uncle in question appeared on the doorstep cap in hand and was never heard of again.

Sounds as if he left empty-handed! Or empty cap!

:-0 ;-)

'You cannot live well without doing something for someone who can never repay you'.

*John Bunyan (1628-1688).

My mother died not knowing she had a neice and nephew. Due to a family rift she never knew her brother had children.

My great grandad fell out with his brother and they never spoke again. My grandad was unaware he had any cousins. Despite the falling out both my great grandad and his brother went on to have two boys the first they named after themselves and the second after their brother. I wonder if they maybe forgave each but both too stubborn to admit the faults on both sides.

Both such sad stories, too. Thank you for sharing.

Happens all the time unfortunately. Imagine my husbands surprise when he discovered is father who had alienated himself from his children died on 2007. We discovered this in 2011.
Nice way to discover your Dad is dead through an ancestry web site

It makes you realise life's too short. What a shock that must have been.

Difficult