Question of the Week: What is your most memorable genealogical discovery?

Question

Did you find a notable in your branches? Have you discovered someone whose story surprised you? Were you inspired by any of your ancestors?

Comments

I found a grave in a church graveyard in a sleepy little village in Sussex England.  It was that of a New York couple who came to UK in about 1830 and stayed for the rest of their lives.  I contacted the New York Genealogical and Biographical Society to see if they knew who these people were, and it turned out that the man was a merchant in Liverpool.  They asked for some more details, and this started my interest in genealogical research. It still remains my most memorable discovery, not least for the NYG&Bs insistence on primary source data for almost every citation!

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My grandfather, Edward Wojcicki,(Wojcicki-4), was as far back as I knew anything about, on my father's paternal line. Edward was an immigrant from Poland in about 1904.  I was finally able to locate a copy of his marriage record. It had his parent's names on that record. There was a lady who contacted me on Ancestry.com, wondering if our Wojcicki families could be related,,as her great grandmother, and my grandfather were from the same area in Poland. I decided to take an autosomal dna test, and asked her if she would too. We both took the test and matched! But how? Then, another young lady who had contacted her, because her family was also from the same area,also had taken the same test,and had been just sitting with no matches. She then,uploaded her test results to Family Tree DNA. She matched BOTH of us! To make a long story short, this young lady is very fluent in Polish,and was able to decypher many records online which I had obtained from another Polish man. As it turned out, the young lady and older lady both descended from sisters in the same family, and I descended from the sister's brother!!!! How's that for beating the odds? My grandfather was born in 1884, and we were able to get clear back to

1756, when his great great grandfather was born!

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Ever since I started doing genealogy, my mother wanted me to help her and her sister work on their lines. I wanted to do Daddy's. And I knew that Mama (Davis-27777) and Aunt Elza would pick apart anything I found with a fine toothed comb. And I really didn't want to put myself into something like that. They had  already did it on my Jesters as it was. And most important, to me, when I'm on the right track, I have physical symptoms.

In the late 1990s, living in Texas, I was out of work and extremely depressed. Mama, living in small town in Calfornia, didn't have access to good libraries, would send me out on small quests to try to bring me out of that black hole. She had me relook at William Thornton-2828 in Randolph County, GA in 1850. She thought she had missed something and had it  wrong. She didn't.

 Find if there is was John Chesley Davis that Grampa's (Davis-27833) baby brother (Davis-44419) could have been named for. I spent 4 hours going thru some court records for John Chesley Davis who was too far distant to have been of any use in 1880s.

Just before Mama passed in 2014, I was looking at family on census records and saw John C. Geralds, who had married into the Thorntons, Thornton-2834.  And I recalled  the story Mama had told about naming my sister. Gramma Annie Thornton-2727 wanted her to be named after the Geralds. But I physically heard Mama say "but I named her Geraldine (Jester-203), isn't that good enough?" While J. C. Geralds' census record is flashing like a neon light. Mama was bedridden in the other room, asleep.

Another quest, during that dark time, Find Sallie Hogg. Not having enough money for the bus, up and back, and not wanting to walk the 3 miles to the library. I said i would try to find what I could on the internet. All Mama knew was she was supposed to be associated with the Thornton's but didn't know how.

Not really knowing how ancestry worked, (it was free in those days) I added what I knew in a search. William Thornton. That search brought up 1000s. So I refined it to GA. that only brought up 368 or so. I looked at every one of them. Too old, too young. Kids not right, wife not right, til near the end, I found two with wives name Elizabeth. I knew William's wife was Elizabeth (Stell-51). And I knew from seeing the marriage certificate that the name was St**ll or Sl**tt, but it was very foxed and degraded. But this record said Stell. My heart started palpitating. I'm reading the page and I see this record has her parents... my heart starts beating harder.  Her parents are listed. Thomas Stell-63 and Rebecca Cook-12347. Rebecca Cook?? WHO IS SHE? Then I looked again, because my heart is about to beat out of my chest. I was starting to think I was in real physical danger, the hard rapid beating, hyperventilating, sweating... and I saw Thomas had another wife. I click on it and SARAH HOGG-1092 appeared.   

This gedcom had Elizabeth's sister Julia Amanda also, but had them as daughters of Rebecca.

Being on dial up, I disconnected, leaving the monitor up and called Mama. I was crying hard. "MamaMamaMama, I found her!!" It took Mama several minutes to get me calmed down enough to tell her what happened.  Mama asked, "How do you know its her?" After what I had just went through??? "Its her Mama, Its her! I know its her!!"

Since that time I met with the Stells on genforum.com when it was active and told them how I descended. They admitted that they did not know which children belonged to which wife so they had put Sallie's girls under Rebecca.  A half cousin from Rebecca, sent me Thomas' will.

I then went to the Thornton group at genforum and started reading. I found one discussion that seemed to fit mine, and told them who I descended from. In this group were 4 descendants of Wiley Thornton and Elizabeth Johnston. One was descended from Elijah Thornton and Julia Amanda Stell. Over the years, we found someone descended from all the children who lived to have children,  of Wiley and Elizabeth.

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My most remarkable find was to learn that, on the Irish-American side of my family, I was also descended from the English Yankee Noble family.  This allowed me to further trace roots to England and beyond, including descent from Charlemagne and El Cid.

The second most, many years ago, was to find a scholar at the U. of Wisconsin who was familiar w/Norwegian families and the village "bygdeboks" that recorded families' births, deaths, and other transactions going back often to the 16th century.  This has led to descent data from notable persons in Norwegian history, including kings.  There now exists in Madison WI the Vesterheim center to aid Norwegian genealogical research.

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My great-grandfather was eight months old when his mother died, or at least that was the story as he knew it. As it turns out, his mother left his father and went on to have three daughters, two of whom became nuns and one who went on to have a descendant on ancestry.com. He was a Methodist minister; wouldn't he have been surprised to know he had two half-sisters who were nuns? Of course, there is much more to this story and by far it's one of the most memorable discoveries.

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I was totally blindsided  to find why my paternal grandmother Emma 's birth family was torn apart. We knew her last name, Kleb, and birthdate and place, November 1888, Gasconade co, Missouri and that she had an older sister Rose. Emma and Rose were both adopted by different neighbors and grew up near each other. Grandma had said her mother hadn't been able to care for the girls after their father had been killed in an altercation. What really happened was worse in their tight knit community-he had committed suicide, and the source of this information was in an article in the German language  Hermann Volksblatt. Their mother had been awakened in the night by a gunshot. She walked into the field to find her husband Robert Kleb dead, the rifle by his head. In shock, she picked up the gun, went back to the house and waited until morning to contact her brother-in-law. A sheriff and 2-3 neighbors found the impression of the gun butt in the soft ground and determined that it was as Mrs Kleb had said even though there was talk about a violent argument the previous night between the deceased and his father. The Volksblatt mentions that the deceased had  2 children. Another article, again in German, stated that Herr Schindler and wife had been in the area and took the "unfortunate's " son back to Osage county to adopt him. Where was Grandma? Turned out that the death had occurred in June and the widow Maria Kleb was only 4 months pregnant with Grandma. Maybe her mother just couldn't handle the responsibilities of providing for these 3 little ones, all under 4. Grandmas and Rose's adoptive families moved to Lexington Missouri. Roberts sisters moved to Kansas and Indiana. The deceased's father appears to have been beaten in the argument that turned violent, dying a year later. Her birth mother tried to contact Grandma once but was blocked at the gate by her adoptive mother, never seen again. So much sadness. And still so many unanswered questions. It has taken awhile to regain my nerve to investigators further and I still want to find as many answers as I can.

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Learning that my 29th great-granddad was William the Conqueror!

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I can't decide which of these stories is the best, so I'll share both. The first is a discovery through WikiTree. I do most of my work on FamilySearch but I built a very simple tree here because it's easy to share the whole tree if someone asks. Out of the blue, I got an email asking about my great-great grandmother, Ary Loper (Loper-349) from someone who thought she was related. Yes, we are third cousins! Her grandfather moved to Texas, and they lost touch with the family here in Florida. We have exchanged photos and I hope someday we'll be able to meet.

The other discovery was via DNA on 23andMe. I had hit a kind of block on my maternal grandmother's pedigree. I found a marriage record for a couple that I thought were her grandparents, but I wasn't sure. Then I was looking into some of the DNA matches and noticed a familiar name, Elizabeth Arnett Reid. The bride on the marriage license had a sister of that name, and they were also in the same location - Conecuh County, Alabama - confirming that my suspicions were correct. I think that's the first time I spontaneously burst into tears over a genealogy discovery.

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I cant decide which story to tell, there are two. For 40 years I thought my paternal name was Justice but with a letter from my mother found out my grandfather was illegitimate and my name should be Metcalf. He took his mother's name. I managed to trace the Metcalf name and found a Cherokee line.

I knew my father had been married previously before my mother and had a child. Then just a few years ago I found out he had been married numerous times, sometimes to more than one woman  at the same time. (3)!!!. I have talked to one half-sibling so far but have not found any more. I'm almost afraid to go looking. He lied about his age and birthplace many times to cover his tracks but I have his death certificate and SS#.

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I have been able to find the ship that my ancestors came over on from Norway. It was a real find.

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I recently discovered that 6th great-grandparents are the grandparents of General Sam Houston - which makes us 1st cousins 6x's removed.  Also, descended from the same line - my 7th great-grandparents are the 5th great-grandparents of actor Bill Paxton, making us 6th cousins 2x's removed.  I'm sure they would both be equally excited to find they are related to me haha ;)

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I had spent hours upon hours verifying ancestors through church records, archives for birth, death and marriage certificates, census records, finding more ancestors and separating my family from several others in a geological area with the same names. It was a challenge. My parents went into a seniors residence and I was given the task of clearing out their home. I stumbled upon some papers of my deceased grandfather. In these records and papers were a page copied from a family bible with all the ancestors that I had discovered and researched. It was also conformation that we were related to the Clevelands of the United States. Although it did not answer any questions, it was an amazing moment of affirmation.

Answer 1

Well, I am basically just starting out on this genealogy journey. My most memorable discovery was nearly 17 years ago when I was about a year into my search for my birth family. I had gotten my non-id from Fresno County, the agency that I was adopted out of. My non-id stated that my mother had actually kept me and was arrested for some minor thing when I was about three months old. Because of her arrest she was convinced to relinquish me - which breaks my heart. Thinking that some 18 year old girl got arrested for probably something as stupid as shoplifting formula or something ends up losing the child she wanted... it breaks my heart every time I think of it.

Anyhow... knowing that she kept me I figured the hospital had no idea I was ever adopted. So I wrote them a letter asking for all the medical records surrounding my birth, stating that my doctor needed them. Waited a few weeks and one day a manila envelope shows up... inside contains some medical records, registration records, my very first baby picture and a copy of my ORIGINAL BIRTH CERTIFICATE!!! If you are not adopted you have no idea how much it means to actually have your original birth cert!! It's worth all the gold in the world and next to impossible to get!!! I was actually able to find out my birth mothers name...and through the registration papers I was able to find and talk with the woman I was named after. She didn't feel it was her place to "spill any beans" so she wasn't of any help at all... shortly after that I took a break from searching. It's been 17 years and I've decided it's time to complete the search and I have a feeling with DNA I will.

Answer 2

I would have to say that the most memorable discovery was my very first one!  My dad was quite a bit older than my mother and by the time I arrived, his parents had passed and there was very little connection with that side of the family.  One of the few facts I had was that my dad had a brother named Tom.  Armed with that one piece of information, I went to the local archives in Toronto in the mid '90's and started searching for Thomas May in my area.  I found my Great-Grandfather which ignited the genealogical fire which still burns today.  I now have some 4000+ names in my data base and while I have a few brick walls and time spent on this past time has dwindled, I still experience the joy of a 5 year old at Christmas when I happen on a new discovery!  My mother was passionate about her ancestry but she passed long before technology allowed such in depth research and I know she'd be extremely proud of what I have accomplished.

Answer 3

As a former foster child, anything I can learn is an amazing discovery! After I grew up I found some of my relatives who were still living, mostly in Michigan. I even got back in touch with my birth parents! My father was as confused as me though when we couldn't find his father's parents. I had a friend of my foster mom help me and she was puzzled too, and then she clicked something and said, "Oh my gosh! There he is!" It was my grandfather. He had died when my father was 6 months old. But from his first marriage he had other children. He was from Canada and his children (my cousins?) are still there and we are in touch and more pieces to the puzzle are coming together! It is absolutely amazing!

I am the 12th cousin of Kevin Bacon. And like 25 degrees from Queen Elizabeth II (through marriage, not blood) and maybe 21 degrees from the creator of the Peanuts Gang, Charles Schultz. (Again not by blood.)

So I have learned a LOT about who I am biologically and where my family is from- England and Germany are the main ones.  :-)

Answer 4

While I have been lucky to have made many remarkable genealogy discoveries since joining WikiTree in 2013, a couple "Ah Ha" moments stand out.

First is that, although I was always brought up to believe that our SNOW family was Southern (my grand-father Snow was born in Arkansas and his relations were from Tennessee and North Carolina), on WikiTree I found out that, despite a "detour" through the South, we were originally "Yankees" from Cape Cod and that our "Snow immigrant" ancestor had married a passenger from the Mayflower, making all of us "Mayflower descendants".  I then found out that this line was actually documented and proven by one of my father's 2nd cousins, whose existence I never knew of, making it relatively easy to join the Mayflower Society.  My hope is to go to Plymouth, Massachusetts, in 2020, the 400th Anniversary of the Pilgrim Landing there.

Second, on a more-personal note.  My mother, Ann Bonine, was an "only child," although she grew up looking at a commemorative stained-glass window in her family's Church, dedicated to "Anne Bonine," her older (and only) sister, who'd been born & died 4 years before her birth.  My grand-parents had named their 2nd child "Ann" vs. "Anne".... Through WikiTree and Find A Grave, after some detective work, I was able to find my deceased aunt's burial location in Washington DC and adopt her Find A Grave Memorial.  Alas, born prematurely in a time with little equipment to deal with such births, she had only lived a few hours before her tiny lungs collapsed (so read the hospital report).  From my mother I knew of the sadness that surrounded such an event that echoed throughout her own childhood, plus the troubled, mixed, feelings that the "surviving" child has when bearing the same (or almost) name as a pre-deceased sibling.  I since have seen that such was a common practice up until about the 1950s when child psychology became active.

Answer 5

The biggest surprise was discovering my grandfather's [https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Gunn-1707 Battiscombe Gunn] early involvement in Theosophy.

By the time my father was born, his father was a confirmed atheist, and had been for many years. His only known connection with the occult was his prominent debunking of the "Rosemary Case" (the claim that a long dead Egyptian princess spoke, in ancient Egyptian, through "Rosemary") in the 1930s.  There are many family stories related to his atheism (including my 6 year old father telling the housekeeper "people don't believe in gods anymore". She promptly gave notice.) We all (including my father) thought he had gone straight from his parents non-Conformism to atheism.

But I knew that my grandmother had dabbled in Theosophy in the first decade of the 20th century.  It was while searching for information on HER connection with Theosophy that I found incontrovertible evidence of my grandfather's very active role in Theosophy,  Thelema, and the Golden Dawn.  He was a personal friend of Arthur Edward Waite (designer of the "modern" Tarot deck) and Alastair Crowley (leader of Thelema).

In the years after WWI, he was actively involved in the British branch of Buddhism, but by 1922 he had given up on that, and all other religions, too.

I added all this to his Wikipedia article (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battiscombe_Gunn) even though you are not supposed to include "primary research".  But I included all the sources.

About a year later, while surfing the web, I found that an Egyptologist was giving a talk at the University of Chicago, on "Battiscombe Gunn and Alastair Crowley".  It turned out that he had seen the WIkipedia article, initially thinking it was Wiki-Nonsense.  But he had checked the sources, and decided it was legit.  He did even further research (including Crowley's private letters) and turned it into a formal talk, as well as a chapter in a book, "Histories of Egyptology: Interdisciplinary Measures" and I was added as a co-author.

Answer 6

My most memorable moment was when I found out that my 2X great grandmother had spent 15 months in prison for culpable homicide. A real black sheep.

Answer 7

A sensational, scandalous death and cinematic burial

There's a guy, Paul Ward Beck, who married a 6th cousin 2x removed. Not a close relation, but no surviving descendants either, and what a story! His father was a (white) officer over black cavalry, the Buffalo Soldiers. Chased Apaches in Arizona, charged up San Juan Hill with Teddy Roosevelt. That sort of thing. His son Paul was a pioneering aviator, one of the first military pilots. He flew the first airmail with the Postmaster General as passenger; flew surveillance over the Rio Grande during the Mexican Revolution. Stuff like that, things that had never been done before.

He was a Major at Fort Sill, Oklahoma in 1922, on leave in Oklahoma City. And he was shot dead by a retired judge in a late night dispute involving the judge's wife. (Major Beck was a widower; his wife died young.) I think maybe the judge was never charged; the wife claimed to have fainted and not witnessed the shooting. The civilian authorities placed harsh judgment on the dead man, perhaps since he didn't have anything more to lose. The Army was having none of it, and treated his death with full military honor.

And then some. As the train pulled out for Arlington, army planes (this was long before the USAF was formed) flew over, each one strewing roses over his coffin.

The judge and his wife parted ways shortly thereafter. He remarried a younger woman and moved to Texas. It wasn't long until he was accused of domestic violence, possibly it was a divorce proceeding. To my thinking, that exonerates our then-widowed pilot at least a bit, even if the powers that be at the time excused the judge.

Answer 8

. There are really two that stand out for me. The first one was in solving a missing link in the family tree between the movement of my family the Musgrave's from North Carolina to Tennessee. The family were Quakers did originally came from Pennsylvania and they traditionally name their children with the same names Thomas, John, James, Moses etc. when we get back to my great great grandfather we are not certain which of the many Musgrave's and Wayne County was his father.
At the same time I had noticed the proliferation of certain first names in the family and morale great-grandfather being Jonas Quimby Musgrave, and that Jonas and Quimby and the names Bennett. and Burrel.
Looking at all census data I saw Jonas Quimby and his three sons right next to a number of Musgrave families. Further research with the Quimby's discovered that my missing link was a Thomas Musgrave was wife was Penelope Quimby. This making Jonas Quimby my fifth generation great-grandfather.

While managing my wife's family tree and DNA on ancestry.com I name came up that showed a very strong DNA connection something like second cousin. That person contacted me and said that she was adopted and was not sure of who her mother was. I quickly determined that her connection to my wife was on my wife's maternal side from Arkansas and going back to her great-grandmother and grandfather I came up with a list of possible candidates. Then after talking to older family members and checking census data, we discovered exactly who that person was. Lady was very very happy and emotional to find out about her mother. Her mother had passed but we were able to put together a very interesting portrait of a highly independent unique and strong woman.

Answer 9

Many years ago my sister and I visited the state historical building, which houses the states genealogical collection.  I was newly married and thrilled to have new lines to search. We were discussing where to go with our research when told my sister I thought I would look into the Stephenson line from Kosciusko County Indiana. My sister looked at me oddly and said her husband had Stephenson's in Kosciusko County, Indiana.  Needless to say, our husbands are related through the Stephenson line.

Answer 10

In the early 2000's my wife and I were searching for information about her (American) Revolutionary War Ancestor Adam Wideman at the South Carolina Archives in Columbia, SC.  When we asked about the location of his grave, we were referred to the old Abbeville County courthouse.  We drove to Abbeville and found the old courthouse not busy on a beautiful autumn morning.  The probate judge welcomed us as if we were members of his own family.  He said that he was familiar with the Wideman family, the location of Adam's grave,that he could direct us to it.  He encouraged us to enjoy the small adventure.  

1. Take SC 28 south from Abbeville toward McCormick and turn left onto SC-33-38, “Old Charleston Rd.”

2. Proceed about two miles on SC-33-38 to an ante-bellum (Civil War) mansion, “Ivy Gates” on the left.  This old mansion was occupied by members of the Wideman family who descended from Adam.  SC-33-38, “Old Charleston Rd.” turns left at Ivy Gates.  Do not turn, but continue straight ahead into Sumpter National Forest on (then un-paved) road, SC-33-117 for about one mile to a small bridge over a small creek.

3 .Cross the bridge and take the first dirt road to the right.  This  road turns left 90 degrees in about another mile.  In about a tenth of a mile there would (then) be a red cedar tree about seven feet tall near the edge of the road (if still there it will now be taller).  At this point, my wife's eyebrows went up and she squirmed a little (no smart-phone GPS in those days). We have lately been given GPS coordinates N33 degrees, 59.493 minutes - W 83 degrees, 22.418 minutes.  

4. Walk straight away from the road about 400 yards into the woods where you will find yourself among many primitive gravestones.  Scan for Adam Wideman's headstone.  The original stone is a small stone with hand-chiseled "A. W." A modern headstone furnished by the D.A.R. has been added.  to our surprise we found Adams wife, "Millie" Harris' stone and discovered beside her's that of her Father, John Harris, also a revolutionary war soldier.

Answer 11

So far, It's just a pic of my G-g-g grandparents, Littleton & Sarah.

Might not seem like much, but I just think it's cool...

Comments

I'm always super excited any time I find a picture!

Answer 12

My most  memorable discovery was when I  found Aaron Phipps birth place & his parents More shocking was he had 2 sisters born the same day ,yes triplets. You have to understand I looked for his parents for 40 years.was told I was wrong. then I seen on wiki tree the same information I had found . I was over joyed I think I thanked the genealogist 3 times  & told him he  made my day'. I didn't think I would find this info. in my life time.

Answer 13

Coming from a living huge group of people that are almost completely disconnected for various reasons, being able to ask a question is a rare thing, getting answers are nearly impossible. For years Grandma Bates was only Grandma Bates. It never occurred to me until I started working on my own family tree that I needed to know more than Grandma Bates, that she was married to Frank Bates (who I know just about nothing about so can't find him either). I put a question out in the G2G about anyone being able to help me...a few days later I got a response...if had been technically possible, I would have jumped through computer screens to give that person a hug! That's something that is always going to stick with me.

Answer 14

I found my birth child just 10 days short of his 50th birthday. I received a message from Ancestry DNA about a close DNA match, probably parent-child,. I went to Ancestry DNA site and found a message from my son asking if I could  be his biological father. Last week, I sent him a message that read, "Happy Birthday son." On his 50th birthday.

Answer 15

I man in Holland contacted me regarding finding a Silver Bracelet in a WW2

foxhole,for 19 years he has looked for relatives.Put a notice in a military

magazine,and we found his son and grandchildren.And they went to Holland and picked it up.70 years later.

Comments

Wow!!

Answer 16

When my Daughter was 5 we moved to a small town in Central Texas and I took a job working with developmentally disabled adults. On weekends the women of the group home liked to go on picnics so my co-workers and I obliged. It was on one of these days trips that we began cemetery hopping using county maps of the area. One cemetery was called Mormon Mill but we could not seem to find it. As it often happens in Texas, the cemetery was now on private ranch land so I stopped a ranch hand and asked to see the cemetery. I had always know that I was of Scottish descent but the discovery I made fired my interest in genealogy because there inside the rock wall of the cemetery was a 4th great aunt! My Scottish ancestors had been some of the first Mormon emigrants to America and I had moved to the same town 150 years after my ancestors had settled the area themselves! 20 years later, I am an avid genealogist for friends as well as myself.

Answer 17

I found in records from the sheriff's records of Dendemonde in Belgium about a female who was married to an distantly related ancestor of mine who was accused of witchcraft. The original text in French is: Prins le premier d’octobre 1603 Josyne vander Straten femme de Gillis Veldeman demeurant au villaige de Zele pour estre accuse de sorcelerie a cause de quoy elle at este condemné par Messieurs les hommes de fief et Eschevins d’estre mis par forme de torture devant le feu trois jours et trois nuictz sans dormir. Et depuis le iii° jour apres, comme lon preparait aultre torture, est trespassé es prisons le XX février 1604.

In Flemish:  “Gevangen genomen op 1 oktober 1603 Josyne van der Straten vrouw van Gillis Veldeman woonachtig in het dorp Zele, om beschuldigd te worden van hekserij, waarvoor zij werd veroordeeld door de mannen van het leenhof en schepenen om bij wijze van foltering voor het vuur geplaatst te worden drie dagen en drie nachten zonder slaap. Waarna zij op de derde dag, toen men een andere foltering voorbereidde, overleden is in de gevangenis op 20 februari 1604.”

Translation to English: …. Taken on 1 Oct 1603 that Josyne vander Staraten, wife of Gillis, lived in Zele, was accused of witchcraft, for which she was convicted by the courts and by way of torture she had to be placed by ‘fire’ for 3 days and 3 nights without sleep. On the 3^rd day prepared for other torture she died in the prison on 20 Feb 1604

This is really a fascinating story, if only I knew how to get hold of the entire story

 

Answer 18

I located my adopted brother's birth father in a closed adoption. He was not listed on the pre-adoption birth certificate. Both he and the birth mother had many marriages and assignations throughout their lives.

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