#bc there is no way that wasnt abuse. even if my family doesnt bat an eye. and is mad at my grandpa's mom

[intersexfairy]

random storytime bc im autistic about geneaology

family history on my dad's side of the family is weird. my (catholic) grandmother had a few customs that are like jewish mourning customs (shiva). there was another custom involving the red string that she had told me and my sister about when we were kids. her family is from germany, galway ireland, and moselle france. idk why she did it, but her sister said the mourning customs sound like something people "did in the past." mayhaps it's a whole anusim situation, since i did find a (unverified) connection on the french side to a tree on JewishGen.

then there's my grandfather, an only child who was orphaned (temporarily) as a child. his father was 9 years older than his mother, and seemed to have met her when she was a minor. they married when she was 19, and my grandpa was born when she was 20. she abandoned him and his father quickly after, and never got back in contact. he was taken care of by his aunt while his father was a soldier in WW2. his father remarried, so he had step siblings.

...but my dad has a half first cousin match on ancestry... meaning my grandfather has/had a half sibling out there somewhere (potentially, a brother who's 2 years younger than him and died in 2012). normal people would just go message my dad's cousin and ask about it. will i do that? not yet. i'm gonna sleuth on my own, cause this may actually be something i can figure out... unlike my grandmother's customs.