Family Secrets Revealed

[Principessa]

My mom just told me yesterday that the reason her parents divorced back in the 1940's was because her mother was a party girl who preferred to spend her nights out clubbing with her girlfriends. I was shocked!

My maternal grandfather died long before I was born but my grandmother didn't pass away until I was a freshman in high school. I remember her as a sweet, woman with long auburn hair usually swept up into a bun. She gave great hugs, made great dinner rolls, chicken and dumplings, and was a devout member of the local AME church. I just can't picture her as a party girl.

A few years ago I found out that a distant cousin on my dads side got drunk and went berzerk one night and killed his wife and 2 kids before taking his own life. This was back in the late 1940's early 1950's.

With some gentle prodding under the guise of doing a family scrapbook I found out that depression, diabetes, alcoholism, hypthyroidism, hypertension; twins, are all quite prevalent on dad's side of the family also. Now I'm worried I have inherited some of these things.

Has anybody else found out a startling/disturbing family secret?

 

[D_Andy_Whorewall]

Yes we have family secrets:

But I can't tell you any of them, as they are secrets....

 

[ganja4me]

I had an uncle that shot somebody for walking in front of his car. When he was like 20 my dad was still a baby and he turned on an egg beater and held it up to my dad and as any kid that young would do my dad tried to touch it. It chopped his finger in half. The only thing holding his finger together was a piece of skin. But it was fixed so it's normal again. Basically I had a crazy, drug addict uncle. My mom used to get beat by her ex husband and he tried to hit her with a car before while she was pregnant with one of his kids( my half brother). That's all I can really think of.

 

[Pirate Wench]

My relatives are pretty boring......as far as I Know.....

I'd guess everybody's family has secrets......they may just not Know about them.....

More than a few of my relatives would probably be shocked that I even knew this site existed.....LOL
I'm never here as long as I'd Like to be.....
(Geez...I'd never get Anything done if that was the case.:smile: )

But I am definitely addicted to this place.
:wink:

How about this.... ?

After the ex wife of one of my cousins got "chummy" with her ex's dad (yes, her ex father in law who was 80 something...and one of my mom's brothers).....
My uncle then divorced his wife (of 60 yrs. marriage).....
He named his ex daughter in law Executor of his will.

(This was before viagra, and he was Very diabetic....I doubt the "plumbing" worked in an extra curricular way.)

Then my uncle's ex daughter in law convinced him to cut his 2 sons out of a new will.....leaving his Very sizeable assets Only to her and his 2 grandsons (her sons were his only grandchildren except for a step grandchild with other son).

Her own sister referred to her as the Whore of Babylon (she had slept with one of her sister's ex's while they were still married)

One of my uncle's sons died in the 90's, but the surviving one refers to her as "The Buzzard".

Uncle and his ex wife of 60 yrs. have both died......

My mom called the whole thing "The Debacle".

My uncle's estate was worth many millions, as he owned a company that made oil rig drilling bits in TX for decades....and had a knack for buying property that decades later when he sold it, was worth millions ...as the nearby city expanded and surrounded it.

 

[jeroenvol]

There are two secrets in my family I know.
The first is one about my uncle, coming from a family where everyone is a doctor (my 2aunties, my 2uncles, my parents and now even my sister and 2cousins) there was this feeling that everything that could harm the reputation a bit had to be kept silent. But one way or another I found out that my uncle had an affaire for as long as I know and on parties he always had to go o the hospital because someone was giving birth (gyneacologist) but really he just went f****** another woman, now there are also rumours my other uncle does the same. (that could be secrets n°3)
The second one is my father who after having an affair for 3years with a coworker just left us behind when I was 17, it wasn't really a secret, but for those 3years no-one was told about it, but from the moment he left my mom got so pissed she just told anyone who wanted to hear the story, not saving him(without telling lies though, he just was such a loser). He refused to pay for us but demanded to see us (unfortunuately for him in Belgium, when you turn 14 you have the choice about living with and seeing who when and how much, the judge believes you are old enough to make your own desicions so he does what you want). He tried to force his way into our life by trying to make us desperate for money, but he had the bad luck my mom's parents saved a lot so we never had any problems.
I haven't seen him since the day he left, and I'm not sorry about it. He made what should have been the best years of my life a living hell, and tried to make me fail in life afterwards, but he failed himself, both in parenting as in life. I hope he's unhappy (and from what I hear from my mom I believe he is) and just want to make these words clear to him: F*** YOU!
It's strange, you should think that anger and rage cools down after all those years, but the older I get, the more I understand life, and the more I know how much he failed in it

 

[eric19831]

This isn't really a secret anymore but my greatgrandmother tried to kill her husband with a cast iron frying pan... it didn't work. he just decided to leave her.

 

[Principessa]

Her own sister referred to her as the Whore of Babylon (she had slept with one of her sister's ex's while they were still married)

One of my uncle's sons died in the 90's, but the surviving one refers to her as "The Buzzard".

Uncle and his ex wife of 60 yrs. have both died......

My mom called the whole thing "The Debacle".

My uncle's estate was worth many millions, as he owned a company that made oil rig drilling bits in TX for decades....and had a knack for buying property that decades later when he sold it, was worth millions ...as the nearby city expanded and surrounded it.

Damn! She sounds like an uberbitch!

It's strange, you should think that anger and rage cools down after all those years, but the older I get, the more I understand life, and the more I know how much he failed in it

Sometimes the things that are spoken about openly are just as bad. One of my moms older brothers had 5 children with his wife and 3 outside children with 3 different women.

 

[IntoxicatingToxin]

I don't really have any known family secrets. I can't really imagine there's a whole lot to find out about. I guess the only secret is this...

When I was 5, I had a brother who committed suicide. I was told that he left no suicide notes. About 6 months or so ago, my father had to have surgery on his neck. Because there is a risk of death with just about any surgery, he gave me a few things to keep. He also gave me money to have him cremated. One of the things he gave me, were copies of the suicide notes my brother left when he died. There were two. One to my parents, and one to my brother and I. I was shocked. My dad dropped those items off while I was at work one day, and I went through them to see what they were... I had to take a few moments to myself because I couldn't stop crying. I don't know why my parents hid that from me all this time. He also left me a newspaper article about my brother. It was published in a high school newspaper shortly after his death. It took up a whole page, and it talked about drugs, suicide, and depression. They also published his suicide notes. I'm proud of that, in a way. I can imagine that it was a big thing for those kids to read that article. I hope it made some people quit drugs.

 

[arliss]

revealing the family secrets to strangers? what next?

 

[Pecker]

Where's Jerry Springer?

 

[ManlyBanisters]

Not really a secret - but a shock to him at the time: my granddad wanted to go to England to enlist to fight in WWII, he rooted out his birth cert and discovered that his 'mother' was in fact his grandmother and his real mother was the person he'd been calling sister for 17 years, father unknown.

 

[No_Strings]

Not really a secret - but a shock to him at the time: my granddad wanted to go to England to enlist to fight in WWII, he rooted out his birth cert and discovered that his 'mother' was in fact his grandmother and his real mother was the person he'd been calling sister for 17 years, father unknown.

Have you been watching Eastenders re-runs lately? :tongue:

I'm just teasing, you sexy little thing!

 

[ManlyBanisters]

Have you been watching Eastenders re-runs lately? :tongue:

I'm just teasing, you sexy little thing!

No - why? did they steal my plot line?

Keep teasing, you know I like it...

 

[Onslow]

.Has anybody else found out a startling/disturbing family secret?

ummm--er--uh--- I am the disturbing family secret!


When I was 13 I was taken aside by my grandfather and he (and he was drunk as a skunk at the time--seems to be hereditary) he told me that my older sister was not fully related to me. Being a mess already I was sure he meant that I was somehow not fully related to the rest of them and aksed who my father really was. He smacked me hard and told me he wasn't talking about me. He passed out, I drank the rest of his medication (that's what he called it) and went looking for my mother who explained the whole sad story. Unfortunately (for them--my parents) I was fully related to them; my sister however had a different father. It's a long story and one I will not go further into right now. There are those who know and that's more than enough.

Other family basement secrets include generations of no college graduates--there were three consecutive generations on mother's side that attended college for more than three years and then dropped out--it's not talked about much and never was until my older brother finally graduated (after 8 years for a 4 year degree).

Something I found out accidentally was that my father's brothers were at one time migrant workers. After his death, I went nosing around and found a letter from the one of them indicating how the two of them (my uncles) were doing. Up until then I had been led to believe they were railroad workers, to the best of my knowledge neither of them ever worked in that field, one went on to become a short order cook, the other literally disappeared off the face of the earth (there's a lot of that in our family).

When I was 10 my mother revealed that we weren't completely Christian since there were some Jewish people in our heritage--it was very strange to learn that.

The reason we left Guymon (Oklahoma) when I was a baby had something to do with my father and his drinking (the next 3 towns were the same, after which he got himself in gear and stopped drrinking booze).

There may be other secrets; but, I left home years ago, no longer communicate with the majority of my family and am more than willing to let the secrets die.

 

[Principessa]

Not really a secret - but a shock to him at the time: my granddad wanted to go to England to enlist to fight in WWII, he rooted out his birth cert and discovered that his 'mother' was in fact his grandmother and his real mother was the person he'd been calling sister for 17 years, father unknown.

We had one of those in my family too but it wasn't exactly a secret.

ummm--er--uh--- I am the disturbing family secret! You are way, too witty and charming to be a disturbing family secret Onslow.
Other family basement secrets include generations of no college graduates--there were three consecutive generations on mother's side that attended college for more than three years and then dropped out--it's not talked about much and never was until my older brother finally graduated (after 8 years for a 4 year degree). Hmm, I won't ask for more details but I don't see not finishing college as something of which to be ashamed.
Something I found out accidentally was that my father's brothers were at one time migrant workers. After his death, I went nosing around and found a letter from the one of them indicating how the two of them (my uncles) were doing. Up until then I had been led to believe they were railroad workers, to the best of my knowledge neither of them ever worked in that field, one went on to become a short order cook, the other literally disappeared off the face of the earth (there's a lot of that in our family).
When I was 10 my mother revealed that we weren't completely Christian since there were some Jewish people in our heritage--it was very strange to learn that. Jewish migrant workers?!? I am pretty sure you can be kicked out of the B'nai B'rith for that.
The reason we left Guymon (Oklahoma) when I was a baby had something to do with my father and his drinking (the next 3 towns were the same, after which he got himself in gear and stopped drrinking booze).

There may be other secrets; but, I left home years ago, no longer communicate with the majority of my family and am more than willing to let the secrets die.

Fair enough.

 

[B_ScaredLittleBoy]

My paternity is a highly contested subject. I say highly, its out of two guys. One is dead, the other I know of. He has never really 'acknowledged me', not that I want him to. But to add to the confusion, I share the same first and last name as the dead man. Or did, til my last name was changed when I was 18 to the 'family name'...just on the birth certificate, I was for the most part called by my mother's maiden name but sometimes the other name is what I was called. It caused some confusion at school.

Thus, I feel out of place a lot of the time. Especially around people like my (supposed) dad's brother/s....they really piss me off and I feel nervous around them :tongue:. And my half sister's family. Really awkard it is.

But hey, could be worse :smile:

 

[viking1]

Just the usual in my family background. Drunks, moonshiners, gun slingers,
brawlers, and womanizers. Some of 'em spent time in prison, and some in the insane assylum.

 

[WellHung83]

It is rather ironic that we often complain about storylines in soaps and movies being too over the top and outlandish and not 'true life', when if you dig into your family and friends private lives and pasts you realise that sometimes facts are indeed stranger than fiction.
As far as I know there is nothing scandelous or evil lurking in my immediate past, but I am sure that if I did some digging back a few generations and snooped up in the attic I would sure surprise myself. Humans, as they are, rarely do not make major mistakes and then try to cover them up, so there is always a paper trail leading to some major revelation of some sort.

 

[basque9]

I have learned a few real ball-grabbing secrets concerning my family! But, from the family's perspective, I am hands down the wild card ! I have done many unconventional things... surely I am whispered to be "THE FAMILY SECRET".

 

[SpeedoGuy]

Has anybody else found out a startling/disturbing family secret?

I was startled to find out that my deceased father, his brother, my brother and my mother were or are taking anti-depressants. It explains a lot of things.