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Family secrets you never knew as a kid but found out as an adult.

TideMan09

TideMan09

Hall of Fame
Jan 17, 2009
12,194
1,180
187
Anniston, Alabama
My great great grandfather was one of the biggest bootleggers in Alabama during the prohibition era..

My mom had a miscarriage with her 1st baby, which had that not happen, I wouldn't be here, cause I'm the youngest of three & she said she would never have more than 3 kids..

I had an aunt that I always thought had died from natural causes & later on in life I found out she had committed suicide..

And my moms side of the family are Jackson's & way down the line I'm kin to Alan Jackson..
 
Displaced Bama Fan

Displaced Bama Fan

Hall of Fame
Jun 5, 2000
23,344
39
167
Shiner, TX
TideMan09 said:
My great great grandfather was one of the biggest bootleggers in Alabama during the prohibition era..

My mom had a miscarriage with her 1st baby, which had that not happen, I wouldn't be here, cause I'm the youngest of three & she said she would never have more than 3 kids..

I had an aunt that I always thought had died from natural causes & later on in life I found out she had committed suicide..

And my moms side of the family are Jackson's & way down the line I'm kin to Alan Jackson..
Click to expand...
What about Andrew?
 
RammerJammer14

RammerJammer14

Hall of Fame
Aug 18, 2007
14,667
6,691
187
UA
alabama mike1 said:
My great, great grandfather sired 53 kids that can be documented. He lived in Bankhead Forest between Double Springs and Moulton with one family and had other families in Mississippi and Tennessee. This past summer, I visited his grave for the first time, near Bankhead.
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Is your last name Frey, by any chance.
 
ccc2259

ccc2259

All-American
Oct 29, 2010
2,571
70
72
Lower Alabama
Two of my aunts (dad's sisters) married two brothers, yet the spelling of their last names was slightly different. As a kid, I wondered about it, but as an adult I found out why.....one of my uncles (1 of the 2 brothers) had killed a man in a bar fight during the first few years of marriage, and his family made him change the spelling of his name in feeble attempt to divert attention from the family during the trial and newpaper reportings. That uncle was one of the mildest mannered guys I ever knew.....hard to imagine he killed someone.
 
SavannahDare

SavannahDare

Hall of Fame
Jul 23, 2004
15,169
317
102
Gulf Breeze, Florida
I WISH my family had been better at keeping secrets! Unfortunately, I was made privy at a very young age to things about my mother, aunt, cousins, and grandfather that I had no business knowing. That which is seen or heard cannot be unseen or unheard.
 
Catfish

Catfish

Hall of Fame
Oct 11, 2005
6,566
2
45
60
Birmingham
SavannahDare said:
I WISH my family had been better at keeping secrets! Unfortunately, I was made privy at a very young age to things about my mother, aunt, cousins, and grandfather that I had no business knowing. That which is seen or heard cannot be unseen or unheard.
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I'm sorry your childhood was what it was. My family's secrets are more of the rakish rogues and benign bats-in-the-belfrey varieties. I can't imagine growing up with the violence and destruction you did. No child should have to deal with that. Major kudos to you for turning out so well and doing something of service to others.
 
Crimson1967

Crimson1967

Hall of Fame
Nov 22, 2011
18,765
9,959
187
When my dad attended his father's funeral, he met a sister he never knew existed.

I was around 12 when my grandfather died and I never met the man, even though he lived about an hour away from where I grew up. so, obviously, my dad wasn't close to his father (don't know the whole story other than my grandfather had a "drinking problem"), but it is still odd.

When my father died a couple years after that, a woman came up to me at the cemetery and said she was my dad's sister and was sorry for my loss. She then walked off before I could say anything. I never knew her name and that was the only time I ever met her.
 
TideMan09

TideMan09

Hall of Fame
Jan 17, 2009
12,194
1,180
187
Anniston, Alabama
Something I didn't post in my earlier post was that my dad was an alcoholic growing up..And I literally grew up hating the man..Cause he would use to beat on my mother, until I got big enough to defend her, & I would beat the hell out of him..

He eventually did quit drinking, but, the damage was already done with our relationship as father and son & I hated him as I watched him take his last breath in the hospital..I always think everything happens for a reason, and due to my dad being a complete D Bag, that I hate really to this day, his actions, actually have shown me how to be a great Daddy to my Baby Girls..
 
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TideMan09

TideMan09

Hall of Fame
Jan 17, 2009
12,194
1,180
187
Anniston, Alabama
Crimson1967 said:
When my dad attended his father's funeral, he met a sister he never knew existed.

I was around 12 when my grandfather died and I never met the man, even though he lived about an hour away from where I grew up. so, obviously, my dad wasn't close to his father (don't know the whole story other than my grandfather had a "drinking problem"), but it is still odd.

When my father died a couple years after that, a woman came up to me at the cemetery and said she was my dad's sister and was sorry for my loss. She then walked off before I could say anything. I never knew her name and that was the only time I ever met her.
Click to expand...
I can only imagine how shocking that had to be at your Dad's funeral..Did you ask any of your family members if they knew who she was..If you don't mind me asking..
 
bamanut_aj

bamanut_aj

Hall of Fame
Jul 31, 2000
20,058
82
167
51
Spring Hill, TN
My great-grandfather was a share cropper. I'd always heard that he believed owning a house was the worst investment you could ever make. My granddad is the youngest of 10, and by the time he was 16 and went off to Korea, he'd lived in something like 12 different houses.

'Wow! That's a man that REALLY likes to share crop and rent instead of planting roots!' we always said. Turns out, the oldest 7 or so kids remember NOT moving at all, until one summer my great granddad went 'on a trip' for a couple of weeks.

They suspect he fathered a child, but something more illegal is always a possibility, too.....a mystery!


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