Skeletons in the family closet? Just for fun

G

GeorgiaXplant

Well-known Member
Location
Georgia
Did you learn something about a family member that made your eyes pop...after you were grown or after the family member died?

I was a teen in the early/mid 50s that there were some things that "nice girls" just didn't do, or if they did, the only way anybody knew was a hasty marriage, a "vacation" with a far-away aunt...y'all know what I mean.

Imagine my dismay when I was in my 30s to discover that my dear grandmother, in my eyes a paragon of virtue, was already a mother and pregnant with my mother when she married my grandfather! As if that weren't enough, they didn't marry until she was pregnant with my mother because my grandfather was already married with five children! As far as anybody has been able to determine, no one has any idea what became of the former wife and those five children.

And...my grandfather was apparently a real rake and always had a girlfriend! One of my aunts told me once that every year at Christmas after the gifts were opened, each of her brothers and sisters was expected to choose an old toy to donate to "less fortunate" children. The whole family was loaded up in the car on Christmas Day after church and they drove to a small down about 60 miles away. This was in the 20s, so a 60-mile road trip would have been quite an undertaking.

She didn't figure out until years later that the "less fortunate" children were probably my grandfather's children by yet another girlfriend when it finally dawned on her that every Christmas Day they went to the same house in the same small town.

After all my grandmother's children were of school age, she went back to school and became an LPN. Before that, she'd worked as a nurse's aide. When I was in elementary school, she became an RN.

Goodness! Anybody else have any stories to share about ancestors? Any pirates, highwaymen?
 

Now that my memory has been jogged, I've thought of another one. This once concerns my husband's family. His great aunt was married to a man who was accused of murdering a very mean man who beat his own wife and children. Great aunt's husband was an electrician way back when...in the very early 20s...and the woman whose husband beat her worked as a waitress in a restaurant where he'd eat lunch each day and where he later contracted to do some electrical work.

The waitress's husband was well-known to everybody in our small town, including the local police, as being a drunk and meaner than a snake. There were occasions when he had beaten her and she ran into the street in her nightclothes or showed up for work in the morning with multiple bruises and black eyes and was often disheveled and unkempt from trying to sleep in out-of-the-way places where he wouldn't find her and their kids.

One morning, great aunt's husband was working just a few doors down in another business and the waitress called him begging him to come and help. Being a nice fellow, he went to the restaurant where she pleaded with him to help her dispose of a body...her husband's. They lived in the back of a building that was just next door to the restaurant. One night she'd finally had enough and in mortal terror of another of his drunken rages, grabbed a gun, jumped up on the bed when he came after her and shot him dead.

The stories have varied over the years but one of my uncles remember when it happened. He knew both the waitress and the mean husband. With one thing and another, varied stories and "recollections" the townsfolk, eventually great aunt's husband decided to take the fall so that the poor (now-widowed) woman would remain free and keep her children.

After it all shook out and with a change of venue for the trial, it was judged that she shot her husband and great aunt's husband was culpable because he helped her remove and dump the body. They both went to prison.

Great aunt and her husband had had one son who somehow managed to get a college education despite being as poor as a churchmouse, and became a pilot in WWII. He died when his plane was shot down in Europe.

Eventually, great aunt's husband was released from prison but his wife and son had already both died. He settled in another small town about 75 miles from my hometown, married again, had another son. Great aunt had lived out her life with one of her sisters, somewhat of a recluse.

When the waitress was convicted, her children (among them a set of twins) were farmed out to other family members. After she was released from prison in the late 40s, through much hard work and penny pinching, she started buying up properties in the small city where she relocated and died as a very well off woman.

My husband did a lot of research into this family tale, including interviewing both great aunt's husband and the waitress's children, seeing their prison records, checking old real estate records in the town where the waitress lived after she was released.

The reason there was a change of venue for the trial was that they couldn't find an unbiased jury. Everybody on the list had already made up their minds that neither great aunt's husband nor the waitress was guilty...and they all said so, hoping that the prosecutor would give up an dismiss the charges.
 

Dear me. Looks like I'm the only one whose family wasn't as pure as the driven snow:( What's worse is that I have more stories! Now I don't wanna tell 'em. Maybe I'll save them for a book.
 
When I was young, I came across my great-grandparents' (my grandfather's parents) marriage certificate. It listed my great-grandmother as a "Hebrew spinster". I went running to my grandmother asking if we were Jewish. "We don't talk about that, dear" was her quick answer and the certificate was whisked away, never to be seen again.

Later, my father explained that my great-grandmother was 1/4 Cherokee and 1/4 black, thus she was a Melungeon. There was no way she and my great-grandfather could legally get married in the South, but a sympathetic Methodist minister in Virginia listed her as a "Hebrew spinster", apparently to get around the miscegenation laws.
 
I have a great uncle that went to prison for murder. Apparently he was involved in a home burglary.. and the family came home.. a man and his son were killed... My great uncle did not do the actual murder, but he was there.. I have seen the court transcripts of my Great grandfather pleading the court for leniency for his son.. It didn't work.. he still did time.. I am not sure how much
 
This isn't exactly a skeleton, but it's a great story: Picture this - southern Ohio along side the Ohio river, mid 1930's. Dead of winter. The river had frozen over. My grandfather and his friends (drinking buddies) were discussing/arguing about whether or not the ice was thick enough to drive across. Grandfather decides to prove it is by driving across. He makes it all the way across. And half way back. Ice starts to give way, grandfather jumps out, car sinks into the river. Grandfather and friends proceed to local pub to discuss. BUT someone had seen the car sink, but had not seen my grandfather exit. This eyewitness proceeds to go to my Grandmother, who had already had 5 babies and the 6th was on its way, to tell her that her husband had drowned. She was of course over taken with grief. She did not know what she would do.

Several hours later Grandfather, feeling absolutely no pain, rolls into the house, smiling. That's the second time that day he almost died........
 
My aunt and uncle on my mother's side were devout Baptist. Both spent their lives in small town PA. Uncle Howard had a speaking voice like Kermit the frog, in fact he looked a bit like Kermit the frog. Very soft spoken, he would have made a fine minister. The surprise that still makes me shudder to this day, it was when his sons cleaned out his father's house. They didn't find skeletons in the closet...they found Klan robes in the attic.
 
Hoot, that's hysterically funny, but your grandmother probably didn't think so. He's lucky he survived her wrath!

I remembered another one. One of my aunts was in nursing school during the war while her husband was away in the Seabees. She showed up at home (30 miles away from her dorm) one day to explain to my grandmother (the same one I mentioned in the first story) about the "tumor" she seemed to have acquired. She finished out the semester, then went off to a "rich aunt" in Utah, the way I heard it, came back with a baby girl who was promptly adopted by my dad's brother and his wife, who were childless. She was raised a spoiled and pampered only child. Her adoptive mother had also been raised a spoiled and pampered only child, and the family lived in a duplex with the grandparents in the upstairs apartment, so along with doting parents, she had doting grandparents, and never wanted for a thing.

After I was grown, I learned that my adopted cousin had already been my cousin. A double cousin.

We all lived in the same small town. It makes me wonder how many people knew about it.

Aunt did finish nursing school, the war ended, Seabee uncle came back, they lived in the same town where she'd gone to nursing school and had two sons before he beat her nearly senseless in one too many of his drunken rages. She ran away, and took her sons with her. He found out about my "tumor cousin", filed for divorce and was awarded custody of the boys in spite of the fact that he was well-known as the town drunk.

Some years later, she remarried and had a son with her new husband. Eventually, she made all four of her children aware of each other, they met and as far as I know, they're all still in touch and living happily ever after. The boys are all educated and successful. The tumor cousin led a strange life, never started college much less finished, her first husband committed suicide and left her with two little kids to raise. She got involved with drugs and a hippie lifestyle in California in the late 60s/early 70s, but finally overcame that and eventually moved back to our hometown.

She's remarried and is a stained-glass artist, so the lack of an education doesn't seem to have hurt her much financially. The work she does is mostly commissioned work. Lucrative.
 
fureverywhere said:
My aunt and uncle on my mother's side were devout Baptist. Both spent their lives in small town PA. Uncle Howard had a speaking voice like Kermit the frog, in fact he looked a bit like Kermit the frog. Very soft spoken, he would have made a fine minister. The surprise that still makes me shudder to this day, it was when his sons cleaned out his father's house. They didn't find skeletons in the closet...they found Klan robes in the attic.
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Oh, my!
 
Well, I got an earful of "family skeleton" stories when i went to visit my aunt & uncle(mom's brother) in South Carolina. I actually didn't know much about mom's side of the family before the trip, but now I do! :rolleyes:

My maternal grandmother came to live with us when I was 3 or 4. It never occurred to me why, but g.m. was separated from g.d. Apparently I was admonished at a young age not-to ask a bunch of 'why' questions, because I just didn't.

My g.d. was referred to as "the judge" because he was one, as he was a lawyer by trade. Nothing much was mentioned about him, I never saw a picture of him, nor did I ever met him.

Well, my aunt told me that my other two uncles(not her husband, but the twins) had plotted to kill dear g.d., luring him out to the barn and hitting him over the head. At the last moment, they changed their minds. Aunt did not expound, but g.d. did drink alot, and presumably became abusive. Towards who, and over what, I never heard.

After my g.m. left him, he stayed in a cabin up in the hills, down the road a ways from Cherryville,NC. He died in 1964, I remember my g.m. having a premonition of his death, then later getting a call that g.d. had died.


Another matter regarding my Mom's dad is that I found out(during same visit above) that grand dad had been married before marrying my grandmother. This, in Illinois presumably in the same time period that he attended law school there. I should do some genealogical investigation and see if there are some aunts & uncles and more cousins out there.
 
Any pirates, highwaymen?
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None that I know of but my great grandfather and one of his sons had colourful lives.

GGfather jumped ship in Sydney in 1872 and we were told that the ship he was sailing on was the Cutty Sark, a merchant sailing ship. Some research revealed that it was not the Sark but HMS Dido, a fully rigged ship of the British Royal Navy. He is listed in a book called "The Book of Ships Deserters" compiled from entries in the various colonial Police Gazettes. A reward of three pounds was posted for anyone who could reveal his whereabouts so that he could be returned to the ship. This never happened and he married and settled west of Sydney, later to relocate to Newcastle, NSW.

His first wife died long before he did and at the age of 86 he married again. The lady was his housekeeper and the family disapproved and tried to prevent the marriage. He was something of a local identity in Newcastle and a local radio station shouted him a wedding and considerable publicity. I was told that the reason they married was that the lady was going blind and, being a gentleman, he married her so that her could take care of her without any impropriety. Eventually I found out that the lady was indeed his housekeeper and also his de facto wife of some 30 years. When she was starting to go blind the family tried to separate them so to thwart them he married her at long last.

GGfather had four sons, two of which served in WW I. My grandfather was one, serving in the desert of Palestine. He was a member of the legendary Light Horse. His brother was a sniper and a crack shot. He was awarded the Military Medal for his service.

This brother, George, was charged with murder just before the outbreak of WW II.

http://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/30762875/2647232

The charges were eventually dropped as a police investigation decided that it was self defence.
 
After my mother's death two years ago I learned she had spent time in a mental hospital from ages 15-18 after having tried to kill her foster family by poisoning them with rat poison. She received 26 electro shock therapies. This was evidentally a closely guarded family secret. I'm 59 this year and just heard about it a year ago. I sent for hospital records so I know it's true. Let's get all of them skeletons out of the closet now! LOL
 

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