I have been playing with genealogy off and
on for years using the information my mother collected before she passed away
in 1998. I have tracked my family and my ex-husband’s family for my kids.
I also researched my husband’s adoptive family.
Being adopted, he didn’t have much information on the biological family but it
was his adoptive family that mattered to him. We enjoyed learning about the
people he grew up with and finding clues into the past.
It wasn’t until January 2012, that he asked
me to look into his biological family. He waited until his mother passed away,
not wanting to upset her. That was a mistake. She took a lot of the information
with her. However, I have always been curious so I had gathered some
information. It did help that his biological mother was his adoptive mother’s
cousin. At least, I had that relationship documented when he asked if I could
find anything else.
On the off chance that someone would find
it, I setup a new line on Ancestry.com with his birth name. Given that it has
been more than 50 years, I had little hope that anyone would find it. Still, it
never hurts to put it out in the universe.
In April 2012, I received an email from a
lady looking for the mother of her cousins and asked if I had any information.
That was the moment I knew that this was much bigger than any of us had
expected. The cousins were two of my husband’s biological siblings. We had
always known about them but to actually find them was amazing. Gary
They share the same mother but Ricky and my
husband share the same father. He has never looked like anyone before so he was
taken aback when he found he is the spitting image of his grandmother and
father. He was also shocked to find that he wasn’t Mexican but Native American.
He belongs to a tribe.
We knew some of the history of the family.
These children are only three of the thirteen produced by his biological mother
and many different men. Lydia Gaulthair abandoned all her children and they
were raised by other people. This is where it gets even bigger. There are three
children born in the 1940’s who we believe are Gaulthair too. We are in the
process of verifying the information and will make an attempt to contact them. Unfortunately,
one has already passed away but she has family that we would like to contact
since we want to know her story too.
In July 2012, the three siblings met each
other for the first time. It was stressful and more exciting than anyone could
put into words. Rick and Frances are no longer in shock and my husband has
stopped vacillating between worried and thrilled. As we discovered, this is one
of the happy ending stories as we not only met them but liked them too. Finding
this part of his family has provided him with medical information and a look
into his past that he didn’t know existed. The photo is the new sister Frances,
new cousin Esther, new brother Ricky and my husband Gary.
The day that we came home from the meeting,
I found a new email. It was from a lady named Darla. She said she was a
Gaulthair child too. This was shocking because we didn’t know about her but she
provided us with David, another child that we had been looking for. Darla is
David’s half sister and they were abandoned by Lydia Gaulthair just after this
picture was taken.
Finding four of Gary
Meet the Storyteller - Ann Hinds
Ann Hinds is a grandmother raising a grandson. He's almost 12 years old
and into baseball (exceptional 1st baseman) so she also serves on the
board for his small league. Ann homeschools so when she and her grandson are not studying or at
the ball field, they travel in their vintage trailers. Ann writes on Squidoo which provides an
opportunity to share her interests like California destinations, grandparents
raising grandchildren, and all things vintage trailers. Her blog, "Our Family
Genealogy", chronicles not only her family history but now includes the
new family and the ever changing dynamics. Who knew being a senior citizen
would be so busy?