google-site-verification: google65e716d80989ba07.html The Moment I Knew - Ann's Story | The Armchair Genealogist

The Moment I Knew - Ann's Story




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 has had this picture all his life.


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’s siblings has also given me more pieces to the puzzle and more insight into his biological mother’s troubled family. This is the kind of story that no one can make up so I may even have to turn it into a book. Who knows where it will lead but right now, there are five happy adults who feel like some of the holes in their lives have been filled. 

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?


If you would like to have your story published on the Armchair Genealogist for our feature The Moment I Knew, click Everyone Has a Story  for all the details.