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Oh yes, I know that well. Not only am I the "family genealogist", but I am an actual Genealogist. I have my line on all other sides traced very far back, I have my mother's father's line back to the 1200's, her mother's side to the 1400 hundreds, and my father's mother's sides back to the early 1500's. But this mystery with my Great Grandfather isn't simply a name change for the sake of immigration records, or phonetic ease, etc., as I have seen with other family members. This is a long and interesting story, which I won't type here because it's too personal. But my great grandfather lived a bizarre life of secrecy. It goes way beyond the "he was a horse thief" genealogy joke. His entire family made attempts to erase a paper trail of their history, ALL of the siblings and the parents lied about their birthplace, dates, names, etc. in an obvious attempt to cover up a secret. There's really a lot more to the story than a name change, there are other things involved in this family secret, family knowledge, etc., but I'm not typing it. I have been outright "warned" not to pursue this by people who are related that I don't even know. It's a very strange story. Only recently when I discovered what our name WAS, before the change, did I realize why there is a controversy. But there's still a lot more to uncover. My goal is to be able to uncover it before my father dies, because he truly thought the mystery would never be fully solved and has been amazed at what I've found out in the last 15 years of research.
Oh yes, I know that well. Not only am I the "family genealogist", but I am an actual Genealogist. I have my line on all other sides traced very far back, I have my mother's father's line back to the 1200's, her mother's side to the 1400 hundreds, and my father's mother's sides back to the early 1500's. But this mystery with my Great Grandfather isn't simply a name change for the sake of immigration records, or phonetic ease, etc., as I have seen with other family members. This is a long and interesting story, which I won't type here because it's too personal. But my great grandfather lived a bizarre life of secrecy. It goes way beyond the "he was a horse thief" genealogy joke. His entire family made attempts to erase a paper trail of their history, ALL of the siblings and the parents lied about their birthplace, dates, names, etc. in an obvious attempt to cover up a secret. There's really a lot more to the story than a name change, there are other things involved in this family secret, family knowledge, etc., but I'm not typing it. I have been outright "warned" not to pursue this by people who are related that I don't even know. It's a very strange story. Only recently when I discovered what our name WAS, before the change, did I realize why there is a controversy. But there's still a lot more to uncover. My goal is to be able to uncover it before my father dies, because he truly thought the mystery would never be fully solved and has been amazed at what I've found out in the last 15 years of research.
