Have you discovered a skeleton in the family cupboard?

[Miaou]

At the age of 21, I discovered I had a great aunt that I didn't know existed. My maternal grandmother, who was one of five, had a sister who had whooping cough as a child and was brain-damaged as a result. She led a fairly independent life in sheltered accommodation but was never introduced to the rest of the family. I was only told about her because she was going to be at the funeral of their other sister. I kind of understood why my gran never told me about her (she is of "that" generation) but was amazed that my mum had never said anything to me.

Not quite a skeleton but pabla just reminded me - my gran (paternal this time) had a stillborn in between my aunt and my dad. Although it was known about (presumably because my dad's older sisters knew she was pregnant, they were a bit older), it was never spoken about. The baby was taken away and she never even found out what sex it was - I think that was her choice though.

My grandmother had still-born twins and nearly died after childbirth herself after massive loss of blood and complications. I was never told of this until the same thing almost happened to me! FFS I was furious with my Mum for not telling me!! Fortunately we all lived to tell the tale and DS is very healthy, as am I!

My family is full of them - like an episode of Eastenders my story:

When I was about 12 I found a baby id tag that had belonged to a brother that was born between me and my sister. Turns out he had Downs and died, and I was born as a replacement.

In my mid teens I discovered the true extent of my mothers mental illness

When I was 18 I found out that my father had been living with another woman for about 5 years. He continues to live with her as a wife, but is still married to and living with my mother, who chooses to ignore the fact that he sleeps somewhere else at the weekends.

My father also has a totally secret business life from my mother - he owns lots of properties that she doesn't know about.

I found out that my family (apart from dad and his girlfriend) don't really like me very much and prefer my sister.

My family hid from me for a couple of months that my mother had tried to commit suicide a week before my birthday last year.

Pretty sure there's something odd with my mothers parents but haven't got to the bottom of that yet.

Glad I get to choose my friends!

My great grandma who was an irish catholic met and fell in love with an irish protestant. They married with everyone believing her to be a protestant. I'm assuming they had a civil wedding???? It was only on her deathbed that she revealed that she was a catholic. Well thats how the story goes

On my Mothers side, it turned out that my greatgrandfather was disowned by his family for marrying a jew. My grandfather only found this out as an adult, he always thought his father was an orphan.

we found out a year before my dad died that his parents werent married when he was born in Catholic Ireland in 1933

This is a fascinating thread!

At my grandmothers funeral last year a distant relative told us all about her grand father (my great, great, grandfather?)and how he was a sea captain who lived in a small village in north Dublin.
Apparently his crew jumped ship in Amsterdam - he replaced them with most of the local men from the village and when the boat was wrecked a whole village was left without men or an income. Soon after a new law was passed in Ireland preventing sea captains recruiting too many people from the same area.
To cap it all it turns out that he was a PROTESTANT! But seriously it is funny for an Irish person to find out that they have protestant blood in them when they have been brought up strictly Catholic

DH doesn't know who either of his real grandads are. FIL thought his mum was his sister until his 'mum' died.

Just remembered a horrible one - my dads family used to have one or two 'maids' in the 40's/50's. They were distant cousins whose parents had died . I suppose this was before social welfare and my dads family certainly weren't wealthy, but still sounds a bit heartless to me

Quite right - amazing thread!

Pabla - I think she must be 35/36. I do know her name. Never thought to do anything like that.

My grandma outlived 2 husbands & whilst in her 70's was having an affair with the man who lived next door to her.He once wandered into her house in his pyjamas while we were all there & my gran made out that he was senile & had wandered out of his house & into hers by mistake!

The most embarrassing thing was,that the man in question was related to my cousins husband & it was a member of her family who mentioned it to us years later-thinking that we knew ! We had no idea at all

Chacha, one of the family I mentioned earlier registered his interest in finding his birth mother when he was getting married/planning their first baby. Turns out his birth mother registered her interest the same week! She had never told her family about him and emigrated to the US after he was born. She had just moved back and her sister had had a baby in her forties - she then confided in her sister who encouraged her to start looking for him.

I worked out that DH's strict Catholic parents were..... ahem..... not so strict back then!

When DH's older Brother turned 40 and when his parents 40th wedding anniversary was a bit close together.... She must have been at least 5 months pregnant when they got married!

He hadn't even worked it out! His folks told him they had no wedding photos coz they were too poor.... yeah right...