Is there ever something that happened to a family member that you will ever know? Has anyone gone missing under mysterious circumstances? Is the place next to your great grandmother’s friend’s dad’s house totally haunted?

  • NorthWestWind@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    My uncle doesn’t drive nor consume pork anymore after returning from Canada, but every time we ask about that, he doesn’t say anything useful.

    So my theory is he hit a pig with a car and felt sorry or something

  • mister_brown@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    My dad doesn’t like to talk about most of his life prior to having me. He’s very protective of his image and reputation, and I really have no idea who he is as a person, only as the father that raised me.

  • BossDj@lemm.ee
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    2 months ago

    My mom’s oldest sister left home when they were young. Like, very young. We didn’t get to meet her until after Grandpa died. All that we (the next generation) have learned is that she is from a previous marriage that also is not to be spoken of. This is not a prideful, secretive, traditional, or whatever type of family like this may sound. Very open and progressive. Except for this one thing. Just she, my mom, the other sisters will absolutely shut you down if you ask any questions.

    • CileTheSane@lemmy.ca
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      2 months ago

      If he had depression there might not have been a reason. It’s not uncommon for men to spend their lives silently fighting with depression, and when I was 5 a man going to a therapist would have been seen as a weakness and weird.

      Remember that depression is a disease, looking for a reason makes as much sense as asking why someone had their heart fail. I recently watched “In Limbo” with my wife and I think they handled it very well (TW: Suicide). When the depression grabs you you’re not able to think clearly or reason your way out of it.

  • KittenBiscuits@lemm.ee
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    2 months ago

    A picture of my grandfather standing next to a woman, taken before he met my grandmother, and she is holding a baby. It didn’t surface until after grandpa’s funeral. It was taken 500 miles away from where my family lives. I live in that other city now. I wonder if I’ve met my half aunt or uncle randomly in passing?

  • VelvetStorm@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    Someone stole a 20 dollar out of a hollowed out crucifix my grandmother had and they found the money ripped in half in the driveway and I got blamed for it when I didn’t do it.

    Someone ordered payperview porn on the TV and I got blamed for it even though I didn’t know the fucking code and I wasnt home on the day and time it was bought. I’m still salty as fuck over this one.

  • Crackhappy@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    In the late 80s my uncle was heavily involved in Unix system administration and architecture at a major defense contractor. He was gay AF and smart as a whip. He had been hinting that he knew something important about the whole Iran Contra thing and then one day he just dropped dead. Like literally they had no explanation other than a sudden cessation of brain activity (there was a technical term I don’t remember). The family requested that his body be kept so that we could have a separate autopsy done, but mysteriously he was misrouted and instead was cremated. It was fishy as fuck. I’m not sure whether he was offed by the government or possibly entered witness protection. I just don’t believe the story that his brain just shut off.

  • GrayBackgroundMusic@lemm.ee
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    2 months ago

    Why my moron of a father married at all. Why he picked my mother. Why he married so fast after meeting her. Why he had kids.

    Everything I’ve ever known of him says he should never have done any of those things.

  • MelonYellow@lemmy.ca
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    2 months ago

    Mine’s a bit dark. Dad’s family is from China. They had 7 boys including him. It’s a “mystery” what happened to the girl(s) but not really… It’s not spoken about and I don’t think anyone has the balls to ask anyway.

  • thesohoriots@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    This isn’t too exciting given the region, but I had a great-great-grandfather in the Appalachians who supposedly died in a domestic dispute. It was once mentioned, however, that said “domestic dispute” was actually my relative snitching on a bootlegging operation.

  • Zachariah@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    When my father was a child, he, his siblings, and his parents were traveling in northern Mexico at night and had missing time and vague memories of a weird light and being carried by lots of little hands.

  • maegul (he/they)@lemmy.ml
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    2 months ago

    Some vague stories around my grandfather before they migrated that sound like a godfather film but which no one knitted anything about.

    • VindictiveJudge@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      So, this is likely just the randomness of gene inheritance.

      If we express cosanguinuity as percentages, you and your parent are at 50%, you and your grandparent 25%, etc. You get half your DNA from each parent, after all. But what about siblings? With siblings, you get into averages. You and your full sibling each got half your DNA from your mother and half from your father, but because the selection from each is random you could share anywhere from 0% to 100%. Rather than a flat 50%, you get a bell curve that peaks at 50%.

      What if your sibling has a child with someone unrelated to you? Well, you and your niece or nephew are probably at about 25%, but because siblings are on a curve and there’s a pair involved, you could be anywhere from 0% to 50%.

      Similarly, first-cousins are typically about 12.5%, but 25% wouldn’t be out of the realm of possibility and you could even get 50% if, say, their fathers are identical twins. If you and your cousin are simply on the upper end of the cosanguinuity bell curve, I could easily see one of those systems getting confused and thinking you’re half-siblings, who would have a curve from 0% to 50% and peaking at 25%.

      In short, testing just two random relatives doesn’t actually tell you a lot unless you’re testing a (supposed) ancestor and descendant. You would need to also get your parents and your cousin’s parents tested to get anything definitive, and testing your grandparents too wouldn’t be a bad idea for accuracy.

      • CileTheSane@lemmy.ca
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        2 months ago

        That also assumes any two unrelated people share 0% of their DNA. We all have common ancestors, if your uncle married a woman that happened to share 10% of your mom’s DNA then you and your cousin could have more DNA in common as well.

      • MattMatt@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        Thank you, that seems a lot more likely than either one of us being secretly adopted by our aunt and uncle.

  • kindenough@kbin.earth
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    2 months ago

    There is a guy looking like my grandfather and other members in my family, but is a part of the family next door (of my grandfather’s house)