Genealogy Chat

Thanks, interesting point.

Liz You must of course do what feels right for you, but can I just offer this for you to think about? There was, on her last year, a thrilling (to us, not personally involved) story of a man with 'no identity', brought up in a children's home and with no memory of anything which happened prior to that. Some brilliant sleuthing which had us all on the edge of our seats for weeks, turned up not only this man's identity, but living relatives. This seemed to unlock something in this man's brain and the memories came flooding back - of a mother who HAD loved him, had NOT abandoned him. The living relatives knew of his existence - but did not know how to find him. It may be that your mother was the same - she 'forgot' about her sister and it wasn't a question of CHOOSING not to have anything to do with her. Just a thought. OC

I think it's time to let the secrets of my late mother's family stay a secret. I've discovered that she had siblings that she knew nothing about, or at least she never said anything about. She was fostered out, I was told on her own, but from school records it appears that a sister, 2 years older that her was fostered by the same person for part of the time. Mum never ever mentioned that. It's unlikely that the small village school records were wrong. I suppose it could be that her foster mother was responsible for the other child but then passed her on to another family in the village. Mum was told she had a sister and was given, as an adult, a photo of herself and another girl and was told it was her sister, they were dress identically, shewas told her sister had gone to live in France. I don't believe my mother would lie but perhaps the truth was so painful that she chose to 'forget'. She would have been 100 this year so her siblings are long since gone. Anyway the point of this long ramble is that although I might have cousins somewhere, as my mum had no contact with their parents then I'm going to let go and close the search. If she chose to keep any knowledge of her past a secret than perhaps I should honour that. Thanks for those who have helped me search. Has anyone else felt it time to close a chapter in their history?