Have you ever watched, or heard of, the PBS show "Finding Your Roots"? It's a program that explores then lesser known family lines of many popular film and television stars. The host, Henry Louis Gates, Jr. will take these pop culture icons on a tour through their family history. Often they will uncover the sordid details of secret romances that leave the stars shocked!
For example, did you know that Julia Roberts isn't really a Roberts after all? Neither is her brother, Eric, nor is her niece Emma. Nope! They are, in fact, Mitchell's! The man she thought was his grandfather (the one with the surname Roberts) wasn't really her grandfather! Her grandmother (or great grandmother) had a relationship with the Mitchell gentleman well after her husband passed! She simply named her children "Roberts" to keep up appearances, I guess.
I have a tale similar to Julia Roberts...Mitchell?..No. Let's stick with Roberts. Like her. my family tree doesn't quite branch out the way it's currently constructed. I've know for quite some time now that one of my great grandfathers, biologically speaking, wasn't really my great grandfather. He was respected as such and will be until my last breath. I would be lying, however, if I never wondered who my real great grandfather was. There was only one person that had the answer and she took that secret to her grave! So imagine my surprise when some of the long lost answers began rising to the surface after I had my saliva analyzed by Ancestry.
After receiving my results, I logged on to the Ancestry.ca website. There, I found the names of others that had their saliva analyzed that I was related to. Some were closely related to me( I saw my 1st cousin, Victoria) , while others shared minimal amounts of DNA (I spoke with a 6th cousin in Australia). There was one person that was closely related to me whose name I did not recognize. When I say close I mean he and my mother were first cousins but I had no idea WHO this guy was! What if, I thought, this was the key to my unknown great grandfather?
That's when I started digging (and it coincided with me finding out Julia Roberts was really Julia Mitchell). Turns out, I found my long lost great grandfather! I looked at the tree of the unknown cousin and determined his grandfather had to be the guy. Then I thought of two things: What if I am wrong? and, How do you ask a stranger for family history? I really don't think I'm wrong (I'm Ivory Soap sure I'm right), but do I have the right to ask a stranger for information?
There's a part of me, while writing this post, that wants to ask "If you have any information on (insert surname here) family history, please respond!" I have looked this secret cousin up on social media, but I have never sent a friend request. I have thought about writing an alternate family tree and giving it to some of my family members, but what if they don't want that secret out? Maybe I should just leave it alone?
I have yet to see any new movies released starring Julia Mitchell. Maybe the world is not ready for the (insert surname here) side of me to be explored? Or, maybe, it's time to knock the skeleton's out of my family's closet and put that one incomplete skeleton
