Just recently my parents got on the genealogy bandwagon (sorry guys! I love you and I love this stuff too, but it’s a bandwagon). So, like any family, we’re putting our heads together to come up with some way to make notes about –how do I put this — past indiscretions by familial players. Players? Not so much, but they were human. Someone came from Europe with an arranged marriage of sorts and someone else was already here in the States and bang! it was love. I can’t fault them, for love takes no prisoners. It often leaves a bloody trail of confusion behind, too. And here, we always thought this thing called love was all heart in the eyes and blushes on the cheeks sort of Disney-esque happily ever after stuff. Sure, it can be. But, love isn’t the only way children happen. There are darker histories in family trees, and infidelity is the probably the least shady among those in our not so modern culture.
And if you ever feel alone, or embarrassed, about certain deviations on the old family Ash, I’ll tell you what I told my mom: you wouldn’t be the first and you won’t be the last to have this show up on their family tree. There isn’t a family around today who isn’t under an impression that their lineage is cleanly laid out on paper and authentic. Please! You’ll never know the naughty secrets of your great (to the nth degree) grandparents, but I bet it would make for some spicy reading.
Read more about family DNA shake ups in this article about King Richard III …
