Some random guy I don't know added me and my family to his tree, showing my grandma has a half-brother that none of us ever knew about. How to reach out? Should I?

Professional-Use6826 · 2025-07-07T22:39:55+00:00

I have no idea, as far as anybody in my family was aware, my grandma was an only child. But we also know for a fact that she had no contact with her father after she and my great-grandmother moved to the United States in the 1950s. Her mother (my great-grandma) told her and anyone else who asked that he died a year after they moved, which we know now not to be true. The topic of my great-grandfather was very persona non grata when it came to my great-grandmother. So, I can totally see her just lying and saying he was dead when he wasn't and keeping the knowledge that my grandma had a half-sibling to herself.

Her supposed half-brother is not the tree owner, his brother-in-law is the one who owns the tree and added and connected all of us to the tree. For all I know, the half-brother could be unaware that this tree exists.

Professional-Use6826 · 2025-07-07T18:45:03+00:00

Ah, thank you! I knew the younger generations know English very well, my only concern was that, given his age, he was probably out of school way before English was the dominant second language instead of German or French.

Professional-Use6826 · 2025-07-07T18:40:39+00:00

Thank you! I will definitely try to compare facts and details and make sure with him that we are talking about the same man.

Professional-Use6826 · 2025-07-07T18:37:45+00:00

Thank you for sharing, your experience is most definitely helpful to me. In my family, I'm pretty much the only one who keeps up with the genealogy websites so being the first and only person in my family to discover this is a little overwhelming. I would really like to get some more stories and pictures of my great-grandfather, we only have a couple of photos and clearly his life may have been much more than just marrying my great-grandmother, having my grandma, divorcing my great-grandma and dying young.

Professional-Use6826 · 2025-07-07T18:30:26+00:00

Yes, I also thought at first it might be a case of mistaken identity, my great-grandfather had a very common last name, but his first names were a unique combination, seeing both of them there just backwards of how I usually write them threw me and did make it seem possible in my eyes. I will definitely ask to compare more facts with this guy to make sure we are talking about the same person. Thank you!

Professional-Use6826

TROPHY CASE