family
Had an interesting convo with the parental units this past Thrusday night when the kids and I took them to the bar for Tex Mex to say thank you for the two free tires for my van. Dad had them laying outback and both were in really good condition and fit my van! Anyway!:P My parental grandfather was a big fat lying ass as we have figured out! We have no clue who is family was or where he came from. And for the past 5 years my dad has been diligently trying to track Grandpa down off of genology websites! My dad and his siblings never knew any of that family growing up, knew Grandpa lied about things, and that Grandma knew about the lies as did most likely her entire family! Grandma still won't say shit when you ask her. At 95 years of age and having the majority of her mind yet with only lapses she is one hell of a subject changer if you try to ask questions about Grandpa!
What Grandpa did tell us we had no real hard proof of. His Navy stint in WWI. Interestnly enough when my Uncle W requested Grandpa's Naval records from St. Louis (Grandpa could rattle off his Dog Tag ID till the day he died at the age of what we all thought was 92 and is on the books but was in truth more along the lines of 96!) that is when the Military Records down in St. Louis had that massive fire that destroyed most of the Navy WWI records and older! Isn't that a quinky dink!?! We also had no clue where Grandpa was born until he popped up two years before he died and let the nursing home list it on the board! He in essence gave enough truth with his lies and the midwest states share a lot of the same town names and even county names that it is very hard to try and track down shit! So my dad logically has started with what Granddad let loose in his dottering old age combined with what he let on while he was younger. It has been interesting!
In the past few years, my sister and I just nod our head at my dad when he has been weekly spouting I think I found my dad! My dad spouts that and then promptly finds information to the contrary or realizes that the family names might be right but the time period is off! Well last month with the help of my Uncle (my dad's brother) they actually managed to find traces of what looks like my Grandpa's military record. And at the end of Sept managed to do a family confirm with Grandma with their information! Let's just say, my brother and I get our issues with authority from Granddad! And my stints in country jail when I was in my early 20s and late teens would have been no skin off of Grandpa's ass! He HATED to do what he was told and looks like he went AWOL at least twice to do what he wanted!
Since that information has been somewhat confirmed by Grandma, my dad has choosen to work off the military records to try and track down Grandpa. Right now he is working on a very strong possiblity based out of MN closer to the ND and SD boarders! My dad has found all the family names, including Grandpa. Matched up the Orphan train that Granddad swears he rode on to get to IA when he was in his tweenies or teenage years and is matching up counties and towns to what Granddad has told us or variants to them!
Now what is interesting is this: My mom's family is predom Irish/German/French. Irish/German off her mom's side with more Irish. Her dad's side is predom French/Candaian French. They insist it is NOT French Canadian but Canandian French which means there should be a tribal connection int here since the French folks from the Central Canada region down to the Central US region did intermarry into the various tribes. But what we have found out that my mom's family was smoking some good shit! We are in truth French Canadian and NOT Canadian French. Meaning her family is just some dark skinned white folks!:D
Now the family my dad has found up in MN that may connect to my Grandfather and he is going to try and contact what ever family is living from the family he found on a few census to try and confirm is this: In one mid 1800's censu Granddad's family was registered as a branch of the Lakota but the branch would be either Dakota or Nakota. The mom was white and the dad was indian. A few years later still in the 1900's the family switched their race to white and the mom was dead! If it is true my dad goes that explains why you and your brother are so dark skinned and why both of you are more comfortable outdoors and with your indian friends then your white friends!
Grandpa made it a strong point to move to the Rez even though Grandma's family settled on the rez and right off the rez in the area. It would explain why Grandpa also had more Indian friends then white friends........back in those days if you could pass as white you did so especially if you looked white if you were half. Folks were real hard core about Indian still in those days especiallyin the plains and western states. And we have figued out that if Grandpa was half, that makes my dad a 1/4 which makes us kids an 1/8th. According to most of the Lakota/Dakota/Nakota tribes you can't register but if it turns out to be true you can beat your ass that I will be taken advantage of the IHS Health Care System in the town my kids go to school and where my mom works! Tribal Hospitals you can't do that you have to be registered UNLESS the Tribal Hospital is apart of the IHS Gov't Health Care System in which case as long as you can prove you have Tribal blood in you up to 5 generations back you can get your Medical Card and be seen at an IHS Clinic, Hospital, Vision, and Dental system!:D
So far dad has yet to find any holes to the story and if he can keep it that way, he is going to have that DNA test done to see if there is any Tribal blood then we will see if we can track down the actual family!:D
