Share your ancestry!

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I have it on good authority that I’m at least 10% human. Sometimes, my sis think that estimate may be optimistic.
 
@discobot fortune , are you a descendant of HAL 9000 from 2001: A Space Odyssey?
 
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Am I understanding that this half uncle was an only child…not knowing he had an older brother? I’m not sure if that would bother someone or not. In my case, I was excited to learn I had sisters and brothers but after the initial realization and a bit of time to process it, it just felt disconnected. I was an only child. I have no idea how to have a sister! I just can’t relate to a normal sister relationship.

It was great to get some medical history but that’s about it. Since both my parents had died, I was never going to know them except through my sister. Without having the experience myself, I was basically left rudderless.

I don’t want to refuse a relationship of some sort but I don’t crave it either. It’s now just become a tidbit of information about me that I never really experienced.

Your uncle may eventually reach out but I wouldn’t expect him to since he hasn’t so far. People finding lost relatives can sound so amazing but I really think most of them are rarely ideal.
 
My uncle was an only child, and unfortunately our dad, his half-brother, is deceased, so there’s no opportunity for the two of them to meet. Dad was born in 1925, my half-uncle in 1936 – so even if both were still alive, there would be a substantial age difference. Grandpa remarried in 1928, a month after his divorce from our grandmother became final. They waited quite awhile to have their own child, and then only one.

Conversely, our grandmother remarried and had a son by her new husband, our dad’s stepfather. He was Dad’s half-brother by the two of them.

I think it’s been very difficult for my uncle to wrap his head around his dad having been previously married and having had a kid by that union. I also don’t know how he feels about learning he has not only one niece, but two, and a nephew (there are three of us). Having not had any siblings, he has no experience as to having nieces and nephews.

I think if he hasn’t responded to me by now, he isn’t going to. I have provided him three ways to contact me: mailing address, phone number and e-mail address. He hasn’t used any of them.

My uncle is 85, his wife 87. He’s still in good health, as far as my cousin can tell, but both are getting further and further up in years, so if he is thinking about making contact, he needs to do it sooner than later.

The ball is in his court. I’ve reached out to him, more than just once. I’ve provided documentation to prove I’m his relative, and I’ve also told him about the Ancestry DNA results which further prove it. Now, it’s up to him.

Hope springs eternal, as they say.
 
JanR said:
Hope springs eternal, as they say.
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Yes, you’ve done all you can. It is traumatic to learn that there has been a secret or at least, an unknown event from your early life. I’d imagine he’s of an age now where he just doesn’t want to face any different history from what he always knew.

It’s his loss…
 
I’ve even sent him a photo of myself, so he knows what I look like. Nothing unusual, just a normal looking gal.

I also sent him a copy of a photograph my grandmother had kept in her possession of his dad cradling our infant dad in his arms with our grandmother (age 16) standing alongside him. I did this to further prove I was telling him the truth. It may have been a dicey move, but I needed to have him believe me. I’m sure he has photographs of his dad as a very young man to compare it with, and can tell right away they are one and same person.

But, as you’ve pointed out, he’s probably too set in his ways to want to venture into new territory at this stage of his life.

I wish him and his family the very best.
 
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