publicize something that would be embarrassing to them? I had no knowledge of themother ever having been married. She used her maiden name, and her son used hermaiden name. What other conclusion could I make? Here is a mother and her son bothusing the mother's maiden name, and I had found no evidence nor did I have anyknowledge that the mother had ever been married. An illegitimate son was the obviousanswer.Except that was the wrong answer.When visiting in the city of this mother and son (and of many of my other relatives), Iset aside a day to spend at the county courthouse to see what I could learn about myfamily that I didn't already know. Fortunately, this was a courthouse in a largemetropolitan area, and it had modern computerized records. All I had to do was prepare alist of my family surnames in that county, key those names into the computer system, andsee how many "hits" the computer system would make on those names. Among thenames I entered were the surname of the mother and her illegitimate son. Much to mysurprise, what came up was a file folder showing that the mother had initiated a legalname change for her son when he was an infant. What that file folder revealed was ayoung mother with an infant son who had divorced her soldier husband shortly before hewas killed. Within the file were military papers proving her brief marriage, her divorce,and her divorced husband's death. It was a short, unhappy marriage with a tragic end.Also in that file folder were documents showing that the young mother reverted to usingher maiden name, and that she had petitioned for and was granted by the court a namechange for her young son to that of her maiden name. She never remarried, and she isnow an elderly lady. Her adult son lives nearby.These records were an incidental finding - not one based on any knowledge orsuspicion of what actually happened. And it was a finding that brought legitimacy to myno longer illegitimate cousin. All's well that ends well.The lesson learned from this accidental discovery is - do not assume anything about afamily's status, no matter how obvious the conclusion appears to be. The facts may proveyou wrong - happily so in this case.
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