Tell us your family secret

I Heart Internet

As the title says - tell us your family's shameful secret that nobody speaks about. Leave out any details that may identify you or the family.

Mine is that my mother's cousin (who I've never met) was convicted of murdering 2 people in the US in the 1980s.

Gone Drinking

My Dad likes... MARMITE

KKkitty

Have a half brother out there somewhere that I've never met.

kowloon

I'm distantly related to a famous Nazi sympathiser who was executed for treason after the war. Might be a family secret but I'll tell anyone who'll listen.

KeithM89

KKkitty wrote: »

Have a half brother out there somewhere that I've never met.

Have a half sister out there somewhere that I've never met. . . .

wuzziwig

My Dad was born out of wedlock in the 40s. They tried to force my Gran to give him up but she fought tooth and nail and kept him. She's Catholic and when he was 5 she married a Protestant. 2 huge scandals at the time in her community. Nowadays it's practically the norm!!

lahalane

Third Rock from the Sun :O

Hilly Bill

I dont know if we have a family secret as nobody as spoken about it.

KKkitty

Keith wrote: »

Have a half sister out there somewhere that I've never met. . . .

It's not me I hope :pac:

stefan idiot jones

Sssshhhhhhhhh.......we're Welsh.

maximoose

My dad is DB Cooper

Muise...

kowloon wrote: »

I'm distantly related to a famous Nazi sympathiser who was executed for treason after the war. Might be a family secret but I'll tell anyone who'll listen.

Lord Haw Haw?

sadie06

Until I was 18, I held the coveted position of eldest grandchild on my mother's side. One hasty announcement later, I was slouching up to bed reassessing all that I thought I knew! :-)

It was quite dramatic twenty years ago, but we laugh about it now.

sadie06

wuzziwig wrote: »

My Dad was born out of wedlock in the 40s. They tried to force my Gran to give him up but she fought tooth and nail and kept him. She's Catholic and when he was 5 she married a Protestant. 2 huge scandals at the time in her community. Nowadays it's practically the norm!!

She sounds like some woman!

castletownman

My brother Billo lives in a cage in the attic. My sister always taunt him by showing him her vagine and keep saying "you will never get this".

One day, Billo escape. He got this.

SEPT 23 1989

Uncle did a ten year stretch in prison

Seachmall

Some in our family have gotten on the wrong side of a man convicted of planting pipe bombs for some Dublin gang.

It's more of an inherited problem, and I think it has fizzled out at this stage.

Never got worse than threats and slashed tires but it still had a couple of extended family on edge (and rightly so, they were the ones being threatened).

Lola18

Also have a half brother who's mother swore an Affidavit to say her now husband is his father so my half brother would never know!

metaoblivia

One of my great aunts was thought to be barren, so she and her husband adopted a little boy. A few months later, she ended up pregnant and gave birth to a little girl. All of this was out in the open - everyone knew her son was adopted and her daughter was her biological child, including the two kids.

The secret came when the two kids were teenagers and started having sex with each other. The daughter got pregnant with twins and was sent away to give birth and give them up for adoption. No one knew about it until my great aunt started going senile and talking about decades later.

BeerWolf

Still trying to find it - got a map that supposedly leads me to €700m worth of Spanish doubloons!

The Backwards Man

I was very close to being Billy Connolly's love child.

Muise...

I'm 1/8 Protestant. Found out in a bookshop while browsing a biography of a slightly famous relative. Great-grandad kept that one quiet. Even worse, he was from Cork. :eek:

Hoop66

My aunt Mary was born out of wedlock in the 30s in rural Ayrshire. My grandparents had to leave the village they lived in.

They got married and were allowed back. Fucking weirdos. The "village elders", not my grandparents.

What's worse, when my sister had a kid about 20 years ago, Mary was the one that didn't want the granny told about her first great-grandchild, as my sister wasn't married.

Oh, and Hitler was my maternal grandfather.

General General

My great-great-grandfather on my mother's-mother's-father's side was the one who triggered life on this planet... thing is, he only stopped off here for a piss (the spaceship john was blocked by an enormous sh!t he'd done some days earlier).

Hilly Bill

General General wrote: »

My great-great-grandfather on my mother's-mother's-father's side was the one who triggered life on this planet... thing is, he only stopped off here for a piss (the spaceship john was blocked by an enormous sh!t he'd done some days earlier).

The Captain's Log?

General General

Hilly Bill wrote: »

The Captain's Log?

No, a Black Forest, thing was completely jammed up.

Jester252

Apparently I'm related to the British royals

aaabbbb

I've a cousin who was in the joy for dealing a serious amount of cocaine. It was in the papers and everything , I was so embarassed I wouldn't let anyone near a newspaper for ages without ripping out the story first.

I think it's funny now though

My Mum's sister also "drowned" on Sutton beach back in the early 80's . Back when suicide was still taboo. My mum still insissts she drowned but it seems very unlikely given the story I've been told by her and others....

Family Mystery perhaps ??

GreeBo

My dad runs a meth lab from the secondary school where he works as a chemistry teacher.

BeerWolf

GreeBo wrote: »

My dad runs a meth lab from the secondary school where he works as a chemistry teacher.

That's just bad... breaking secrets like that - some things are best kept to youself! :mad:

MonstaMash

My grandfather & his twin brother arrived from Sicily to Ireland in 1897, they were on the run, accused of a vendetta killing arising from a feud between two families.

crockholm

Grandmother was engaged to a sailor on HMS Hood,but ol' Bismark took care of him.She then met my grandfather.

Had cousins in the British Army,was always odd when they used to drink with a family member who was in the IRA,All admitted,that given the situation neither would have any qualms killing the other,as it was duty,lucky it didn't come to it and older age has softened their opinions and perspectives.

I Heart Internet

MonstaMash wrote: »

My grandfather & his twin brother arrived from Sicily to Ireland in 1897, they were on the run, accused of a vendetta killing arising from a feud between two families.

Did they do it?

lukesmom

My 'mother' used to be called Harold and wears neck scarves in public

MonstaMash

I Heart Internet wrote: »

Did they do it?

That's for me to know & you to find out

The grandfather stayed after marrying my grandmother & ended up fighting with the IRA in Jacob's garrison in the 1916 rising.

His twin brother went back to Sicily just before the outbreak of WWI & lived to a ripe old age.

qo2cj1dsne8y4k

lukesmom wrote: »

My 'mother' used to be called Harold and wears neck scarves in public

Christian? Is that you??

wuzziwig

wuzziwig wrote: »

My Dad was born out of wedlock in the 40s. They tried to force my Gran to give him up but she fought tooth and nail and kept him. She's Catholic and when he was 5 she married a Protestant. 2 huge scandals at the time in her community. Nowadays it's practically the norm!!

It's women like your gran that this nation owe a great deal of gratitude to for having the courage to live the life she chose for herself as opposed to getting pushed around by the church and its zombied followers.


Had there been more like her that had the cop on to realise that the catholic teachings in Ireland was based on a load of fascist shíte then there may not have been half the oppression and child abuse over the last century

ElleEm

Great idea for a thread!
The best I can think of is that my granny was adopted in the early 1900's, and had two birth certs with totally different dates on them (different years, too). I don't think she knew, she was a bit mad. We just picked one of them and told her that was her birthday!

Bog Standard User

Keith wrote: »

Have a half sister out there somewhere that I've never met. . . .

which half? top or bottom????

biko

I am a serial killer, but I only kill other killers.
And my sister is a cop.

OU812

One of my great grand uncles was an admiral in the British Navy.

His records are sealed which means he probably did something dreadful

Madam

My great uncle was a bootlegger in New York, he came back home to Ireland in the 1930s for some unknown reason. He then opened a pub and kept a loaded shotgun under the counter - he once shot and wounded someone with it but was never charged. Great guy by all accounts but I'm not sure I believe all the stories I've been told about him!!!

I looked up the census for my granparents, seems my granny was 5 years old when they married:eek:

My great uncle William(Winter Willie behind his back but thats another story), drank all his inheritence, so no money or land left for anyone when he died!

I COULDA BEEN RICH I TELL YIS:D

martinedwards

My Grandfather was born in Moville in 1909, then his family moved to England.

during the war he was a Naval officer, and ended up as acting captain of HMS Violet, a corvette in the south Atlantic, before he was invalided out with TB

he "retired" to Moville but remained on full pay for the duration of the war.

it was his job to spread misinformation about convoy timetables etc out of Derry to anyone who'd listen on the Republic side in the hope that word would get to Nazi sympathizers with a radio.

He had a legendary ability to drink and appear drunker than he was. A very useful ruse in the the old deception game......

martinedwards

OU812 wrote: »

One of my great grand uncles was an admiral in the British Navy.

His records are sealed which means he probably did something dreadful

or spectacular.

Links234

after reading this thread, I think my family must be secretly boring

certifiedcrepe

My dad has been talking to myself and my brother for so long about his life up to the time he met our mother. He get really smashed one night and got a butterfly tattoo, then he was engaged to be married to the dermatologist that removed it until she left him at the altar for her ex.

There's a few other things like how he used to knock our aunt Robin and all that. He really tells us too much, I wish he just told us how he met our mother.

ElleEm

Links234 wrote: »

after reading this thread, I think my family must be secretly boring

Or you're the secret!!!

Merkin

I keep my great aunty Josephine in a sealed container in the attic. I allow her out on Holy Days when I read Wuthering Heights to her and feed her dried figs (as long as she only answers my questions in Spanish).

OU812

martinedwards wrote: »

or spectacular.

See... Now I'm intrigued again.

kumate_champ07

its staying secret!

Fr.Buzz

Not so much a family secret but my grandmothers brother was walking home from the pub one Christmas night with his two mates. Walking down the lane to his farm house while intoxicated having a sing song when he was attacked by a neighbour who heard them coming. He mistakend there signing to be that of the screams of the Banshee so he attacked him with a rock. His two mates picked him up carried him home and put him into bed. Next day he was found dead in his bed. His death was put down to exposure to the elements as his clothes were wet!..No Garda investigation! No suspicions raised! Nobody outside of my family and the man who attacked him's family know what happened that night!..Rural Ireland was a strange place place in those times where people didn't talk about things like that!..So they just moved on with their lives while justice was never served!..