| Author |
Message |
Nala63
Member
09-20-2005
| Friday, March 30, 2012 - 10:44 pm 
ahhh, ty Mamie...im from clark gable, errol flynn erra, lol, know of very few from 70,s on. i didnt mean to sound like i was insulting, i just meant it was a heart warming story regardless of whos story it was.
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Mamie316
Member
07-08-2003
| Friday, March 30, 2012 - 11:08 pm
I didn't think you were insulting at all, just that you didn't know who she was.
My sister and I sat together watching and crying like babies. I think it touched home for us because our dad had a bad childhood, a lot of the time spent in not-so-nice foster homes and he didn't talk a lot about it. There is so much I'd like to know.
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Landileigh
Member
07-28-2002
| Friday, March 30, 2012 - 11:17 pm
i've never met my father, my step-mother or my half-siblings. so that would mean i had never met any uncles or aunts I may have. but I have met my father's mother. or at least she's met me. i don't remember her as I was just born. this wouldn't be so weird except they live less than 50 miles away.
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Sunshyne4u
Member
06-16-2003
| Saturday, March 31, 2012 - 5:58 am
family is super important in my family so i cant and Dont understand it.
almost everyone in my family are still married to their original spouse. And i mean Aunts uncles and cousins. Two had quickie divorces but i think its about fifty couples that STAYED married to their original spouse.
Think about how rare that is in our society and time period. heck, even in the 70s half the kids i went to school with were from divorced homes.
THAT is how strong my relatives feel about family and family ties.
Unfortunately, i just cant grasp never meeting direct relatives. I used to drive thousands of miles each year to visit grandparents and relatives provinces away. Cousins would do 9 hr drives to stay overnight just to say HI.
i disliked Rita Wilson's episode quite intensely. There is Much much more that must have been missed. I cannot believe that father just DUMPED his family and came to USA, changed his name and pretended his family didnt exist in europe.
Rita even mentioned going to Greece with her parents. So her dad went there and STILL didnt touch base with his brother/ family??
the man was a criminal, he STOLE syphon bottles which I assume was for Stealing Gas. That would be a huge issue during the war.
The 'escape' also was suspect. ONE guard? just one?? and all five guys needed to get coal at the same exact time?? the fact that basically starved and exhausted men walked out of camp and wellfed rested soldiers Couldnt find them is ludicrous.
definitely some kind of pay off must have happened.
But..... who would do that?? take off KNOWING your brother would be beaten and tortured possibly killed because of your selfish move/
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Mamie316
Member
07-08-2003
| Saturday, March 31, 2012 - 6:09 am
I don't know, I've seen plenty of stories of escapes where it was amazing that they got out in the conditions that they did. So it wasn't suspect to me. And many people at that time did whatever they could to survive and get out for a new life. Many left without looking back. They had to.
Family was always important to my father. It was his main priority but he did not see much of his family after he got older. Everyone went their separate ways. I don't know many of my cousins. It was a big family. That doesn't mean that he didn't feel strongly about his family. He loved them and we all knew that. He also had to do what he had to do to survive being thrown into foster care at such a young age.
I was touched by the story as I think most of us were. My father told me to never judge because you don't know someone's story and you haven't walked a mile in their shoes.
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Rissa
Member
03-19-2006
| Saturday, March 31, 2012 - 10:36 am
My mother's parents dated from when she was 14, he was about 16. Soon after he had to leave home to do his mandatory 2 years in the military she found she was pregnant, (mom was born before her mother turned 16). They were engaged to marry but his parents convinced him that he shouldn't marry someone who got pregnant out of wedlock (very nice, not like he was involved LOL). My mom was raised by her grandparents (who were only in their late 30's at the time) while her mother went on to marry 3 times (all 3 were alcoholics and died very young) and have 3 other children. Mom's dad went on to marry and had 4 children. My mother had to take a train every day to school and her father was the station conductor. They saw each other virtually every day until she graduated grade 12 and never exchanged a single word. She also went to school with her half-siblings... they all knew who the other was, no hard feelings but again they never spoke and she doesn't even remember their names. The siblings on her mother's side were so much younger that my mom had immigrated while they were still children. Actually I was 25 when her sister died at age 35 from breast cancer so she was only 5 the last time my mom saw her. One brother is in S. Africa, he went to serve in the military, fell in love with the country and never left. One brother moved to Germany where he is a professional chef and one brother remained in Austria (he is a severe alcoholic and we refer to him as 'the thing that lives in the basement'). The alcoholics son has disowned him and moved to Germany where he works as a chef with his Uncle. My mom was always very close to her family (as in aunts, uncles, etc) but she says she felt her grandparents were her parents and feels no particular attachment to these siblings whom she only saw a half dozen times. She sees her mother as a misbehaving older sister who was already out in the world by the time my mom's memories begin. The strange part is that my mom's town only has/had about a thousand people in it so they really were in a very small environment and saw each other often. My mom's birth parents died in the same week (ironic) about 2 yrs ago and the town's belief is that my grandmother's bad marriages were because she never fell out of love with my grandfather and my grandfather's wife was a bitter, angry woman because she knew she was her husband's second choice. Sounds melodramatic but they all grew up (except for the-thing) to be successfull professionals with great families of their own. Chefs, a recording artist, a few own/run a resort together, attorneys, etc.
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Rissa
Member
03-19-2006
| Saturday, March 31, 2012 - 10:38 am
Oh before I started that rambling, LOLOL I meant to say that I figured he didn't keep in contact because it would put his family still in Bulgaria in danger. They did say he was still an enemy of the state in the 1970's. He obviously cared enough to let them know he was safe and happy. Your dad has it right Mamie.
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Colordeagua
Member
10-24-2003
| Saturday, March 31, 2012 - 1:35 pm
What an interesting family history, Rissa.
Nothing too unusual about mine. Was surprised when I learned my great aunt and uncle (my Mom's aunt and uncle), who were young when married and both lived long lives, were divorced and remarried during all those years.
In talking to a cousin and a woman when visiting my Mom's hometown, learned my maternal grandmother was a kind of mean, domineering woman. When my grandparents were visiting us sometime during my grade school years, my grandmother said to me that she hoped I didn't grow up to be like my Father. I have no idea of the reason for her saying that???
My Mother had three brothers, no sisters. One of the brothers married a divorcee. That was very much frowned upon by my maternal grandparents and one other of the SILs in particular. Don't think it ever mattered at all to my mother.
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Rissa
Member
03-19-2006
| Sunday, April 01, 2012 - 4:59 am
I asked my mom (many times) why she didn't ever speak to her dad. I can't imagine not at least being curious about him. Mom really doesn't understand the question. Says she had the best parents possible and a loving family, doesn't get why she should have wanted anything to do with the parents/siblings who weren't in her life.
Funny how what is considered a scandal has changed through the years. My paternal grandmother was divorced in 1942 and never spoke a word about it, it wasn't a topic for discussion as she considered it such a shame. In fact the one time my dad pushed she said she had the marriage annulled. Now being divorced is so common it doesn't even rate a pause in conversation.
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Reader234
Member
08-13-2000
| Sunday, April 01, 2012 - 6:28 am
wow Sun I only watched the end of the story - I didn't get the impression he Dumped his family - I thought his wife and son died, and then he had to go to work camp -
the escape report I agree - didn't tell the story - it was only from one persons perspective -
the letter the brother (and was that his half brother?) had from Rita's father, was touching - I also was tearing up quite a bit.
I also found it fascinating that this story - only went back one generation -
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Irsnappy
Member
01-13-2009
| Sunday, April 01, 2012 - 7:15 am
there were quite a few comments about how stiff Helen Hunt was, could this week's episode about Rita Wilson been any different....wow, I almost cried thru the whole episode...what a marvelous story but so sad that the father couldn't share this with his family, I kept thinking about how Rita's mother would cry when she heard her husband's story.
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Irsnappy
Member
01-13-2009
| Sunday, April 01, 2012 - 7:21 am
sunshyne....wow. Your story may have been very different than Rita's but there are a million stories in the naked city and each one is different. I think 1 word no one has mentioned but makes leaving family behind understandable is...NAZI. Let's not forget that Bulgaria was a Nazi country so the rules are very different than anything we can possibly know or understand.
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Mamabatsy
Member
08-05-2005
| Sunday, April 01, 2012 - 10:27 am
As far as her father knew, he was still considered a criminal and was subject to arrest. He'd want to keep a low profile if he ever went back.
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Colordeagua
Member
10-24-2003
| Sunday, April 01, 2012 - 7:04 pm
Very similar PBS program airing weekly on Sunday evenings -- Finding Your Roots With Henry Louis Gates, Jr. It's one hour and seems to cover two celebs / names in that time. Tonight was Barbara Walters and Geoffrey Canada. Next week is Kevin Bacon and Kyra Sedgwick.
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Sunrvrose
Member
08-13-2001
| Sunday, April 01, 2012 - 10:49 pm
hello, i've been gone for about a year because internet died. Been back online for a week or so on Wildblue. Been reading boards, it is so nice to see so many familiar names.
I've got my family info back to 1200 in England. To the 1600's in America.
There is not a single person of interest. Just poor people barely getting by in England, and among the first to come to new world America.
For reasons totally unknown to me, not a single person in my family, since 1600's ever came from any other country. I guess it's just because my ancestors settled in very poor areas and stayed isolated.
My only missing, odd relative is my natural grandfather, Benjamin McCrackin, left family in early 1920's and was never seen again.
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Rissa
Member
03-19-2006
| Monday, April 02, 2012 - 4:07 am
Sunrvrose, welcome back! WOW!! 1200. I have Norwegian side back to about 1500 but all other branches only to 1700. I will really take a miracle to get back farther for most branches, I am envious.
Vast majority of us come from simple farmers because before the industrial age that's what ran the world. My branches were farmers as well up until this last century. Farmers in England, norway, belgium, austria, etc... all farmers. For me the interest comes from the characters and stories not the social status. You should track down Benjamin, could be a real story there. 
ETA: Thanks Color, timed it in for this Sunday. If I enjoy it (and I can't imagine not) then I will hunt down the previous episodes online.
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Colordeagua
Member
10-24-2003
| Monday, April 02, 2012 - 6:47 am
Rissa, I think this was the first episode of this specific series although HLG, Jr. has done a few special programs in the past few years on various celebs' ancestries. All were on PBS.
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Rissa
Member
03-19-2006
| Monday, April 02, 2012 - 9:11 am
Looks like you get to do some catching up too then Color. LOL My PVR says the Kyra Sedgwick one is episode #4 so I went and checked at imdb.com.
#1 was Harry Connick, Jr and Branford Marsalis
#2 was Cory Booker and John Lewis
#3 was Barbara Walters and Geoffrey Canada
#4 will be Kevin Bacon and Kyra Sedgwick
then just fyi:
#5 Angela Buchdahl/Rick Warren/Yasir Qadhi
#6 Robert Downey, Jr and Maggie Gyllenhaal
#7 Samuel L Jackson, Condoleezza Rice/Ruth Simmons
#8 Sanjay Gupta/Margaret Cho/Martha Stewart
#9 John Legend/Wanda Sykes/Margarett Cooper
#10 Michell Rodriguez/Adrian Grenier/Linda Chavez
There are some high profile names in there, surprised I hadn't seen any advertising. I am sure glad you brought it up CD or I wouldn't have known at all.
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Cpaaa04
Member
06-14-2011
| Monday, April 02, 2012 - 11:18 am
I loved this show with Rita. She had me in tears several times. Can't imagine leaving my family behind like Rita's dad did. He had a hard life, losing his wife and baby so close together. That's happened on both sides of my dad's family. I'm glad Rita got to meet her uncle. Beautiful and a sad story.
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Brenda1966
Member
07-02-2002
| Monday, April 02, 2012 - 12:03 pm
Just watched the HElen Hunt ep. I've never been a big fan of hers, but I, too, found it surprising that this rich family history hadn't been passed down by story. I found the woman's voting rights story to be so moving.
Will get caught up on the Rita Wilson ep sometime this week.
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Colordeagua
Member
10-24-2003
| Monday, April 02, 2012 - 3:19 pm
Thanks, Rissa. Think I will make that a Season Pass on my TiVo.
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Colordeagua
Member
10-24-2003
| Tuesday, April 03, 2012 - 1:00 pm
I got a personal looking envelope in the snail mail today. Didn't recognize the return name or address. It was from a relative on my mother's side doing family history (my Mother's cousin's daughter) asking if I am . . . . Yes, it's me. I think I can help her some.
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Colordeagua
Member
10-24-2003
| Thursday, April 05, 2012 - 5:13 am
The relative is the daughter of one of my Mother's cousins. She must have tons of info and photos -- and still looking for more.
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Rissa
Member
03-19-2006
| Thursday, April 05, 2012 - 5:22 am
Word of warning based on my having been burned a few times CD. Make sure she wants to SHARE and not just find out everything you know then run. I have run across a few relatives who think genealogical research is just sending out letters, taking information but they never share back. Worse is when they don't confirm what information they do receive, they just take it as fact and pass it around. I have learned to be a bit cautious because I have spent (literally) thousands tracking down court records, certificates, newspaper articles, etc. So now I always hold back until I am sure they are not doing a snatch and run. LOL
Besides the debbie-downer advice however, it's wonderful that she is a close relation, might give you some great stories about family members that you personally knew.
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Colordeagua
Member
10-24-2003
| Thursday, April 05, 2012 - 7:29 am
She's e-mailing / sending me photos, obits, info already. I'll eventually see her. I have a chest full of stuff I haven't gone through in a few years. I'll be giving stuff to her. I never married, no children. No immediate family for me to pass it on to. I'm not doing actual research myself, so happy to help her with what I have.
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