Family Trees & Fallopian Tubes

Well, I have been on my genealogy kick again. About once a year I get into this real kick to do research on my family tree. Now mind you, it isn't a very easy thing to trace due to the fact that my paternal grandma wasn't married when she had my father. The bio-dad was never in the picture, and finding relatives of that clan are hard to come by. One thankful thing is that the last name isn't very common. That made it easy to know I was at a brick wall for a long time. I have made leaps and bounds in the tree the past year or two with the availability of online research tools. The internet is great for that! However, there seems to be some slight name change things, and odd stuff occurring on the census records that keep me guessing as to what really happened. Every avenue I have pursued regarding a possible living relative has pretty much dried up with the exception of one. This person doesn't know a whole lot because the relative in common (his mother) committed suicide when he was just a year old...so, he doesn't really have much to offer me. One of my major quests investigating this side of the family was simply to obtain a picture of my father's bio-dad.

I found another source two years ago. I had found my dad's bio-sister (same father). She was mentally disabled, and never did get the letter I had sent. Well, months after nothing happened with that letter, I was calling the cemetery where I knew my father's bio-dad was buried to find out some info and the guy at the cemetery was more helpful than he knew he was. I had called inquiring about the last name (uncommon one), and he immediately recognized it and asked, "oh, this must have to do with LaReinne?". Now, LaReinne happened to be the bio-sister of my dad that I had written to and received no reply. She had recently passed. I said, "no I was calling about Archie and LaReinne's sister, but was unaware that LaReinne had passed, but could you fill me in on her death date etc." And on a whim, I put on my best Jim Rockford private investigator glasses, and said, "well, it has been a while since I have spoken with the family because I had misplaced their address and phone number and if he had that handy so I could send them a card". He was more than willing to comply and gave me all that plus their names etc. I then wrote a rather lengthy letter explaining how I was related to the family and what I was looking for etc. Well, much to my surprise I received a phone call from a man whom was the nephew of my dad's bio-dad. He had lots of information and was very happy to tell me it all. I expressed what I wanted which just some information and hopefully a picture. This man was related via the bio-father's wife. He said he would dig up a picture and get it to me etc. He gave me an email address (his wife's) and told me all about himself and stuff. I have never heard from him since. I have written a couple more times and get no reply, and sent emails which now get returned with the notice, "this email address is not accepting emails from your address". So, this leads me to believe, that he told other members of the family, and they wanted nothing to do with it. I can respect that being that Archie was married to the lady at the time he fathered my own dad and remained married to her until his death. I can see that as not being very welcome news. Also the fact that I show up shortly after the last descendent of the two passed, perhaps they thought I was after money if they had any. I am not after money in any way, shape, or form. I really just wanted a picture. I don't have negative feelings towards the man (bio-father) at all...sometimes things happen. I know this man is the bio-dad of my father because my Grandma told me the story, followed up with, "don't let anyone tell you, you can't get pregnant the first time! I am living proof, that is a lie". I know my grandma would not have lied about that.

So, I am mulling over what I should do next. The contact seemed so happy to hear from someone interested in his uncle who has been dead since 1969. I am wondering if I should bother him again, or just let it go. I Probably should let it go, but it is hard to be this close to obtaining a photograph. My clutches just don't want to let this lead slip away.

Completely unrelated now...I was in miserable pain yesterday and the night before. Every now and again, I have a very painful ovulation and this one takes the cake. I have gotten this ever since I was a teenager. I never knew what it was, and secretly I thought I had some major disease but never told anyone. Well, after years of infertility. I found out I never did ovulate regularly AT ALL! Sometimes I could go almost a year and not ovulate. So, I went on meds to induce ovulation and it was then I noticed this pain came with ovulation time. I asked the doc about it and he confirmed it was ovulation. Some women can feel it, others can't. Ever since having my kids, my cycles have been pretty regular for me. The other night was miserable. It woke me up from sleep and it felt like someone was literally ramming stick through me while feeling bloated at the same time. I didn't sleep the rest of the night and the next day was pretty bad too. Now, pain is something I can take. I delivered babies without meds, I have had major knee surgeries and used very little pain meds. This pain ranked right up there with both of those. I am wondering if I have another fibroid on my ovary. It seemed that I would get a lot of this pain from the ovary that had a fibroid before they removed the fibroid. Anyway, I am glad that the pain is gone now. I think if I continue to have painful cycles I should see the gyno and get it taken care of.

Today is Roo's last day at the preschool. He seems pretty settled with it. Sometimes he is looking forward to starting a new school and other times he says he just wants to stay at this preschool forever. I simply tell him, he is growing and that the preschool won't be able to teach him much anymore and if he wants to know more about things, he needs to go to other schools. He seems okay with that answer. I secretly wish I could have him at the preschool forever too, but know that he must grow. It is hard to watch sometimes though. Why can't he just stay my little chubby faced Roo?