08 May 2009

Rambling Post About My Father's Escapades, or something like that

So for those of you who don't know, I'm an only child. Well, I was raised an only child. I have 5 step-siblings and four confirmed half siblings. My father was a fairly complicated individual. Said individual was married at least four times and none of those was to my mother. Anyways, I finally found what I like to call "The Missing Link". My mother seems to remember my father having a male child very close in age to me. My mom thought he was a year or so either younger or older and thought his name started with a P. I've gone throught the birth records of every Rivard in the state of California. Whoever Mystery Kid is, he's not named Rivard. One of my half-sibs told me that in the 70's and 80's my dad had been known to have relations with some coke head named Janice. Apparently, she would stop in occasionally at my dad's jewelry store over the course of many years. It is assumed that Madam Cokehead would be the mother of the missing kid. I truly NEVER thought I'd stumble upon the Janice person, due to her status as cokehead. They tend to fly way under the radar.

I don't know how I missed this before, but my dad was married to a gal named Janice from 1970-1972. I've found five marriages for Janice so far (I'm guessing there may be more!). I also found her mother's obituary from 2006 which says Janice is already dead and that she had two children, K. and W. I found a pic of K. on the internet. It's blurry, but she could pass for my dad's child. I can't find W. but that is not unusual with the felonious types. (I found his description on the NV DOC website) Based on the description of blonde and scrawny, I doubt he is my dad's kid, but he was born in 1979, so that would fit the gender and time frame better than the girl from the late 60's. Unfortunately, he's on probation right now and not in the lock up. If he were in the lockup, I could just write him and ask what he knows about his dad or his mom. Prisoners are fairly conversational people.

Anyways, it appears that if this is the missing kid, my assumptions from the outset are holding up. The kid never had a chance with my dad and a cokehead mom, he's probably in prison somewhere. Bah.

Since I'll probably be hunting for random half-sibs for the rest of my life, I made a small effort to contact K. I guess we'll see if she responds.

Yes, I can stalk people this good over an internet connection in a few hours time while avoiding my final paper. So, if you ever need to find someone, you know who to call...

3 comments:

Anne said...

Complicated is a very nice way to put it. I'm glad you've been able to connect with some of your family.

~liz said...

now, back to your paper?

~liz said...

I've been thinking about your reflections on your family since I read this a few days ago. I appreciate your honesty too. I've thought about how difficult it might be to not know some family members and wanting to know more. Then I realized I have some of those same yearnings and wonder about the grandparents I never knew. I guess that is why I find genealogy so fascinating.