Family?

*sigh* I think I've gotten to the point where I'm going to leave the subject of possible other children of my father alone. I managed to connect via internet with a gal who is the daughter of my father's 3rd (?) wife. I may have posted previously that I was trying to get in touch with her. I'm not sure. Anyways, she's not one of Louis' kids, but she did have this to say about him:

"Anyways, he was extremely sadistically abusive, yes, and my memories of him are not pleasant---at the ripe ages of 3 to 4, I was thrown across a room and into a wall, walked in on my mother being beaten while she was naked, and I spent alot of time with grandma after he held me down and force fed me when i had the flu until I threw up. They were not together even a year when she left him (running for her life and mine), and when he found her at my grandmother's, half of the West Covina police dept. showed up for his violent behavior." She went on to mention that incident involved him setting her grandmother's house on fire.

So, I'm thankful for the candor. My step-sibs who were raised by him were always rather cryptic. Mostly just "be glad you weren't raised by him" and "trust me, you didn't miss a thing, forget he exists". I think I just got a better picture why. I know my father had a temper and a propensity for violence, but I never saw anything but the slightest hints of it.

And people wonder why I read so many parenting books...

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...