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My Family Tree
I Know that nobody is going to believe this, but as I sit here I swear under penalty of...well, something nasty...the following is the truth.
My family tree on my mother's side can only be traced back three generations from myself. It goes: Me, my mother, her father, his father. That's where it ends. The only thing we know is that the family records are buried somewhere in the Seymour area. At that time, my family had two or three farms around that area. The only information anyone could get was one evening when great-grandpa was far gone in drink. On that occation, he mentioned something about the family tree was buried so many steps from a tree. The family tried to get more info, but he suddenly realized what he was saying and said nothing else at all the rest of the night.
Normally, this wouldn't be such a big deal, but my great-grandfather was a first-generation immigrant and he held the only copies of the family tree. Also, to make matters worse, when he immigrated from Germany around 1912 or so you were considered educated if you could read, write, and speak your native language. He was known to know at least seven languages. The uncertanty of our family tree kept my uncle from gaining a security clearance while in the navy.
The navy requires you to be able to trace back (I believe) 3 generations before you can be granted a security clearance. Because the tree ended only two generations away from him, he couldn't be cleared untill my great-grandfather died. The navy did try to find any records about my family past my great-grandfather but they always hit a blank wall. As far as I know, to this day, nobody has been able to trace us back any further.
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