How nice for you! I didn't know about your search. Sounds like an interesting life story.

Wow! I am very happy for you. I know this must close a big gap somewhere in your soul.

How wonderful! Congratulations! It is so much fun to find another relative, living or dead. What a journey you have in front of you!

And how nice that this board has so many people able and willing to help. Good folks.

I think it is wonderful you have found your family....I hope you get to know them all and have family reunions every year.

I'm SO happy for you! I just love success stories like this. :-)

Wow! Coming from a Beaver Cleaver family and childhood, I can't imagine not knowing my siblings or
parent(s). I hope this brings you joy & peace!!! :)

Congratulations! isn't it great when you solve a mystery and find your long lost realtives? Makes you wonder why no one said anything while you were growing up especially when there was nothing to hide.

Awesome!

What an incredible find, I can't begin to imagine how high you must feel. Are any of the close by so you can visit them? A sister is the icing on the cake, you must get together with her. Take pictures, jump right in, they'll love you as much as we do here on the web.

What great news!! With all this information you should be able to go forward by leaps and bounds!

Thanks everyone. Yes; this is a strange, amazing, confused, and delighted feeling. As soon as I can catch my breath I'll be calling the next brother on the list.

JemDandy...My family is oh-so-far from the Cleavers, unless you count my Grandmother throwing a heavy meat cleaver at a drunken, abusive, step-father; but I digress...

My Mom was very young when she had me. My mother and father married after she was pregnant and divorced before I was born. I didn't learn this until after Grandma died and I was clearing out some of her papers.

I still don't understand why Mom bothered, but she says" That's what was expected of young pregnant women in 1955."

Of course, having my birth certificate with his name, origin, and birthdate have made the search a bit easier.

My Mom soon found work in Little Rock and left me with Grandma. She came home on the bus once a month. As time passed and she remarried, I still stayed with Grandma about 90% of the time. Mom wrote; she called; she "helped" Grandma with money when she could. I never felt abandoned by her.

Still, by the time I started school, Grandma's was "home," and neither of them wanted me pulled from pillar to post. Mom's life was erratic at best. Several marriages, four more brothers, and Grandma was not going to let me be around any of those men - except the last one; he was a saint.

About age 5 or 6 I asked Grandma to tell me about my father. She blew a gasket. I was to never mention him; he was gone; he was not coming back. There was nothing I needed to know about him except my name.

She was a force to be reckoned with. While she loved me dearly, took excellent care of me, never beat or yelled at me...I was terrified of her. She kept me tightly under her thumb for 18 1/2 years. She once told me "I raised three "wild" girls; I know every trick in the book, and by G-d you are going to turn out differently".

She was the Grand Matriarch and no one crossed her. I never asked my Mom about my father until just recently; even at that age I thought it would make her sad.

Mom has told me my father came to see me when I was born, when I was two months old and when I was six months old. She said Grandma got very angry that Mom let him in Grandma's house, but Mom thought he deserved to see me.

He tried to see me when I was four; Mom was living in Oklahoma by then. I remember the event. I was out playing in the huge yard/edge of the woods. A car drove up and parked by the house in an area Grandma never allowed cars. A man and woman got out and were talking to Grandma. They were pointing at me. She started waving her arms about, yelling, and basically ran them off. I got scared by the commotion and did my usual bolt off into the woods where I had a secret spot where the dog and I spent a lot of time.

Yep, that was my father and his new wife, on their way to California.

As a very young child I knew my father's name; it was the name I used. I knew he had a son older than me, and I knew he came from somewhere around West Plains, MO. I also knew when I was old enough I would try to find him.

In my teens I asked my aunts about him. They both responded "Oh he was so handsome." I still get that from the aunts and it still makes me mad. I didn't, and don't, care if he was movie star handsome, or a troll. I wanted to know my father, not judge his looks.

Mom has told me I look exactly like him.

Brother William is sending me photos of my father!

Thanks for sharing your exciting journey via Cloud 9. The expedition is just starting, both today, and backwards. Be sure to keep KT posted.