Dad's Story or Part III

As told in my first blog, one of the things I wanted to find out, by doing genealogy was to find more about my Dad's family. We had heard all our lives, that Dad was born in Columbus, Nebraska. Wrong! Dad was born in Denebrog, Howard Co., Nebraska. First myth debunked, I have a copy of his Birth Certificate. We also knew that his 'Dad' died before he was born. The gentleman listed on my Dad's Birth Certificate, as being his father, died in June of 1918, 25 months before my Dad was born. Now this was decades, I say decades, before Invitro Fertilization. Guess that branch of the old Family Tree is dead. Grandma did say just before she died "Oh by the way your real Dad's last name was McMahon or McMann" or who knows? Guess that maybe where the red hair comes from?

Before finding out much more about my Dad, Garry and I got in touch with some Burton 'relatives' in Nebraska. They were warm, kind individuals and even though we were not really related, they said they'd claim us as relatives. This Burton descendent did take us to meet a guy, who would have been my Dad's cousin. When we walked into this restaurant to meet him, we stopped with our mouths open. This guy was most certainly a relative of Dad's. The resemblance was uncanny. I wish I had stayed in contact with guy to find more relatives, but unfortunately he died before I could contact him. He was a relative on the Jenks side - more about them later.

I knew we were German from my Dad's mother's side, the Jenks and that my Great Grandmother spoke German. But beyond that I knew very little, but wanted to find out more.

My quest into Dad's side of the family had started. This quest for more on his family would take me years to find. A hunt that I have performed almost weekly, but certainly monthly for about 15 years before I recieved another tidbit into the family.

Next post a continuation of the Jenks side of the family......