Grandma Got Around!

[jamesq]

...Not that there's anything wrong with that.

Anyway, I was chatting with one of my Aunts today and I asked her why some of my Uncle and Aunts (on the same side of the family) had different last names. The older ones have the surname Cyr and the younger ones have McGillis. I mentioned that a guy I used to know had McGillis as a last name and his family was also from Winnipeg, so maybe we were distantly related. At that point I also asked if McGillis was the name of a second husband, or if it was Grandma's maiden name.

Turns out that Grandma liked men - really really liked men (which elicited the comment from me "She was ahead of her time") - She was pregnant with my father when she was 14 or 15. Grandpa Cyr was her first husband. She then married a man who claimed to be named McGillis, but he was apparently a bigamist! So the guy I thought I might be distantly related to? Not so much, or at least no more distantly related than anyone else.

Anyway, Bigamist!McGillis could apparently keep a secret for a long time since my five youngest aunts and uncles shared that name. His real name was something like Valiquette or Valignat. Not sure of the spelling since I only just learned this today.

Grandma's maiden name? Durand. Meaning bungle_lord takes _thwap_'s place as a potential relative.

Just another reminder that complicated relationships are not a recent phenomenon. I always liked Grandma McGillis - she was the fun grandparent.

Comments

[bungle-lord.livejournal.com]

Cousin!

[cat-cetera.livejournal.com]

I think our grandparents' generation had more fun than we give them credit for. After my mom and I started visiting Italy my Grampa said "well you never know, you might have relatives there!" (he was stationed in Tuscany during the war); and my Gran has let slip that the man she married was dating her sister first and she stole him, and also that her first son is named after a different man that she fancied during the war.