Grandma Nellie

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I started this narrative , and started again, nearly 9 months ago, I’m glad I did not send it then as there is more to share. The first version was a romanticized version. I am in a better place to share the story now. First, a little bit of history. Grandma Nellie was our grandmother on my mom’s side. She was a sweet, innocent little lady. When my mom was a child, Nellie told her stories of her childhood. Nellie and her sister had been abandoned by their family. Nellie suspected she and her sister were twins, but birth certificates did not exist to verify this information. After the abandonment the girls found a new home with a couple in the community; to David and myself this couple was our “Nana and Granddad” they were instrumental in raising our mom. …show more content…

Nellie’s sister was Christine, but we knew her as Cellie, the girls were renamed when Nana and Granddad took them in. We never knew how old Nellie was, she did not know her age at the time the family left Nellie always spoke affectionately of her birth mother, her mother hid the girls from their father. The story goes that the girls were hidden in the outhouse the night the rest of the family left. We suspect the abuse upon the girls was severe, Nellie recalled so little of her young childhood, and Cellie had no memories. Nellie always wondered what had happened to her siblings and especially her mother. Nellie died in 1990. Fast forward, a year ago I gave my parents each an Ancestry DNA kit. My dad was excited to see the results of his DNA, but mom not so much, she had her own issues as a child and a father she never knew Mom had done some preliminary ancestry studies searching for connections within Nellie’s family. She found census records validating the Myhre family and Annie and Christine

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