H - Hasenstab

 I always believed that my mom's paternal family name was Hasenstab, which was her and grandma's last name. The "story" was that her father had died a month before she was born, and he had been a wingwalker.

Wing walking is the act of moving along the wings of a biplane during flight, sometimes transferring between planes. It originated as a daredevil stunt in the aerial barnstorming shows of the 1920s and became the subject of several Hollywood movies.  Charles Lindbergh began his aviation career as a wingwalker.

Then things started getting confusing. As my mom got older, she obsessed about not ever knowing her father.  Drinking a bit more than she should and popping pills, she once told me that her real father was a man named Peter Leech (Leach) from Northern Ireland - that he was a wanted man by the FBI and was with the Irish Republic Army. Then a few days later, she tells me to forget about it - that she was wrong. I was like, "Whatever!" Then when I asked her about it a few years later, she denied ever telling me that!

OMG, talk about dysfunction!

After my Mom's passing in 2008, I became determined to solve this mystery about her father. Who doesn't enjoy a good mystery, after all?

I discovered that my grandfather was alive when my mother was born in 1934.  Additionally, I found out that census records indicate that my grandparents never lived together, even before my mother's birth. Despite being listed as married.  I have been unable to find any evidence of their marriage. I suspect that the Roman Catholic church may not have shared their records with the LDS, which could be the reason for this. I vaguely remember being told that my grandparents were married in the Priest's chamber because my grandmother was not Catholic or possibly because she was pregnant with my uncle.

Only God knows at this point. 

I flew from California to Ohio to visit his grave, and when I found it, I was overcome with emotion. I had been looking for him for so long. 

Upon returning from California, I still had unanswered questions. I decided to ask my cousin Mike if he would consider taking a DNA test because I had a suspicion that Hasenstab might not be my mother's biological father. He agreed to take the test, but also told me that he didn't want me to contact him again. I wasn't too upset about it since I didn't know him that well, except for a couple of times when we visited relatives when I was a kid. 

My cousin's DNA test results confirmed that Hasenstab was not my mother's biological father.

I have found the family with the surname Leach with the help of a DNA search angel. It is between 3 brothers and I have my eye on one brother who was in Dayton Ohio at the time - lived at the VA hospital where my Mom had been a candy striper. So Mom was partially correct in identifying the surname Leach, but this particular Leach family is not from Northern Ireland, nor are they associated with the IRA, wanted by the FBI, or known for wing-walking - 

I am slowly working on adding these branches to my family tree, but I have to admit that they are not as interesting as my dad's side of the family, or as elusive as my mom's. They might even be a little boring. However, I haven't found any scandalous information about them yet!