Reddit Users Reveal The Most Disturbing Family Secrets They Discovered

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We might think that we know everything about our family members. After all, we’ve spent enough time hearing all about their funniest stories and adventures. We trust our parents and siblings with our lives, thinking they have nothing to hide, but sometimes, everything is not what it seems. The person you spend every day with could be hiding a very dark, disturbing secret with no intention of ever telling you about it. But sooner or later, the ugly truth will come out. These people revealed their creepiest family secrets they discovered by accident. Are you curious to know what some people are capable of? Then keep scrolling!

My Great-Grandfather Faked His Death

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I recently learned that these DNA kits are almost never a good idea. So, my cousin did one a few years ago and found out that she had many relatives she never knew about. Our great-grandfather faked his death so that he could receive the insurance money and start a new life in another country. He left behind his kids and wife (our great grandmother).

My Uncle Was A Cult Leader

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My uncle passed away last year, and recently someone told me that he used to run a cult back in the days. No one knew about it, not even his wife and kids. Every time they visit his grave, they find strange adult toys.

Secret Marriage

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My grandmother’s cousin’s husband recently passed away due to cancer. Then, his wife found his journal in which he explicitly revealed the fact that he was in a relationship with another man for over 35 years. It came as a shock to her, as she never suspected anything, nor did the others.

Most Of My Family Is Inbred

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Recently my mom had a heart-to-heart talk with her sisters and found out that most of them had lied to their spouses about their children being theirs. They had cheated on their husbands multiple times. I also learned that the majority of my family is inbred. Thank god that my mother was adopted.

My Grandfather Was An Addict

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I found out that my grandfather was an addict. He even tried to sell his family’s home late at night while everyone was sleeping. He continually took out cash from my grandmother’s bank account and double-mortgaged their house. She wasn’t aware of that until she decided to leave him, and the bank told her she didn’t have any money left in her account. And worst of all, there was nothing she could do about it.

My Grandmother Had An Addiction

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My grandmother was addicted to weight loss pills back in the sixties. In order to get a new prescription, she would pretend to be another person by wearing different wigs and outfits.

 Secret Child

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My grandma and her nine siblings were raised in a very religious family. They recently found out that their father had another secret child, Marie, who passed away before they had a chance to meet her. They only found out about her because she left them a large amount of money, which was traced back to her.

My Aunt Was Locked In The Attic

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My grandfather’s family kept his aunt in the attic because she had a mental illness. They didn’t know anything about her condition, so they decided to lock her inside and ignore her.

My Father Had A Mistress

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My father moved his whole family to California from New York, all because of his mistress. He revealed his secret when he was on the deathbed.

My Great-Grandfather’s Story

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My great-grandfather spent his last days locked at a mental institution. His family lied to everyone and told them he died serving a prison sentence because this was apparently less shameful than having a mental illness.

One Time I Watched A Movie…

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My friend’s father used to make films as a hobby. One day I decided to search for him and found a few of his videos. His wife starred nude in all of them. I can’t even look her in the eyes anymore after seeing her naked on camera.

I Can’t Forgive My Parents

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Both of my parents are horrible people. My father cheated on my mother and got another woman pregnant. When my mother found out about it, she decided to stay with him, but only if he promised her that he would never see that woman and the child again. I don’t know how you can live with yourself, knowing this.

My Sneaky Parents

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When my parents met eachother, they were both married to other people. My father divorced his wife and moved in with my mother and her then-husband. She even got pregnant with me before the other man decided to move out.

When I Was Doing A School Project

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While doing a school project about Prohibition, I found out that my grandfather and his brothers were distributing alcohol and were arrested many times because of it.

My Aunts Might Be Criminals

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After some digging, I learned that my aunts might have killed a man. The case remains unsolved, but this is what happened. My aunt fell in love with a man who used to lie to her all the time and then decided to marry someone else. He was found beaten to death by a bat. The authorities claim that two people had killed him, and one witness said he saw two blonde women walking away from the scene of the crime. Both of my aunts have blond hair.

I Have A Secret Uncle

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My mother didn’t allow me to meet her oldest brother because he identifies as female. My parents told me they kept her a secret from me because they didn’t know how to explain the whole thing. I met her for the first time when I was in my 20s, and I’m still so mad at my parents for never telling me the truth. She’s now trans and is the most loving, fun person I’ve ever met.

Curiosity Killed The Cat

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I’ve always been a very curious person, but as they say, “curiosity killed the cat.” I found out that my mother’s name is on the list of the members of the Charles Manson family.

My Uncle’s Wife Was A Cult Member

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While reading a blog post, I found out that my uncle’s wife was a cult member in her younger years. The cult leader called her “his favorite girl.” After he was caught and executed, she got pregnant with my uncle’s child and named him after the cult’s leader.

My Dad Is Gay

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No one in my family was aware that my dad was actually gay. When he was alone at home, he would dress up as a woman. One day, he decided he couldn’t pretend anymore, so he came out to his family and married a man. He is now working as a drag queen in Sin City.

My Sister Isn’t My Dad’s

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My mom and I are the only two people in our family who know that my younger sister isn’t my dad’s. I found out about it while doing her blood work (I’m a doctor). Her blood type didn’t match my parents’ blood type. I don’t think I will ever be able to tell her the truth.

My Grandfather Used To Be A Hitman

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I accidentally discovered that my grandfather used to be a hitman. To this day, his family lives on the property that he received after finishing his “work.”

After My Uncle Passed Away

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My uncle was a wealthy man who owned lots of properties. When he died, his siblings shared everything among themselves and told his family that he didn’t leave anything for them.

My Aunt Is A Cougar

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I found out that my aunt is a cougar, and once she sent explicit photos of her daughter to someone online. She wanted to catfish this young man, and no one did anything about it because her then-husband was going through chemo.

My Cousin And His Wife Gave Up Their Child For Adoption

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My rich cousin and his wife gave up their baby with Down’s Syndrome for adoption because they wanted to keep up with their appearances. Their other kids don’t know about it, and no one ever mentions it.

My Grandfather Used To Wear Women’s Clothes

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Once when I was at my grandparents’ house, I noticed a photo of a little girl on the wall, which turned out to be my grandfather. My great-grandmother was tired of having boys, so she decided to dress my grandfather as a girl. He wore long curls and a dress until he was old enough to say no. 

Eating Ashes

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My cousin was still a toddler when my grandfather died. As we were spreading his ashes, she grabbed a handful and started chewing them. She is now 19 years old, and I think I will tell her about it soon because it’s so funny.

My Uncle Is Actually My Father

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When my mom passed away, I decided to do some research into her and her family. I discovered that my uncle was actually my father.

My Grandmother’s Story

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My great-grandmother was the only one in her family left alive after the death marches. I never got a chance to hear her story, but at least I got a chance to read them (she wrote a book). It was an awful business, and I had to suffer through a class with a Turk who insisted I was just exaggerating and that there were good reasons behind what had happened.

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I’m Still Shocked

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My mother left her sister to die in an apartment when she should have taken her to the hospital for gastric bleeding or something to that effect. Mom still doesn’t understand why she wasn’t invited to the funeral services for her parents. She’s a classic narcissistic.

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My Father Was Involved With The Wrong People

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My dad was involved with some criminals in California. It wasn’t like the Black List or anything, but they organized and did some pretty horrible things. My dad doesn’t tell me much, but I do remember that we moved to Ohio without any prompting.

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A “Car Accident”

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My family members told us that my uncle’s wife died in a car accident they were both involved in (they live out of state). After he was arrested, we found out that the “accident” was him running his convertible under a semi-truck and decapitating her on purpose.

OhRyann

My Great-Great-Grandfather Married His Sister

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Last year while visiting my grandparents back home for their 60th wedding anniversary, I found out that my great-great-grandfather married his sister. I was with my mother, cousins, and aunt, and we all just kind of glossed over it and didn’t dig too deep into it. It wasn’t so bad for me because my mother was adopted, so there’s no biological relation, but damn.

Tazza4077

I Was Conceived In A Threesome

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 I was conceived in a threesome between my mother, my dad, and his identical twin. I can’t get a DNA test because they’re identical twins, but the one who took on the role of uncle bought me a pony when I was a kid, so it’s cool. [deleted]

This Is So Wrong

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My great-grandparents were first cousins. They had two sons who were severely intellectually disabled, and instead of putting them in an institution, which is what everyone did at the time, they bought a farm out in the country and kept them home. They both died relatively young. My grandmother never mentioned any of this. I found out after she died by doing some genealogical research. [deleted]

I Have A Sister

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I learned I had a sister, she was given up for adoption at birth, years before my other sister and myself were born. My mother found her a few years ago, I’ve never met her still. She’s doing well though! Pretty cool to me.

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The Kray Twins

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My grandfather’s older brother’s sons are Eddie and Charlie Richardson. They are best known for being the leaders of the Richardson Gang (aka Torture gang), who were gangsters in South London, most famously known as the main rivals of the Kray twins.

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My Grandfather Killed My Grandmother 

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I learned that my grandfather murdered my grandmother three months before I was born. He was a member of the Prichard, AL police department at the time of the murder and made her murder appear to be suicide. He collected a huge amount of insurance money.

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Al Capone 

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Great great great grandpa escaped to the US from Turkey as a five-year-old (he was Greek, the Turkish didn’t like the Greeks). Long story short, his kids ended up working for Al Capone and others during prohibition, and Al flirted a lot with my great-great-grandma (no one knows for sure if she slept with him).

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Can’t Believe It

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I forget exactly who, but I think it was my grandpa’s aunt who spent time in an asylum. Her brothers (maybe dad too) dressed as doctors to help her escape after seeing the poor treatment of patients. Oh, and why was she in there? She went insane when her husband died in a car wreck on the way to the hospital where she was giving birth. She put the baby in a tub of scalding hot water, so they locked her up.

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In The 13th Century 

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Sometime in the 13th century, one of my Great x 15 (not exactly sure) uncles was killed in battle as a Samurai, and the family was expelled from Japan. We’re not sure when the family returned to Japan, but the next generation was born in Japan, so it wasn’t that long.

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Slave Owners

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My great-great-grandparents were slave owners, and my grandparents were sort of Nazi sympathizers (because they’re part German, so I guess they must’ve felt a connection?).

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I Had An Aunt 

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We went to visit my grandparents’ grave, and the headstone next to theirs was for a woman two years older than my dad with the same last name that died ten years before I was born. Apparently, she died from a heroin overdose, and my parents had no intention of ever telling us that she existed. It was pretty jarring to find out I had an aunt that passed away for the first time at 16.

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Complicated Past

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 My grandmother used to tell us stories about how our great-great-grandfather moved his kids into town from the farm because his wife died, and he couldn’t handle raising kids and running a farm at the same time. And then my dad’s cousin told us that actually, our great-great-grandfather lost the farm in a poker game, and his brother bought it from the winner so it would stay in the family. Not exactly dark, but certainly hilarious.

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Wrong Ship

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My grandmother’s father was supposed to be boarding a boat from Scotland bound for Australia. He got absolutely smashed before going to the harbor and got on the wrong ship. He ended up in Nova Scotia. It’s not exactly dark but pretty damn hilarious.

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Secret Marriage 

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Not the darkest ever, but my dad was married to someone else before my mom, and I didn’t find out until my mid-20s after my parents had divorced. There were no kids from the previous marriage, so that’s where the revelations ended, but I still don’t know why it was kept a secret.

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My Hungarian Last Name 

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All this time, my family thought that my weird Hungarian last name meant “boat builder.” Well, recently, we were enlightened to learn that the closest meaning is actually “a man who goes around the village at night and picks up the shit buckets from doorsteps.”

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My Ancestors 

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I found out that one of my ancestors was exiled from Russia for challenging an army officer to a duel (with swords) and winning. My ancestor worked in the czar’s stable, and the argument arose when the army officer insisted on riding my ancestor’s horse. The horse threw him off, and the army officer shot it.

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Many Of My Family Members Are Inbred 

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Found out through an angry vent given by my mother, that most of my cousins aren’t legitimate, and most of my aunts had lied to their husbands about the true father of their children. Also found out that there was a substantial niche of the family I had never met and that no one really admits to – because they’re all inbred.

TacentEvince

My Grandpa’s Family 

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My grandmother has all the dirty little secrets, but she’s too proper to spill anything. Until this one night when she told me about my grandfather’s (her husband’s) family… Essentially they were poor, living off the streets and trying to earn money during Australia’s gold rush. Anyways, the family had too many kids and not enough money, so they sold one of their kids to a Chinese businessman. He would’ve been my grandfather’s great uncle, I suppose.

aperture81

Drinking Problem

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My grandmother just confessed to me last week that she was a borderline alcoholic, and at age 50, started going to AA by herself (at the Jewish church so she wouldn’t run into her catholic friends) and quit drinking then. No one even noticed because she had hidden her drinking so well from her husband and five children. She didn’t tell her husband for almost 30 years, and he was shocked. My mom, dad, and brother all don’t know yet.

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The French Woman

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My family is mostly Portuguese. It used to be entirely so, but my paternal grandfather married a French woman. All my life, my grandfather called her something in Portuguese that I couldn’t understand. Last year at Thanksgiving, I found out it meant “The French Whore”. My grandfather’s parents hated her and called her that. My grandfather decided to own it and made it a pet name.

IAteADragonOnce

The Sad Truth

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My grandfather died in the 70s of cancer, but no one ever told me anything about him. Anyway, I was interested one day, so I looked him up and learned that he was in the army- the British commandos to be exact (he was Welsh.) I did a bit more digging to see if any of his squad was alive, but I turned out that every single one of them was dead, mostly from cancer. Eventually, I decided to confront my gran, and sure enough, there were photos of him in a specific Japanese city after the atom hit.

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Another Family 

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It turns out my great grandfather had a secret second family, so reasonably recently, my poppa found out he has a sister. She’s really nice, and she sends us all emails as though we’ve been family forever (which is technically correct, but you know what I mean), and lets family members stay with her when visiting the UK. Lovely lady.

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I’m So Mad At My Father

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That my mother had an abortion between my birth and my younger brother’s birth, so somewhere in the middle of 3 years after I was born. Apparently, my father had way too many daughters (me and two other stepsisters), and so he told my mother to abort my little sister. My brother managed to arrive because well, the Chinese prefer sons over daughters. I think I cried so much and hated my father for a long time. I still feel weird about my father now and don’t like to be with him alone.

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My Father Is A She Now

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My dad was missing two of his fingers since before I was born. I was always told it was an accident while using a saw. Turns out, he purposely did it himself to try and get some sort of insurance payout. Also, he is a she now. I’m finding out more and more secrets about him every day. My dad is a pretty crazy lady.

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I Never Met My Uncle

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I had an uncle who I never met who died of an overdose (my father found him in the morgue but never told the rest of the family, so they all still think he’s missing).

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Secret Business

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My grandma runs a marijuana ring in her small town. She’s about 75 and lives in the rural US. She doesn’t need to deal with cartels or anything because she grows it all on her property. As far as I know, there aren’t any rival organizations in town.

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My Grandfather Was In Prison

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When I turned 40, I learned my grandfather had another family in another city and served 20 years in prison for murder. This was in Spain during the civil war.

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My Dad’s Secret

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My dad told me one night when he had been drinking. Apparently, I have a half-sister and a half-brother, they’re both older than me, and my dad assumed someone else from the family had told me, and randomly brought it up when I was 22.

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My Mom Married Her Gay Friend

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My mom actually married one of her gay friends in the ’70s because it would help with his career. He ended up dying of Aids.

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Setting His House On Fire

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My grandfather burned his mansion down after he and his second wife decided to get a divorce. He didn’t want her getting anything, so he let it go up in flames…Someone found out and tipped off the insurance company, though…It wasn’t such a good idea after he couldn’t get any of his charred stuff back.

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My Grandfather Is My Dad

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I found out that my “dad” wasn’t my dad through my drunk grandpa, and even better than my grandpa was my dad!

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Something Isn’t Right

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I heard my mom talking on the phone to my dad about some guy in my dad’s office who’s being a dick; she then proceeded to say, “Why don’t we just take care of him.” I’ve heard quite a few stories like this floating around my family.

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Tragic Accident

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My aunt told me that my dad played with matches as a kid and burned the family house down. His baby sister was inside. The fire killed her. No one ever spoke of it. This was in the 1930’s. I never knew it until my father died. He must have had a haunted life, and I didn’t even know it.

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My Grandpa’s Past

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My grandfather is a very well respected pastor in his community in Texas, and only recently was I told about his past. He grew up very poor and was involved in a lot of gang activity. His father was also a wife abuser.

Hoatboiz

Oops!

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I recently found out my great-great-grandmother poisoned her family through pancakes. My great-grandpa was one of the two or three siblings to be lucky out of the house that day. It’s a running joke in my family now to reference foods sometimes as “old family recipes.”

TouchLikeMidas

My Father Was A Suspect

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My dad was a person of interest in a series of murders at Michigan State back in the ’70s. He didn’t do it but had connections with three of the victims. The police questioned him before ruling him out as a suspect.

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Faking His Death

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I’m iffy on the details, but apparently, my great-great-great-grandfather faked his death in a train accident, abandoned his wife and children, and went to live with his overprotective mother.

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“Little Miss Sunbeam”

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Last night, I found out that my mom’s nickname in high school was “Little Miss Sunbeam.” That’s because Sunbeam bread used to be advertised as the bread with “No-holes texture,” and my mom refused to put out…

BigMacsAndWhiskey

Brave Guy

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My many-times great-grandfather murdered King Edward II by stabbing him with a red-hot poker. Then he ran away with the Queen to France.

During A Family Reunion 

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I just came back from a “family reunion.” I never knew who my grandpa was. Today I learned that his father was a prisoner from the Yugoslavia-war. He got tortured when he was 18 years old. That’s just… Unimaginable.

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When My Grandmother Was 14

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It’s not really a secret, but my grandpa(26yrs) “stole” my grandmother when she was 14. I say “stole” because he took her without her parents’ permission, but she willingly left with him. They were married for 25yrs before my grandmother passed away. He became very depressed and passed away one month after my grandmother.

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I Just Found Out About This Now

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A pretty recent discovery. My great uncle is having his funeral tomorrow. My father has fond memories of running untaxed booze from distilleries to mob members with him. It turns out that’s why no one talks about him.

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Losing A Child

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It wasn’t necessarily a secret, but nobody talked about the picture on the mantle that my aunt and uncle had. A few years ago, I found out that they had lost their oldest child (of 3) when he was 11 to leukemia. He had been my dad’s best friend.

SunTzuIsMyFavourite

He Murdered His Whole Family

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I have a 2nd cousin that murdered his siblings and parents for insurance money. He didn’t get away with it but only spent around 20 years in prison. He’s out now, but no one talks about him or will speak to him. The only reason I even know is my parents warned me if he ever reaches out to me that I shouldn’t talk to him. I managed to find out about him and what happened by googling him.

Cotmweasel

I Can’t Believe It

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My great grandmother and grandmother never got along when I was growing up and I never understood why. When I was older I found out that my great grandfather (who died when my mom was a child) used to beat the shit out of my great grandmother and grandmother. My great grandmother used to blame my grandmother for it. She blamed a child for the actions of a grown man and her own actions to never leave him. This caused my grandmother’s many mental illnesses she struggled with her entire life. She died by suicide this past October 29. My great grandmother is still alive. I’m sure she’s glad to be the center of attention like she always wanted. If I never see her again it’ll be too soon.

Lovelyladykaty

Leaving His Family Behind

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My great-great-great-grandpa left England for America and was supposed to send money to his family to come over, but he never did. He just started a new family in America.

We Are His Secret

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I found out my father had a secret family and that we were it – his wife and kids don’t know about us to this day. Also found out a while later that an uncle had an ex-wife and kids he kept quiet about too.