Going to see my AUNT

[dropcap]I[/dropcap] was at a Yoho family reunion with my Grandma Maxine, up at the old, white schoolhouse on the hill in Wileyville. My Aunt Geraldine was there. I clearly remember her smiling down at me with a smile that was as pure as a child’s as the wind waved her long, graying hair around about wildly, in spite of the plastic headband she was wearing. She and Grandma were asking me if I knew how Geraldine was my Aunt. I told them I did, in fact, know and explained how.

I got it all wrong. They tried to explain but I was too young to understand and I really thought they were joking with me. The amount of laughing Grandma and Aunt Geraldine did, only proved my point. My memories of that Yoho reunion, and everyone there are still so clear. The conversation had about Geraldine being Aunt and them joking with me faded over the years.

When I was fifteen years old family history became even more important to me than it was before. I talked allot with my Grandma Maxine that year about our family. That is when she was able to explain her family to me. That is when the story my Dad always told that always ended with “So when Mom and Dad said we were going to visit my Aunt, they really meant we were going to go visit my AUNT.” took meaning.

That is when Grandma hit me with rest. She told me Geraldine is married to my Uncle. I am riding there thinking of course she is, whoever she married would be my Uncle. I told Grandma as much. She laughed and so no. She shared the story of her finding out that even though Malinda was her real Mom, Jane was the woman who gave birth to her and that Jane had siblings and other children with other men, other than her Dad, Bryan. When Grandma was older she wanted to get to know Jane’s family. Geraldine went with her to spend a summer with the Yoho’s and that is when she met and fell in love Grandmas Uncle William Carl Yoho, Jane’s brother. So her half-sister Geraldine married her biological mother’s brother. Making her half-sister, Geraldine her Aunt, by marriage.

 

Grandma and Geraldine were half-sisters, and Geraldine was her Aunt by marriage. Grandma was also the 3rd cousin 1x removed of Geraldine’s other husband, Arthur Dean, and was her own cousin. Geraldine was my Dads half Aunt through Grandma and her Dad Bryan. She was also my Dads Grand Aunt through Jane.

My Family Tree Maker program does not see things so simply. The twenty-two calculated relationship between Grandma and Geraldine from my Gedcom file in 2015 is as follows: sister, half sister, 3rd cousin of husband, grand niece of wife of 1st great uncle of husband, 1st cousin 1x removed of husband of niece of  husband, wife of brother-in-law of nephew of husband of sister-in-law, wife of uncle of 1st cousin of husband, grand niece of wife of brother of 1st great aunt of husband, wife of uncle of sister-in-law of 1st cousin of husband, grand niece of wife of brother of 1st great uncle of husband, mother of 1st cousin of wife of 1st cousin of husband, 1st cousin 2x removed of husband of aunt of husband, wife of brother-in-law of nephew of sister-in-law of sister-in-law, wife of uncle of wife of 1st cousin 1x removed, mother of nephew of wife of nephew of husband of sister-in-law, mother of nephew of wife of nephew of sister-in-law of sister-in-law, 1st cousin of wife of 2nd cousin of husband, mother of 1st cousin of sister-in-law of 1st cousin of husband, wife of 1st cousin 1x removed of wife of 1st great uncle of husband, mother of 1st cousin of wife of 1st cousin 1x removed of husband, sister-in-law of 1st cousin 1x removed of wife of 1st great uncle of husband and stepdaughter of 1st cousin 1x removed of wife of 1st great uncle of husband.

Geraldine was literally my Dads Double Aunt. The simple way to look at it was just she was Aunt Geraldine, Grandmas sister, she was a woman who made Grandmas Uncle happy and more importantly, Geraldine was her friend.

I looked forward to the next reunion because now I knew when I was going to see my Aunt Geraldine I was really going to see my AUNT.”