My parents Glenn and Kathy went to Lynwood High school together and had some of the same classes together, where they both attend special classes in high school. My dad was illiterate and my mother had small mental issue due to falling out of a car when she was very little. Even with the challenges they graduated high school in 1961, which I don't understand since my dad could not read or write. They were not high school sweethearts, but just knew one another.
My dad signed up for the U.S. Navy and has deployed overseas to Vietnam right after high school until he was finally sent home in 1969. Sadly he lost his father on Feb. 20th 1962, and he was not allowed to come home for the funeral.
I am not sure how my parents met back up after my dad came back from Vietnam. I have been told that he was seeing another women when he met up with my mother. After divorcing my mother in 1971, he went back and married this other women.
The story I was told growing up was that my father raped my mother and I was a child of a rape victim. I don't know if I believe this story for many reasons. Why would my mother marry the man who raped her and why would my mothers family allow her to marry a man that raped her. Never the less my parents were married on October 30th 1970 in Lynwood, Ca. Family on both sides gave my mother a baby shower and she kept the baby shower cards and still have them to this day.
I was born on May 6th 1971 in Bellflower, Ca. My mother has told me of the day they broke off the marriage, "He drove me to my parents house and just drop me off." They filed for divorce on October 19th 1971 just five month after my birth. Their divorce was final on June 16th 1972, one year and a month after my birth.
My dad then married his second wife on July 24th 1972. She was the women he was dating before my mother and him got together. My sister Tina, who I did not know existed for sure until 2005, was born on April 18th 1972, two months before they got married.
At one point my grandmother on my mothers side told everyone I was not my dad's child. She claimed to have had a paternity test done on me proving that my father was not my father, so my dad walked out of my life. The rumor came out that a family member who married into the family raped my mother again and he was my father. In all my research there was never a paternity test ever done.
I grew up with out a father, but I was blessed with some male roll models in my Grandfather, Uncle Bob and my cousin Corey.
I grew up hearing stories about my dad from my mother. She never said anyone else was my father. She told me of traveling to visit his family in Central California, told me he was part Native American, how he left us for his past girlfriend and had another kid with her, but also told me he raped her. She did show me his photo in the high school yearbook. The funny thing was that as a kid it did not hit me that I had a half sister out there even after my mother told me.
You would think after all this information my mind was spinning. I started looking for my dad when I was in my twenties and before the internet. I went to family members and no one would really tell me anything useful until I spoke with my great Aunt Joan. It was the last time I saw her before she passed and she told me my dad was my dad and that he was a good man. It was not until I spoke to my cousin Corey that I got the real break. Corey told me my dad use to live in Santa Fe Springs California. So I had name, possible birth year and a possible city of residence. Once again I did not know what to do with this information.
It was not until the invention of the internet did I get my big break. I took the information I had and went onto a few people search engines and ended up finding him very quickly, still living in Santa Fe Spring California, and confirmed that I had a sister. I held onto this information for a year or so, until I got hot and heavy into finding him due to health issues i was doing through at he time.
I was in Southern California one weekend and as I was driving back to Northern California I was driving right through Santa Fe Springs, so I chose to stop and see if my possible father would talk to me. I found the house quickly but spent about 10 minutes sitting in my truck and walking up and down the sidewalk trying to get the nerve to go to the door. When I went to the door a women answered and I told her my name . She said "I know who are, but your dad is not here. He moved out to his sisters place in the desert." I left sad and relieved at the same time. When I got home I was on a mission to find him now, due to the fact my step mother would not give me any information.
One evening while looking for him online, my cousin called me and told me to go to a website, she thinks she just found him. Sure enough she did. He was in prison for sexual assault of a minor. My wife at the time was pissed and wanted me to stop right there. I said no, I have to know if he is my father or not. If not the alternative is worse. Come to find out later, he was set up by his wife, so she could take the house and all the saving for herself. He was not even at the house when they said he did the act.
So now I knew where he was I wrote to him and ask him to take a DNA test and I would pay for it. He approved it and $500 later the results came back 99.998% he is my father. We sent letter back and forth with help of other inmates because he did not know how to read or write still.
During this time I also wrote a letter to my sister and waited to hear from her. I did get an email about a month later, saying she did not want to respond to me but her husband talked her into it. I went back down to Southern California a week after I got her email to meet her, her husband and my three nieces. We now have a amazing relationship. She told me she knew about me as well growing up. Our father would tell her she has a brother out there somewhere. Funny thing was we lived within 20 minutes from each other growing up, and I even worked in Santa Fe Springs in high school for my Uncle Bob.
Get your own Paternity test at home now by clicking on the link:
Rapid DNA Paternity Test Kit
This is the photo we took that day. April 2006
I did not stop there. I took out the baby shower cards and started looking for names I did not know. I found one. It happen to be my Aunt Millie and her children, my dad's sister. The search began again but this was an easy one. My sister gave a location of her last residence and no it was not in the desert of Southern California as I was told by my step mother. After a short search I found her in Washington state. I did not have a phone number but I did find her daughter Betty, my cousin. I called Betty and she knew who I was within two seconds. She told me she had sent me a message on Ancestry.com a month earlier that I did not see. I checked and sure enough there it was. My world just changed for the better. Betty put me in contact with my Aunt Millie and we have had an amazing relationship ever since. My Aunt Millie still had a little metal plate from when I was born and she finally gave it to 38+ years later. Not only did I pick up a new aunt, but new cousins and second cousins that I can't live without now.
I did get to meet my dad once before he passed away in 2013. My Aunt Millie was in Southern California with her daughter Betty the same time I was so we all meet at my dads trailer.
This photo is me and my dad meeting for the first time since I was 4 months old, 41 years later.
Now with the help of Ancestry DNA I have finally tracked my dad's side of the family back to the late 1500's. I have also tracked my mother's side in England.
As the Knott family struggled once again to survive during the Great Depression, a single by-chance event turned Walter Knott and his family’s lives down a path of uncontrollable events that led them to fame and fortune.
By 1940 boysenberries became a staple on the national market. Walter Knott could have kept the boysenberry as an exclusive Knott product, instead he shared plant stock with other growers, big and small, which helped some small growers get their start. Today every boysenberry plant can be linked back to those six original plants at Knott’s Berry Place.
